Are those health supplements that young people are flocking to really worth taking?

“Can health supplements help young people stay healthy and delay aging?”

It is important to start taking health supplements to maintain your body as early as possible. Taking health supplements when you are young will help you age more slowly.

Rumor Analysis

This practice is not worth promoting.

Many health products that are currently popular among young people are not as effective as advertised, and improper use may bring hidden dangers. In addition, many health products are expensive, and over-reliance on these health products instead of developing healthy living habits will not be worth the cost.

As living standards continue to improve, we pay more and more attention to health. In addition to the elderly, many young people have now joined the trend of "health preservation". There are also many health care products on the market that are aimed at young people.

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Recently, the author conducted a brief investigation on the health care products market for young people and found that unlike the elderly who take health care products mainly to regulate their physical health, the purposes that young people want to achieve by using health care products are often more diverse, and different people's demands for the efficacy of health care products also vary greatly.

So, are these "health products" that many young people are taking really as magical as advertised? Can they really have magical effects in regulating the intestines, whitening and removing spots, supplementing nutrition, delaying aging, etc.?

Let me first state the conclusion: it is not cost-effective for young people to improve their health by taking health supplements. There are more economical methods.

Below we will briefly share with you some personal opinions on some types of health care products commonly used by young people.

Can taking probiotics improve your health?

The importance of healthy intestinal flora has now been accepted and recognized by more and more people. Indeed, the health of intestinal flora directly affects our body's nutrient absorption and metabolism, and also plays an important role in regulating immunity and protecting brain health. Many health care products have emerged, focusing on supplementing probiotics, improving intestinal flora, and regulating health as the "pain point". Such products have also become one of the common health care products that many young people are taking.

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However, so far, our understanding of intestinal flora is still in its initial stage. The diversity of intestinal flora and how to achieve effective colonization of exogenous probiotics in the intestine are still difficult problems that the scientific community is currently unable to overcome.

At the same time, there is currently a lack of sufficient clinical data on the health benefits that different types of probiotics can bring and whether they will have adverse effects on other healthy flora. Therefore, there is often a certain gap between the advertised effects of probiotic-related health products and the actual benefits we want to obtain.

Can plant extracts brighten your skin?

There are still some expensive health care products that claim to be made of pure plant extracts and can brighten and whiten the skin. Many young people who love beauty use "external" cosmetics while also taking them "orally" to make themselves more "beautiful". Some health care products claim to have anti-inflammatory and acne-removing effects, which have also attracted many young people.

But are such health products really effective? How likely is it that like for like or pure natural extracts can bring about a healthy complexion? There is also a lack of clear clinical evidence on what the active ingredients in these extracts are, how high their content is, and how much they should be taken daily to have a relevant effective effect. If these are not studied enough, the relevant extracts may also contain other ingredients that cause allergies or adverse reactions. It is also worth considering whether this so-called "pure natural" health product is reliably safe.

Can anti-aging products delay aging?

Everyone has a dream of eternal youth, and the various "anti-aging" products that have been born based on this dream have not only attracted the attention of the elderly, but many young people have also begun to "take" anti-aging health products.

However, most of the so-called anti-aging health products on the market are very expensive, but the effectiveness of their ingredients has mostly been verified through animal experiments such as mice. The dosage used during the verification, converted into the dosage for an adult by body weight, is dozens to hundreds of times higher than the dosage of related health products currently on the market . There is currently no sufficient human experimental data to prove whether taking low doses of "anti-aging substances" can achieve the goal of fighting or reversing aging.

In addition, the process by which the human body absorbs these substances is very different from that of animals. Taking large doses of related supplements may also bring the risk of neuronal cell damage. Relevant research is still in progress.

Customized nutrition packs for multiple nutritional supplements

This is also a health care product that is currently popular among young people. It is usually divided into different age groups, and the corresponding nutrient supplement packages are customized based on the nutritional needs of different age groups. This method sounds reasonable, but in fact it cannot stand up to careful scrutiny.

Even for people of the same age, each person's physical condition and needs for different nutrients are different. Moreover, the supplementation of related nutrients, especially vitamins, various coenzymes and other physiological substances, can be supplemented in part through dietary nutrition intake, and the other part can be produced by the body's own physiological functions.

On the one hand, these exogenously supplemented packaged nutrients may cause excessive intake of certain nutrients and bring health hazards. On the other hand, they may also greatly reduce nutrient absorption and effectiveness and fail to play the corresponding role.

An even more undesirable way is that some people hope to achieve the effect of losing weight by taking such nutrient supplements to replace three meals a day, thinking that even though they do not eat, they can still make up for the nutrition by taking health products. In fact, most of these nutrient packages are supplements for the vitamins, minerals, etc. needed by the human body, while the body needs a lot of proteins, lipids, carbohydrates and other nutrients every day, which still need to be supplemented by diet. If such health products are used incorrectly in this way, the harm will be even greater.

Of course, there are many more health supplements commonly used by young people than the ones mentioned above. There are also many other products that we have not talked about, so we will not go into details here.

Who says you can’t stay healthy without buying health supplements?

Having said so much, I want to remind everyone that it is not to say that young people must not take health supplements, but that the so-called health effects of these expensive health supplements are not necessarily clear, and are not necessarily suitable for everyone . At the same time, there may be health and safety issues caused by excessive intake of certain ingredients. Therefore, if we talk about the "cost-effectiveness ratio" and "benefit-risk ratio", it is actually not cost-effective for young people to take too many health products.

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If we want to protect our intestinal flora, we might as well pay more attention to the supplementation of dietary fiber in daily life and eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. This will replenish the intestines with sufficient prebiotics and maintain a good living environment for the healthy flora in the intestines. This may be safer and more reliable than taking exogenous probiotic health products.

If we want to whiten our skin, in addition to paying attention to skin care in daily life, we should pay attention to balanced nutritional intake in our diet, pay attention to sun protection, reduce the direct stimulation of sunlight to the skin, and strengthen exercise to keep ourselves in a good metabolic state. These are much safer and healthier than eating so-called related plant extracts.

If we want to fight aging and reduce the risk of related nutrient deficiencies, instead of taking a lot of health supplements, it is better to be self-disciplined in diet, eat less high-fat, high-salt, high-sugar ultra-processed foods, eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, deep-sea fish rich in unsaturated fatty acids, supplement the body with high-quality protein, and replenish the body with nutrition through balanced nutritional dietary supplements.

Young people have good metabolic functions. In most cases, the body can fully absorb nutrients through this cheap and healthy "dietary supplement". In addition to nutrition, it is also necessary to add healthy living habits such as regular work and rest, regular exercise, etc. These are more feasible and cost-effective "true health care".

Looking in the mirror of rumors

In fact, regarding diet and nutrition issues, for the vast majority of ordinary healthy people, as long as we remember the principle of balanced nutrition and arrange our daily diet with reference to the dietary guidelines, it will be less likely to have nutritional problems. Coupled with healthy living habits, health supplements are actually dispensable.

Planning and production

Author: Li Jin, Deputy Director Pharmacist, Deputy Head of the Youth Studies Group of the Medical Committee of the China Science Writers Association

Review | Liu Guiyang, Chief Pharmacist, Fourth Medical Center, PLA General Hospital

Planning | Ding Zong

Editor: Ding Zong

Proofread by Xu Lai, Lin Lin

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