Best supplements for good health

What are the Nutritional Supplements? 

Dietary supplements are products that help, or enhance the natural function of the body. These are intended to food supplementation, containing one or more specific components: vitamins, minerals, herbal compounds, amino acids, dietary substances that positively impact on food intake, concentrates, metabolites, constituents, extracts, or combinations of these components. Dietary supplements are food not medicine so they can't be used for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of any disease or condition. Food supplements are produced in the dose-dependent forms such as capsules, tablets, syrups, drops.

Prerequisite to maintaining good health is proper and various nutrition. It was found that the introduction of appropriate nutritional ingredients may prevent the occurrence of many diseases. For example, sufficient intake of calcium, vitamin D and physical activity in childhood, builds up strong bones and reduces the risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures in old age.

Reasons for Using Supplements

Proper nutrition can satisfy all body needs for vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. But modern way of life has forced most people to improper diet - skipping meals, fast food, insufficient intake of fruits and vegetables, too frequent use of greasy and fried food. In this way, the body loses important vitamins and minerals, which are necessary for the health preservation. These poor eating habits modern man tries to compensate by using "magic pills" - multimineral and multivitamin complexes.

However, people have different needs for supplements, depending on the state of health. It is therefore very important to delineate which supplements, in which form and dosage should be used in specific case. For example iron may be necessary for growth and development of children, for pregnant women or for women who are especially susceptible to iron deficiency because of menstrual bleeding.

Supplements Applying and Dosage

Different body needs, depending on gender, age, physiological condition (pregnancy, lactation) stipulate that the intake of certain nutrients should be adapted to physiological needs. In particular, attention should be paid to the choice and dosage of food supplements for children, pregnant and nursing women, sick people, convalescents, people on special therapies, athletes and so on.

Food supplements are divided according to the composition and active components to: Dietary supplements containing vitamins, minerals and other nutrients (singly or in combination) Dietary supplements containing botanical ingredients (herbal dietary supplements) and ingredients of other origin (enzymes, probiotics). Applied amounts of nutritional supplements in single doses (tablets, capsules, spoons) must conform to established recommended daily doses for certain population groups. Official health services and regulatory authorities of individual countries or international organizations provide official recommendations about intake of certain vitamins, minerals and other supplements.