Page 38 - Malaysian Dietary Supplement Industry Status and Outlook Report 2019-2020 Preview
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Figure 1.17: Malaysia Top-10 Principal There is increasing awareness on the
Causes of Death among Infants (Below 12 importance of nutrition and the
Months Old), 2017. benefits (and costs) to infant health
Ranking (continued): during the prenatal period. Dietary
3. Pneumonia (n.n%) supplement consumption will trend
4. Chronic lower respiratory diseases (n.n%) beyond “must-haves” towards “good-
5. Meningitis (n.n%) to-haves”.
6. Transport accidents (n.n%)
7. Cerebrovascular diseases (n.n%) Nutritional boosting in the prenatal period is an age-old
8. Diseases of the liver (n.n%) concept. Expecting mothers have been taking traditional
9. Whooping cough (n.n%) foods for generations. Similarly, the concept that poor
10. Anaemias (n.n%) nutrition may cause complications in the perinatal period or
in the health of babies are widely accepted. Mothers today
Source: Department of Statistics Malaysia. are eating much better and more cognizant that they must
eat better than previous generations.
Greater access to information is certainly a driver, but
greater acceptance and promotion of dietary supplements
within the medical community have also been observed. As
medicine is often used as a last resort and traditional foods
may have unexpected effects on pregnancies, medical
practitioners are getting more comfortable with dietary
supplements as functional and/or preventive solutions.
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