Undoubtedly a lot of us have met with a negative opinion about taking dietary supplements. There are a lot of rumours around, according to which use of such preparations can harm your health. How much truth is in that and what side effects can follow a long term intake of dietary supplements?

What are dietary supplements?

Dietary supplements are nothing more than preparations that include vitamins and minerals, and also other substances that can provide a solution for nutrient deficiency in food. Unfortunately, most people do not have a very diverse diet, which means that we lack a lot of vitamins. Also, it’s becoming harder to get natural ingredients, as we find a lot of chemicals everywhere that can negatively affect our health.

According to the studies, for our body to function properly we need at least 60 different nutrients. These are things like protein, fat, dietary fibre, carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins. Despite most of them theoretically being in our food, it’s usually much different. This is why it’s so important to take dietary supplements, which will help make up for any nutrient deficiency. Everything should be taken with moderation and common sense. As it turns out, excessive intake of such supplements can reflect negatively on our health. Instead of helping we can harm ourselves. Uncontrolled quantities are especially dangerous for people with chronic diseases that need to regularly take various kinds of medication. It’s worth remembering that supplements do not have any medical properties.

We also don’t have to exaggerate the other way. Dietary supplements are needed and that’s not a subject for discussion. Everything that we do have to be done with sense. We can even overdose vitamins, which is why proper dosage is important.

Despite the fact that dietary supplements are often bought with concern for our health, and hope that they will immune and streamline our body, accelerate and improve the treatment, or improve our looks, can be taken badly and uncontrolled quantities can even harm, particularly people who are chronically ill and regularly taking various medication. It’s worth noting that dietary supplements are less assimilable than their natural counterparts and that they can be easily overdosed which can result in serious health issues. It’s also worth adding that dietary supplements do not have any medical properties.

However, do not discredit dietary supplements, as a lot of them have positive health benefits and support basic treatment, and above all it helps to make up for deficiencies of certain nutrients, especially vitamins and minerals, without which the body can’t function properly.