If you’re someone who likes to take herbal supplements, you know that you can buy them at many drug and health food stores. Most of the time, these supplements come already formed into pills or in the form of capsules that have herbs already in them. However, it is possible to fill your own empty capsules by using a manual capsule filler. Some capsule fillers are more automated and can fill and close the capsule for you, while others are bit more manual and act more as a base for you to fill the capsule.
Why would you want to do this? Here are five excellent reasons:
1. Filling Your Own Capsules Will Save You Money
Buying herbal supplements that are already in pill or capsule form can be pretty expensive. Especially if you are taking multiple supplements. It is not uncommon for people to spend upwards of $20 or more on one small bottle.
When you fill your own, however, you can buy the herbs in bulk, and then fill your own capsules. How much money can you save? Of course, it will depend on the herbs you are using, but you can purchase 1,000 empty gelatin capsules for as little as $13 or 1,000 empty vegetarian capsules for as little as $20.
Suppose you have joint pain and currently take a turmeric supplement. Since you can purchase turmeric powder in bulk, such as 1 pound for about $15, you can have 1,000 turmeric capsules for around $30. When you consider that a bottle of 100 pre-filled capsules of turmeric run from $15 to $20 a bottle. It costs almost 5-10x less to make the capsule yourself. Other supplement types will help you save even more.
2. Filling Your Own Capsules Will Save You Time
Another reason that filling your own capsules is recommended is it will save you time. You might think that filling capsules is time-consuming. However, when you use one of our popular capsule fillers, you can fill them in record time. How fast can you fill your empty capsules with these capsule machines? You can fill 100 herbal supplement capsules in as little as 10 minutes with the Capsule-It. That is a huge time-saver!
3. You Will Know Exactly What is In Your Capsule
Though you never want to accuse companies of being dishonest, are you absolutely sure that your pre-filled capsules are filled with the herb of your choice, and only the herb of your choice? Some companies will put in fillers in order to save money and make sure the capsule is completely full. However, the consumer pays the price for a capsule that is 100 percent filled with the herb. When you fill your own empty capsules, you will know exactly what you are putting in them since you will be doing it yourself. This helps to keep you safe, and it will give you even more value for your money.
4. You Can Make Your Own Formulations When You Fill Your Own Capsules
You will also find that filling your own capsules is beneficial because you can make your own formulations from the comfort of your home. For example, instead of taking a multi-vitamin that might contain ingredients you don't need or want, you can create your own.
An example of this might be taking a combination of peppermint, ginger and slippery elm bark to ease the effects of nausea during pregnancy. You can easily mix this up yourself, fill the empty capsules with your capsule filler and safely treat your symptoms. Formulations can be made to treat a number of conditions, and you can mix them in a way that will easily treat your ailments. This is not possible when you buy over-the-counter formulations.
5. You Can Avoid Bad-Tasting Herbs or Medications
Finally, you will find that when you use capsules for herbal supplements, you can avoid bad-tasting herbs. Though some common herbal supplements, like peppermint, have a pleasant taste, other common herbal supplements, such as dandelion, milk thistle and turmeric, are more bitter-tasting. You can certainly make a delicious tea out of peppermint or spearmint to obtain their positive effects, but you likely wouldn't want to drink a tea made out of milk thistle. Instead, you can get the benefits by placing these bitter herbs in an empty capsule.
Do you have a nasty tasting medication that you just cannot choke down? Fill it in a capsule!
These are only five of the many reasons that making your own capsules can benefit those who take herbal supplements. Of course, there are many more. Empty capsules are affordable, will save time and money, can be used to make your own formulations, and can help you avoid any bad-tasting herbs. To get the most out of the empty capsules, make sure to also purchase one of the capsule filling machine's so you're not wasting your time filling them by hand.