With the improvement of people’s living standards in China, more and more people attach great importance to their own health. In addition to strengthening physical exercise, they will also buy health care products to improve their physical health. Some of these health care products contain substances derived from Chinese herbs. Many people regard health care products not as a special food but as a drug. However, do health care products really have these functions?
1. Do Health Care Products Have Therapeutic Effects?
First of all, health care products have a regulatory effect, but not a therapeutic effect. What is the therapeutic effect? The role of relieving symptoms and curing diseases is therapeutic. What is the regulatory effect? The slow intervention of the whole function or certain functions of the body is the regulatory effect. Therefore, drugs can be used to reduce blood pressure, blood lipids, and blood sugar, while health care products can only to some extent regulate blood pressure, blood lipids, and blood sugar; drugs can complement immunoglobulin (or called antibody), while health products can only to some extent regulate the immune function. In other words, the role of drugs is strong and targeted, whereas the function of health care products is weak and lacks pertinence. It is medicine rather than health care product that has a therapeutic effect. Perhaps you will say, I like the weak regulatory effect of health care products — how safe it is. But you may not know, as health care products do not have a therapeutic effect, your blood pressure, blood lipids, or blood sugar may not be controlled despite long-term use of health care products, the incidence of accidental risk events such as cerebral hemorrhage and myocardial infarction will increase, and diabetic foot, a complication that may result in amputation, may occur, the consequences of which are unimaginable. Therefore, if the disease has been diagnosed in the hospital, regular medication and close monitoring must be the best treatment options.
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2. Are Health Care Products Safer?
Theoretically, health care products belong to the category of “healthy food“, so its safety should be relatively high. Generally speaking, their safety is better than the safety of general drugs. However, due to the existence of Chinese herbs that can be used as both medicine and food and the lack of safety grading management of traditional Chinese medicine, many Chinese herbs have entered the ingredients table of health care products, and many of these herbs are not safe. Such health care products may have a better regulatory role (such as defecation and lipid lowering), but their safety must be discounted — the long-term use of such health care products will lead to problems. Therefore, there are many hidden dangers about the safety of health care products.
3. Fake and Shoddy Health Care Products Flood in The Market
Health care products must be approved by relevant government authorities before entering the market. However, there are many fake and shoddy health care products in the market. Yes, there are a lot of such fake and shoddy things. In the urban district, in the rural market, and even on the main street of the square, you can see the propaganda of these fake products. Advertising is another big reason that the health product is criticized. Why say so? Because many people, especially the elderly, in China easily believe this kind of propaganda. The Chinese CCTV reported a new way of marketing tool, the concept of ‘green tourism & health care products marketing’. You should be vigilant and avoid being fooled.
In conclusion, the above 3 key points are about the correct understanding of health care products, which would help you not go astray.