Saturday, Oct 9, 1:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Making Informed Decisions about Dietary Supplements:
Efficacy, Safety and Quality
Paul Thomas, Ed.D.
Bethesda Library, 7400 Arlington Rd., Bethesda, MD
Near Bethesda metro (map) (directions) (flyer)
Most adults in the United States take dietary supplements. Tens of thousands of products are available from which they can choose. This presentation will provide an overview of supplement use, but its focus will be on efforts to evaluate the efficacy and safety of ingredients in dietary supplements and to ensure that final products are of high quality. It will describe activities of the Office of Dietary Supplements and other entities to address these issues, requirements of regulatory agencies, scientific and technical challenges, and the activities and responsibilities of supplement companies. Sources for further information will be provided.
Paul Thomas is a full-time Scientific Consultant to the Office of Dietary Supplements at the National Institutes of Health. A registered dietitian (RD), he has an Ed.D. and Ed.M. in nutrition education from Teachers College, Columbia University (1988); an M.S. in public health nutrition from Case Western Reserve University (1979); and a B.A. in biology from the State University of New York at Buffalo (1975). Paul came to the Washington DC area in 1987 to begin a career in nutrition policy development. He's held scientific positions with the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences, Center for Food and Nutrition Policy at Georgetown University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Life Sciences Research Office of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences, and at a health-oriented website known as Miavita.com. From 1999 to 2003, he created, wrote, and published a well regarded but financially unsuccessful newsletter titled "The Dietary Supplement."
