Choosing Vitamins

Use Supplements to Alleviate Stress

You are on your own when you choose and use nutritional supplements. Your doctor is not going to advise you in this regard because this is a nutrition issue not a disease-management issue. Vitamins and minerals come from food and they help to prevent disease. Doctors study very little about nutrition.

You eat food every day, so paying attention to it is an obvious necessity. It is a fact that our food supply has drastically deteriorated, so you cannot obtain enough of the nutrients you need from food and this is why supplementing has become necessary. It should be considered part of your food bill. If you don't eat, you die. This much your doctor understands. Thus, putting this all together it becomes clear that supplementing your food intake is complementary, not alternative medicine.

Your nutritional supplements should be:

Natural, not Synthetic -- Synthetic vitamins are not absorbed as easily as natural ones and might be only half as potent.

High quality and complete in content -- The capsule or pill should contain the best of its listed ingredients without fillers, only nutrients.

Optimal level nutrients -- Vitamins should be taken at optimal levels for good health. The RDA/RDI levels set by the government will only help to guard against centuries old deficiency diseases such as scurvy and pellagra.

Vitamins should be balanced -- The antioxidants need the B vitamins and minerals to work synergistically for the desired effect.

Quality controlled -- Your supplements should be manufactured under such control that they meet pharmaceutical standards.

Bioavailable -- The nutrients in your supplements should readily dissolve in a mild acid solution such as diluted lemonade or apple juice (a few top quality supplements will even dissolve in water!). This will indicate that they will be easily absorbed by the body.

All of these standards are not met in over-the-counter one tablet a day multivitamins. One pill cannot contain what you need if you expect any kind of health benefit. The pill would have to be bigger than you could swallow. A one pill wonder from the supermarket drugstore is a waste of money. Doctors have described them as "bed-pan bullets" because they come out the other end intact. They are not absorbed and they do not contain optimal levels to deliver any kind of health benefit. Your doctor shrugs and says, "They won't hurt you."

The medical journals are loaded with drug ads, but no vitamin ads. The pharmaceutical companies' cost to produce and distribute a new drug is 500 million dollars plus advertising in journals and on TV, etc. Naturally the media don't want to advertise vitamins and compete with this lucrative advertising.

If you are interested in supplements that do make a difference in your health and that of your family, follow up and learn more. Read nutritional sources. Ask your doctor to check the PDR (Physicians Desk Reference -- USA) or the CPS (Compendium of Pharmaceuticals and Specialties -- Canada) list of pharmaceutical products. Quality supplements are listed there -- the supplements that adhere to pharmaceutical standards.

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