Are you planning to buy supplements from trusted brands like douglas laboratories in Supplement First? Before you do, there are a few things you must consider! Read on to learn more about dietary supplements and the questions to ask before you start taking them.
- Talk with your doctor
Before anything else, you must talk with your doctor and inform him about the supplements you plan to take and whether or not they are required.
Supplements can affect the medications you’re taking or any treatments you’re undergoing, such as chemotherapy or radiation. Furthermore, you might not actually need certain supplements when you have a healthy diet.
To avoid wasting money or risking serious side effects, talk with your doctor so he can suggest what supplements to take and the dosages.
- Has the supplement triggered sanctions or health warnings?
When looking into supplements and their brands, you can also check the FDA’s website to find any safety advisories or health warnings and sanctions against them. The agency has a list of recent market withdrawals and recalls for consumer safety.
Besides searching for the brand and supplement itself, you must search for individual ingredients, too. You’ll be surprised that supplements may contain ingredients that are linked to bad side effects!
- Are the supplements tested?
Because there are regulation gaps, there may be lapses in quality when it comes to supplements, even among well-known brands! That’s why you need to conduct thorough research on brands and the supplements they sell and see if they have been properly tested.
Brands like douglas labs share that their ingredients and final products have been tested either by third parties or in-house laboratories. If not otherwise stated, then they have most likely not tested their products, which can pose a risk to your health.
- What are the supplement’s claims?
You can find a lot of brands that sell supplement bottles containing numerous claims on how it can greatly reduce pain, risk of certain diseases, and whatnot.
However, you must avoid supplements that contain such claims! You’ll want to go for supplements that have softer assertions, such as “supports better immune function.”
There are no official studies that show supplements being a magic pill that you can use in replacement of medication. They should not be used as a way to treat, prevent, or diagnose diseases. As the name suggests, you only use these products as a supplement to your diet!
Because of this, supplements with loud claims or moneyback guarantees can be seen as suspicious.
We recommend researching about the supplement and seeing if it lives up to its promises based on the brand’s claims. You can find thousands of studies conducted on supplements and certain vitamins and minerals to see what they can do for your health and if you really need more of it.
Wrapping It Up
Do keep all these in mind before you purchase supplements and always talk with your healthcare provider about any changes you’ll make with your supplementation and diet to prevent any adverse effects.