Pay Your BillDietary supplements: which one to choose?
There are many articles you’ve read in magazines or on-line, ads you’ve heard on TV or radio or advice you received from friends and family – all telling you to take this or that pill to supplement your diet. Whatever might ail you, there seems to be a dietary supplement that is supposed to cure it. The amount of information on dietary supplements can be overwhelming. To make matters more complicated, the advice given is often conflicting or contradictory.
But if there is benefit and the potential for delaying or preventing health problems, you’d like to take advantage of that information – right?
But how do you decide? You can talk to your family and friends who might be able to give you their anecdotal experience, but will that work for you? You could read the vast volume of information out there on dietary supplements, but who has time for that? You could ask your primary care physician or a specialist you see. I am sure he/she has recommendations to make - but will they have an opinion on all the possible supplements out there? It is similarly difficult for physicians to keep up with all the information that exists on supplements just as it is for you to do so.
Thankfully, someone has done the work to bring all of this information together in an interactive form! This on-line media source gives you 1) an idea of the popularity of each supplement (the size of the bubble on the graph), 2) the strength of the evidence supporting the supplement (is it above the ‘worth it’ line or not?), 3) the medical impact of the supplement (hover over the bubble and the indication for the supplement will display) and 4) the information supporting the recommendation (click on the bubble and it will bring you to the research that proves the worth of the supplement).
Here’s hoping this tool makes it easier for you to find the supplements that make the most sense for you to BE WELL in 2011 and beyond!