NUTRITIONAL
SUPPLEMENTS AND NUTRITIONAL BALANCING
by Lawrence Wilson, MD
©
August 2012, The Center For Development
This article discusses important questions about nutritional
supplements including:
¯
Why take nutritional
supplements?
¯ Are they safe or at least low toxicity?
¯ Are they better than drugs, in general?
¯ Can they substitute for medical drugs and other medical
treatments?
¯ Can a person die from taking them?
¯ Why does nutritional balancing not recommend most of them?
¯ Why are they are needed in very precise dosages?
¯ Why do we give them in doses, at times, that may exceed the
recommended daily allowances or RDA for the nutrient?
¯ Why do we use a hair analysis to recommend them?
¯ Must all supplements be food-based and all-natural to work best?
¯ Are there supplements that are best avoided?
¯ Can a person just read about supplements and take the right ones?
¯ What about the use of herbs, homeopathic remedies and other
specialty products?
¯ What about new supplement regulations, and do we need them?
WHY DOES EVERYONE NEED NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS?
Among the many reasons are:
1. Soil depletion has reduced the nutrient content of our food
supply. In
most areas of the world, the land has been overfarmed
and overgrazed. In most of the
world, manures and other mineral-rich products are not put back enough on the
land. This has depleted the soil
quality. In many other areas, the
soil is just of low quality and is difficult to improve. This produces food that is low in many
minerals, in particular, but also low in vitamins, and hundreds of other
nutrients found in food.
2. Hybrid crops provide lower-nutrient food. These are used everywhere today, even on organic farms. They yield more food per acre, but the
crops all have a much lower nutrient content than those grown 100 years
ago. This is well-documented in US
Department of Agriculture statistics and elsewhere.
For
example, at least ten times as much rice or wheat are grown on the same land as
was grown there 100 years ago. But
the land is not stocked with ten times the minerals, vitamins and other
nutrients. As a result, in part,
today's wheat contains about 6% protein whereas 100 years ago it contained
12-14%. Trace mineral levels are
similarly much lower due to high-yield farming methods.
3. Modern fertilizers do not supply enough trace elements. One hundred years ago, manures were used extensively for
fertilizer. Today, superphosphate
fertilizers have largely replaced manures. These contain mainly nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus and
are deficient in the trace elements.
This is sad, but true. Our
crops are more like a person on steroids – stimulated, but not as strong
and safe.
Superphosphates
often act more as growth stimulants.
This has contributed greatly to depletion of the soil and crop minerals.
This includes organically grown
food, although it is much better.
4. Modern use of chemical pesticides and herbicides all over the
world make food somewhat toxic, and damage soil microorganisms. Both of these also reduce the nutrition
of the crops.
Soil microorganisms are needed to make minerals and other nutrients
available to plants. When these
are damaged by Roundup, and hundreds of other toxic pesticides, insecticides
and other chemicals put on crops, the soil micro-organisms do not function as
well, and the nutrient content of the food becomes lower.
Also, our bodies require extra nutrients to process pesticide
residues that remain inside the foods, so the pesticides that we must eat daily
also reduce our nutritional status each and every day. Many pesticides are deadly chemicals
that severely tax the human system.
Some contain lead, arsenic and other toxic metals that slowly accumulate
in the body.
Our laws currently allow sewage and even factory sludge to be sold
as fertilizer that contains significant quantities of toxic metals. These add greatly to our toxic
metal burden and requires that we take in nutrients to help remove them from
the body.
5. Long-distance transportation of many foods diminishes their
nutritional content. As soon as a food is harvested, the levels of certain
nutrients begin to diminish.
Today, many foods are grown thousands of miles from population
centers. The food may spend a week
on a truck or a train before it reaches you.
In addition, some foods, especially fruits, must be sprayed,
irradiated, or processed in other ways in order to survive the journey across
the world. For example, many
people do not realize that much of our food comes from South America, Asia and
China. These are miles away and
transportation is slow. The food
can grow moldy and you wouldnÕt even know it.
