Dietary supplements may be beneficial, particularly for people suffering from certain health conditions or lacking essential nutrients, yet as with all substances consumed they do carry risks and side-effects.
Dietary supplements, whether pills, powder or liquid forms, can provide your body with essential vitamins and minerals – but should never replace a healthy diet.
Vitamins
Vitamins are essential nutrients essential for overall good health but cannot be produced naturally by our bodies. They can be found naturally in various foods or purchased through dietary supplements.
Food and beverage labels will list the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of vitamins for optimal health. Please remember that this does not represent drug dosages but instead the required daily amounts to maintain optimal wellbeing.
Water-soluble vitamins include vitamin C and the B’s: thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid biotin folic acid cobalamin. As they cannot be stored by your body any excess will leave through urine production and any deficiencies can lead to serious illnesses.
Fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and E are fat-soluble nutrients with limited safety limits; overdoing it could result in birth defects or liver issues. You can find fat-soluble vitamins both fortified foods and as dietary supplements.
Minerals
Minerals are inorganic solid substances formed naturally that have a distinctive chemical composition. Their makeup may include one element or multiple elements and compounds; many rocks such as granite, basalt, and sandstone contain minerals as constituent elements.
Mineral properties encompass crystal shape (there are 7 known crystal structures), luster, color and streaking; hardness; cleavage; and fluorescence. Some minerals contain radioactive elements like uranium in uraninite or carnotite minerals.
Minerals play many essential roles in our bodies, from strengthening bones to transmitting nerve impulses. Potassium plays an especially vital role in blood pressure regulation and heart rhythm regulation; its best sources are bananas and avocadoes as foodstuffs; however, supplements may also contain significant doses. As large doses of minerals compete for absorption at once, so avoid taking calcium and magnesium at the same time; iron, phosphorus, and zinc can interfere with each other’s absorption as well.
Herbs
Dietary supplements are substances taken orally such as pills, capsules, tablets or liquid. They may include vitamins, minerals, herbs or botanical extracts; amino acids (the building blocks of proteins); organ tissue from organs and glands or extracts thereof as well as tissue from these parts or extracts thereof.
Herbs are leafy green plants used for culinary and medicinal purposes. Common herbs include parsley and perennials like rosemary or thyme; but there are also shrubs like bay laurel or trees like sage that have herbs among their foliage.
Medical products require FDA approval prior to being sold; dietary supplements (such as herbs) do not. Still, they must be safe for use and accurately labeled. Memorial Sloan Kettering recommends consulting your health care provider before taking any herbs or supplements as this will allow them to help determine which are most suitable and whether there are interactions with any medications you’re currently taking.
Nutraceuticals
Dietary Supplements and Nutraceuticals is an independent peer-reviewed journal that publishes research about how dietary supplements can support optimal health by alleviating nutritional deficiencies, illness and chronic/viral diseases. This publication serves as a vital resource for students, professors, medical doctors, dieticians nutritionists and government representatives.
Stephen DeFelice coined the term “nutraceuticals” in 1989 to refer to any substance consumed as dietary supplements that has the potential to promote health, treat symptoms or protect against malignant processes. Nutraceuticals may be classified as food or pharmaceutical products depending on how their active ingredients function within your body.
Dietary supplements and nutritional products may seem interchangeable, but the Food and Drug Administration has clearly set forth rules regarding any claims that may be made about them. A nutraceutical cannot be advertised as medication or cure for specific diseases; instead they may be promoted as ways to increase immune system functionality or lower risks related to heart disease and diabetes.
