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Vol. 61 No. 3 (2025)
DOI: 10.4415/ANN_25_03_02
Original Articles
2025-09-16
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Dietary supplements for human health. What do we really know? A systematic review of umbrella reviews

Authors

Eugenia Piragine , Marco Andrea Malanima , Vincenzo Calderone , Salvatore De Masi , Carla Ghelardini , Alessandro Mugelli , Ersilia Lucenteforte

Abstract

Background and objective. The potential benefits of dietary supplements for human health have been known since ancient times, but high-quality evidence on their efficacy is lacking. Furthermore, the overwhelming amount of available studies contributes to the vagueness of this topic. The aim of this systematic review was to summarize the evidence on the health benefits of dietary supplements.
Methods. A Medline search (via PubMed) was performed.
Results. 62 umbrella reviews (also known as reviews of reviews) were retrieved. Most of the results/findings (41.3%) suggested potential beneficial effects of dietary supplements on human health, but with low to very low certainty of evidence. Twenty results/findings (26.7%) supported the efficacy of dietary supplements in improving biochemical parameters and preserving human health, with moderate to high certainty of evidence. All other studies showed uncertain/conflicting results or inefficacy.
Conclusions. The demonstration of the beneficial properties of dietary supplements is far from conclusive and high-quality studies are needed.

Keywords: dietary supplements, natural products, efficacy, review of reviews, umbrella reviews

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Authors

Eugenia Piragine - Dipartimento di Farmacia, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italia

Marco Andrea Malanima - Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale, Unità di Statistica Medica, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italia.

Vincenzo Calderone - Dipartimento di Farmacia, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italia

Salvatore De Masi - Clinical Trial Center (CTC), Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Careggi, Firenze, Italia

Carla Ghelardini - Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Psicologia, Area del Farmaco e Salute del Bambino (NEUROFARBA), Sezione di Farmacologia e Tossicologia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze, Italia

Alessandro Mugelli - Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Psicologia, Area del Farmaco e Salute del Bambino (NEUROFARBA), Sezione di Farmacologia e Tossicologia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze, Italia

Ersilia Lucenteforte - Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni “G. Parenti”, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy

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Copyright (c) 2025 Istituto Superiore di Sanità

How to Cite
Piragine, E., Malanima, M. A., Calderone, V., De Masi, S., Ghelardini, C., Mugelli, A., & Lucenteforte, E. (2025). Dietary supplements for human health. What do we really know? A systematic review of umbrella reviews . Annali dell’Istituto Superiore Di Sanità, 61(3), 163–172. https://doi.org/10.4415/ANN_25_03_02
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