Sorting Through Supplements

There are thousands of unregulated dietary supplements on the market, but it's not always easy making sure what you're taking is safe and effective.

Consumer Reports magazine is trying to change that with an online guide that tells you what works, what doesn't, and how supplements interact with one another and with prescription drugs.

As the magazine's health editor, Ronni Sandroff, explained on The Early Show Monday, a database of "14,000 natural supplements, herbals and botanicals and vitamins and minerals" has been added to consumereportsmedicalguide.org.

"You can look them up and find the best scientific evidence about these products," she told co-anchor Julie Chen.

"You can type in the name of the supplement, type in the name of the problem, headaches, memory loss, something like that, and see what supplements are available," she continued. "And we have actually rated the evidence with our partners, the Therapeutic Research Center, which has provided this database for professionals. We have made a consumer version, and it rates supplements for safety, for whether they work, and whether they're safe in pregnancy."

There isn't as much on supplements' safety for children, Sandroff admitted, saying: "You have to remember that, for pregnancy and for children and infants, very few studies have been done, even on regular pharmaceutical drugs, and even less on supplements. So, there's not always a lot of information available, and we recommend real caution. Talk to your doctor before you use a supplement for a child or for yourself when you're pregnant, aside from prenatal vitamins, of course."

Sandroff panned weight loss aides, observing that not only don't many of them work: "Some of them can be dangerous. You know, ephedra was taken off the market. The new diet pills that say ephedra-free sometimes have combinations of caffeine and bitter orange, which is also a stimulant. They can raise your blood pressure and your heart rate, and that's potentially dangerous."

And don't be fooled by labels that say a supplement is "natural," Sandroff cautions, saying: "Let's remember, poisonous mushrooms are natural too! And these products are often not as found in nature, but they're extracts, and they're very intense. So they act like a drug in the body."

As for supplements' interactions with prescription medications, Sandroff said: "You can type in the name of your medication and then put in the name of the supplement, and … the interactions will come up."

What are the most commonly searched-for terms on the new site?

"Oh, god," Sandroff replied, "everything from head lice to heart disease, from the difficult to the everyday."