Herbal supplements are a type of dietary supplement that contain herbs, either singly or in mixtures. Many herbs have a long history of use and of claimed health benefits. For example, herbs and alternative medicine have been used for thousands of years to treat various illness and restoring various normal functions of human body. And compared to pharmaceutical drugs, they may have less or be without any adverse reactions or side effects. 

Why do pets need herbal supplements? Currently many diseases cannot be cured, for example patients with cancer have very low survival rate. Prevention of a disease is much easier than curing a disease. Herbs harmony the 'Yin and Yang' of the body, and make the body immune to, or more resistant against, many serious diseases. In a word, the purpose of the herbal supplements is not only in helping to cure but in the prevention of becoming ill.

Nutraceutical is a portmanteau of "nutritional" and "pharmaceutical" and refers to foods thought to have a beneficial effect on health. It can also refer to individual chemicals which are present in common foods (and therefore may be delivered in a non-drug form). Many such nutraceuticals are phytonutrients.

Dr. Stephen DeFelice coined the term in 1989. The term has no regulatory definition, but it is commonly used in marketing. It is certainly not a new concept. Chinese medicine would be one example. Another would be Hippocrates who is quoted as saying, "Let your food be your medicine and let your medicine be your food." Nutraceuticals are often used in nutrient premixes or nutrient systems in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Nutraceuticals are sometimes called functional foods.

Functional Food: Preventing Diseases and Promoting Health

Food and diet play an important role in health. Every day, research in fields such as epidemiology and nutritional biochemistry teach us more about this relationship. Through scientific investigation and effective consumer communication, functional foods are becoming an important tool in promoting health.

According to Health Canada, a functional food is "consumed as part of a usual diet that is similar in appearance to, or may be, a conventional food, and is demonstrated to have physiological benefits and/or reduce the risk of chronic disease beyond basic nutritional functions."

Functional foods may come from plants or animals. Active ingredients effective in promoting human health include amino acids, fats, dietary fibres, antioxidants, pigments, vitamins and minerals.

If you follow the studies that document the stress put upon our digestive tracts when processed and refined foods e eaten, you will then realize how the body has to respond in a completely unnatural way to digest food matter that the body does not recognize.