The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, or DSHEA, labels a dietary supplement as something which supplements your food, contains one or more dietary ingredient such as vitamins or minerals, and comes in a pill form. Naturally, there are various forms of such a supplement which makes it difficult to know where to begin in sourcing one which suits you. Depending on the area of your body that you want to improve, there is a supplement to aid it. Herbal and botanical supplements are used for medicinal purposes, and usually target a certain area, such as the skin or liver. Vitamins and minerals are micro-nutrients which benefit the body in specific ways, such as vitamin A supporting the growth of bones and maintaining good eyesight. Vitamin E, on the other hand, strengthens the immune system, maintains great skin structure and protect against ageing, and helps to repair the DNA. If you’re deficient in a vitamin or mineral, it can stop the body from fighting off illnesses and inhibiting the natural repair stage – when deficient over a long period of time, it can even lead to more serious health problems. Of course, supplements are no match for the real deal when used instead of a well balanced diet, but they can support its growth and fill in the gaps.
Herbal supplements differ from vitamin and mineral supplements because they’re considered to have a medicinal purpose. They’re also valued as one of the world’s oldest health care tools, being the basis of many modern medicines. In fact, it’s thought by the World Health Organisation that as many as 80 percent of the world’s population uses traditional therapies to heal ailments, many of which are plant derivatives. Though they may seem natural and good for you as a result, they are still potent and should be taken with caution, particularly if you’re taking other medications. It is best to check with your GP before taking any supplements. Many people may well benefit from a daily multivitamin as a way of providing a consistent source of your vital nutrients – vitamin D is the most commonly needed nutrient as it is notoriously difficult to source from our diets. In such areas, where we struggle to get enough nutrients from our diets alone, supplements are useful and can help us feel in better heath overall.
Your first step towards protecting your health should always be a good diet – there is no comparison for fruit and vegetables, protein and dairy in its purest form. However, our increasingly poor diets have meant that dangerous gaps have shown up in our daily meals – in order to fill in these holes, supplements do the work our diets fail to do. Some people are more in need of supplements than others – for example, women of childbearing age, pregnant or lactating women, kids or teens with irregular eating habits, seniors, people with eating disorders, vegetarians or vegans, or people with an incredibly poor diet. The word supplements encapsulates the very role these pills play – they are an addition to your diet, not the whole thing. In other words, you’re ‘adding’ to your daily intake of food, or to the prescription medication you’re taking. Before taking any supplements, you should consult your GP first to make sure that it is safe. There may be an underlying issue that supplements hide rather than solve, so you should be sure that you’re merely boosting your health rather than hiding important issues. However, in everyday life, supplements can be great for helping you maintain a health balance and improved well-being.
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