How To Pick The Right Supplements
Know What Your Health Goals Are Before You Go Shopping
Ask the right questions to choose the best vitamins and herbs to suit your health and lifestyle.
If you are reading this, you’re thinking of embarking on a more healthful approach to your life. There are so many dietary supplements that can take care of every body part and function imaginable, so the question is, what do you really need?
With the plethora of supplements on the market, it’s easy to overdo it. Perhaps you are also wondering how much is too much? Supplements have proven health benefits, but if you are not careful, you could wind up like the woman mentioned in The New York Times whose dentist discovered her gums could not stop bleeding after a simple procedure because she took a staggering combination of 43 supplements daily.
The other common myth that dogs consumers is, if this dietary supplement is natural, it’s not a drug so it can’t be harmful. That is true to a certain extent but there has been recent research that found certain supplements, when interacting with pharmaceutical drugs, or in combination with other herbs or vitamins, could have negative, and sometimes severe, side effects.
Here are some points to mull over before hitting the health store:
Jot down your main health concerns. Everyone has different health issues and lifestyles which vary according to your age and gender. If you are a twenty-something, you may just want something to fend off annoying colds. Or if you’re a fifty-year-old man, prostate and heart health could be your primary worries. Are you suffering from serious PMS? You may want to check out natural anti-depressants and mood balancers. You could also be a keen runner and want something for muscle and joint recovery.
Research safety risks. You have decided on a combination of supplements, so you should read up on what is the right dosage for you. Not all supplement labels can tell you everything you need to know. Go to a trusted and reliable resource like The National Institutes of Health: Office of Dietary Supplements that has a comprehensive directory of vitamins and herbs. If you are on other medication, you should consult your doctor for any potential drug interactions.
Choose your brands carefully. It is often tempting to go for the cheapest supplements available on the market. How wrong could a supplement go — isn’t say, Vitamin C, just Vitamin C? There are different types available, for example, some Vitamin C brands have time-release or acid-free options and these would be more expensive. The more “sophisticated” they seem, it’s likely they would cost more. But that’s not to say all highly priced supplements are good for you. The best would be to do your research on the reputation of the company you’re buying from. These are a few questions to ask while you are surfing the web for information: “Do they have their own website?”, “Are there quality statements like ‘FDA-approved’?” and “Is there negative news like product recalls? If so, what was the reason?”
Be aware of what’s inside. If you have any food allergies, it’s better to double check the labels for a list of what they put in the product because some include wheat, rice or dairy ingredients in their formula. Even natural supplements could contain health risks, for example, Echinacea comes from the daisy family, and if you are allergic to such flowers, you may have an adverse reaction to it. To be on the safe side, if the label cannot display all of what is inside, don’t buy it.
