What is a supplement?

Nutrient Support
A true dietary supplement provides your body with nutrients that it lacks. A supplement includes vitamins and minerals, as well as certain herbs and foods that have a long and safe history of use as tonics (e.g., lycium fruit, schisandra berry, astragalus root, cured fo-ti root, Job’s tears and Cherokee rose hips, etc.)

Not True Dietary Supplements
In contrast, although some herbal medicines are also legally classified and sold as dietary supplements in the United States, they are not really true dietary supplements. Rather, they are medicines used for specific disease indications and are not meant for use on a long-term basis (e.g., mahuang, goldenseal, St. John’s wort, zhishi, club moss, feverfew, etc.). Some of these "supplements" actually contain potentially very harmful chemicals such as ephedrine, synephrine, and N-methyltyramine that are closely related to amphetamines.