Supplements

(Be sure to read the page “Basic Program” for specifics and the blog on Smart Supplementing.)

The word is “supplements” and so, by definition, we understand that they are not a substitute for a good diet any more than an espresso is equal to a good night’s sleep. Billions of dollars and untold suffering could be saved if more attention was paid to the disease-prevention and healing properties of dietary supplements. Intelligent supplementation can be life-saving!

Who needs dietary supplements? If a theoretical person has flawless genes, zero physical complaints, takes no medication and lives on a stress-free, pollutant-free mountain top growing his or her own nutrient-rich organic food, maybe they don’t need supplements. However, real humans will almost certainly benefit from them because virtually every study shows that even upper income, well-educated citizens no longer consume crucial nutrients up to even the modest minimum levels the government recommends…let alone at optimum levels. That shortfall is due in part to a change in eating habits and in part to depletion of soil minerals that has been repeatedly documented by government studies. Nutrient content is further degraded by genetic engineering of seeds; picking of crops while still green; storage conditions; long haul shipping; processing; cooking, storing leftovers and reheating. Modern life also increases our needs with nutrient-sapping challenges such as chemical toxicity and chronic stress.

Are supplements safe? Yes. As noted in my blog on things you didn’t know could kill you, people die from toothpicks, toupees and microwave popcorn. One hundred people a year die from swallowing the caps from ballpoint pens! All those things are more dangerous than vitamins and minerals. There are typically NO deaths reported for vitamins and minerals. In the past, there were accidental poisoning when children get into mom’s iron pills, but with improved package regulations and awareness that problem seems to be under control.

Of course, if you take ridiculous amounts of anything, you can get sick . (Even too much water or oxygen can be deadly.) Products made by mainstream companies are typically well-balanced and provide instructions to keep you in the safe zone. The FDA inspects these facilities more often than they oversee makers of imported pharmaceuticals which are much more dangerous.

Any Adverse Event Reports (AER’s) consumers report to the makers must be sent to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But those gripes can be anything—even if the smell of an old pill spoiled someone’s appetite! In the case of the rare serious complaint, unfortunately no one verifies that the supplement was more than an innocent bystander—medications or other factors may have been the real cause. The number of complaints is quite small—about one per manufacturer per year. (I’ll bet that corn flakes cereal gets more than that.) I am reluctant to buy from fly-by-night (usually internet) marketing companies who sell brands we’ve never heard of because they don’t have a reputation to protect. I am especially concerned with off-brand supplements imported from China because some have been found to be contaminated with medications or heavy metals. Be especially cautious of products with aggressive claims for sexual enhancement, weight loss or body building.

Are supplements proven to work? Nutritional supplements are considered proven only to cure frank textbook deficiency diseases (and the feds don’t recognize some of those symptoms ). No matter what the science shows, if supplements claim to reverse or even prevent a disease (even a textbook deficiency disease), the FDA says that makes the product an “unapproved drug” and will remove it from the market. The only reason drug companies spend hundreds of millions to do the clinical studies required for FDA approval is that they can patent the chemical and then have an exclusive to get a giant return on their investment. Nutrients cannot be patented. If supplement companies spent the money for FDA approval, all competing products could also profit. Besides the illogical law, there is an evident regulatory bias against supplements.

For example, in spite of a large amount of research, it was many decades before the FDA allowed manufacturers to hint that folic acid might prevent a type of birth defect (spina bifida). How many children died needlessly while the bureaucrats pondered? Consider this quote from Bill Sardi “Did you ever hear about the French multivitamin study of a supplement containing ascorbic acid [vitamin C] 120 mg, vitamin E 30 mg, βeta-carotene 6 mg, selenium 100 µg, and zinc 20 mg? Although modest doses, this supplement was associated with a 31% reduction in overall cancer incidence and a 37% reduction in overall mortality.” [And the French already eat better than Americans do.] A journal article from Pakistan recognizing the power of the mineral magnesium and just went ahead and called it a “drug”. LINK.

Please understand that “not proven” is nowhere comparable to “disproven”. Speaking of “proven” the media and mainstream medicine are often critical of homeopathy (not a supplement, but rather a natural medicine) and ignore many studies and massive real world evidence of benefit. This link has good information about homeopathic testing.

It goes to show the effectiveness of supplements that the pharmaceutical works so hard to suppress them. Read about how they are trying to take away your right to heal naturally.

Which nutrients are needed? Aside from monitoring iron levels, some tests of B12 levels and the tentative but encouraging trend toward checking vitamin D levels, there is typically no testing of nutrient levels in connection with an annual physical. (That may be for the best because most doctors have not been trained to use the right test or to properly deal with the results.) Nutritionists can order functional nutrient testing which can be very helpful, especially for those with genetic defects in nutrient processing. However, most people can benefit from just taking a basic supplement program.

