Friday, February 17, 2017

One Degree of Change #38

One Degree of Change #38

The first book in the series!
We are two months into the new year.  Last year was amazing. It has been 11 months since I have written this blog.  No, I haven't been lazy, au contraire!  I have filled my year with a great teaching opportunity, growing my Functional Medicine practice and writing a book.  

My inspiration for the book, One Degree of Change X 10 started as an owner's manual for the human body.  I shifted that idea to incorporate my top ten blogs on health.  I created easy to understand physiology written in an entertaining format.  I am passionate about teaching my patients to fully discover the inner workings of the body within which they live.  In December 2016 the finished book was uploaded to Amazon/Kindle.  I'm working now to finish content so the book can go to the printer.  It is very exciting and I'm grateful for all of those who have read and responded positively to the information in the book.  So far, the book has been downloaded by over 250 readers since December!  A humble thank you!

One Degree of Change #38: Take whole food based supplementation: a Multivitamin, Trace Mineral w/ B12 and Tuna Omega 3 Oil Daily! I remember as a kid, we were given a daily vitamin, a "Flinstone" vitamin to be exact.  I learned early on that it was important to support the body with vitamins.  My parents were trying to do the right thing, but their education was limited to to what we saw on Saturday morning cartoons. Hence the need for "that" particular vitamin.  Little did my parents know that those vitamins and a majority of the over the counter vitamins are fractionated and synthetic.  The body has a difficult time recognizing the content of that "one-a-day" pill because of all of the food coloring and other artificial ingredients.

First of all, it is important to understand why we need vitamin supplementation. It is difficult to get all your vitamins from the foods you eat.  I know, I hear you saying, "But I eat healthy!"  Well, so do I, but it is nearly impossible to eat enough food to get the nutrients you need daily.  Do you eat fish every day?  Do you eat the rainbow of vegetables every day?  Do you eat only organic and non GMO every day?  You can probably say that you eat that way some of the time, but certainly not all of the time.  I can honestly say that I eat very well, but there are times when given an occasion of celebration or holiday season, that my food sources do not support my body's vitamin needs for that particular day.

If you are eating foods that are processed, the packaging may say "enriched" or "fortified" with vitamins.  But I guarantee that those processed foods were made inexpensively for long shelf life and that the ingredients used are most likely of lower quality and cheaper.  So it would only be fair to assume that the additions of "vitamins" are of the same lower cost and quality.

I want you to get nutrients, not chemicals, when you are trying to supplement your diet.  Some of my patients, who are trying to do the right thing, bring in their bag of vitamins and supplements to get approval.  They are like cats who proudly bring a dead bird to you.  I praise them for investing in their health, but sadly, much of what they are taking is a waste of time and money.

Let me explain what the difference of fractionated or synthetic vitamins are compared to whole food based supplementation.  Without getting all biochemical on you, it simply means that if you read the ingredients on the label of the vitamins you take and it you see words like thiamine, niacin or ascorbic acid, it is synthetic.  Ascorbic acid is a component of vitamin C, but it is sold as such to the uneducated consumer.  When you eat an orange, you are ingesting all of the components that make up vitamin C.  You don't reach in to the citrus tree and pull ascorbic acid off the tree.  But it is easily made in a lab, then labeled vitamin C.  The same goes for all of the vitamins, they work as synergists with the help of other components.  It is popular to hear D3 promoted to alleviate low blood levels of Vitamin D.  Once again it is only a part of the vitamin D complex.

My suggestion to patients for daily fundamental support is a whole food based multivitamin, trace minerals with B12 and a Tuna Omega 3 Oil.  In my practice I use Standard Process and MediHerb.
The three products that I recommend for patients to use on a daily basis are:
Download this ebook!

  1. Catalyn is great for supplying multiple vitamins and minerals for complete, complex nutritional supplementation and bridging any nutritional gaps. Download the ebook "Catalyn Changed Everything"
  2. Trace Mineral-B12 supports the body's enzymatic reactions by supplying a spectrum of minerals, co-factors for healthy cell functioning, support for ligament, cartilage, and bone structure; immune system and thyroid function; fat metabolism; and calcium utilization.
  3. Tuna Omega-3 Oil is important support for the heart, joints and brain.  It contains Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) to support normal lipid profiles. 
In our practice, we always strive to create wellness and make it as easy and mindless as possible. Standard Process has answered our request to combine these fundamentals for daily support into a box of packets called General Health Daily Fundamentals.  I love that they have produced a 60 day supply of individual packets that you can grab and go.  The box itself becomes a dispenser!  This allows you to be more compliant and get your supplementation into your body where it belongs (instead of sitting in a bottle in your cabinet)!





Here is your plan of action:
  1. Read the label on the vitamins you take.  If it doesn't have real food ingredients like pea vine, alfalfa, buckwheat juice, make a change.
  2. Incorporate a rainbow of veggies and fruits in your diet at least 3 times per day.
  3. Be mindful of singular or fractionated vitamins.  Mother Nature won't fool you, she has all the nutrients that work synergistically.
  4. Follow Hippocrates’ advice: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
  5. Don't buy into hype. Synthetic vitamins are standardized so they can be produced economically compared to the careful, labor-intensive, more expensive process of compounding whole foods.
I always remind my patients that "Food is your Pharmacy or should I say Farm-acy"! It is a challenge to eat everything your body needs all of the time.  Be good to that body, it's the only one that you get!



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