I’ve had a couple of discussions with people this week who tell me that they buy their supplements on Amazon. I understand!....Good supplements cost money and may seem expensive. This is because it costs money to make quality supplements. It is tempting to want to cut costs and look for a cheaper source. You can find just about anything on Amazon, and, if you have Amazon Prime, then you can avoid shipping costs too. All sounds so reasonable. But here’s what you should know.
Bargain supplements might be worthless at best, and at worst they may be negatively impacting your health. Unfortunately it is possible to make huge amounts of money by undercutting the price of legitimate supplement companies and taking advantage of consumers.
I carry health professional lines from reputable manufacturers and many of these companies have regulations against those products being sold elsewhere on the internet. If they are showing up on Amazon then you have to wonder how they got there. Someone must be trying to take advantage of the consumer.
Now some reputable companies do list their products on Amazon but in this case you are buying directly from that manufacturer. If you are not buying from a reputable supplement company then these are some of the problems you might be encountering:
- The product may be counterfeit and possibly tampered with and dangerous. They may not have the correct amounts of the active ingredients they are supposed to contain. Some can have more and some have none at all.
- The supplements may be expired products that have been repackaged as new.
- They could have been stolen or purchased wholesale and released on the black market without any quality control.
- Products have been damaged and made ineffective or unhealthy (eg. rancid oils) because they have not been warehoused properly or shipped in appropriate conditions.
To serve my clients well, I carry health professional lines sourced from reputable companies for my clients. You can check out the options here on our Supplements Page. I suggest giving us a call so we can talk through your needs and recommend specific supplements. I always tell people that if they don’t want to buy from me they are better off going to a local health food store to get what they need rather than taking a risk with online shopping where you don't really know what you are getting.