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For example, manufacturers of dietary supplements can make claims regarding the ability to maintain “structure and function” of the body, but cannot make claims regarding diagnosis, treatment, cure, or prevention of disease. The label must include the following statement: “This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). ” The manufacturer must notify the FDA within 30 days after a product is on the market if it bears such a label. The FDA also bans implied, as well as expressed, disease treatment claims.

Placebo : This is an inactive or “dummy pill” or treatment that looks and tastes and smells like the real product. The purpose of a placebo group is to compare the effectiveness of the active treatment or real medication, supplement, or herb against something that has no treatment value (the placebo). Endpoint: An endpoint is an event that has been pre-defined and is being measured in the clinical study. For instance, examples of an “endpoint” would be a change in A1C (to see whether or not there is diabetes improvement), a change in pain scores (to determine improvement in pain due to neuropathy), or a change in laboratory values such as LDL cholesterol the “bad” type of cholesterol).

What all these patients need is guidance on the benefits and cautions of using these substances. Two of my patients with diabetes who have used dietary supplements (their names and some details have been changed) illustrate this need. One patient was a middle-aged woman named Jackie, who had just been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. She had already been taking medications for her high blood pressure and depression. Jackie’s doctor recommended that she check her blood glucose regularly, take a new prescription diabetes medication, and lose 20 pounds by eating well and exercising more regularly.