Hi, this is Flor Lichten, and you're listening to Science Friday.

Today in the show, a remedy that's not a medicine, a treatment that's not regulated like one, supplements.

People really believe that they are basically farm to capsule, that these are plants that are grown, and somehow they kind of

magic their way into capsule form.

Dietary supplements are big business. One recent estimate shows the industry is worth almost

$64 billion just in the United States.

And in fact, chances are you take a dietary supplement. Most Americans do.

It's hard to escape the claims about some new vitamin or mineral that will give you more energy or make you stronger or make your brain work better.

If you need caffeine to function, take vitamin B12.

If you carry too much in your mid section, take Ashwaganda.

Here are some of my favorite weight loss supplements.

Number one is black seed oil.

So I recently started taking the supplement that has been a game changer from my PCOS.

I'm talking about Kuk10, whichQ10. But how effective are supplements?

How safe are they? How are they regulated? And why are these remedies so appealing to us?

Here to help us size up the science and culture of supplements are Dr. Peter Cohen, head of the

supplement research program,

an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and an internist at the Cambridge

Health Alliance based in Somerville, Massachusetts.

And Dr. Colleen Durkatch, author of Why Wellness Cells Natural Health in a Pharmaceutical Culture,

she's also a professor of rhetoric at Toronto Metropolitan

University based in Ontario, Canada. Okay, welcome to you both to Science Friday.

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