Since the COVID-19 outbreak, Hong Kong people understand the importance of good health. They are becoming more health conscious, exercising more, keeping a regular schedule and eating well, and taking a variety of medications and supplements to nourish their bodies. But do you know the difference between a medicine and a health supplement?

The 3 major differences

Functions

Medicines are mostly used to alleviate, relieve and treat disease states in humans and are taken for a short period of time. In contrast, health food products are not intended to treat disease, but rather to prevent illnesses while you are in good health. It has a preventive or soothing effect, replenishing daily nutrients and helping to regulate the body, and needs to be consumed over a long period of time to achieve health results.

Dosage

The difference between a drug and a health supplement is the dosage. Various drug separation and purification techniques are involved in the production of pharmaceutical products, which are more concentrated in their ingredients. A health supplement is a combination of natural foods that have been refined with certain active physiological ingredients, processed or formulated to a concentration lower than that of a pharmaceutical product.

Regulation

The Hong Kong Department of Health (DH) has clear statutory definitions of pharmaceutical products and medicines, and is responsible for monitoring the safety, efficacy and quality of medicines. Both Chinese and Western medicines need to be registered before they can be sold. There are four levels of drug control and some medicines can only be obtained from specialists or hospitals. In Hong Kong, there is no specific legislation to regulate health food products, unless they are not purely nutrient-based, but contain additional specific drugs.

Should I take supplements or medication to fight against ageing?

With the advancement of technology, mankind is constantly researching drugs in the hope of breaking the lifespan limit, maintaining youthfulness and truly achieving "immortality". During the research and development phase, a substance called Nicotinamide Mononucleotide, abbreviated as NMN, was discovered.

According to years of research by David Sinclair, a professor at Harvard Medical School, oral NMN is rapidly absorbed by the body and raises the body’s NAD+, the essential element for the body's metabolism, DNA repair and physical function. As we age, the body's NAD+ level decreases, thus accelerating ageing. If supplemented in the right amount, the substance can maintain the body's function and slow down the rate of ageing, thus achieving an anti-ageing effect.

However, NMN products have sprung up on the market recently, and many people claim that it is an "anti-ageing drug". It is in fact a health supplement, so we should avoid brands that consider NMN as medicine and choose health products that contain mainly NMN as an ingredient. For example, the HEALTHMORE NMN 12000 and Plus Lab NMN 18000, introduced by re:HEALTH, are suitable for people of different age groups to achieve the effect of anti-ageing and keeping the body young!