REVEALED: The common supplements experts say you should avoid – including one that’s now linked to BRAIN CANCER…

We’re a nation of pill poppers – so it’s no surprise that vitamins and supplements have become a $50 billion a year industry.

An approximate one 70 percent of Americans take some form of a supplement every day.

But doctors warn that not only are a large number of the products blind, but they can harm your health rather than benefit it.

A new study suggests that taking nicotinamide riboside (NR), a form of vitamin B3, could increase the risk of developing aggressive cancers.

The 70 cent tablets are touted for their anti-aging properties and have become extremely popular among wellness influencers in recent years.

The study, led by Elena Goun, a professor of chemistry at the University of Missouri, found that the popular supplement could help the spread of cancer.

NR has been shown to support cell growth. When Professor Goun fed it to cancer cells in the laboratory, she discovered they could use it as a powerful fuel to spread throughout the body.

This, the study said, could increase people’s risk of developing difficult-to-treat forms of breast cancer and increase the risk of the disease spreading to the brain and other parts of the body.

However, the study authors caution: Finding this link does not necessarily mean these supplements cause cancer; for example, people need to take a lot of the supplement before it has a serious effect on their body.

It does shed light on how unregulated the supplement industry is, and how little we know about the long-term effects of many supplements, Professor Goun said.

“Some people take them (vitamins and supplements) because they automatically assume that vitamins and supplements only have positive health benefits, but very little is known about how they actually work,” she said.

This isn’t the only supplement that has been linked to unfortunate results.

A review of 450,000 Americans Researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that multivitamins did nothing to reduce the risk of heart disease or cancer.

“Most supplements do not prevent chronic disease or death, their use is not justified, and they should be avoided,” the study authors wrote.

Taking too much vitamin E has been linked to earlier overall death and prostate cancer. according to Mayo Clinic.

And studies suggest that beta-carotene, a supplement naturally found in vegetables, can increase your risk for developing lung cancer if you were previously a smoker.

However, all these studies show that this connection has not been conclusively proven and that you are probably not in immediate danger if you are currently taking these supplements.

Meanwhile, supplements for sexual performance, weight loss, sports performance and cognitive enhancement tend to be the most problematic categories, Dr. Pieter Cohen, an internist at Harvard University Medical School told Discover.

‘These health claims do not need to be supported by evidence from human trials. In other words, it may say that these kinds of things will improve your cognition or improve your memory, even though there is no research that has ever shown that the supplement will actually help you do that,” he said.

For example, Gwenyth Patltrow’s company Goop manufactures a product called “Brain Boost daily chews,” which is “supposed to support energy and focus.” Cohen said these types of products have no scientific basis.

Cohen further explained that the supplements in these categories most likely contain harmful substances, experimental drugs, or far fewer or more of the ingredients they are supposed to contain.

Cohen, who is part of a lab that tests supplements for their veracity, said his company found incredibly high CBD levels in a study of a brand of sleep gummies.

Other studies have shown that supplements are often contaminated with cancer-causing heavy metals.

Another study showed that all 138 tested supplements contained this foreign bacteria.

This can happen because supplements fall somewhere in a no man’s land between a drug and a nutritional product, meaning the The FDA does not regulate them.

The only way you can know if a product actually contains what it says on the label is if the company chooses to undergo third-party testing.

Some third-party testing companies have stamps to look for on bottle labels, such as US Pharmacopeia. If you see that a bottle has a gold and green stamp with USP on it, that is a sign that the bottle has been authenticated.

“If it’s also certified by a third party, that’s the most likely way to get what you think is in the bottle,” Cohen said.

In one of Cohen’s tests, he found that a brand of sleep vitamins contained 346 percent more melatonin than stated on the label. An overdose of the supplement is rarely fatalbut can cause tremors, nausea, confusion, drowsiness and anxiety.

“Sometimes what’s in the bottle can be very concerning,” Cohen said.

Another problem with supplements is that sometimes your body doesn’t need more of a particular nutrient. Taking, for example too much vitamin A can cause headaches, dizziness and hair loss.

One of the other dark things you can run into with supplements is the way they interact with other medications you’re taking.

For example, St. John’s wort has been shown to block or minimize the effects of statins, a class of drugs that help lower cholesterol.

NR supplements have also been shown to do this low bloodpressureSo people taking blood pressure medications may be entering dangerous territory if they take the supplements on top.

Another popular herbal supplement called Ashwagandha can improve the… effects of diabetes medicationssending people with the condition into dangerously low blood sugar territory.

If you consult your doctor before starting a new supplement, you’ll likely be safe from its harmful effects, say Dr. Eve Glazier and Dr. Elizabeth Ko. UCLA wrote.

‘If someone wants to take a supplement, it is always wise to discuss this with their GP.’

Furthermore, most people don’t need to take supplements at all, Cohen said. The best way to get daily nutrients is to eat a well-rounded diet, Michelle Routhenstein, a registered dietitian, previously told the Daily Mail.