Micronutrients can cure diseases, says health expert in Oman

Oman Saturday 25/February/2017 20:06 PM
By: Times News Service
Micronutrients can cure diseases, says health expert in Oman

Muscat: Use of micronutrients on a routine basis can help prevent or cure diseases, according to a health expert.
Rohit Shelatkar, director at Vitabiotics, believes that vitamin supplements can reduce susceptibility to common health problems like cardiovascular diseases, which account for 30 per cent of health related deaths in the world. Also, vitamins help in graceful aging.
“Vitamins should normally come from food items that we consume on a daily basis but the food chain has been completely destroyed. We don’t have the right soil to produce the right nutrients and, therefore, even if we have a good diet, there are nutrients that we lack. Scientific studies have proved that vitamin supplements can help in this matter by providing the right nutrients to people,” he said.
“If we were to run a survey anywhere, we would find that more than 90 per cent of the samples are deficient in one or the other vitamin. This shows how important these supplements are,” he added.
However, Shelatkar emphasized that such supplements are not a magic wand that can resolve all health issues on their own but can only add to a healthy lifestyle.
“A healthy lifestyle can be compared to the four legs of a table, namely a healthy diet, exercise, rest and the fourth being micronutrients. There is no substitute to any of them but together they can help a person have a good lifestyle.”
Vitamin supplements are conventionally considered as a medication to be consumed for a limited period but Shelatkar says these need to be taken throughout for healthy results.
“Awareness and misconception about micronutrients are a major reason for people refraining from taking them. They are told that there are harmful side effects of these medicines when there are actually none. They are asked to take these only for a specific time period instead of as a routine dose.”
“We are not asking people to replace their drugs with these supplements as there are no replacements to right drugs but if people can instead use them along with drugs, they will see better effects. A study recently showed that someone suffering from asthma experienced the frequency of attacks going down after taking micronutrient supplements,” he stated.
A doctor at one of the largest hospitals in Oman said the side effects of vitamin supplements are yet unknown and although the prospects of using these seem good, people must be careful before considering a routine dosage.
“Consulting your doctor is very important before thinking about any such continuous dosage. Vitamins have proved to be good but side effects may still remain unknown as per my knowledge. I think people in Oman must first concentrate on a healthy lifestyle and diet, and only then vitamin supplements can be very useful,” she said.