6. Food processing often drastically reduces the nutrient content
of common foods such as wheat flour, rice, dairy products and others. For example, the
refining of wheat to make white flour removes 80% of its magnesium, 70-80% of
its zinc, 87% of its chromium, 88% of its manganese and 50% of its cobalt.
Similarly, refining sugar cane to make white sugar removes 99% of
its magnesium and 93% of its chromium.
Polishing (refining) rice removes 75% of its zinc and chromium. This is just the beginning of most food
processing, however.
This is why fresh frozen vegetables, and freshly canned sardines
are not that bad. At least they
are preserved quickly after harvesting or catching the fish, and the
preservation method is not that terrible.
The best food, however, is freshly harvested or freshly killed and eaten
quickly.
Pasteurization and homogenization of dairy products drastically reduces the bioavailability of calcium, phosphorus and
some proteins in milk and other dairy products. This is one of the worst insults to our food today.
7. Food additives often further deplete nutrients. Thousands of
artificial flavors, colors, dough conditioners, sweeteners, artificial
sweeteners, stabilizers, flavor enhancers like MSG, emulsifiers, hardeners,
softeners, chemical preservatives and other chemicals are added to most
peopleÕs food today. While a few
are harmless and may even increase the quality of the food by preserving it,
many are toxic and many diminish the nutritional content of the food.
Among the worst are preservatives like BHA
and BHT, artificial sweeteners like Aspartame, and perhaps EDTA,
a chelating agent, that is added to some frozen vegetables to preserve the
color of the vegetables. The way
it works is by removing vital minerals from the surface of the vegetable
because when minerals oxidize, the color of the vegetable turns dark and ugly. This is like tarnishing of silver.
8. Weak digestion and poor eating habits impair the absorption of
nutrients. Almost everyoneÕs
digestion is very weak today. This
is due to eating poor quality food, hybridized varieties of foods like wheat,
and having to digest and handle so many refined foods and chemicals in the
foods. It is also due to low
vitality, low digestive enzyme secretion, and imbalanced intestinal flora and
intestinal infections like yeast that are extremely common. This is quite a deadly combination.
As a result, most people do not absorb nutrients well at all. This further impairs nutrient levels in
the body, and increases nutritional needs. This is why in nutritional balancing programs, everyone is
given a digestive aid containing digestive enzymes such as pancreatin
and ox bile.
9. Stressful
and hurried lifestyles impair digestion and use up more nutrients. These may include calcium, magnesium,
zinc, chromium, manganese and many others. Zinc begins to be eliminated from the body within minutes of
a stress. This is why many people
have white spots on their fingernails, for example. Stress adds to all the other causes of impaired nutrition
above to make things much worse for most people today around the world.
Most people do not realize that stress always causes excessive sympathetic nervous system
activity. This not only uses
up nutrients, as explained in the paragraph above. It also reduces digestive strength and ability. This, in turn, reduces nutrient
absorption and utilization even further.
10. Chronic and acute infections and other illnesses most people
have also depletes nutrients and increases nutritional needs.
11. Almost all babies are born deficient today. In other words, most
people need extra nutrition from the day they are born just to make up for
deficiencies present at birth.
These are called congenital mineral and other deficiencies,
which means present at birth.
It is critical to understand that nutrient deficiencies are passed
from mother to child through the placenta. Those who raise livestock all know this, but somehow medical
doctors, nurses and dietitians do not.
12. The increased use of vaccines and medical drugs can
drastically deplete a personÕs nutrition.
This is especially true of any drug that impairs
digestion or absorption of food such as antibiotics, anti-acids, acid-blockers,
aspirin, Tylenol, Aleve, Excedrin and hundreds of other prescription and over-the-counter remedies.
13. Toxic chemicals and toxic metals in the air, water and
elsewhere also deplete nutrients and increase the need for nutrition to combat
them.
This is an enormous problem today.
Toxic chemicals are everywhere, in buildings, schools, homes, work
places, urban air, and in almost all water supplies, even the purest ones.
14. Some medical procedures also drastically deplete nutrients. These include
surgeries of all types, and even some tests such as x-rays. Surgeries cause stress and add more
drugs to the system. X-rays
deplete B-complex vitamins and perhaps other nutrients such as zince. This is
known in medical circles, but nothing is done about it.
