There are an enormous range of supplements on the market today, many designed to treat specific health conditions while others offering general wellbeing support.
While the FDA checks prescription drugs, dietary supplement manufacturers must rely on themselves to ensure their products are both safe and labeled accurately.
Vitamins
Dietary supplements may provide the nutrients your diet cannot. These products come in various forms such as tablets, capsules, gelcaps and powders to meet your vitamin needs. While vitamins are crucial to good health, be careful about taking too many during pregnancy or with certain medical conditions as too much may harm you instead of helping!
Most vitamins can either be water- or fat-soluble. Water-soluble vitamins (vitamin C, folic acid and the B complex vitamins) leave your body through urine production; to avoid deficiency they must be regularly consumed to avoid deficiency. Fat-soluble vitamins A-D-E-K may remain stored for extended periods in liver fat storage cells and stored within body fat stores.
Dietary supplements are rarely subject to rigorous safety testing, leading to serious health concerns in some instances. If you experience adverse reactions after taking any dietary supplement, speak with your doctor immediately and report the event through FDA’s online form.
Minerals
Minerals are inorganic substances with specific chemical composition and crystal structures that form crystals with ordered inner atomic arrangements, enabling them to form crystal structures with certain physical characteristics such as hardness, color luster solubility fracture magnetism or radioactivity.
Our Museum features several essential minerals, such as potassium (K), which helps your cells, nerves and muscles work optimally while simultaneously balancing blood pressure and keeping heart rhythm regular. Magnesium (Mg), on the other hand, promotes bone health and tooth protection – making it a key component in many medications – while Phosphorus (P) serves both your bones as well as helping manage diabetes patients’ blood sugar levels more effectively.
Vitamins and minerals are both integral parts of our health, playing an integral role in keeping us alive and well. Many vitamins and minerals serve as antioxidants to protect other nutrients and slow aging processes, and multivitamins, multivitamin-mineral supplements, mineralized vegetable mixes are among the many products containing them – one meta-analysis conducted across 21 RCTs showed their use had no negative effect on mortality risk [47].
Herbs
Whatever you may need – to strengthen immunity, promote sleep or ease stress – there is likely an herbal supplement available that can assist. Before ingesting any herbs or botanicals it is wise to consult a knowledgeable healthcare provider in order to ensure they are safe and will not interact negatively with any medications you are currently taking.
Herbs are plants used medicinally. Herbs may consist of leaves, flowers, fruits or roots which can be consumed through teas, tinctures, capsules or oils and have been around for millennia.
Dietary supplements are classified as dietary supplements and therefore regulated differently than drugs, meaning they don’t undergo the same rigorous testing required of pharmaceutical drugs. Ephedra was once used to enhance energy, but has now been banned by U.S. authorities due to causing high blood pressure and heart rhythm issues; other herbs like ginseng and ginger may be more suitable for treating certain conditions.
Other Supplements
Consuming various dietary supplements can provide your body with essential nutrients to stay healthy. These may include vitamins, minerals, herbs or botanicals, amino acids and enzymes. Available products range from pills, gel caps, gummies, tablets liquids or powders. Folic acid for pregnant women as well as calcium and iron are among the more widely taken dietary supplements.
Dietary supplements are regulated by FDA like drugs, although they cannot treat, diagnose, mitigate or cure disease. Furthermore, FDA has instituted Good Manufacturing Practices that ensure product quality; inspectors visit companies to make sure these are adhered to.
Your healthcare providers should recommend only supplements with sound scientific evidence supporting their safety and effectiveness, to help guide their recommendation of suitable dietary supplements for you and to address any concerns or issues associated with taking them. Furthermore, these providers can report serious adverse events related to dietary supplements to FDA as soon as they become known.
