Dietary Supplements  Manufacturers, Traders, Suppliers

Dietary supplements are artificially added to the human body to increase the supply of certain nutrients and active ingredients that are also contained in natural foods. The group of minerals and vitamins in particular play an outstanding role in the growth market for dietary supplements. The marketing authorisation of dietary supplements is regulated in the Food Supplements Ordinance (NemV) from 2004. Common dosage forms include capsules, tablets, pills and effervescent tablets as well as powders and liquids which may contain individual active ingredients, but are also often offered as combined preparations such as multivitamin tablets. The addition of vitamins to the diet is particularly popular. The best known example is the intake of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) which is counted among the antioxidants and acts as a radical scavenger. Vitamin C deficiency manifests itself in unspecific symptoms such as fatigue, fatigue, susceptibility to infections and poor wound healing, leading to scurvy in its most extreme form. The question of whether dietary supplements such as vitamin C should be administered to the body when a balanced diet is assumed and what dosage could even have harmful effects is a controversial one. In principle, it is assumed that so-called water-soluble vitamins (vitamin C and group of B vitamins) can hardly be overdosed to pose a health hazard. In contrast, fat-soluble vitamins (vitamins A, D, E, K) should be taken with caution as poisoning symptoms and long-term damage to the liver may occur. Minerals as dietary supplements, which include calcium, magnesium, potassium, iodine or zinc, have different functions for physiological processes. Iodine, for example, is a component of thyroid hormone.