by Isabel Müller Eidhamar, reporter

Last week the question of the benefit of health supplements was raised yet again after worries were raised surrounding the quantity of the ingredients they claim to contain. Former advisor to the Government’s Committee on the Safety of Medicines, Paul Clayton, said last Thursday that nine out of ten health supplements have no real benefits, warning that the industry lacks tough regulation to ensure health products on the market contain a significant quantity of the named ingredients.   

Junior Doctor, Becker Al-Khayatt, believes Dr. Clayton’s dramatic accusation lacks evidence.

“I think this is very blown out of proportion. There is well-documented evidence that certain supplements do help,” he says. 

Britons spent a record £421million pounds on health supplement last year. In 2016, 46% of the population popped daily vitamin pills. Kim Macrae is one the millions of users in the UK. She worries that the health supplements she takes only are a temporary fix.
“The magnesium I am taking seem to give me more energy when I am taking it regularly, but you never know do you? You think you are doing something to feel better, and since you think you are feeling better you do feel better,” she says.
Kim has struggled with anaemia for years and therefore has to take prescribed iron tablets to make up for the deficiency. However, it has has not come without a prize, as it has caused her to battle bowel pains on a daily basis.
“Sometime the side effects of the tablets you take can make it difficult to take them. I sometimes think that we use supplements to make us feel better, and it does not really address the issue that is causing the problem in the first place,” she says.
Despite the negative press, the health supplement industry is booming with new products promising to help you lose weight, achieve luscious hair or attain a superhuman immune system.  

The list is long, but Junior Doctor Becker Al-Khayatt, emphasised that there is no ‘fix-it-all’ pill for your health:
“At the end of the day the supplements are as the name suggests, a supplement. They cannot replace a healthy lifestyle and a good diet. Supplements are not a wonder drug.”