More Americans taking nutritional supplements, but the investment may not pay off

Americans spend $37 billion a year on nutritional supplements ranging from vitamins to sleep aids, muscle powders and memory cures. The proportion of adults between ages 62 and 85 using supplements climbed from about half, 51.8 percent, in 2005 to 63.7 percent in 2011.

But a report in the June 2016 AARP Bulletin finds many supplements are not worth the investment.

Congress and regulators are moving to tighten the loosely regulated supplement marketplace, and federal prosecutors are going after bad actors.

Read the full report to find out more about what’s being done to protect consumers from nutritional supplements that cost plenty but don’t deliver. Also, be sure to read original reporting by Voices for Affordable Health on sky-rocketing prescription drug prices.

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