Nutritional Supplement Questions Answered!

WARNING!

Warning. Do not take any fiber product when taking supplements affected by the action of the fiber (ex. multivitamin). As fiber speeds materials through the intestinal tract, so too are supplements and their absorption is hindered.

Astaxanthin - Took 12mg pd for almost 2 months. Cannot say I felt better or stronger for it. Did have sore gums and tongue throughout though, as if on the verge of breaking out with mouth ulcers. Now that I have discontinued astaxanthin for 3 days, soreness is gone. Could be coincidence obviously (I do get funny symptoms in my body quiet regularly)

BETTER BUT WITH SIDE EFFECTS

I experment with it now and then and find that it does have an effect.. Most notably on inflammation.. (for myself).. However initially found it affected my digestion. (diarrhea) I also take it with a multi cartenoid. Since it is just one of hundreds of beneficial cartenoids.. With this one it is good to take breaks since there are no long term studies. & better not to overdue it. I just take one 4mg at bedtime.. There are a few supplements and herbs I seem to go back to and this is one.. But as you see in the posts here it's affects depend on the individual...

WARNING!

Try to find supplements without magnesium stearate, it's been discovered that it blocks the immune system from working! Since finding supps without it, my immune system is working and I am much better from Morgellons

WARNING!

Magnesium Stearate is found in many compressed tablet forms of vitamins, minerals etc and is only used to actually help form the tablet. When I used Ascorbic Acid tablets in the past I would crush them up and add water as Ted advises. But this always produced a cloudy, milky solution. That is caused by the Mag Stearate. When I switched and used pure Ascorbic acid powder, the solution was always crystal clear. Being a waxy substance, Mag Stearate also interfere's with digestion and absorbtion of nutrients, and some people are actually allergic to it. The best forms of vitamins, minerals and nutrients to take are either in powdered form or in a capsule(containing powder). Avoid all tablets forms if you can.

Another interesting article I discovered today as I was researching... has charts on eye-deficiency symptoms, skin-deficiency symptoms, hair and nail deficiency symptoms, and tongue and mouth deficiency symptoms: http://www.health-science-spirit.com/deficiency.html

orthomolecular.org is also a good reputable source for info as EC is.

I love both of these sites. Thank you to everyone for info and insight.

During the time I was involved with the NOMSG consumer group I was advised that the ingredients of NatureMade had been tested and were the safest for consumption at that time. Even though our food supply is changing, I still use them with no known problem and also use the powdered magnesium oxide from NOW.

KT

Oh no! Thanks for sharing this. I bought some Artemsesia Annua capsules from Swanson after reading a post here about its effectiveness for viral infections. I ended up purchasing other items with my order, many of them Swanson brand. I think I may return them.

Dear Gert,

You are super smart! I wish they would hire you to teach others how to maximize their welfare dollars or even their limited food budget. It makes me very sad to see people in the grocery store using that money on soda pop and potato chips. Especially for the children, who are at the mercy of parents to feed them nutritious foods. And, I admire your efforts to stay off welfare. I think you are making great use of the money you have for food.

Since reading your post, I have been wondering what supplement I would consider most essential...and I couldn't pick one. I supposed because it might depend upon your current health and needs. For example, for my son that gets migraines, I would have feverfew on the list. But most don't need that.

That said, some things I love to have on hand because they are effective, versatile and inexpensive are:

Raw Apple Cider Vinegar

Blackstrap Molasses

Activated Charcoal

Turmeric

Fresh garlic

Perhaps you do this, but you can sprout your lentils to increase their nutrition. Lentil sprouts taste a bit peppery. I like them when someone in my house gets around to making them. :)

One possibility would be to use a bit of the money to buy herb plants that have many applications. Even in a sunny window or apartment balcony you should be able to grow peppermint and comfrey which are wonderful. Also, if you have access to an area that is unsprayed to pick plantain and save it and dry it, plantain is an amazing herb.

Looking forward to reading ideas others have.

~Mama to Many~

Magnesium Powder is essential. I mention magnesium powder specfically because it does not contribute to the problems from capsules or binders and fillers in tablets. Any combination of these can cause more ailments than is recognized. It has taken me over two decades to learn this, piecemeal.

I must add Cinnamon to Mamma's herb list especially if one is suffering from overweight issues.

Chicken or Calf Liver contains way more nutrition than other meats per weight.

Two more items on the superfood list which may be purchased wholsale after maybe extensive shopping: Bee Pollen & Brewers Yeast.

For those who want to eat LIVER for medicinal purpose or general health. Can try this recipe. It is my mom's family recipe at least 200 years old. This liver fry can be eaten with Bread, Boiled Rice. We used to have it with boiled rice along mutton curry. In our region in South India, people who have any digestive ailments with take liver fry to increase digestion.