15. Special life situations require extra nutrition. Medical science
knows that many life situations require greater amounts of nutrition, including:
á
All babies, children, the elderly and
all athletes.
á
Anyone born with a birth defect may
need additional nutrients.
á
Anyone who is ill, particularly those
with a chronic illness.
á
Pregnant and lactating women.
á
Anyone who uses alcohol, refined sugar
or recreational drugs such as marijuana.
á
Anyone following a vegetarian or other
restricted diet for any reason such as weight loss or anything else.
á
Anyone under extra stress due to
financial issues, a difficult job or marriage, or for any other reason.
Add up
the numbers in these groups and you have most of the population! Yet few health professionals are taught
that all of these situations require extra nutrients beyond that which is
available from only the highest quality food, eaten in a healthful manner.
16. Supplements can be used by everyone to protect against
disease, eliminate deficiency states, prevent future illness, and balance the
body chemistry. These topics are discussed later in this article.
17. The nutritional standards set by governments around the world
are much too low. As
a result, people do not make an effort to eat a higher nutrient diet. This is a complex subject discussed in
the section below.
FALLACIES OF THE RDAs AND MDRs
Government bureaucrats meet periodically to decide the levels of
the recommended daily allowances (RDA) or minimum daily requirements (MDRs) of common nutrients. Their main concern is how much is needed to prevent
deficiency diseases. For example,
a vitamin C deficiency causes scurvy, a vitamin A deficiency causes night
blindness, and a vitamin B1 or thiamine deficiency can cause a horrible disease
called pellagra.
While
this approach is okay as far as it goes, these recommendations have little to with
optimum health. One of
every two Americans will contract cancer and 50% of the population by age 40
have a chronic illness. In theory,
most of these people meet or exceed the RDAs for nutrients. So, perhaps the theory that the RDA is
enough is flawed. I would say it
is fatally flawed.
The
problem is that the theory of the RDAs ignores many subtle aspects of human
nutrition such as the effect of stress, chronic illness, pregnancy and other
factors on oneÕs nutritional needs.
This is much harder to measure, so the bureaucrats just ignore it. If they considered it, they would not
suggest that everyone needs the same amount of any nutrient.
Also, the RDAs and MDRs are set up by
dietitians, a group of people who are not trained in optimum health, and
therefore who do not understand optimum health at all, whatsoever. Most are ill themselves, in fact. They are influenced by the drug
industry, as are the medical doctors and the public health officials in most
nations. The drug industry
wants a sick, malnourished population that will buy their toxic products. Optimum nutrition is their worst
nightmare, so it is not taught in medical schools, nursing schools, public
health schools or dietetics schools. It is also not taught to public school teachers or
college-level education, as that would threaten the entire drug medicine
paradigm.
The results of this oversight are monumental. Here are just a few of them:
a) Pregnant women are allowed to basically starve themselves and
their babies.
b) Supplement labels cause panic because the amounts of nutrients
the tablets contain are compared to the RDA on each supplement bottle. This can cause alarm until one
understands why the RDAs are inappropriate, much too low, and often irrelevent.
c) School lunch programs and other nutrition programs set up by
the government to feed poor people, for example, do a terrible job because the
standards are far too low.
THE FALLACY OF THE ÔFOUR FOOD GROUPSÕ AND THE ÔFOOD PYRAMIDÕ
IDEAS
These
more modern dietary concepts also do not take into account the problems in our
food supply listed above. A
separate article discusses these in more detail entitled Food And Dietary Concepts.
2. ARE SUPPLEMENTS SAFE AND DO MANY PEOPLE DIE FROM TAKING THEM?
Nutritional
supplements are among the safest products in existence. According to the Poison Control Centers
in the United States, for example, there have been less than 10 deaths at all
from nutritional supplements since they started keeping records about 23 years
ago. Recently, these figures were
further analyzed by interviewing people who claimed that death was caused by a
supplement. The result was that in
fact, there were no deaths from nutrients. Even if the latter is not true, which is hard for me to
assess, this is an astounding safety record.
