The Rise in Supplement Use Calls for Pharmacist-Led Counseling, Education | NCPA 2025

Among nationwide consumer trends in the past few years, the use of supplements has increased tremendously since the COVID-19 pandemic. With millions of patients seeking these often over-the-counter and accessible therapies, pharmacists are gradually becoming an untapped resource to help patients manage their supplement use.

“Seventy-four percent of the US population do take supplements right now. That’s 74% of the people that walk into my pharmacy every day,” Emlah Tubuo, PharmD, MS, owner of Powell Pharmacy and founder of Emlah Consulting LLC, told Drug Topics. “One of the positives of COVID was an increased awareness of what every individual can do to improve their health.”

With such a large majority of US patients seeking supplements to improve health outcomes, Tubuo believes there are opportunities, not only to improve patients’ health, but to also improve pharmacy profitability through increased sales of supplements in community pharmacies.

In part 1 of our interview with Tubuo, she joined us at the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) 2025 Annual Convention & Expo to share additional insights from her session titled “Shelf Help: Rethinking Supplements for Profit and Purpose.” She shared insights on the current state of supplement use in the US and the opportunities for pharmacists to make a true difference for patients.

While it’s promising that increased supplement use can translate to more patients keeping up with their health, Tubuo believes pharmacists’ education and counseling on supplement use can only improve patient health at an even greater scale.

Read more of our coverage from NCPA 2025.

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