I am used to ordering books online for more than a decade now, but it’s only since mid 2009 that I started to order supplements online and for the very same reasons.
There are 3 reasons why I shop around for supplements and ended up buying most of them online and abroad:
- Convenience
- Availability
- Price
1. Convenience
It’s not to difficult to imagine the convenience of having your supplements delivered at your door. Compared to actually going out to find a pharmacy or drugstore that has all the supplements you want available. Maybe you will even have to visit several drugstores to complete your purchases. This may not sound like a big deal, but when you only have a limited amount of energy to spend each day there are nicer things to spend it on.
Next day delivery. This is what surprised me the most when I placed my first order at Drogisterij.net, a Dutch online drugstore. I don’t even live in the Netherlands, but in the neighboring country Belgium and yet my first order was delivered the very next day before noon. So were my subsequent orders.
2. Availability
Reading people’s blogs on ME/CFS you encounter lots of supplements that they found helpful. If you want to give some of them a try and you can’t buy them locally, buying them online solves this problem. However, this is not the only availability problem.
Many supplements are mixtures. There is nothing wrong with that, but when you want to try out a single substance to find out how you respond to it, you are better of if you can get hold of the pure stuff. I don’t now if it is typical Belgian, but that is very hard to do over here. Almost all supplements are mixtures.
The problem occurred when I was trying to find out if tryptophan worked for me. I had read some positive reviews, but it was only available in a mixture with 3-4 other substances. When I increased the dose until I started to feel some benefit (still below maximum dose) I got a headache the next day. What caused it? Bananas also give me a headache so the likely culprit was tryptophan. I couldn’t get the pure stuff in Belgium so I ordered it in the Netherlands. It turned out that an effective dose of tryptophan gives me a headache the next day. Mystery solved. 5-HTP is less effective, but doesn’t give me a headache the next day. Yes, I had to order 5-HTP online too. I don’t know if I will continue using it; the effect seems marginal.
3. Price
Prices online can be the same, more expensive, or cheaper than offline. If the previous arguments didn’t convince to shop around online, this one will.
The most extreme example I encountered of a price difference for a product is Green Magma ®. Green Magma ® is a product which has a soothing effect on my digestive system, but in order for it to be effective I need at least 300 g per month.
In Belgium (and Western Europe?) it is only available per 150 g and costs approximately €35. Each month it would cost me €70 or $93. Shopping around on iHerb.com I found that they sell it cheaper, much cheaper.
| Seller | Quantity | Price | Price per 100g | Price per 100g |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium | 150 g | €35.00 | €23.33 | $31.03 |
| iHerb.com | 312 g | €24.43 | €7.83 | $10.41 |
Buying the product in the USA, shipping it to Belgium (Western Europe, delivery 7-10 days) costs one third of buying it locally. Someone is making a killer profit on this, but no longer on my meager disability benefits. This really is an extreme example, but there are savings to be made by buying online and abroad.
Conversion rate: €1 = $1.33, end of April.
Resources
- Drogisterij.net [Dutch]
- iHerb.com
I have no financial gain by promoting these 2 sites.
| Doctors give drugs of which they know little, into bodies, of which they know less, for diseases of which they know nothing at all. |
| Voltaire |
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I LOVE iHerb. I buy almost all my herbs through them. There service is phenomenal! I have started taking the New Chapter Herbs and am having a good result. I don’t have problems mixing herbs. After my daughter’s wedding, I want to add green food. Mike Adams has some really good products as well as green food. Have you read his blog? The man is so knowledgeable.
Here it is for your perusal. http://www.healthranger.org/
I don’t agree with everything he writes, but I have learned a lot through his newsletter.
Nice to see a post again!
Hi Domique,
I still find it amazing that I can shop online (international) and have stuff delivered at my doorstep at half the price or less compared to buying it locally.
I have subscribed to his newsletter and will see what he has to say. He sure offers a lot of information; all those free ebooks when you sign up. *sigh* my reading list is already a mile long.
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