An Introduction To Health Supplements

As much as we would try, we can never really receive all the required nutrients necessary for optimal and healthy living. Imagine this: satisfying the daily recommended allowance (DRA) alone would require us to eat at least 35 varieties of food per day! Much as we are amenable to the benefits that can be derived by being faithful to such a program, our mouths, and our bellies, can only take so much.

Additionally, the demands of daily living take their toll on our bodies. Work or school may disallow us from an ideally regular exercise schedule. Stress can deprive us of essential nutrients as well. Certain vitamins are also lost, depending on the working schedule we keep, when we are awake, the time of our sleep, and how much slumber we could afford.

The result? We develop deficiencies that curtail our goals to live a perfectly healthy and medically blissful life.

But hope is not lost. Conventional and alternative medicine has provided ways to fill up these deficiencies through the introduction of many varieties of health supplements. Throughout the years, our lifestyles, varied as they may be, have evolved in complexity, hence necessitating the intake of these health supplements so that no stone is left unturned in our quest for good health and a joyful wellbeing.

Vitamin Supplements

Health supplements come in myriad forms. There are those which provide vitamins critical for our optimal health. These vitamin supplements can either be synthetic or natural. Synthetic vitamin supplements are those manufactured by pharmaceutical companies by simulating natural processes that produce them. Natural vitamin supplements are those culled from nature, usually from herbs and other botanicals. Common components of these health supplements are Vitamin A which promotes good eyesight, healthy bones, blood circulation and proper digestion; Vitamin B1to aid anabolic and metabolic processes in our bodies for the proper breakdown of carbohydrates and production of much needed energy; Vitamin B2 for cell preservation and development, as for healthy skin; Vitamin E for the protection of our blood cells; and others.

But the most important vitamin that these health supplements do supply is Vitamin C. Vitamin C is something that our bodies cannot produce by itself, which is why we have to rely on outside processes for its benefits. Vitamin C is essential for the production of collagen, which is necessary to connect tissues.

Nutritional Supplements

Nutritional supplements work the same way. They provide for the body some minerals that it probably missed. Iron, calcium, potassium, and protein are just some of the minerals that can be acquired through these type of health supplements.

Of growing popularity as of late are coral calcium supplements. These are not ordinary calcium supplements, as it is widely believed that calcium culled from the bounties of the seas, compared to that derived from land-based sources, is better absorbed by the body resulting in a more efficient breakdown of this very vital mineral. Calcium, of course, is essential for strong bones and teeth, and considering the many activities that the modern world has lined up for us, a supplement that would provide this mineral would be most welcome indeed. In addition, 90% of adult females, 70% of adult males, and 60% of the adolescent population suffer from calcium deficiency, according to a study conducted by the National Institute of Health.

Hormonal Supplements

Hormones are best defined as “any of a number of substances which are secreted into the bloodstream by endocrine glands and stimulate particular organs or tissues.” One of the most important of these is the Human Growth Hormone, or HGH. Suffice to say, a deficiency of HGH would result in stunted growth.

Luckily, the body produces HGH, more so during our early years. Eventually, production slows down, hence resulting in a stoppage of our growth. HGH supplements are available in the event that deficiency is caused by the slowing down of production at an early age. Since the body never stops producing HGH, HGH supplements only aid the pituitary gland in releasing these hormones.