• Look for ingredients in products with the U.S.P. notation, which indicates the manufacturer followed standards established by the U.S. Pharmacopoeia.
• Consider the name of the manufacturer or distributor. Purchase supplements made by a nationally known food and drug manufacturer, who would likely have in place tight quality control manufacturing standards for their other products.
• Write to the supplement manufacturer for more information. Ask the company about the conditions under which its products were made. This is also a good opportunity to request references about scientific studies to substantiate any labeling claims you have questions about.

Recommendations for Use

• Don't hesitate to tell your physician if you are considering an alternative or complementary medicine treatment. Work with your with your physician to find out more about dietary supplements that may improve your blood glucose control and overall health.
• Monitor your blood sugars more frequently when introducing dietary supplements into your regimen that may have glucose lowering effects. Start off by taking less than the prescribed daily dose to find out if the supplement has any effect on your blood sugars. Call your physician or diabetes educator about making the necessary adjustment in your medication.
• Consider how an alternative remedy may interact with prescription or over-the-counter drugs you are already taking. Some combinations may be dangerous. 
• Be wary of expensive, unproven products. Watch out for hype and fraudulent claims. Avoid purchasing products that are claimed to be "secret, magical, or miracle cure", a "scientific breakthrough, or "new discovery".
• Buyer Beware! Realize that the label term "natural" doesn't guarantee that a product is safe.
• Do not stop taking your prescribed oral medications or insulin because you believe that a natural product will lower your glucose level. Dietary supplements should be used to complement existing therapies and to enhance overall regimen. They are not drugs and are not meant to be used as a replacement for your usual diabetes medication. 
• Dietary supplements are not replacements for conventional diets since they do not provide all the known and perhaps unknown nutritional benefits of food. Recognize the benefit of taking supplements is to provide dosages which are higher than would normally be obtained from eating food alone. For example, the amount of chromium in the American diet is only about 25 mcg whereas the recommended dosage for diabetes to have any potential benefit would be between 200mcg-1000mcg daily.
• Dietary supplements should be used as an adjunct to your diabetes regimen and therefore other aspects of meal planning, exercise, or daily medication should not be changed.
• Be Your Own Advocate: Learn as much as you can about the dietary supplements you are taking by talking to your physician, contacting a Registered Dietitian or Registered Pharmacist, looking up industry information on the internet, and writing to manufacturers to request relevant clinical research data in diabetes . Check to see if the research studies include subjects with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes (or both) to determine whether the supplement may help you. Often studies showing efficacy in lowering blood glucose levels are only relevant in type 2 diabetes since the mechanism of action of many supplements is to enhance insulin secretion or decrease insulin resistance which does not benefit the individual without insulin secreting beta cells that characterizes type 1 diabetes.
• Pregnant women, nursing mothers, and children are advised not to experiment with taking dietary supplements. 

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