Top Rated

Here we will be offering our picks for the best of various products and other services.

Tips For Finding The Best Health Products

Faced with shelf upon shelf and row upon row of health products, how does the average consumer choose wisely? Many names are unfamiliar. Lots of choices are said to result in similar effects. Award-winning brands can be expensive and excellent, but certain lower-priced examples might be almost as good for a better price. Here are some tips for narrowing down your selection to include only suitable products.

Talk to your Doctor

Let your physician know if you have any health concerns. While you worry about symptoms, this health care professional will discover causes. For instance, if your iron is low, maybe an iron supplement would be good for you, but not if iron deficiency is caused by something preventing your red blood cells from absorbing it. A diet rich in high-protein foods should not leave you feeling tired all the time and your hair should not be falling out.

Sleep problems are common. Whether you have trouble getting to sleep, staying asleep, or your legs are restless, certain natural health products can be of benefit. Be aware, however, that your sleep problems could be the result of emotional or physical illness which should be treated. In fact, while researching a small issue, your doctor could reveal a big one. Vice versa: get to the root of a big issue and the small ones will often disappear, but it is possible that natural products will exacerbate or trigger complications too. If inserts on a package recommend not taking a supplement under certain circumstances, pay attention to these warnings.

Read about Interactions

Consumers need to almost become experts about their personal conditions and relevant supplements. Learn which nutrients must accompany other nutrients for them to be effective. Individually, vitamins and nutrients rarely do anything significant. Paired with beneficial partners or a host of minerals and vitamins, they are highly effective. Calcium is usually paired with magnesium and sometimes vitamin D, for example.

If you understand these relationships before going shopping, this saves you from buying a single supplement then having to purchase a second one later. Many health food companies combine popular vitamin and mineral partners. You don’t have to pay more or double up on the pills, powders, or pastilles you consume.

Nutrient Uptake

Products are sold in many forms. You can mix them with drinks, take them from a spoon like cough medicine (but tastier), swallow pills, chew candies, and crunch on hard wafers. There are concentrated nutrients and those made to look and taste appealing. How much of a product you swallow is really getting into your system and how much will be excreted the following day as waste?

There is a lot of scientific study involved in answering this question and a ton of debate. Manufacturers all think their pill or powder is the best and they are not about to budge on their position. Here are three things to consider:

• Read the amount of an active ingredient found in the product per volume
• Check for fillers, sugars, and colorants
• Be realistic about whether you can stomach a particular format or be likely to waste it

Fillers are commonly used to make a tablet or capsule appear potent. It is big; therefore, it must be powerful. Also, the percentage of a recommended daily dose consumers should swallow daily is listed at the back, but so is the amount of a nutrient found in the dose. They are not the same thing. What you want to see is the ratio between active ingredients and base ingredients, if there are any. This can be highly revealing.

Maybe that base is what enables you to swallow a pill or a liquid which would otherwise disgust you. That’s fine: but does each dose contain an amount shown to be effective? Proactive consumers know how many milligrams, micrograms, etc. of a health product they require daily to see positive change whether that is improved concentration, better sleep, weight loss, or stronger nails and teeth.

Practical Pricing

You might have to compromise if your budget prohibits you from purchasing a product that comes out on top. Manufacturers and health food store owners can argue all they like about how a small amount will go a long way and lead to better results in the long term, ultimately saving you money. How much money do you have right now? If it’s not enough to pay for the absolute best, sales people must respect that and guide you to the second or third best product.

This should not make you feel hopeless about the market overall: sometimes these cheaper items are very good, just not top-rated products. It really pays to know what you want and why, so as not to be overwhelmed by a persuasive so-called expert. Remember, too, that most clerks are not trained health care providers. They have read copious amounts of information about products in their field and collected anecdotal evidence, but they are not doctors, nurses, and rarely are they even naturopaths.