薬剤師による科学的根拠に基づいた健康食品の指導ガイドライン

抄録

We prepared guidelines whose aim was to enable pharmacists to provide instruction on the use of dietary supplements easily based on scientific evidence.As a result of comparing various databases of scientific information on dietary supplements,we felt that the National Institute of Health and Nutrition database was the most suitable due to the large number of supplements listed in it,wide variety of information,and the fact that it was up-to-date with the market situation.However,on investigating the efficacy of 36 supplements receiving attention on the internet,the database only contained scientific evidence on 12 of them and 7 of these supplements had specified uses in health management.It thus seems that there is insufficient evidence for the efficacy of many supplements searched on the internet.
In order to provide appropriate guidance on dietary supplements,in addition to scientific evidence of efficacy,we considered that 4 other criteria should be used to evaluate supplements : 1)possibility of interactions with medication,2)quality of dietary supplement,3)seriousness of disease and 4)psychological reliability of the patient taking the dietary supplement (positive placebo effect).Based on these 5 criteria,our guidelines should enable pharmacists to provide patients with instruction on dietary supplements more easily and accurately.