By
comparison, the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which are just one small
class of drugs, cause at least 10,000 recorded deaths each year. Many deaths from them are not
reported. Hospital infections
probably kill 20,000 per year in the US alone. Other classes of drugs, including insulin and others are far
more lethal. Two articles about
this subject are Problems With Drugs and Dangerous Drugs on this website.
I
must laugh when people warn us about taking vitamins and minerals, or taking
too many of them. They are so
wrong, and so brainwashed by medical propaganda. They do not realize that there is today a concerted effort
to stop the sale and use of nutritional supplements because it threatens not
only the drug industry. It
threatens the hospitals, the doctors, the laboratories, the medical device
makes, and more.
The above industries constitute a cartel or group that controls
medical care. The last thing they
want is for people to heal themselves with simple, low-toxicity, natural
substances that cost pennies compared to their products. This is the truth, and it is available
to anyone who looks for it.
References at the end of this article give some sources. Life Extension Foundation, and Death By
Medicine, a paper by Gary Null et. al., are two recent sources.
I
will not detail the safety level of each mineral and vitamin in this article,
as there is too much more to write about.
Later on, however, in this article, I discuss supplements I would avoid. Taking the wrong supplements can impair
health, to be sure. But even this
is usually much safer than taking most medical and over-the-counter drugs.
3. IS NUTRIENT THERAPY AS POWERFUL AS MEDICAL DRUG THERAPY, AND
CAN NUTRIENT THERAPY EVER SUBSTITUTE FOR THE USE OF MEDICAL DRUGS?
The
simple answer to both of these questions is yes. Nutritional balancing gets rid of the need for most medical
drugs quickly, effectively and safely.
We do not use herbs, as a rule, because these are not as safe. Nor do we use bio-identical hormones,
which I consider medical drugs.
Nor do we use chelation therapy, which I
consider a newer medical drug therapy, even natural chelating agents like zeolite, chlorella, spirulina and
others.
Sophisticated
nutrient therapy based on a properly performed and properly interpreted hair
tissue mineral analysis, combined with a healthful diet, a healthful lifestyle
and proper drinking water is usually completely able to remove the need for
most medical drugs within a few years or often less time than this.
The
major exceptions are if an organ or gland has been removed surgically, and
perhaps if one is too old to regenerate the glands and organs fast enough. Vitality decreases with age, so if you
want to get well naturally, begin as soon as possible, as it is a process that
takes a number of years in most cases, even in children and babies today.
WHY TAKE JUST SPECIFIC AMOUNTS OF EACH NUTRIENT? - BIOCHEMICAL
INDIVIDUALITY
For
optimum health, one needs newer and more scientific concepts about nutrition
than the outdated idea of RDAs and MDRs. One of these is biochemical individuality.
This term originated with Dr. Roger Williams to describe his research
finding that nutritional needs vary
tremendously from person to person.
From this perspective, average standards mean very little.
Physicians
use many methods to try to figure out peopleÕs supplement needs. Nutritional balancing science uses a
rather unique way to assess nutritional needs that involves hair mineral
testing. However, the test is used
in a very special way that is described in other articles on this website.
It involves learning about each person's oxidation rate, stage of
stress, trace element levels, toxic metal levels, carbohydrate tolerance,
digestive adequacy, state of the immune system and other factors that can be
identified on the test.
One
must also take into account each person's age, sex, weight and health
conditions including pregnancy and acute or chronic illnesses. All these affect one's nutritional
requirements.
ORTHOMOLECULAR
NUTRITION
Orthomolecular nutrition is related to
biochemical individuality. This
term was coined by the late Dr. Linus Pauling. It means to give just the amount of a
nutrient that is needed, not an average or standard amount.
Nutritional
balancing science often recommends different supplements than those used by
many orthomolecular physicians in that we often use foods and nutrients not to
directly correct symptoms, but to balance body chemistry. For example, a person in an alarm stage
of stress requires more calcium, copper, magnesium, choline
and inositol.
However, excessive vitamin B-complex or C are harmful for that person.
