We are recently being made to believe that supplements are the new wonder in approach to treatment of several diseases.

Advocates of this belief tell beautiful stories of patients who have had cure by taking their supplements of different kinds. These claims have never been substantiated by facts but only by speculations.

Some of the diseases, which the proponents of these supplement wonders claim, are cured by these supplements include glaucoma, diabetes, uterine fibroid, cancers of different organs of the body such as breast cancer, cervical cancer, endometrial cancer etc.

Many patients have been rendered incapacitated by attempting to use such remedy for their medical ailments. They continue to apply ineffective treatment while the disease progresses. 

The bad aspect of this is that these supplements are not cheap. They are very expensive, probably to justify their ‘efficacy’. Even when expected results are not being obtained by those taking them, they are encouraged to persist for a while before the effects can be felt.

By this time, significant amount of money has gone into the purchase of the supplements that it becomes difficult for the individual to discontinue.

It is important for people to know that supplements, if at all necessary, may help (only) in preventing some diseases by boosting the body’s immune system and therefore improving the body’s ability to fight diseases before they even develop.

This may be possible through helping the body to produce antioxidants which help remove free radicals. These free radicals, which are generated by daily tissue activities, are injurious to body cells.

They have been shown to be responsible for ageing and development of some diseases, including cancer.

Worthy of note is the fact that many of these supplements are present in an average balanced diet. In people who eat fairly balanced diets, taking some of these supplements may be of no benefit.

They may however be beneficial when diets are deficient in them, but not to the extent of treating already established diseases like diabetes, fibroid and cancer.

When a disease is already established, it has passed the level of primary prevention, where taking supplements of any kind falls in. any established disease must be treated via established treatment modalities. 

It is therefore absurd, inconsiderate and callous to advise patients with established disease like cancer to engage in taking supplements as a remedy to his or her illness.

Even if any of the supplements will have any role, the established disease must be first taken care of. Some even advise against follow-up after certain treatments which require long period of follow-up such as cancer treatment.

They rather encourage the patients to take supplements as the ultimate solution to the remedial disease. Some of such patients sometimes come with worse complication, and sometimes, at the stage when their diseases have passed the stage of treatment.