Post by kickingfrog on Aug 1, 2013 9:22:50 GMT
Supplements: Who needs them? A special report
Foreword
Millions of us take vitamins and dietary supplements hoping to achieve good health, ease
our illnesses or defy ageing. Recent years have seen a massive boom in supplement use as
products that were once the preserve of specialist health food stores have become available
alongside our groceries in the supermarket and on the internet. As availability has grown,
so have sales. In 2009 the UK market for dietary supplements and vitamins was worth more
than £670 million.
However, the huge range of dietary supplements now available makes the area something
of a minefield for consumers. Take a browse through the stocks of the UK’s leading
supplement suppliers and you will find hundreds of products ranging from acai capsules to
zinc, with everything from devil’s claw to royal jelly between. Even individual supplements
can come in a range of doses and a number of different formulations, making it hard to
know what is worth taking and what isn’t.
The Behind the Headlines team has tackled numerous studies on supplements and during
our work it has become clear that the widely perceived benefits of certain supplements
simply do not have enough robust evidence to support them. At times, these misconceptions
appear to have been formed due to press coverage, at other times because of the way some
products are marketed or because of the sheer volume of misinformation floating around on
the internet.
So how do we know which dietary supplements we should take, whether they work and
whether they’re safe? Where should we be going for reliable information? ...
www.nhs.uk/news/2011/05May/Documents/BtH_supplements.pdf
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Foreword
Millions of us take vitamins and dietary supplements hoping to achieve good health, ease
our illnesses or defy ageing. Recent years have seen a massive boom in supplement use as
products that were once the preserve of specialist health food stores have become available
alongside our groceries in the supermarket and on the internet. As availability has grown,
so have sales. In 2009 the UK market for dietary supplements and vitamins was worth more
than £670 million.
However, the huge range of dietary supplements now available makes the area something
of a minefield for consumers. Take a browse through the stocks of the UK’s leading
supplement suppliers and you will find hundreds of products ranging from acai capsules to
zinc, with everything from devil’s claw to royal jelly between. Even individual supplements
can come in a range of doses and a number of different formulations, making it hard to
know what is worth taking and what isn’t.
The Behind the Headlines team has tackled numerous studies on supplements and during
our work it has become clear that the widely perceived benefits of certain supplements
simply do not have enough robust evidence to support them. At times, these misconceptions
appear to have been formed due to press coverage, at other times because of the way some
products are marketed or because of the sheer volume of misinformation floating around on
the internet.
So how do we know which dietary supplements we should take, whether they work and
whether they’re safe? Where should we be going for reliable information? ...
www.nhs.uk/news/2011/05May/Documents/BtH_supplements.pdf
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