THE TRUTH ABOUT SUPPLEMENTS!

Every few months there is yet another press release and clinical trial which seek to discredit the supplement industry. I have to say, that it doesn’t take a great deal of knowledge to set up such a trial. All you need are some willing and unsuspecting victims, ideally with poorly absorbing guts and poor compliance and give them the poorest quality supplements in suboptimal dosing and without the co-factors necessary for efficacy and hey presto we have a supplement that doesn’t work. Well, there’s a surprise! Just as we question the integrity of most of what we read in the media, ‘Health’ and the P.R. surrounding it is at the mercy of those who can afford to pay. Instead, if you are serious about searching for truth, speak to a professional or academic who is not sponsored by a vested interest.

My advice when reading about any studies pertaining to Health is to dig deep and find out who sponsored them. This little piece of information is critical as the cleverly pre-determined conclusions say more about the intention of the study than they ever do about the supplement or lifestyle change they purport to evaluate. There is a growing movement globally to take the responsibility for health away from the Allopathic drug based approach which offers at best symptomatic relief to a more holistic, patient centred approach which tackles disease at its root.

In our information world, people are becoming more and more aware of the alternatives out there and the vast array of sensible, professional advice on getting to the root cause of disease and supporting the whole person. More than that, they are following such advice successfully and are doing so in their millions. As a result the Pharmaceutical companies are terrified and are spending millions with PR companies trying to discredit anything that is a threat to the dominance they have enjoyed for decades. Ironically, all they actually achieve is to get intelligent people talking and doing their own research thank you very much! In addition, discerning people know that the key to health is prevention and that means living life as nature intended. Daily walking, drinking plenty of water, deep breathing, meditation, mindfulness etc., don’t cost a penny and yet the cost to our health if we don’t follow such basics can be devastating. Nutritional advice is also important but it needs to come from a professional B.A.N.T. registered Nutritional Therapist. This is because our starting points, cooking ability, food intolerances, absorption ability, age, pre-existing health conditions and habits are all different. What works for one does not work for another and just as we are all different, any protocol we are given needs to reflect and honour that.

On the subject of supplements, these should only be necessary if there are specific nutrient deficiencies and or mal-absorption or under-nutrition due to pre-existing conditions. They should be given for a specified time period and purchased from a reputable source. Advice from a Nutritional Therapist which is based on taking a full (from birth) medical history together with a detailed analysis of current diet and medications, will direct you to products with proven safety and efficacy. They will also recommend lifestyle and nutritional changes to work in conjunction with any supplement programme and you will notice that supplements recommended have been designed to work with other specific co-factors and at specific doses. The dose is not necessarily the highest but it will be optimal for your condition and it will work with other nutrients reflecting the way it works in nature. This is a world away from picking up a cheap ineffective ‘pill’ in the supermarket or so called ‘health shops’. These products have poor design, suboptimal dosing and dodgy fillers and you may be in danger of overdosing on something your body doesn’t even need. A classic example of this is the overuse of Iron tablets which people grab in supermarkets feeling that they are a bit run down. In reality their Iron levels may already be high and overdosing can be dangerous. Their tiredness may be related to other issues and a Nutritional Therapist can direct you to some possible culprits and may advise blood testing from your G.P.

Who needs a Nutritional Therapist? EVERYONE! Most of us in this country have been exposed to the perils of the ‘Western Diet’ with its poor quality grains, dodgy fats, toxic sugar substitutes, highly sprayed fruits and vegetables, antibiotics in the food industry and highly processed nutrient depleted foods! It will come as no surprise that the legacy from this kind of lifestyle is slowly killing us with rates of all types of cancers on the increase and rates of disease based on Obesity in all age groups crippling the N.H.S. The cost of Diabetes alone is 10% of the N.H.S. budget and the crazy thing is that Type 2 Diabetes (which represents 90% of Diabetes) is a lifestyle disease!

You will have noticed the soaring number of people with food allergies and intolerances and a whole section in the supermarket devoted to ‘Free From’ foods. You may even feel you are one of them! Conditions such as asthma, eczema, Psoriasis. Irritable Bowel, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Menstrual problems, PMS, Mental Health Conditions, ADHD, Autism, Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Migraine, Thyroid Disease, Adrenal Dysfunction, etc. etc., are also on the increase and all respond well to Nutritional Therapy.

If you are thinking about giving yourself an MOT this New Year and taking a serious, long look in the mirror, then I urge you to find a Registered Therapist today. If you are lucky enough to live in or near Edinburgh you could take advantage of an initial 2 hour Nutritional Consultation plus 1 hour follow up at our student clinics. This means £180 worth of advice for only £30! All Clinics are of course supervised and are a fabulous opportunity to dip your toes into Nutritional Waters and gain some life changing advice for you and your family. Even if you don’t have an array of health issues, you may be needing an MOT to boost energy levels, drop a little weight, to find out where your pre-menstrual spots and headaches are coming from or why you only move your bowels every 3 days! Oops! It’s surprising what you find out when you visit a therapist! Better to find out now and prevent the inevitability of unnecessary health conditions creeping into an unchecked lifestyle. Of course it’s also good to find out what we’re doing right and I can promise you no shortage of encouragement and enthusiasm for all the great things you are already doing. The road to health is a team effort and we are all in the same boat whether therapist or client as we try to make sense of the confusing information, poor labelling, and misinformation full of nothing more than mischievous profit centred self-interest!

So, if you’re confused, muddling along,  frustrated with current health issues and desperate to make 2014 the year you turned it all around, make yourself an appointment with a Nutritional Therapist and put the YOU back into, well….you!

 (For Further information re student clinics, contact me and I can arrange your appointment)