I've seen a great question somewhere... And I started to wonder, after my quest for certificates of analysis, and many unanswered emails along with some outright refusals, as well as a bunch of compiled PDFs.
How dangerous is it really, to get an impure supplement? If we're buying NAC, Pyracetam or ALCAR, and it's 97% purity, how much damage can those 3% do?
I'm assuming 97% purity here because if the product on an relatively unknown site (or a known one) has good reviews from 10 or 20 people as effective, or many supplements on that site have such reviews, chances are the active ingredient is there and in decent quantity (I'm talking powders here). And I'm giving the manufacturer a generous margin of error, usually it'd probably be around 1-2%, or 0.1-0.5% if it's a higher-end supplier.
So what can it be? Heavy metals? Some toxic chemicals?
And how much damage can it actually do if we are being realistic here?
Most supplements we're not taking kilos of. Maybe NAC for example at a higher end dose, if we take it daily for 12 months, we'd end up with a kilo. But our body clears up over time too, right?
Am I just being too paranoid and thorough or is there actual concern when it comes to suppliers who do not provide or refuse to provide CoAs, even if they have good reviews all over their site, and perhaps a forum or two (from members who clearly aren't a part of that company)?
I hope to get some answers here from long-time members with plenty of experience under their belts, which will impact my purchasing decisions.
The reason I'm even asking this is because it's so hard to find good suppliers for strange powders in the EU, and I can't afford to pay more than the supplement's cost itself to ship it in from the US, so I either have to skip on some supplements, or figure this out!
