How to Correctly Understand Medicines and Health Foods

In recent years, health food scams are common, especially news about elderly people being cheated when buying health food. Elderly people are often cheated out of tens or even hundreds of thousands of yuan. So what are medicines and health food? How to identify and correctly understand them? Only by clarifying these can we protect the health and economic interests of the people.

1. What are medicines and health foods?

Drugs: refers to substances used to prevent, treat, and diagnose human diseases, purposefully regulate human physiological functions, and have specified indications or functional indications, usage, and dosage. Including Chinese medicinal materials, Chinese herbal medicine slices, Chinese patent medicines, chemical raw materials and their preparations, antibiotics, biochemical drugs, radioactive drugs, serums, vaccines, blood products, and diagnostic drugs, etc.

Health food: Health food refers to food that claims to have specific health functions or is intended to supplement vitamins and minerals. That is, it is suitable for consumption by specific groups of people, has the function of regulating body functions, is not intended to treat diseases, and does not cause any acute, subacute or chronic harm to the human body.

2. The difference between medicine and health food

The purpose of use is different. Medicines have the function of curing diseases and are used to prevent, treat, and diagnose human diseases. They purposefully regulate human physiological functions and have specified indications or functional indications, usage, and dosage. Health products do not have the function of curing diseases, but regulate body functions, improve the body's ability to resist diseases, improve sub-health conditions, and reduce the risk of disease. They are not intended to prevent or treat diseases.

The expiration dates are different. Drugs have dosage and time limit requirements. If there are clear dosage and time limit, when the disease is cured or it is clear that the drug is ineffective, the drug should be stopped. Health care products have no expiration date requirements. There are dosage requirements, but no time limit requirements. If the economic situation allows and there are actual effects, for consumers, it can be taken for a long time.

The methods of use are different. In addition to oral administration, medicines can also be injected intravenously and intramuscularly, applied externally, and pasted on. Health supplements and foods are only taken orally.

Different safety. Some medicines are toxic. In order to cure diseases and save lives, medicines have greater freedom in raw materials, use and selection for serious and urgent patients and major diseases. Health products are basically non-toxic. The raw materials used in health foods have a relatively long history of food safety, and toxic and harmful substances are not allowed to be used as raw materials for health foods.

The usage requirements are different. Medicines must be used reasonably in hospitals or pharmacies, under the guidance of professionals, and even under the supervision of medical staff, to achieve the purpose of preventing and curing diseases and protecting health. Health care products are purchased freely in supermarkets or pharmacies based on consumers' own knowledge and conditions, without the guidance of doctors or professionals.

3. How to purchase medicines and health foods correctly?

When buying medicines, you should first understand your illness and physical condition. If you are not sure, you should go to the hospital for diagnosis and buy medicines after the doctor's diagnosis. Then you should choose a legal institution to buy medicines, such as hospital pharmacies, social pharmacies and online pharmacies. When buying prescription drugs, you must have a doctor's prescription to buy and use them. Over-the-counter drugs can be purchased at pharmacies and other institutions.

Legal pharmacies are approved by the drug regulatory authorities, and they all have "Drug Business Permit", "Drug Business Quality Management Standard Certification Certificate" and "Business License" hanging in the store. Generally, legal pharmacies are equipped with practicing pharmacists or other qualified pharmaceutical professionals. When buying drugs online, you must buy drugs from legal websites to ensure drug safety. To determine whether an online pharmacy is legal, you can directly log in to the official website of the State Drug Administration (www.nmpa.gov.cn) and check the "Internet Drug Information Service".

Then you need to look carefully at the drug approval number, which is "National Medicine Standard H (Z, S, J) + 4-digit year + 4-digit serial number". These data can also be found in the "Drugs" column on the official website of the State Drug Administration (www.nmpa.gov.cn).

To buy regular health food, when choosing health food, you should reasonably choose and consume targeted health food according to your health status and needs. To see the health food logo and approval number clearly, the approval number of domestic health food is "Weishijianzi XX" (approved by the Ministry of Health for listing) or "Guoshijianzi GXX" (approved by the State Food and Drug Administration for listing), and the approval number of imported health food is "Weijinshijianzi XX" or "Guoshijianzi JXX", and the following 8 digits are the year of application and the serial number respectively.

Carefully read the label instructions to determine whether you are a suitable person for the product. Health food is a type of food with specific health functions. Health food has 27 functions, each of which is approved by the review and is targeted at different suitable people. A product may have at least one function or several functions. When buying, consumers must purchase it based on their physical condition and needs. Check whether the name of the manufacturer and its production license number are indicated on the health food packaging. The production license number can be checked on the website of the provincial competent department where the company is located to confirm its legality. Whether it is health food or nutrient supplements, they do not contain comprehensive nutrients and cannot replace other foods. You must adhere to a normal diet, pay attention to dietary balance, and appropriate physical exercise.

4. Common misunderstandings in life

Eating health food can cure diseases. Health food has a certain regulatory effect, but it does not have a therapeutic effect.

Health foods are highly safe, but drugs have strong toxic side effects. Health foods are highly safe, but not absolutely. For example, some health foods contain a large number of traditional Chinese medicines that are biased and are not suitable for all people. The therapeutic effects and adverse reactions of drugs are relative. Using a safe dose and an appropriate course of treatment can minimize adverse reactions.

Health food advertisements say so much good, so I might as well try it! The wonderful therapeutic effects advertised in health food advertisements are easy to attract people's attention. In addition, many of them are linked to traditional Chinese medicine and health preservation, making it difficult for many ordinary people to distinguish between the real and the fake.

The difference between health care products and medicines is huge. Taking health care products is good for the body, but it is not medicine after all, and it will not have the immediate effect of medicines. Therefore, when we are sick and seek medical treatment, we must be careful, do not listen to others' tricks, and rationally choose the medicine that suits us.