Nutritional Supplements

Herbs | Nutritional Supplements | Vitamins

BIAS AGAINST NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS

Nutritional supplements such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, antioxidants, natural food-derived products, and herbs are mentioned throughout this book. You’ll learn that these nutritional supplements can help prevent disease, decrease side effects of conventional therapies, and improve the quality of life. Unfortunately, there is a lot of confusion surrounding nutritional supplements.

Misconceptions About Nutritional Supplements

For more than a century, physicians have resisted the concept that nutritional supplements have health benefits. This resistance is fueled by the uncritical acceptance of bad news about micronutrient supplements. Reports of toxic side effects are widely quoted and rarely questioned. In academic circles, scornful discussions about nutritional supplements are commonplace. Furthermore, medical textbooks routinely portray nutritional supplements in an unfavorable light. Finally, the medical community is skeptical of any study, which shows that nutritional supplements are beneficial. In fact, most claims are simply ignored.

Misinformation About Nutritional Supplements

In light of the above, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that most physicians caution their patients against taking nutritional supplements. Moreover, some doctors even warn their patients that taking supplements may be dangerous to their health. Patients are told instead that all they have to do is eat a nutritious, well-balanced diet. Although in theory this sounds great, the vast majority of Americans don’t eat a “well-balanced” diet, and the food isn’t nutritious.

The Myth Of A Well Balanced Diet

The standard American diet (abbreviated the ‘SAD’ diet) leaves much to be desired. For instance, Americans vegetables derive one third of their calories –empty calories - from highly processed fast foods that are laced with saturated fat and refined sugar. Another twenty percent of their calories come from food that is made with “enriched flour”. Enriched flour has had almost all of the nutritious bran, and most of the vitamins removed during the milling process. After a bleaching process, a fractional portion of the original vitamins that were removed during processing are returned to “enrich’ the flour. Furthermore, the remaining calories are often derived from food that is grown in poor quality soil. This nutrient-deprived food loses even more of its nutritional value during the shipping and storage process. Finally, food that is grown in distant markets is shipped and stored multiple times before it reaches the dinner table.

Prevalence Of Nutritional Deficiencies

In light of the above, it’s no wonder that government sponsored studies have shown that fifty percent of the U.S. population have marginal nutrient deficiencies, and only twenty percent of individuals consume the minimum recommended daily dietary allowance (abbreviated RDA) of nutrients. Even so, the RDA is merely the minimum amount of nutrients that are needed to prevent nutritional disease states such as scurvy (resulting from a vitamin C deficiency). The RDA is not designed to promote optimal health.

My Recommendations

In contrast to most of my colleagues, I advise all of my patients to supplement their diet with a high potency multivitamin and take selected nutritional supplements. At the same time, I remind them that taking vitamins and supplements won’t prevent or counteract the damage that is caused by a combination of poor dietary habits, poor lifestyle choices, poor exercise routines, and a poor outlook on life. In the following pages, I’ll give you the straight scoop on nutritional supplements. By the time we’re finished, you’ll be able to breeze through the isles of your favorite health food store and confidently select products that will meet your needs.

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MINERALS

Like vitamins, minerals are micronutrients that are essential for proper health. Eighteen different minerals play a role in human physiology. Vitamins and minerals form a buddy system - as coenzymes, they help each other initiate or facilitate biochemical reactions. Minerals are also needed for proper bone growth, muscle contractions, and nerve function.

Types Of Minerals

Minerals are divided into two groups: major minerals and minor (trace) minerals. The body needs at least one hundred milligrams per day of the major minerals (calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, and phosphorus) daily. In contrast, the body only needs microgram amounts of micronutrients (such as zinc and selenium).

Absorption Of Minerals

The best way to ensure that you get a sufficient amount of minerals is to eat plenty of fresh vegetables. Just the same, the mineral intake varies with an individual’s dietary habits, mineral content of the soil, degree of intestinal absorption, and influence of other minerals. You should also be aware that ingested minerals are only partially absorbed. Among other things, absorption depends on the body’s need for a particular mineral.

Factors That Affect Absorption

Substances that bind trace minerals to other compounds affect their absorption. For instance, metal minerals, such as zinc, cannot be used in the free or elemental state. Instead, they must be combined with other organic and inorganic substances to form ionic (charged) chemical compounds.

Organic Salts And Acids.

Organic acids such as succinates, gluconates, citrates, picolinates, and fumerates combine with trace metals to form organic salts (such as zinc picolinate). Organic salts are better absorbed than inorganic acids that combine with trace metals to form inorganic salts (such as zinc sulfate).

Chelation.

Minerals that are chelated (bonded to a protein in the middle of a larger molecule) are also more easily absorbed.

Colloidal Minerals.

Avoid colloidal minerals - nutritional supplements that are concocted from a mixture of clay and water. Despite exaggerated and unfounded claims, colloidal minerals are neither better absorbed that other minerals, nor are they required for optimal health. As a matter of fact, colloidal minerals may contain dangerous concentrations of aluminum and arsenic.

Safety Issues

Minerals are primarily stored in bone and muscle tissue. To be most effective, minerals and vitamins must maintain a proper balance in the body. Although minerals have a wide safety range, when taken in excessive amounts, minerals can be harmful, even toxic. For instance, too much zinc can cause a copper deficiency, and too much calcium can affect magnesium absorption. Furthermore, selenium can be toxic in amounts greater than nine hundred micrograms daily.

Minerals can also interfere with the absorption of certain antibiotics and other medications. Therefore, if you are taking prescription medication, check with your pharmacist before taking a mineral supplement.

Dosage

As a rule, minerals are better absorbed when they are taken with food. There are exceptions to the rule, though. For instance, fiber supplements decrease mineral absorption; hence, they should not be taken together. In addition to fiber, calcium absorption is impaired by excess dietary fat, caffeine, and alcohol. Therefore, supplemental calcium supplements (in addition to those in your multivitamin) are better absorbed if they are taken at other times. Calcium should also be balanced with magnesium, ranging between a one-to-one to a two-to-one ratio. Taken at bedtime, calcium and magnesium are not only better absorbed; they promote sleep.

AMINO ACIDS

Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. During the digestive process, dietary protein is broken down into individual amino acids. These amino acids are absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract, and then recombined to make new proteins. Next to water, proteins make up the greatest proportion of our body weight.

Nutritional Requirements

Despite advertising hype to the contrary, it’s not necessary to supplement your diet with a mixed amino acid supplement. Just the same, single amino acid supplements can be quite useful. For instance, the amino acid L-glutamine can prevent radiation-induced diarrhea. (Radiation therapy is commonly used to treat prostate cancer.) Used selectively by the intestinal cells as fuel, L-glutamine prevents diarrhea by protecting the intestinal lining.

Types Of Amino Acids

Supplemental amino acids are available in capsules, tablets, liquids, and powders. Amino acids are generally derived from animal, yeast, or vegetable protein. Choose products that contain USP (U.S. Pharmacopoeia) pharmaceutical-grade L-crystalline amino acids. Free-form amino acids, the purest forms of amino acids, are rapidly absorbed into the blood stream. In order to not compete with other proteins for absorption, amino acids should be taken on an empty stomach. Amino acids are safe when taken as directed.

Overview of nutritional supplements excerpted from: Mark W. McClure, Smart Medicine For A Healthy Prostate (New York: Avery Publishing Group, 2001)

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