NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS AND NUTRITIONAL
BALANCING
by Lawrence Wilson, MD
© November 2011, 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 thousands of 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 excellent effects on the body and mind. Homeopathic remedies are generally much safer than
pharmaceutical drugs. However,
they are not easy to use at all.
Other problems with them is they do not balance the oxidation rate or
mineral ratios, specifically.
Therefore, Dr. Eck did not use them and we do not, either. Exceptions in which they can be helpful are:
1. Symptomatic use. For example,
one can go to the health food store and find homeopathic remedies for a cold or
flu, to assist sleep, improve digestion, reduce pain and so on.
2. In the future, research may reveal other ways to incorporate them into
nutritional balancing protocols in limited ways, such as Ôconstitutional
remediesÕ for various mineral patterns.
This is not done today, however.
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 toxic metals in spades.
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 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
Many food-based nutritional
supplements. While some are needed
in nutritional balancing science, most are not. They are excellent for symptomatic purposes, but less
effective, often, when the goal is to balance the body chemistry
precisely. Dosages are often low,
odd ingredients cause problems, and the supplements are more costly. For more on this topic, read Food-Based Supplements.
á
Avoid all 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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