About this site

StarterScience publishes plain-English guides to dietary supplements: what the research supports, what it does not, and where the evidence simply runs out. The site launched in April 2025 and is published by Fred Quimby.

Who publishes this

Fred Quimby publishes StarterScience. He is a marketer by trade — not a physician, dietitian, pharmacist or researcher — and this site does not ask you to trust him on the strength of a credential he does not have. It asks you to check the sources instead.

How these articles are made

Plainly: the articles here are drafted by an AI system and published automatically. There is no editorial desk reading each one before it goes live. A person designs the process, spot-checks the output, and corrects what is wrong after publication rather than before it. We would rather tell you that than imply a review process that does not exist.

What that means for sourcing

Most articles published before August 2026 cite no sources at all. That is a real weakness of this site, and it is being fixed starting with the pages people actually read. Until an article carries a source next to a claim, treat that claim as unverified and go to the primary references yourself — the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements fact sheets, systematic reviews, and trials indexed in PubMed are all free to read.

How StarterScience makes money

Affiliate commissions, mainly from iHerb. If you buy through a link here, we earn a percentage and your price is unchanged. Every article that contains such links carries a paid-links notice at the top, and the links themselves are marked rel="sponsored nofollow". Because the site is funded this way, coverage leans toward supplements you can buy — that is a genuine commercial bias, and naming it is more useful than pretending it is not there. What the commission does not change is the verdict: where the evidence is weak or negative, the article says so, including for products we link to. No brand pays for inclusion, ranking or a favourable review.

What this site is not

It is not medical advice and not a substitute for a clinician who knows your history. Supplements interact with prescription medication and with existing conditions, and they are not reviewed by the FDA for safety or effectiveness before they are sold. Talk to a doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing a supplement — particularly if you are pregnant or nursing, under 18, managing a health condition, or taking medication.

Corrections

If something here is wrong or out of date, leave a comment on the article — comments are open on every page. Corrections are made in the article itself and dated.