How and Why to Supplement
It’s really startling how sick people are today. Everyone, whether personally or through someone they know has been affected by cancer, heart disease, autoimmune disease or mental disorder. Our normal, when we think about it really is not normal. We’re not living up to our genetic code, getting the simple building blocks we need to reach baseline or optimal health. Our normal isn’t necessarily healthy.
Much of the information in this post I learned from naturopathic physician Dr. Deedra Mason. She says that our life expectancy has increased while our quality of life has decreased. We are at a record-high disease state. In the last fifty years, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity have gone up. Now forty-year-old’s believe creaky joints or elevated cholesterol is simply because of age. Fifty-year-old’s accept heart attacks as normal. Many people do not feel that they have control over how healthy they are.
I was in the same boat. As you can see from my story in another post, when I started to experiment with what I was putting into my body, I found solutions for challenges that I had been struggling with for years. I was shocked how I could feel so good after countless doctor visits and nothing changing. But all my doctors, in their six years of medical school, did not learn about wellness and prevention.
It’s no secret that we have a sick-care system rather than a health-care system. What if we put as much focus on prevention as we did in treatment? We can take steps in our lifestyles to not just manage our disease but actually reverse the damage. You can’t afford to not invest in yourself. Supplementation is critical. It is a necessity disguised as a luxury.
Why vitamins? We take amino acids from proteins to perform functions in our body. Enzymes catalyze the reactions so these functions can happen faster. Dietary (meaning your body can’t produce them) vitamins and minerals are coenzymes and cofactors needed to make these catalysts work efficiently, without stressing and draining our cellular systems by burning energy.
I was struck not only by how much incidence of disease there is today, but by the fact that disease today — chronic disease, autoimmune disorders, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, diabetes — they are all the same disease. Doctors just name them based on the organ system that filed first. Whether it’s diagnosed as heart disease or hypertension, they are all caused by free radical damage leading to inflammation, leading to hormonal chaos. Essentially, we are slowly killing ourselves. We don’t really die of anything, we die of our bodies breaking down. Because we don’t live balanced lifestyles, too many of us are aging prematurely.
There are a number of factors involved in this. You can read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, the book that started the environmental movement to understand why our soils are depleted. We have to eat a lot more food to get the same nutrient quality that we did 30 to 50 years ago. Now we have genetically modified foods that are bigger but their nutrients are diluted. They have more sugar and not as much vitamin or trace mineral content. Not only are we consuming empty calories, we are at risk from our food because of how we cook it, how we transport it, or how we process it to give it a longer shelf life. Neither do we choose what to eat very well.
There are many more toxins in our environment now. We are taking too many pharmaceutical drugs. We have too much stress, not enough sleep. We’re getting too little exercises or maybe in some cases too much. We put harmful substances into our bodies. We’re hyper-stimulated from all the screen time. We work too much, or we’re too sedentary. If it were just one of these things, our bodies would be able to compensate, but because our bodies are constantly under attack, we need another line of defense.
Many people are skeptical of supplements because they are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, as they are neither food nor drug. As a result, companies can put trace amounts of the nutrients they say they are going to put into the product. You just need to find a product with integrity. The Good Manufacturing Practices regulates products to make sure they are controlled and effective.
It’s also best to avoid synthetic forms of vitamins, which are not proven to be totally effective in the body. Use the stuff that is proven to work for you and backed by scientific studies. Research and take a look at the science behind a product before buying.
Just as importantly, it’s a question of bioavailability. There’s no point in taking anything your body can’t break down and use. Look at the formulation of the product, make sure it’s something that is created to be synergistic and work with the body’s natural processes. Take into account form, potency, and purity. Because the most expensive supplement is the one that doesn’t work.
Don’t forget to focus on getting the right amounts. Generally speaking, recommended daily allowances are not enough to meet your metabolic needs. Everyone is different, and to reach optimal wellness you need to supplement based on your specific needs and circumstances. You want to start with your health challenges currently — that can be as simple as your mood or energy — realize they have a cause, and work to reverse them.
Testing your biomarkers can be a good way to get a better understanding of where you stand with your health, and what you could work on, as well as a way to track your progress as you are working on it. You should be looking at inflammation markers; cardiovascular markers such as resting heart rate; metabolic markers such as cholesterol, triglycerides; and other things like blood pressure and bone-mineral density. If you’re working on your weight, use your waist circumference ratio to your height and your body mass index.
The final thing I can say to give you some guidance is about Dr. Mason’s three tiers of supplementation. You should be thinking about three categories of supplements: those that you take because everyone should take them (a multivitamin, an antioxidant, and an omega-3 fish oil), those that you take because of unique risk factors in your life or family history, and those that you take temporarily to help with challenges that arise.
What are some challenges or risk factors you’re competing with? Let me know in the comments below.
