There’s no doubt that personalised vitamins are a rapidly growing wellness trend. In fact, the industry in tailormade, customisable supplements is expected to double in the next five years, growing from $8.2 billion in 2020 to a whopping $16.4 billion in 2025. As a comparison, the global supplements market as a whole is currently worth around $140 billion.
This projection is bullish for several reasons; rising health awareness, the increasing prevalence of digital healthcare solutions, and an ageing population with diverse health needs, to name but a few.
Whilst a healthy, balanced diet is undeniably the best route to getting sufficient essential nutrients, there are some cases where food alone can’t meet a person’s needs and tailormade supplements might be needed.
This begs the question; do personalised vitamins work and what are their potential benefits?
WHAT ARE PERSONALISED VITAMINS?
On the modern market, brands tend to offer personalised vitamin packs which are dependent either on a questionnaire about health concerns and lifestyle or customised according to a DNA and blood test.
Regarding the former, vitamin subscription companies may require you to complete a lifestyle quiz or report a health concern your GP has identified, such as a vitamin B12 insufficiency, hormone imbalances, or digestive discomfort. They will then create vitamin packs to suit your needs.
But perhaps a more precise personalised approach is a daily vitamin pack. These incorporate not just a lifestyle quiz but also DNA information that allows the company to build a unique vitamin composition based on your genetic makeup. This means that you get all the nutrition you need for a healthy body without any vitamin excess.
NO BEATING A BALANCED DIET
The NHS advises that ‘’Most people do not need to take vitamin supplements and can get all the vitamins and minerals they need by eating a healthy, balanced diet.’’
That said, they go on to say ‘’The Department of Health and Social Care recommends certain supplements for some groups of people who are at risk of deficiency.’’
This is particularly true in cases of patients who are at risk of certain deficiencies, such as folic acid for pregnant people, vitamin D for the whole population in the darker months, and vitamins A, C and D for young children.
Harvard Health concur. While cautioning that “supplements are never a substitute for a balanced, healthful diet”, they do suggest that supplementary vitamins play a role for high risk groups.
FOR THOSE WHO MIGHT BE MISSING OUT ON ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS
There is also a case for some supplements being useful to those who don’t eat certain food groups for religious or lifestyle reasons. Vegans, for instance, may miss out on essential nutrients without proper meal planning, and choose to supplement iron, calcium and long chain Omega 3s, for instance.
Zinc deficiency is a particularly common issue for vegans, as this vital nutrient is primarily found in eggs, dairy, red meat and seafood. A personalised vitamin may go some way to addressing this deficiency without the necessity for other supplements that aren’t currently important for the user.
CURBING EXCESS
On the flip side, an excess of unnecessary vitamins and nutrients can also pose health problems, making a case for personalised supplements to address not only a possible deficiency but also a potential surplus of unnecessary vitamin intake.
What’s more, generic vitamin tablets may contain harmful additives (not to mention the high salt and sugar content of effervescents). A personalised supplement where the ingredients are tailored to your needs will likely have better transparency of ingredients than a generic version.
DIFFERENT VITAMINS FOR DIFFERENT NEEDS
Custom multivitamins account for the fact that we not only differ from others, but that each individual’s needs change regularly, too. Our bodies require larger amounts of growth-boosting nutrients while we’re younger than we do as adults. As we age, our bodies change and become less effective at absorbing certain nutrients; we may require additional help.
Another benefit of custom multivitamins is that they account for differing needs between the sexes. Women have different nutrient needs at various phases of life. For example, they require more iron than males since they lose iron throughout their monthly menstruation cycles and pregnancy. Folate is especially important for pregnant women or attempting to conceive, and a general multivitamin may not provide enough.
Men and women need more calcium as they grow older. However, because women’s cells turnover quicker than men’s, they require higher daily intake. Calcium is also essential to post-menopausal women who are subject to osteoporosis following drops in estrogen.
A PERSONALISED MULTIVITAMIN WITH A DIFFERENCE
Rootine is a personalised multivitamin company that leverages your DNA, personal habits (such as sleep, exercise and nutrition), and blood levels in creating a 100% custom daily vitamin for each client.
The brand was created by a team of genetic and nutrition specialists developing the science behind keeping you healthy. Dr. Daniel Wallerstorfer, one of their co-founders, is a renowned genetic scientist with over ten years of developing tailored health and wellness solutions.
Aside from being free of fillers, unnatural substances and additives, Rootine doesn’t use pills and capsules, opting instead for a highly efficient microbead formula. Slow-release microbeads provide a tailored dose of vitamins into your bloodstream throughout the day, which is how your body absorbs nutrients naturally.
Through the in-depth nutritional report available on each customer’s dashboard, their innovative technology and team of experts work together to assist consumers in understanding more about their bodies and which nutrients work best for them.
*This article is not intended to replace medical or dietary advice, diagnosis or treatment given by a qualified health professional or nutritionist. Instead, this article only provides information, not advice. For any medical enquiries, always consult your GP first before taking any vitamins*
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