Dietary supplements are intended to supplement a normal diet. They have no medicinal properties and should not be treated as medicines. However, not all consumers are aware of the differences between a drug and a dietary supplement. Greater knowledge on this subject will allow you to use these products more safely and better match them to your needs.
Dietary supplements – what exactly are they?
According to the definition, a dietary supplement is a foodstuff whose purpose is to supplement a normal diet. It is a concentrated source of vitamins, minerals or other substances that have a nutritional or other physiological effect. It must be in a form that allows for the appropriate dosage in accordance with the recommendations – e.g. capsules, powder sachets, liquid. Therefore, according to the law, a dietary supplement is a food and should not be confused with medicinal products. The maximum content of vitamins and other ingredients contained in the daily portion of the supplement is also specified. This is to guarantee that following the dose recommended by the manufacturer is safe for your health.
For supplementation to be safe, you should not exceed the recommended daily intake and take higher doses than recommended by the manufacturer. “More” does not mean “better” in this case. Vitamins and other ingredients can be overdosed and achieve the opposite effect to the intended one.
Supplements and drugs – differences
The drug has medicinal properties – it can be used to prevent or treat a disease. It has proven to work and safety in clinical trials. Even after they have been placed on the market, medicines are constantly monitored and supervised for possible side effects. Medicines must meet stringent quality requirements and are therefore subject to regular inspections. There are many differences between a drug and a supplement. First of all, the supplement does not heal. Its purpose is only to supplement the daily diet.
The introduction to the market itself is also much easier – the supplements do not undergo many years of testing, confirmation of their quality, safety or the effects described by the manufacturer is not required. However, the phrase “dietary supplement” must appear next to the product name. The ease of introducing a dietary supplement to the market, the lack of restrictive requirements that these products would have to meet, as well as the very limited control of supplements that are already on the market, mean that irrational intake of these preparations may carry more risks than benefits. In addition, supplements are available not only in pharmacies, but also in stores, at stations or on the Internet, which does not mean that they are safe at all.
Which supplements to choose?
A dietary supplement can be a valuable supplement to the daily diet, as long as it is used rationally. Selected individually, depending on your needs, it can provide the body with valuable ingredients. The vast majority of the population uses supplements. The most commonly used are supplements with vitamins and minerals, weight loss supplements, supplements supporting the immune and digestive systems, as well as supplements to improve concentration and memory. It is worth mentioning that there are groups of people who are recommended to use dietary supplements, for example due to the lack of preparations with the status of drugs or their poor selection.
A typical example is pregnant or lactating women, for whom almost all available products are dietary supplements. In order for their use to have the desired effect, we must pay attention to the source of such a preparation. By far the best and safest place where we should buy dietary supplements is a pharmacy – a stationary or legal online pharmacy. You will not find products of unknown origin here, which can happen when you buy them from a random seller on the Internet.
Supplements – when are they needed?
Dietary supplements can be helpful for people who are not able to get all the vitamins and minerals in their diet, those necessary for the proper functioning of the body. The current lifestyle, rush and high consumption of highly processed food do not work in favor of proper nutrition. A poor diet can cause many deficiencies that pose a health risk. However, before we start wondering which supplements to take and which we need, it is worth consulting a doctor and doing basic tests.
Only then will we know which vitamins or micronutrients our body can actually get in too small amounts. Rational supplementation makes sense if we supplement our diet with specific ingredients we need. Only then can we expect the expected results. Supplementation should be tailored to the individual needs of the person. It can also be a valuable supplement to treatment, as long as it is selected under the supervision of a specialist.
When asked whether it is worth using dietary supplements, I think I would give an affirmative answer, as long as such supplementation is based on strong premises, such as test results, and is additionally selected individually under the supervision of a doctor or pharmacist. Remember that a healthy, balanced diet is the basis. It is, in a way, the foundation of our health and well-being. And this is where we should start. Only if we are not able, for various reasons, to provide the necessary ingredients with food, we should consider introducing supplements and supplementing the diet with specific ingredients.