What claims are dietary supplements prohibited from making?

Dietary supplements are regulated under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994, which sets specific guidelines on the types of claims that can be made about these products. A critical aspect of these regulations is that dietary supplements cannot claim to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This prohibition is grounded in the intention to ensure that products marketed as dietary supplements are not misrepresented as conventional medicines or drugs, which are subject to more stringent regulations and require evidence of safety and efficacy for such claims.

The rationale behind this restriction is to protect consumers from misleading information. Since dietary supplements do not undergo the same rigorous approval process as pharmaceuticals, allowing them to make such claims could lead to serious public health implications.

Furthermore, while claims regarding overall health improvement, athletic performance enhancement, or immune function support may be allowed under certain conditions, they still must not imply that the supplement has medicinal properties. Hence, the prohibition on disease-related claims stands out clearly as a fundamental guideline to maintain the integrity of dietary supplements and to safeguard consumers from potentially harmful assertions.