I think the best results come from getting nutrients in the forms and complexes that are most similar to how they occur in food. The basic plan I recommend covers the most fundamental needs and is balanced to avoid overdoing any one nutrient. It is built on a foundation of multi-purpose supplements that benefit cells and therefore a wide range of organs and systems. As the American diet worsens and toxins / stress increase our need, any nutrient supplement can become a life-saver as is shown in this terrific article by Bill Sardi on zinc.

How much is enough? Guidelines set by the government (RDA’s, DRI’s or whatever they are calling them at the moment) are controversial. They aim mainly to avoid the frank textbook deficiency diseases encountered in the third world—not to achieve optimal function or longevity. Nor do they address the fact that each of us has a unique biochemistry. You may require ten times the amount of a vitamin as your neighbor. Our needs also vary over time because of age-related reduced absorption and the demands of stress, medication interference and toxicity. Typically, people can safely take many times the recommended intake of vitamins. Some of the vitamins will surely not be used entirely, but it is better to have them and not need them. Minerals can also be consumed in quantities larger than the guidelines suggest, but there isn’t nearly as much latitude—and they should always be kept in balance. In the rare case that someone gets in trouble with nutrients, it is usually because the person over did one nutrient and created an imbalance. Unless your health professional advises differently, use the dose recommended on the bottle. Be sure to read both “serving size” and directions to make sure you take the right number of pills. Click here for how nutrients are measured:

Condition-specific supplements. Due to regulations limiting label claims, it is sometimes a little hard to tell what some supplements are actually for–even when combinations are formulated to solve specific problems. Common examples are supplements for prostate enlargement, joint pain and memory. They can be quite helpful, but if the basic program is given a chance to work their magic repairing cell membranes and fixing the problems we’ve created over time with poor nutrition, it may not be necessary to chase those specific problems with separate supplements. If you choose to take several combinations, it is a good idea to make a list adding up the minerals in those along with your multivitamin/mineral to make sure you aren’t creating an overload or an imbalance.

Interactions and your doctor. It is always smart to make a partner out of your doctor by taking in a list of your supplements. (It may be Greek to the doc, but you tried.) That way any medications that he or she prescribes can be adjusted to allow for the benefits you are getting from your supplements. The most common interaction between drugs and nutrients is that most drugs deplete nutrients. That is one reason for drug side effects. A classic example is that statin-type cholesterol-lowering drugs reduce our levels of crucial CoQ10. Good references for which nutrients might be needed because of a medication are Drug Muggers by pharmacist Suzy Cohen and Supplement Your Prescription, What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know about Nutrition by Hyla Cass, MD. Check the package insert on any medication to see if there is any nutrient (or even grapefruit juice or pomegranate juice) that you should avoid. Most integrative medicine doctors encourage patients to keep their supplement program relatively regular and they adjust medication levels around the nutrition. Makes sense to me!

How to take supplements. Supplements are basically concentrated food and therefore are better utilized when the digestive system is up and running. So, except in cases where the package says otherwise, supplements are best taken with meals. For example, Vitamin E, Vitamin D and Co Q10 are oil-soluble nutrients that are best absorbed when taken with a meal containing fat. Vitamin C and the B vitamins flush out of the system quickly and should be taken more than once a day. Probiotics usually should be taken on an empty stomach. However, if you are chewing a Dr. Ohhira’s soft gel probiotic for help with the acid re-flux or the stomach, you don’t need to follow that rule.

Storing supplements. Protect your nutrients from heat and light, but you should not need to refrigerate them. To stay regular on a supplement regime, I recommend making up a week’s supply in an am/pm vitamin box or little baggies for morning and evening. We like to use small soufflé cups sold in restaurant supply houses—two dishes (AM and PM) for each day of the week. I drop the correct number of each supplement into each dish. Then I dump each dish into the small zip lock vitamin bag. You can get the right size baggies in the bead department of a craft store or on Amazon.

Where to buy supplements. I recommend buying from a natural foods store that you trust. They will usually check the sources and verify that the manufacturers use the right forms of nutrients and have sophisticated safety practices. You will also get better advice there than from a mass market store. (Please support the folks that give you the information and service!) Always go for quality, because cheap products that don’t get the job done are really just a waste of money.

Resouces:

National Institutes of Health Nutrient database (just type the nutrient in which you are interested into the search box)

Bill Sardi’s articles
Herb Database
A responsible herb newsletter
People’s Pharmacy
The facts on magnesium stearate

Radio Show:

Dr. Parris Kidd reviews what constitutes a basic supplement program and how to separate the “wheat from the chaff” in selecting products. LISTEN

Books:

Drug Muggers by pharmacist Suzy Cohen
Supplement your Prescription by Hyla Cass, MD
Encyclopedia of Nutritional Supplements by Joseph E. Pizzorno, ND and Michael T. Murray, ND
A-Z Guide to Drug-Herb-Vitamin Interactions by Alan Gaby, MD