A
person in the exhaustion stage of stress requires more vitamin B-complex and C,
and much less copper. By properly
combining nutrients and taking into account mineral levels, ratios and
patterns, our programs are much more precise. Also,
correction deeper and more permanent.
OTHER REASONS FOR HIGHER NUTRIENT DOSAGES IN SOME CASES
Nutritional
balancing may also recommend higher dosages of certain nutrients for other
reasons. These include:
1. Isolated nutrients and supplements are used to balance cellular
mineral ratios.
This is a rather amazing use of specific vitamins and minerals that was
developed by Dr. Paul Eck, and which I have refined and expanded. At times, rather high doses are needed
for short periods of time. They
work well, with no side effects, and can balance the body chemistry in amazing
ways.
2.
Isolated nutrients and foods can be used to counteract or ameliorate specific
physical, mental or emotional symptoms.
Thousands
of studies have demonstrated that targeted nutrient therapy can reduce and even
prevent many types of symptoms.
For
example, vitamins A and C, along with zinc and selenium, in high enough doses, can
reduce the severity of many infections.
Many
mental, emotional problems and neurological conditions such as depression,
anxiety, epilepsy and many others also respond very well to nutrient
supplementation programs.
This
is another area of nutrition that is sadly overlooked by the medical,
psychological and modern psychiatric professions. Instead, they are owned by the drug industry. Most also do not understand the
connection between nutrients in the brain and behavior. If they did, they would quickly start
using nutritional balancing science, as it is so powerful, safe and, in many
cases, quite simple to use as well.
If
they at least acknowledged the toxicity to the nervous system of common metals
like copper, cadmium, mercury and others, we would all be far better off. The medical drugs are a very poor
substitute for fixing brain chemistry, which, as stated above, is often not so
difficult if one is trained in this area.
In
this context, I offer training to any practitioner who wishes to learn this. Also we offer a Diploma program and
advanced training for anyone who wishes to become a practitioner in nutritional
balancing science. This is
discussed on two web pages, entitled Certification and Advanced Training
in Nutritional Balancing.
3.
Precise nutrients helpful for trauma, such as rape. We have found that specific nutients in precise dosages can reverse the damaging
physical and mental/emotional effects of most traumas, PTSD,
rape, anxiety attacks and other related problems. This is discussed in two articles on this website, Rape And What To Do About It and Trauma Release.
4. Precise supplements required for what I
call mental development. A critical benefit of nutritional
balancing science that Dr. Eck and others discovered is that certain nutrients
given at the right time in the right quantities will activate finer centers in
the brain. This can help allow
people to fulfill their true potential as a human being.
For
example, zinc and selenium in the proper bioavailable
forms are among the most important nutrients that usually need to be supplemented. This is due to widespread deficiencies
of these nutrients in the soils and foods of planet earth, and due to peopleÕs
special needs and special life situations.
In
addition, the omega-3 fatty acids and kelp are critical for mental development in
some people. This process will
never happen in the same way if a person tries to just use medical drugs for
healing, or even if the person likes to meditate or do yoga for spiritual
development or relaxation. Yoga,
in fact, we find harmful. Read Yoga, Its Benefits And Problems for more on this
interesting topic.
This is a desperate need for mental
development on planet earth at this time, to stop the wars, the starvation and
many other problems. This can only
happen when enough people are functioning at high enough levels to come up with
creative solutions to these vexing problems that affect us all, directly or
indirectly. This topic is
discussed in several articles on this site entitled Mental Development, Ways To Assist Mental Development, Diet and Mental Development, and
others.
WHY DOES NUTRITIONAL BALANCING USE A PROPERLY PERFORMED HAIR
TISSUE MINERAL ANALYSIS TO RECOMMEND SUPPLEMENT DOSAGES?
Many
methods can be used to assess body chemistry and recommend nutritional
supplements to improve oneÕs health.
Common ones include blood tests, urine tests, applied kinesiology or
muscle testing, the use of various electrical machines, questionnaires, diet
analyses, computer software based on diet and symptoms, stool tests, and
others.
I have
experimented with many of these systems.
