Recently, I have published a series of articles regarding the causes of poor digestion and why the population has become severely deficient in certain vitamins/minerals over the last several decades (1, 2). From experience, the main cause of nutritional deficiencies is malabsorption of nutrients found in foods due to interference from a variety of toxins. As I mentioned before, mercury is a major player in this condition. Once you get rid of mercury and other toxins, i-e when digestion and assimilation of
nutrients have been optimized following a proper detox protocol, it is time to address deficiencies. This is when supplementation comes into play.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of confusion when it comes to supplements. It is well known that the medical field does not approve the use of supplements. Doctors claim that no long term studies have ever been conducted to show the safety and benefit of supplements. However, they never mention that no study exists to show the benefit of statins, antidepressants, or other medications. They do not endorse natural healing, but instead, they feed people with synthetic, dangerous drugs leading to their death. Consistent with this, doctors simply treat symptoms because they do not care about the root cause of the problem. That is why they feel threatened by supplementation.
The Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine have been around for hundreds of years. The premise of this healing mode is that Mother Nature has provided us with everything necessary to cure every conditions encountered. We use the same principle but we mostly use whole food supplements. As the words indicate, these supplements are made from actual foods like carrots, broccoli, beets, just to name a few. The very great majority of supplements available in stores are made from synthetic vitamins and minerals. These are not natural because you will never find them “as is” in nature. As a matter of fact, several studies show that our body is treating them as foreign substances. Vitamin C is a very good example. Vitamin C supplement you can buy at the grocery store says: “Vitamin C (as ascorbic acid). However, because it is not your body’s favorite choice, you will have to take a gigantic amount to produce the same effect as taking a pill of the whole food Rose Hips for example (very high in vitamin C) that also contain carotenoids, beta-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin, and lycopene (3).
By overtaking an isolated, synthetic nutrient, you create an unbalanced environment for other essential nutrients. As an example, overtaking calcium may have important repercussions on your level of magnesium, Vitamins K2, and D which increases your risk of heart disease, cataracts, and kidney/gall bladder stones. The other major issue from over the counter supplements is their rate of absorption. The body does not absorb the nutrients used in these supplements very efficiently. Indeed, about 10-20% is being absorbed (4). In other words, more than 80-90% of the money you spend on these supplements is wasted. Therefore, only buy whole food supplements from reputed companies that are testing and regulating their whole food sources. The best company is without any doubt Standard Process. I have had remarkable results using their supplements as the absorption rate is close to 100%. I would recommend you consult with a holistic doctor in order to address the root cause of your concerns and how to maximize your results by taking the right supplements for your own health conditions.
1. http://www.naturalnewsblogs.com/main-cause-diseases/
2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3847730/
3. http://preventdisease.com/news/10/072310_vitamins_absorption.shtml
He has authored a book on this topic that is awaiting publication with Edition Berger publishers in Canada. He holds an advance certification in Nutrition Response Testing (SM) from Ulan Nutritional Systems in Florida and he is a certified herbalist through the Australian College of Phytotherapy.
His personalized nutritional programs allow to help individuals with a wide variety of health concerns such as hormonal imbalance, digestive issues, heart-related conditions, detoxes/cleanses, weight loss, fatigue, migraines, allergies, among others.
