Look Here: Comprehensive Information on Vitamins and Supplements

Pharmacists who want to know a vitamin's content can use the NIH’s Dietary Supplement Label Database, which includes all currently available products, as well as those that have been discontinued.

Patients can ask some challenging questions about vitamins and supplements, and pharmacists want to answer them well and thoroughly. The National Institutes of Health has a helpful resource.

Published by its Office of Dietary Supplements, a series of Vitamin and Mineral Fact Sheets is available free of charge at http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/list-VitaminsMinerals/. These evidence-based overviews cover a number of vitamins and minerals in 3 versions: consumer, consumer — Spanish, and health care professional.

In addition, the site offers general information and a free mobile app for consumers, My Dietary Supplements (MyDS). MyDS lets consumers track their vitamin, mineral, herbal, and other products and find science-based, reliable information.

Another good tool is the Interactive Dietary Reference Intakes Tool for Healthcare Professionals. Easy to use, this tool calculates daily nutrient recommendations for dietary planning based on the Dietary Reference Intakes developed by the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine.

And, pharmacists who want to know a product’s content can use the NIH’s Dietary Supplement Label Database. It includes all currently available products, as well as those that have been discontinued.