The most successful for me, although certainly not the simplest or
easiest to implement, has been the use of a hair tissue mineral test. The test must be run by a lab that does
not wash the hair, of which I know of only two in the entire world. Also, the test must be interpreted
properly using stress theory, chaos theory, metabolic types set up by Dr. Eck,
and a number of other parameters.
When
this is done, the results have been the best, by far, of any method I have
used. For details on why the hair
mineral biopsy method works so well, controversy with this method, and more,
read Introduction To Hair Mineral Analysis and
other articles on nutritional balancing science on this website.
OTHER SUPPLEMENT-RELATED TOPICS - HERBS
Commonly
used food supplements include over one thousand herbs. Many come from ancient Chinese, Native
American or other healing traditions.
Herb texts describe many ways to use herbs for healing and nourishment
of the body. Dr. Paul Eck, founder
of nutritional balancing science, did not use too many herbs for a number of
reasons:
1.
Inability to balance the body precisely. Because herbs contain many nutrients and other substances,
it is not as easy as it is with isolated nutrients to use herbs to precisely
balance mineral ratios on a hair analysis. Since this is the basis for todayÕs nutritional balancing
science, the herbs are of less use.
2.
They are often a little toxic. For example, aluminum-containing herbs
include peppermint, spearmint and wintergreen. They are helpful to settle an upset stomach, but are also
somewhat toxic for this reason. A
cup of peppermint tea on a regular basis is therefore not ideal though using it
once in a while is fine.
All
Chinese or Ayurvedic (East Indian) herbs seem to be
somewhat toxic. Occasional use is
okay, but regular use is not good at all.
3.
Quality can vary tremendously.
This problem is getting worse as more people want to use herbs, and
there are fewer places to grow them that are free of chemicals and other soil
contaminants.
4.
Since quality varies, dosing of herbs can be difficult. This means that one does not always
know how much to take. If the herb
is very potent, much less is needed.
This can lead to overdoses.
5.
Combinations of herbs can be even more toxic or may not mix well in other ways. This is the same problem as mixing
medical drugs, to a degree. Herbal
combinations can oppose each other or impact one another in harmful ways,
although herbs tend to be safer than medical drugs.
6.
Cost. Good quality
herbs are often costly. Nutritional
balancing attempts to keep costs down wherever possible so more people can
benefit. This is another reason
herbs are not used much in nutritional balancing.
HOMEOPATHIC REMEDIES
Homeopathy
is a 150-year-old approach to healing that is extremely interesting. It is a type of energetic medicine
using very diluted and ÒpotentizedÓ remedies that
begin as common minerals, herbs, and every other substance imaginable. They are prepared in special ways so
that eventually just the energy of the substance remains, with little if any of
the original compound or substance.
When
prescribed correctly, which is very difficult, they may have good effects on
the body and mind. Homeopathic
remedies are generally much safer than pharmaceutical drugs. However, they are not easy to use
properly. Other problems with them
is they do not balance the oxidation rate or mineral ratios. Also, they are much too yin in Chinese
medical terms to be used regularly. An exception in which they can be helpful is for symptomatic relief of a cold, flu or other
condition, which is a short-term use.
OTHER SPECIALTY PRODUCTS
Today,
thousands of other products are sold as food supplements. Some are excellent and may be added to
nutritional balancing programs, at times.
For more about some of these products, read the article entitled Specialty Products.
Many
products at health food and drug stores, however, should be avoided, however,
as most contain toxic substances.
A second reason to avoid taking too many supplements is they appear to
confuse the body and most are very yin in Chinese medical terminology. This is harmful today, even if the
supplement itself is beneficial. I
know this is confusing, but it is an important as aspect of supplementation. For more on this topic, read the
article Yin and Yang Healing.
Supplements
to avoid. The following
supplements are generally okay for a month or two. However, avoid all prolonged use:
á
Fulvic and humic acid products.
These will give symptomatic results, but they contain some toxic metals and
therefore are not good long-term.
á
All chelation
products. These are often extracts
of cilantro, chlorella, bugleweed,
yellow dock, and may contain EDTA, DMPS, DMSA and other chelators.
