How To Buy Supplements
Introduction.
If you think the answer to the question of “how to buy supplements” is simply to say, buy your supplements online – well, that’s a great idea in many ways and you’ll certainly get the best deals and prices online for your supplements. However, if you want to buy Quercetin for gout or insect bites, or echinacea for anemia or St John’s wort for depression – do you know whether to buy tablets or tinctures or liquids or ointments? Here at vitaminsupplementer we’re always careful to recommend whether you need a tablet, capsule, tincture etc for the health supplement we recommend. However, did you know we make those recommendations because they’re the best way for you to both buy your supplements and take them.
Tablets and Capsules – the most convenient way to take supplements
Tablets and Capsules.
Unless you have a condition that makes swallowing solids difficult, by far the easiest way to take a health or vitamin supplement is as a tablet or capsule. Not only that but tablets and capsules are also by far the easiest to store and will have a longer ‘use by’ date, compared to other forms in which you can buy supplements online. The difference between a tablet and a capsule is that, essentially, the tablet has more additives in it, known as excipients, to help preserve and bind the active ingredient(s). These excipients are entirely inert (harmless) and can also be used to help your body absorb the health supplement more quickly once ingested. A capsule, tends to will have fewer additives and can often these days be a ‘soft-gel‘ that dissolves quickly in the stomach. Essential fatty acids and oils are often bought as capsules. A ‘caplet‘ is really a tablet that has been designed in a capsule shape to be more easily swallowed. Finally here, mineral supplements are often in the form of chelated mineral tablets. This just means the mineral is bonded to other things to make it more easily digestible.
Powders.
Powders are, quite honestly, less fashionable these days in terms of packaging for vitamin and health supplements. Most folk these days simply don’t want to mix powders with water to then drink, preferring the ease of use of tablets and capsules. However, there are some vitamin and health supplements that are still best bought as a powder, which can then be sprinkled onto food for ingestion with a meal. Another advantage of powders is that when, for example, mixed with water they can be used with a compress to aid healing – such as a vitamin C compress to aid the healing of skin.
Tumeric powder supplement for inflammation
Other solid supplement forms.
There are three other types of solid forms of supplements that you can buy. Chewable tablets, lozenges and sub-lingual tablets. Chewable tablets are designed to help people who would otherwise find swallowing a regular tablet difficult. By being able to chew it you can reduce its size, thereby making it easier to swallow, whilst also releasing the beneficial components of the tablet. Chewable tablets are invariably flavored to encourage the chewing motion. A lozenge is another tablet to help people with swallowing problems, that will dissolve in the mouth. A typical vitamin lozenge would be zinc lozenges, for the treatment of colds and flu. Sub-lingual tablets are similar to lozenges in that they dissolve in the mouth. However, here they are placed under the tongue and so on dissolving are absorbed into the blood stream with being affected by acids and enzymes in the stomach.
Sore throat – liquid supplements will be easier to swallow
Liquids.
A particularly useful way to get health and vitamin supplements into children is as an easy to swallow liquid. Subsequently many vitamin and health supplement preparations for children are made in liquid form. Also, supplements that are applied directly to the skin can be bought as a ready to apply liquid, or lotion, such as camomile lotion to soothe skin irritations. As described above, you can also buy supplements as a sub-lingual liquid, which acts the sames as for a sub-lingual tablet.
Time released supplements.
Some health supplements and vitamins are best for us when they are released into the body slowly throughout the day. Subsequently some supplements are built into special capsules that break down over a period of time slowly releasing their contents. A prime example of time release capsules would be buying the supplement melatonin online, as a time release capsule to help regulate your body clock.
Time release capsules – release their contents slowly throughout the day
Herbal supplements.
Herbal supplements come in all the forms previously mentioned along with: Tinctures – soaked in water or alcohol to extract the beneficial component. Teas – brewed from plant flowers, leaves or roots. Infusions – basically a tea but made with water that’s not quite boiling to preserve any constituent oils. Decoctions – again a tea, but this time made from a plant stem or bark and requiring longer ‘brewing’. Essential oils – such as almond for skin application or to breathe in such as aromatherapy oils. Gels, creams and ointments – for application to the skin. Buying herbal supplements online is fine too, however, make sure that you only by standardized extracts from your online health supplements store. This means you can buy online with confidence that your supplement is of the correct strength.
