Medical disclaimer

This is information, not advice.

What this site can tell you, what it cannot, and when to talk to someone who knows your history.

This is information, not medical advice

Supplement IQ reads published research and shows you what it found. That is all it does. Reading this site does not create a doctor-patient relationship, and nothing here is a diagnosis, a treatment plan, or a recommendation for you specifically.

We cannot know your health, your medication, or your history. A verdict on this site describes what the trials found on average, across the people who were studied. It cannot tell you what will happen to you.

Talk to someone before you change anything

Speak to a doctor or a pharmacist before you start, stop, or change a supplement. Please do that especially if you take prescription medication, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, if you are managing a health condition, if you have surgery coming up, or if the supplement is for a child.

Supplements interact with medicines. Some of those interactions are serious. St John’s wort alone reduces the effect of several widely prescribed drugs. A pharmacist can check your specific list in a few minutes and it is free.

What a verdict does and does not mean

A solid capsule means the research is substantial and it points to an effect. It does not mean the effect is large, that it applies to you, or that a particular product will deliver it.

A hollow capsule means people looked properly and the answer came back no. A ghost means almost nobody has looked, which is not the same as knowing it does not work.

We weigh how a study was built, not how well it was run, and we read published abstracts rather than full papers. The limits of that method are set out in full on our how we score page, including what it cannot tell you.

Supplements are not regulated like medicines

In Canada, the United States, and most other places, a supplement does not have to prove it works before it is sold, and what is printed on the label is not guaranteed to be what is in the bottle. Dose, form, and purity vary between products.

Our verdicts are about the substance that was studied, at the doses that were studied. They are not about any brand, and we do not test products.

If something is wrong right now

If you think you are having a serious reaction to anything you have taken, call your local emergency number or your poison control centre. In Canada and the United States that is 911. Do not wait, and do not use a web page to decide.

Last updated 31 August 2026.