á
Clay products such as bentonite, zeolite, montomorillonite, azomite and others that popular today as chelators or cleansing products.
á
All herbs, as discussed above. A list of safer herbs is given below. Unfortunately, I find very few herbal
products that I can recommend besides simple nourishing herbs such as chamomile
tea, hibiscus tea and others.
á
Most protein powders, cleansing drinks and powders,
intestinal cleansers and related products. These tend to be very yin, nutritionally incomplete, often
bad food combinations, and should only be used, if at all, for very short
periods of time for these reasons.
Whole foods are generally much better. For example, one can live on rice for a week if one wishes
to do an intestinal cleanse.
However, with most nutritional balancing programs, such cleanses and
detoxification regimens are totally unnecessary and usually slow down our
progress. Exceptions are rare.
á
Herbal
fruit drinks. A little of these,
such as acai, wolfberry and camu
camu, and perhaps a few others are good for a short
time. However, most are loaded
with fruit juices and other sweeteners, so they are very yin, once again. They can also bad and ferment. They will give symptomatic results, but
eventually they make the body extremely yin, which is not helpful in the
slightest. Most of the others are
once again very yin, which is not too helpful though they are nutritious.
á
Avoid most random and symptomatic supplementation. This is very tempting, but in fact,
often slows down progress on nutritional balancing programs. Many supplements are not necessary or
helpful in almost all instances.
Too many confuse the body, are very yin, and easily negate the benefits
of the ones that are needed.
Symptomatic nutrition is a completely different approach to healing than
nutritional balancing, and one that does not go nearly as deep and is not as
thorough as nutritional balancing as it does not enhance vitality in the same
way.
á
All ÒnaturalÓ and Òbio-identicalÓ hormones. Unfortunately, these are becoming more
and more widely used. They are all
drugs, from our perspective, since hormones are supposed to be made inside the
body, second by second, in very precise amounts depending on the bodyÕs needs.
Taking
hormones from the outside always upsets the bodyÕs natural feedback mechanisms
and, in our experience, always slows or even stops progress on nutritional
balancing science. Hormone therapy
is part of allopathic medicine, which is a totally different approach to health
than nutritional balancing science.
Please beware and do not use hormone replacement therapy if at all
possible. We find we do not need
it in 99% of the cases.
á
Also beware of alkaline water machines –
all brands. One is basically
drinking filtered tap water, which is not great. Then the water is passed over platinum and titanium
plates. This will impart a little
of these extremely toxic metals to the water, as well.
To
alkalinize the body, eat plenty of cooked vegetables. Even worse may be alkaline water from water stores. They begin with reverse osmosis water,
which is not healthful. Then they
add coral calcium, which often contains some toxic metals. The combination drives the toxic metals
deep into the body cells, causing severe problems after a year of so.
á
Avoid all water from water machines that use
reverse osmosis.
HERBS GENERALLY SAFE FOR OCCASIONAL USE
These include acacia
gum, agar, alfalfa, aloe vera, angelica root, anise,
ash tree, astragalus, balm of gilead,
baptisia or wild indigo, barberry, bayberry, bay
leaves, bee pollen, bet root, birch, bittersweet, blackberry, black radish and
all radishes, black walnut, bladderwrack, blessed
thistle, bloodroot, blue and black cohosh, blue vervain, boneset, borage, buchu,
burdock root, calamus root, calendula, camphor,
capsicum, caraway, cardamom, cassia oil, cayenne, cedar berries, celery root, chia seeds, cinnamon, cloves, comfrey,
don quoi, eluthero, dulse,
dill, elder flowers, coriander
or cilantro to eat but not extracts, corn silk, cranberry, cumin, daikon, dandelion leaves and roots, dill, dong quai, dulse, echinacea,
elder flowers, eleuthero, eucalyptus, eyebright,
fennel, fenugreek, flax, fu-sho oil, garlic,
geranium, ginger, gingko biloba, goldenrod, green
magma, gum Arabic, hawthorn berries, hops, horehound, horseradish, horsetail
and huckleberry leaf.
