Dependence is easy to develop, but it is also easy to get lost in the market of vitamins and supplements • Many times the anxieties and prevailing beliefs of consumers fuel sales • So are they helpful or is it a gimmick?
"Attributes are attributed to features that do not have them."
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night.
The rain is pounding on the window.
The air smelled of damp earth.
You crawl after a shower under the duvet of the geese you bought at the end of season sale last winter for NIS 2,000 - and fall asleep to a rest.
Then, after an hour of sleeping in the higher worlds, it hits you - you wake up in horror with excruciating pain in the twin muscle caught.
Every little move to try and release it is like touching an open wound - and all that is left is to wait for the pain to pass and cry the sleep gone.
In two words: magnesium deficiency.
But this is just an example, a prototype for people's need for nutritional supplements and vitamins - in an attempt not to rely only on them but to combine them with food.
It could be vitamin C on a seasonal basis, vitamin D claimed to be effective against corona, and others.
For the sake of illustration, one of the latest recommendations issued by the Ministry of Health reads: "Vitamin D status should be maintained by going out in the sun with bare arms for a cumulative 20 minutes a day, in the sun, or taking a supplement of 1,000-800 units of vitamin D a day, especially for the elderly. "For those who are not exposed to the sun. This recommendation is also sharpened against the background of the reduction in sun exposure among the majority of the population, as a result of quarantine or isolation, and against the background of the current winter."
Excessive dependence
The vitamin and nutritional supplement market in Israel generates a huge amount of more than a billion shekels a year: some of the consumers' money goes to essential products recommended by doctors and nutritionists, but in significant amounts supplements are bought that are not necessarily beneficial to a person with a proper diet.
"A lot of people come to the pharmacy after reading a newspaper article or seeing one on TV," confirms Ronen Bar-Or, a pharmacist in charge at Clalit Health Fund.
He agrees that sometimes the demand becomes excessive dependence on him to regulate in front of patients.
"Sometimes it's seasonal like vitamin C before winter, sometimes it's following an intense commercial. A lot of times people attribute to supplements all sorts of features they don't have, and exaggerate a bit. Think it will save them from disease."
Clinical nutritionist Karen Ann Gaiman agrees: "When someone hears about a supplement that can help them, their main conclusion should be that this is an opening for more in-depth research."
It is common to think that excess vitamins or supplements can not harm, mainly because it is not a drug.
"This could be a serious mistake," warns pharmacist Bar-Or.
"Taking too much of a supplement or taking it with certain medications, or when you have specific illnesses, can in some cases cause uncomplicated complications."
What vitamins and supplements are popular among Israelis
?
Bar-Or: "A lot of magnesium, which those who suffer from muscle cramps can use. Once they enriched the tap water with magnesium but stopped with it, and most of the population is deficient. It helps maintain cardiovascular health."
According to him, magnesium tests are hardly done today, because they are very expensive and inaccurate.
In this case, it is a supplement that does not accumulate in the body and is washed away from it, so there is no danger of over-toxicity - unlike vitamin D, which does accumulate.
Israelis also often consume it during the year, and especially - as Bar-Or testifies - in the past year.
The reason: the prevailing belief following published studies, linking the ability to better cope with corona to high levels of the vitamin in the body.
Next in demand: zinc, which is thought to help with sore throats;
Calcium is important for bone health in older people, and iron.
The customer experience at the pharmacy is not simple.
There is no "ask and accept", but there is a comprehensive inquiry into the background of the consumer who requires a supplement.
"I've come across hypochondriacs who like to just take supplements," Bar-Or recalls, "ones they don't need or are not good at, like vitamin C which can be harmful in the case of kidney stones, or omega 3 for those who also take blood thinners."
His conclusion: adapt the supplement to the situation, and avoid taking a "psychological" that may calm the mind but harm the body.
Additives are not an exact science
You don't have to be a spice freak to hear about the benefits of turmeric - the phosphorescent orange powder that is a must in oriental cooking.
In recent years he has been crammed into capsules with the addition of evidence and rumors about his so-called cancer-healing properties.
And not only that: collagen and biotin communicate with significant improvement to facial skin and hair.
Others promise miracles and wonders - from improving concentration to curing cancer.
As you will soon read, experts will recommend taking this on limited bail.
"Most vitamin companies don't do exceptional research on supplements like on medicine," Bar-Or explains, "but when something is established and found for many years, and evidence accumulates from people that it helps, there is something in it. It's not like turmeric put in a stew, it's an extract. "Potential against inflammation. There are rumors that it is against cancer, but I have not come across anyone who has prescribed it for the disease."
In contrast, Liat Edri, a doctor of medical biology, a scientist, a researcher in the field of corona and author of the book "Custom Health", actually believes that turmeric is a supplement that can also contribute to cancer cases.
"It's not just studies on turmeric that have gained momentum," she explains, "when I showed doctors mapping of genes with and without turmeric, their eyes were opened because they only recognized it as an anti-inflammatory. I saw scientific evidence of an increase in anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory genes versus non-control groups. Turmeric, but it has to be customized, "she cautions.
"People at risk who take medications for diabetes, blood pressure and heart pressure need to know that these drugs are devouring and depleting the body's vitamin D stores because they use it for processing, as one of the drug's processes," explains Dr. Edri. More easily or their pulmonary symptoms are milder.
You should do a blood test and make sure what amount of vitamin is currently present in the body, even though the number that appears there as an ideal result is not customized. "
When a person needs help, Dr. Edri believes, a placebo pill can also help him - strange as it may sound to rational people. "If a person believes that what he takes helps him - it can certainly happen.
I believe in body and mind. "But from here to an automatic change in the body - the road is winding." If you take collagen and you do not have enough vitamin C - this is a blessing in disguise, and if you do not have the coding in genes to produce more collagen - nothing will help.
If I have the coding option and I add collagen, it could help me.
The dietary supplement can help someone or not work for him, according to his genetics. "
Bar-Or reinforces it: "Some supplements are like talking about homeopathy, there is nothing really in it, it is not an exact science, the more you dilute the substance you strengthen it - according to the marketers - that it is scientifically the opposite. Most pharmacists will say it is nonsense, but some They will say that they know people who helped them. "
Not on the plugin alone
"I have not yet discovered a supplement that really gives the complete answer," joins the cooling of nutritional enthusiasm Keren Ann Gaiman.
"Most of the time," she says, "the talk is about a healthy diet, exercise and the combination of the supplement. It never solves problems on its own. We need to find professionals we trust and are qualified to give an opinion. Most of the population does not need supplements if they live a balanced life. Smoking "It can cause deficiencies, but sometimes there can be problems in the body that are unaware of, so it is important to do blood tests once a year. It is necessary to distinguish between vitamins that are mandatory and supplements that are available," she explains, "for example, vitamin B12 deficiency must be checked and filled ".
Apart from the pharmacy or the pharma branches and health food stores, vitamins and nutritional supplements are also sold on sites abroad. The sellers there are - Aiherv Vita Cost. The differences in prices between abroad and Israel amount to tens of shekels, but both Bar-Or and Gaiman tend to recommend buying the products in Israel. .
"Sometimes there are differences in the quality of the vitamins, in the source of the raw material, we do not always know if it is a well-known factory that produces the supplement, and sometimes there are contaminated raw materials," Bar-Or explains.
"There are factories that sell to us as more reliable. No one is immune, but most companies in the country are reliable."
"Sometimes the supplements are expensive because it is a groundbreaking technology," Gaiman adds, "and in the end it is the one that affects the absorption. If a supplement is not well absorbed by my body, there is no point in taking it."