About the Desk

Supplement Safety Desk is an educational publication with a single question at the center of everything we write: what is actually known about the safety of this?

The desk is edited by Kevin Marsh, a health writer who has spent a decade translating clinical literature into language normal humans can use. He is not a physician — which is why every explainer here is built from published research and official fact sheets, and why "ask your own clinician" appears so often on this site.

Our ground rules

• Evidence before opinion. Every safety statement traces back to published human data, an official monograph, or is explicitly labeled as unknown.
• "No data" is an answer. Where research hasn't studied a population — pregnancy, for example — we say that plainly instead of guessing reassurance.
• Education, not prescription. We explain what is known in general. What you should take is a conversation between you and your doctor, full stop.

Corrections, questions, or a safety topic you'd like explained: ask the desk.