The Health Shopper

Los Angeles Times consumer affairs reporter David Lazarus has written an informative primer on some of the key differences between drugs and dietary supplements such as vitamins. The key difference: Unlike pharmaceutical drugs, which must go through rigorous testing to prove their safety and effectiveness, supplements don't undergo any scrutiny unless complaints about their safety start to pile up. 

And pile up they have, at least in a couple cases. In the past month, the CEO of Enzyte-which offered "natural enhancement for men"-was sentenced to 25 years in prison "for bilking customers out of $100 million." The manufacturer of Airborne-a common herbal supplement that individuals take to ward off colds-has paid $30 million in fines for making unsubstantiated claims.  And a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that supplements with the chemical Ayurvedic can lead to dangerously high levels of metals in the bloodstream.