Others are hydrangea, hyssop, Irish moss,
jojoba oil, juniper berries, kelp, ladyÕs slipper, lavender, lemon balm, lemon
grass, lily of the valley, linseed oil, maple, marigold, marshmallow root, milk
thistle, motherwort, mullein, mustard, myrrh, nettles, nutmeg, oat straw, Oregon
grape root, pansy, parsley, passion flower, peach, pennyroyal, peppermint,
periwinkle, plaintain, pleurisy root, poke, poplar,
prickly pear cactus, psyllium, pygium,
pyrus communis, radishes
(black, white, red, Russian, Spanish and other), raspberry, red clover, red
sage, rhubarb, rose, rosehips, rosemary, safflower, sassafras, saw palmetto, senna, shave grass, shepherdÕs purse, skunk cabbage,
slippery elm, sorrel, spearmint, squaw vine, St. JohnÕs wort,
strawberry leaves, suma, sumach
berries, sweet basil, tansy, thuja, thyme, tiger
balm, turkey rhubarb, turmeric, unicorn root, uva ursi, valerian, violet leaves, watercress, watermelon
seeds, wheat grass juice, white
oak bark, white willow, wild cherry bark, wild lettuce, wild yam, wintergreen,
witch hazel, wood betony, wood sage, wormwood, yarrow, yellow vervain, and yucca.
SUPPLEMENT LEGISLATION
Food
supplements in the United States are protected from excessive regulation by the
FDA by the Dietary Health and Supplement Education Act of 1994. Though it has been amended, this law
essentially classifies supplements differently than drugs as Òfoods for special
useÓ. Drug companies and their
cronies make every effort to regulate supplements out of existence, as
supplements often directly compete with drug profits.
Recently,
laws were passed in both houses of Congress, led mainly by Ted Kennedy, Dick
Durbin, Hillary Clinton and Henry Waxman.
The bill requires supplement companies to comply with the same adverse
reporting requirements as drug companies.
The cost of implementing this bill could drive many smaller supplement
companies out of business. And
that is the unspoken goal.
The
Codex Alimentarius is a second push by international
drug companies and some others to reduce our health status further. This way there will be far more demand
for patent remedies, which are drugs.
The
Codex would also regulate the supplement industry and perhaps eliminate it
altogether unless one has a doctorÕs prescription. It could reduce the allowable over-the-counter dosages of
all vitamins and minerals to levels so low the products wonÕt be worth
producing.
Food
supplements often provide 10 to 100 times the Recommended Daily Allowance of a
nutrient. They must do so to
offset the poor absorption and extra needs of thousands of people.
The
Codex rules are already law in parts of Europe and scheduled to begin to take
effect in the United States of America in 2009. If we value our freedom to choose and our health, these and
similar efforts must be stopped.
References
Many
books and websites provide documentation for this article. Listed below are just a few of them:
1.
Anderson, M. and Jensen, B., Empty
Harvest: Understanding the Link Between Our Food, Our Immunity and Our Planet,
Avery Penguin Putnam, 1993.
2. Atkins, R., Dr. Atkins Health Revolution, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA, 1988.
3. Fitzgerald, R., The Hundred Year Lie, Dutton, Penguin Group, New York, 2006.
4. Hall, R.H.,
Food For Naught, The Decline in Nutrition,
Vintage Books, New York, 1974.
5. Hoffer, A. and
Walker, M., Orthomolecular Nutrition,
Keats Publishing, 1978.
6. Illich,
I., Medical Nemesis, Bantam Books,
New York, 1976.
7. Jensen, B. and Andereson,
M., Empty Harvest, Avery, Pnguin Putnam, New York, 1990.
8. Pfeiffer, C.C., Mental and Elemental Nutrients, Keats, Publishing, New Canaan, CT,
1975.
9. Santillo,
H., Natural Healing With Herbs, Hohm Press, Prescott,
AZ, 1989.
10. Schmidt, M., Smith, L., and Sehnert, K., Beyond
Antibiotics, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA,1993.
11. Wilson, L., Nutritional Balancing
And Hair Mineral Analysis, The Center For Development, 2005, 2010.
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