Biological versus Pharmacological Responses to Supplements

When one takes a dietary supplement, just like when one eats food or takes a drug, the body has particular physiological responses. In general, nutrients in their natural state and natural dose have a biological effect, just like eating a healthy meal of real food. HSAIDS, however, have a pharmacological effect in the body, like a drug.

Examples of dietary supplements that clearly act in more of a biological fashion include products made from foods, including vegetable and fruit concentrates, fish oil, and protein powders made from whey or egg whites. These supplements provide nutrients in a concentrated form, acting essentially the same as when you consume the real food. They provide natural doses of vitamins, minerals, macronutrients, or phytonutrients helping to generate energy, regulate immunity, control aging, and perform countless other functions that improve health and human performance—just like real food.

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Nutrients with pharmacological effects generally include HSAIDS and have actions like those of drugs rather than foods. These include synthetic vitamin C (ascorbic acid being one of many common forms), isolated high-dose vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol), and popular B complex supplements. These are almost always in doses much higher than a person could possibly consume during a meal or even a day’s worth of food intake—even when consuming foods naturally high in these nutrients. Many contain doses that would take weeks of eating foods rich in these nutrients to get to the same levels—in other words, five, ten, even a hundred times normal amounts. By looking at the labels of supplements, you will see that most, even those labeled “natural,” contain doses much higher than you would get from real food and much higher than the RDA. These unnaturally high doses are one reason they can be harmful.

Dietary supplements that promote pharmacological activity, like most drugs, are capable of modifying brain and body function, often in powerful ways. This is one reason they are accompanied by the risk of adverse side effects—we just don’t have control over how they will act. These pharmacological effects of dietary supplements can vary with individuals, and many are not clearly known. HSAIDS with pharmacological actions can also interfere with other nutrients, whether from the diet or other supplements, or with over-the-counter and prescription drugs.