ABSTRACT
Dietary supplements are in widespread use in the United States (Eisenberg et al., 1993, 1998; Kessler et al., 2001). This use continues to grow as more people, particularly the baby-boomers, become concerned about their access to health care, and the quality of that care, and seek complementary and alternative medical practices (Eisenberg et al., 1998; Foster et al., 2000; Kessler et al., 2001; Rainey and Cason, 2001). With the increasing advent of food that is heavily synthetic and influenced by technology, a significant segment of the US population is turning towards foods and medicines, including dietary supplements of plant origin, that they see as more natural (Kaptchuk and Eisenberg, 1998; Greger, 2001). Information on supplement use comes from many sources but there are limited data that incorporate the reasons for supplement selection and employ sampling techniques that are representative of the breadth and diversity of the United States’ population.
