This is the second & final installment of our discussion on Nutritional Supplements. There is a need for & most importantly an understanding what certain terms really mean when used in reference to nutritional supplements:
? First we need understand all vitamins are organic substances, regardless of their origin e.g. plant or animal. Organic substances made by plants do not provide calories & are identical in every way.
? Secondly, vitamins are made by plants. They are in the plant but do not contain traces of the chemical additives used in processing the synthetic/man-made vitamins.
When the plant-made vitamin is extracted from the plant, it’s richest parts are removed & processed into a crystalline powder &/or into tablets. The processed/synthetic man-made vitamins contain unwanted traces of additive chemicals used in their processing. The real difference, however, is that natural plant-made vitamins have only natural components. On the other hand, the man-made/synthetic versions contain traces of the chemicals used in their processing & therein lies the difference. The debate between Natural v. Synthetic Supplements rages on. The only way to ensure you are consuming additive-free vitamins is to eat more whole foods which are much better than continuing to consume artificial artifact foods that have little or no nutrients, are filled with unwanted chemical additives & bears little, if any, resemblance to the natural food/plant substance.
Another issue to be realised is to identify the particular vitamin(s) that’s needed & exactly how much of that particular nutrient will be required. At best, lab tests are only moderately helpful. You could be consuming the deficient vitamin but not near enough to correct a deficiency, an illness or a dependency condition. Understanding each vitamin’s unique properties will also prove helpful when trying to achieve a correct dose.
A spoken word can have different meanings to different listening ears. It becomes even more important to understand certain terms when considering also the safety & toxicity of natural supplements. Here are some examples: potentially toxic is very different from toxic & toxic is different from death. When the word toxic is used, it can convey a false message of immediate or impending mortal danger. In the event of potential problems, your body would have given you symptomatic warnings before any serious toxic effects or pathology occur. Most times & especially when pain is not a factor, we tend to ignore the signs, hoping that they go away as we continue on our merry way.
Here is what the American Association of Poison Control Centres in the USA reported regarding death from vitamins. There has not even been a single death from vitamins per year. Supplements such as amino acids, vitamins, minerals or herbs have an extraordinarily longstanding safe usage record. Considering how widespread the use of supplements is today, supplements have enjoyed quite a remarkable safety record/history & they are extremely safe. The problem, however, is that people tend to take any & all supplements, including the ones that are not immediately needed & the synthetic/man-made ones.
Another issue is that people take lower doses as inaccurately recommended by the daily dietary requirements tables. Low doses will not correct a deficiency or dependency condition. This means people aren’t taking enough of the ones they really needed. In a twenty-three year period, there were about 10 deaths apparently linked to vitamins. According to the Poison control statistics, more people die from eating soap than they do from taking vitamins, even when accidental or intentional misuse is taken into consideration. Deaths from vitamins are extremely low, averaging less than one death per year over a twenty year period. The report included statistical information on such vitamins as vitamins A, B3, B6, other B complex vitamins C, D, E, K & multivitamins that do not contain iron.
Minerals are chemically & nutritionally different from vitamins & have an extraordinarily safe usage record as well, still not as good as vitamins. On average there have been one or two death per year as a result of iron poisoning, resulting from gross overdosing.
A rule of Thumb: never take iron supplement unless you’ve had a confirmed diagnosis of anemia.
Pharmaceutical drugs, on the other hand, paint a very stark picture. Pharmaceutical drugs have caused over 2000 deaths as reported to the Poison Control in just one year. The breakdown of these statistics include 13 deaths from antibiotics; 274 from antidepressants; 64 from antihistamines & another 164 from cardiovascular drugs. This is a death rate 30 times greater than the death from iron supplements. There have also been 39 deaths reported from aspirin use alone & still more when aspirin is combined with other products. Recent statistics also show that there are at least 106,000 hospital deaths from pharmaceutical drugs each year in the USA, even when the drugs were taken as prescribed.
To contact Dr. Stan Horne:
1-264-582-7045
1-784-531-1150
Email: naturopathyplus@yahoo.co.uk
