If you were to walk into any health food, supplements, or sporting health store and take the marketing at face value, you may assume that if you haven’t been taking dozens upon dozens of supplements a day, you haven’t been doing enough for your health.
Of course, this would be a faulty impression. Supplements are just that, supplements, not replacements, substitutes, or a fix for health issues. They can simply help you optimize your health on top of a healthy diet and lifestyle.
So far, so good. But that insight doesn’t tell us which supplements are worth taking in the first place. Even more confusing is that everyone will have different parameters for what health supplement is best for them, and what’s best for us now may not be so forever.
In this post, we hope to simplify all of that. We’ll discuss a number of insights you can use to determine if a health supplement is worthwhile for you. Through these parameters, you can make an autonomous decision that inspires a healthy outlook from then on. At the very least, you’ll have a clear view as to why you’re taking something, as opposed to letting marketing spell your decision out for you.
With that in mind, let’s begin:
1. Consult with a Healthcare Professional
Before you decide to add any new supplements or dietary aids to your lifestyle, you should absolutely visit your physician or healthcare professional first. If any of the advice in this post contradicts what they recommend, always follow their advice with prioritized importance.
For example, if a dietary supplement is known to potentially lower blood pressure, but you have low blood pressure to begin with, then that in itself could pose a health problem. It’s easy to assume that healthcare supplements sold over the counter are safe for the most part, and they are, but they may not be ideal or safe for you to take. For example, if you’re pregnant, or if you may be in your elderly years, it’s important to be very shrewd.
If a physician gives you the go-ahead or is more than happy for you to try something new, that in itself can be worthwhile.
2. Identify Your Specific Health Needs
It’s important to identify your specific health needs and have a real purpose for taking a supplement. Much of this information can be found from reputational sources online, which is healthy. For example, you can look into studies published surrounding the importance of vitamin D, or listen to approved licensed professionals discussing its use.
This can also apply to other supplements, from ashwagandha for stress relief, or valerian root for temporary relief from anxiety symptoms. Just as you need to have a routine planned before you step foot in your local gym, it’s good to plan out exactly what your supplement will be, how much you need to take of it, and how that’s best integrated into your diet.
3. Research the Supplement’s Ingredients
Not all supplements are alike. For example, one may be cheaper than another, but offer an inferior source of the active ingredient, while the more expensive item may be purer and organic, as well as derived from better and more sustainable sources.
Understanding the exact ingredients used to concoct a particular supplement can help you balance those considerations against your needs. You may also spot red flags like added sugars and flavorings to make the item more appealing. Also make certain to read the instruction label from top to bottom after purchase so you can be aware of any side effects, the correct dosages, and what to do if you believe the item is adversely affecting your health.
4. Assess Your Dietary and Nutritional Intake
It’s also essential to assess how your diet might play into taking supplements each day. So for example, not everyone eats seafood on a regular basis. In this case, taking omega-3 supplements could be a wise option, as it grants you access to a nutrient that you may rarely consume otherwise, helping with skin, heart, and joint health.
But if you continually eat fresh fish, then an omega-3 supplement may be too much, and lead to unhappy health outcomes. If you’re on a ketogenic diet, then you may decide to supplement potassium and magnesium as electrolytes, because those aren’t coming from the foods you regularly consume.
Assessing your dietary intake in this way will give you more wriggle room, and it’ll also help you feel a great deal better about your choices.
5. Consider Your Age and Life Stage
Two people with similar health needs may not have perfect supplemental synchronicity if they’re of differing ages. For example, older adults will often require more calcium and vitamin D to help prevent conditions like osteoporosis. As they get older, their need to supplement vitamin B12 also increases. As you might see, this could cause someone’s particular lifestyle to ensure they opt for a different like of multivitamins than someone else.
But getting older is hardly the only life stage we go through, even though it does happen to us all. We refer back to pregnancy – often foods or supplements containing folic acid can be essential for the development of a healthy baby. Of course, this should always only be pursued with the direct advice of your maternal specialist or midwife.
6. Consider The Packaging
Of course, packaging is often designed to be promotional, and so it’s good to learn a little about the product outside of that, too. Yet you’ll find that supplements firms that use the best medicine packaging company to better lay out clear information about what the product is, what it consists of, what the company standard of quality is, and the exact methods of use are often better to use than any others.
In other words, consider how candid and proud the company seems to be. You can also look online for customer reviews and testimonials that give you a fuller picture of the brand’s goals and interests, and how its products seem to be helping its audience. Here you’ll also be able to gauge the company’s values, for example, how involved they are with other health initiatives or the social responsibility they prioritize. Perhaps they’ll be transparent about their sustainability measures, which is also a great sign.
To put it simply – don’t necessarily take marketing copy as gospel, but packaging design and care can also tell you a great deal about any firm.
7. Check for Third-Party Testing and Certification
Of course, many products will be rated appropriately by verified testing standards within your country and economic zone. Yet it’s also true that if you’ve decided to purchase supplements online, you may not know exactly the testing standards that have allowed the product to come into the country.
For this reason, looking for an organizational body that helps ensure safety and randomizing quality control testing is important. In some cases, supplements simply provide nutrients and won’t make any health claims at all, or they’ll use considered language such as “may help with mild anxiety”. In the EU, the European Commission will help regulate and govern aspects such as health claims and maximum levels of vitamins to safely be offered within a product.
Depending on where you live, certain restrictions may also apply. For example, in the United Kingdom medical cannabis is not legalized, and so CBD products need to offer under 0.2% THC before they’re permitted for sale. This can alter how a certain product may be offered on the shelves of the UK vs the US, and how the companies approach laboratory testing. You can also look to the company’s direct lab reports to see the transparency in how they cultivate their products.
8. Avoid Supplements with Unverified Claims
It’s important to be careful about the claims made by certain supplement providers. We’ve mentioned that the packaging will often be careful about how they make direct medical claims, but that doesn’t mean they won’t allude to certain outcomes or promise amazing results when the active ingredients may not be plentiful enough to achieve that.
For example, it may be that a certain supplement offers a small amount of concentrated nutrient when in actual fact, a more organic and lesser-dosage option could be ideal. Moreover, higher strength does not necessarily mean better or more responsibly sourced products or ingredients within the supplement.
As such, you have to be wary of the claims given and make certain that transparency and moderated language are the options you a
9. Monitor and Document Effects on Your Health
Once a product has been selected, that doesn’t always mean it’s perfect for you. If you’ve found that a fibre supplement has done little to aid your digestion after a few weeks, you might move onto a different product more in tune with your needs.
If you notice any adverse effects at all, it’s important to stop usage immediately and check in with your physician, and also report your experience to the company who may provide you a full refund. It’s also essential to consider how two supplements may contain the same item – for example, a multivitamin may also have vitamin D, and so taking that in addition could raise your levels to more than you had expected.
With this advice, we hope you can more readily determine if a supplement is for you.
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