What Are Dietary Supplements?

If you've visited a health food store lately, or taken a stroll down the supplement isle of a department store, there's a good chance you were overwhelmed by the multitude of products available. Trying to decide which type of supplement might be beneficial to your diet can seem like rocket science. Manufacturers are working triple time in this highly competitive market to boost sales by releasing new dosages, new combinations, and new packaging in order to fill "niche" markets. The days of the good old all purpose daily supplement are gone. Now consumers want a "tailored" supplement. Some of the larger "niche" categories you might have noticed recently are, weight loss supplements in combination with energy boosters, and stress relief supplements in combination with memory boosters. The largest targeted supplement marketing of all has to be supplements designed to enhance sexual performance in combination with so called "enlargement" supplements. You can't turn on a television or check your email now days without being bombarded with one of these supplement advertisements.

The main categories are nutritional supplements, vitamins, minerals, and herbs. With a few exceptions, such as vitamins K and D, the body cannot manufacture vitamins on it's own. Vitamins contain carbon, which classifies them as chemically organic substances. Vitamins regulate the metabolic functions within cells and the biochemical processes responsible for releasing the energy from the food we ingest. There is new evidence to support the theory that some vitamins also act as antioxidants and protect tissues from cell damage and degenerative disease. Fat soluble vitamins such as A, D, E, and K, are stored by the body for months or even years; whereas water soluble vitamins remain in the body only for short periods of time and require more frequent supplementation.

Minerals make up only an average 4% of our total body weight, but they are present in all of our bodies. Minerals are necessary for vital functions such as basic bone formation, the enamel on our teeth, some of the functions of our heart, and they aid in the digestive process. Our bodies may contain over sixty different minerals, but as with vitamins, our bodies cannot manufacture them and requires supplementation. Although twenty two minerals are considered essential, only seven are considered the major minerals - often referred to as "macro minerals". These are; calcium, chloride, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and sulfur. The other fifteen essentials are considered to be trace minerals, or "micro minerals".

Herbs are derived from plants, and almost any part of a given plant may be used in the preparation. Many herbs are used in their natural state, for example using the juice from an Aloe Vera stalk on a minor cut or scrape. Others are refined, concentrated, and processed into pill, liquid, powder, and other supplement formulations. Although the use of herbs as medicinal treatments has been around for centuries, the most commonly accepted uses by the professional medical community are still primarily limited to boosting the immune system, maintaining low blood cholesterol levels, and for combating fatigue.

Nutritional supplements is the largest and most diverse category. Fish oil is actually a food substance, flavonoids, isoflavones, and carotenoids are actually phytochemical - or compounds found in fruits and vegetables. There are some, such as DHEA that are found in the body, but can be synthetically reproduced in the laboratory. Dietary supplements and nutritional supplements are synonyms for each other, and they may be manufactured as individual supplements or in special formulations that combine several supplements into one product.