Dietary Supplements part 2

Ensuring smart supplementation

Supplement means to add something which can be in the healthy diet and lifestyle. You can not use herbal supplement or vitamin regiment on its own treat completely your disease or condition. All supplements are necessarily good for you especially when you take toxic doses or other medications.

The dietary supplements like vitamins or herbs are beneficial for your health. You might have seen advertising about these supplements claiming totally safe, natural and quick effective. There can be some false promises as well and you should keep yourself away from these products. You should make good research about these products.

Supplement safety

There are always some risks involved in the use of dietary supplements. You should always consult your physician about the use of these supplements. The pregnant women, nursing a baby and women with medical condition like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease should be careful about the use of these supplements. Some of these supplements of vitamins and minerals are safe for children but still you should consult your doctor before using them for children.

The dietary supplements and homeopathic remedies are made possible to be marketed without providing any safety evidence before FDA. The product should be proved dangerous if it is removed from the shelves.

The supplement manufacturers should make their claims about health, nutritional contents and structure to their limited restrictions. There is relationship of health claims with food, food component or dietary supplement ingredients and it is also related to reduce the risks of disease or health related condition.

There should be description of percentage of daily use of the nutrient in the supplement. The structure claims describe the affects of statement on the organs or systems of the body and these are not mentioned for a specific disease. There is support for heart function as component of the electron transport system in the COQ10 and it can also be used as antioxidant to protect the mitochondrial membrane and cholesterol from oxidation.

You should keep different things while you are selecting nutritional, dietary or herbal supplements. The manufacturers of these supplements don’t care about the safety or efficacy. The contents of the dietary supplements are not analyzed completely by the FDA therefore manufacturers should meet the FDA’S good manufacturing practices. The FDA does not approve the specific health claims about the labels of the dietary supplements instead it forces to include the disclaimer stating that this supplement is no intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease. There should be description of the daily intake in the daily value about particular nutritional supplement.

You should also keep certain safety concerns when taking vitamin or mineral supplements.

Don't substitute supplements for medication

You should consult your doctor if you are going to use dietary supplements in place of drugs. You should be well aware that it is gentler or more beneficial to your body. There can be some active ingredients in the supplements which can have strong biological effects and their safety is not assured.