Equipping People To Make Sense Of What They Are Told
Supplements - also known as a food supplement or a nutritional supplement. A preparation
intended to supplement the diet and provide nutrients. Some define dietary supplements
as foods, while others define supplements as drugs or natural health products.
Supplements containing vitamins or dietary minerals are included as a category of
food in the Codex Alimentarius, a collection of internationally recognised standards,
codes of practice, guidelines and other recommendations relating to foods, food production
and food safety. These texts are drawn up by the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
Supplements are made from natural substances or copy substances produced by the body.
Those who consume supplements for whatever reason may assume that as they are natural
or mimic substances produced by the body that they do no harm. This is not true supplements
can and will harm your health if consumed in an inappropriate and unsupervised manner.
Supplements, of all kinds, are a medicine.
The health supplement industry, unlike the pharmaceutical industry, is mostly unregulated.
Manufacturers are not required to list any potential side effects and their products
do not go through clinical trials to establish their safety and efficacy.
Supplements can become toxic when taken alongside some medicines.
Supplements taken in high quantities have the potential to cause hypervitaminosis
(vitamin overdose) a condition of high storage levels of vitamins, which will cause
toxic symptoms.
The medical names of the different conditions are derived from the vitamin involved.
High doses of mineral supplements can cause side effects, imbalances and toxicity
within the body.
Eating a balanced diet is one way to get the nutrients your body needs. However,
many do not have a diet that delivers sufficient nutrients to meet their body’s needs,
more so if a person is suffering from a serious disease / disorder.
It is important with the use of supplements to ensure that they are the correct regime
to meet your needs.
The needs of one individual may be completely different from another even if the
have the same or similar health problems.
