What are dietary supplements?

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biologically_active_additives have become the object of uncontrolled commercial activities with unfair and aggressive advertising. Today, many dietary supplements are advertised as drugs, in fact, they are not!

Biologically active additives (BAA). In fact, any product from the pharmaceutical and pharmaceutical industry that is not a drug, but which promises to improve your health. Quality control and requirements for them are clearly lower than for drugs. Which is what some unscrupulous manufacturers use. In general, sometimes the difference between a dietary supplement and a medicine is very relative and lies in the area of ​​bureaucratic problems, and the same manufacturer may have both dietary supplements and medicines, and within the same product line.

Do not demonize dietary supplements once again. For example, these include vitamin and mineral complexes, herbal teas, beekeeping products, white coal.

I like the example of the Neuroplant preparation. It is an officially recognized antidepressant. But there is only one active ingredient - a dry extract of the herb St. John's wort. However, if I just buy dry St. John's wort in a pack from another manufacturer, it will be a dietary supplement.

Also, any "changes" in the drug can make it a dietary supplement. Polysorb is almost 100% colloidal silicon dioxide, the drug is an enterosorbent. But as soon as the manufacturer added 1.8% succinic acid = Polysorb + and this is already a dietary supplement.

You can interview hundreds of people on the street:

1. Is honey good for you? The overwhelming majority will say yes. He will also add 150 diseases from which he heals.

2. To say that dietary supplements have a weak evidence base and less stringent quality control requirements than drugs .

3. To say that honey can be sold in pharmacies as a dietary supplement.

Let's see their reaction after that.

Dietary supplements are different and you should not stir up panic and arrange a witch hunt. Dietary supplements greatly spoil the reputation of various grated and dried crap from China, as part of traditional Chinese medicine or some kind of mumiyo for all diseases.

In everyday life, we often use products that in fact are hardly anything significantly different from Dietary supplements, we just don't think about it. We drink raspberry tea for colds (let's say Greenfield also produces it, not only your grandmother), buy bio-yoghurts, etc. etc. Actually, the sale of dietary supplements is not prohibited outside of pharmacies. You can also buy them in a regular store. Half of the tea shop consists of dietary supplements - various herbal preparations, etc.

The trick is that not all medicines in the Russian Federation are subject to the same strict licensing as, for example, in the USA, and in practice can be no better than dietary supplements. And the question of the safety (side effects) of dietary supplements and drugs is also very controversial. In addition, it is not uncommon for a manufacturer to register his product as a dietary supplement, because it is simple and cheap, but at the same time it can give a good profit in the market. After all, any pharmaceutical company is just a business aimed at making money. Many people forget about this.