Thanks, Good Health

Ingredients:

• Goat Liver - 450 Gms
• Chopped Onion - 1 Cup
• Oil - 4 tbsp
• Poppy Seeds - 1 tbsp
• Cumin Seeds - 1 tbsp
• Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
• Pepper Corns - 1/2 tsp
• Cayenne Pepper (Dry Red Chilli) - 4
• Salt - To Taste

Preparation

1. Cut liver into small pieces and clean it with water mixed with salt and turmeric powder. (use separate salt and turmeric powder)

2. Marinate cleaned liver with salt and 1/4 tsp Turmeric powder.

3. Dry roast cumin seeds, black pepper, poppy seeds, dry red chilli in medium heat till you get a nice aroma.

4. After roasting, let it cool , then mix it with 1 tsp turmeric powder and grind it to find powder.

5. Heat a wide pan or pressure cooker. Add oil.

6. When the oil is heated, add chopped onions and saut? till the onion becomes translucent.

7. Now add the marinated liver into the pan and saut? along with the onion.

8. Add Half a glass of water and close the pan or cooker, and cook it for 15 mins.

9. Check if the liver is cooked well,

10. Once cooked, add the ground spices and cook for some time till the oil separates.

11. Add more salt for taste, if required.

Delicious Liver fry is ready, Tastes great with a bowl of boiled rice.

Anon from Queens, I made the switch from "colloidal" form of minerals to the "ionic" about a yr ago and felt positive results immediately. Mine is "Trace Minerals Research" derived from the Great Salt Lake in Utah. As for dangers, the worst minerals would be lead, cadmium, and mercury. Most manufacturers screen out the big 3 from the original substrate. The elements you mentioned do not seem to pose any threat to biological organisms in the quantity recommended for daily consumption.

The benefits of trace mineral supplementation are numerous. Some researchers believe that the human lifespan is greatly decreased as a result of trace minerals deficiency. The Hunzas as well as other people who have natural sources of trace minerals in their drinking water can and have reached ages over 120 yrs.

To obtain an objective status you would want to have a hair mineral analysis before and after supplementation.

I have found a mineral interaction chart that helps you determine whether the minerals you are taking are actually antagonists to other needed minerals. From the chart you can also see that high mercury levels in the body deplete the body of iodine. Also a high calcium level is also an antagonist to Zinc. Interesting and worthwhile keeping a copy of the chart handy to ensure you are not overdosing in one mineral to the detriment of another.

http://permaculturepower.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/mulder's-interaction-chart/

WARNING!

For all the Morgellon sufferers out there, I just found out something important, it turns out that many of our vitamins & supplements ( even good brands ) have Magnesium Stearate in them, I myself have been taking up to 7 different supplements per day with it in them! My doctor who is baffled that I cannot get my immune system built up even though I have been on epicor for two years, suggested that I go home and check the labels on all my OTC pills because Magnesium Stearate blocks immune builders and tears down the immune system, never more than 1 pill a day should be taken with this ingredient in it.

Hi Petunia... Your story reminded me of an article I read several years ago when I was researching the efficacy of multivitamins in general. The author of the article was interviewing a man involved with human faecal sewage. During the interview the sewage manager admitted that when he first began working at the sewage plant, he noticed lots and lots of multicoloured pills in the excreted human faeces. These were the multivitamin pills that everyone religiously takes every morning.

I also learned that most multivitamin pill manufacturers use synthetic patented vitamins -- not natural food vitamins. This is what makes multivits so expensive. As well, since I had learned a bit about vitamins by then, I also noticed that the RDA dosages of all multivit nutrients were far too small to be very beneficial. Then, of course, I also discovered that multivit tablets didn't even get digested. Also, these multivitamins that contain minerals don't tell you that taking, say, calcium, zinc and iron together at the same time in one pill will act to inhibit each other's uptake uptake because calcium, zinc and iron all compete for the same absorbtion pathways in the intestines.

In the end I settled on just using dessicated liver(DL) tablets. I just chew and swallow these tablets now, I take 3 tablets at mealtimes. The reason I take DL now is because liver contains every single vitamin, amino acid and mineral that your body needs and in the most bio-available forms. DL is also high in B vitamins. Ted prefers to take raw chicken livers mixed in a blender with fruit juice and Max Gerson -- from the Gerson Therapy -- used raw calve's liver and carrot juice blended together in a mixer to help cure his patients of both cancer and tuberculosis. I also regard DL as a better than chlorella or spirulina -- because particularly amino acids and mineral nutrient forms are simply not as bio-available or as easily digested by humans as animal forms. Generally, you can buy these DL tablets in bulk at any weight training shop -- and its relatively cheap, because it's really just a food -- liver.

I've given up taking many supplements long ago -- I always try and take the natural form if possible, and completely agree with Ted's low opinion of multivitamin supplements particularly being insoluble and not capable of being digested.

I read an article not long ago(sorry, can't remember the website) where the article author was analyzing the usefulness, efficacy and safety of supplements. So he went to a city sewage complex and questioned the sewage manager, the main man who dealt mainly with human sewage. On questioning him, this sewage manager freely admitted that, everyday, when he inspected the human sewage, he saw thousands upon thousands of multi-coloured pills in the faeces, which could only have been multivitamin pills and other supplements. All undigested.

So what Ted says about pills being insoluble and therefore useless is entirely correct.

Whenever I do take any form of pill supplement -- such as simple Ascorbic Acid -- I always pulverize it into a powder first and then dissolve this in a glass of water before I take it(as per Ted's advice). With Ascorbic acid, I also add baking soda to the solution to create the much friendlier and absorbable alkaline form of vitamin C -- Sodium Ascorbate. And even when I do this alkalizing procedure I have to scrape off the strange scum that forms on the surface of the water(caused by the strange binding agents and additives in the pill).

Most vitamin and multi-vitamin manufacturers don't give a tinker's cuss whether their products are in the right form for your body or not, they just produce a bright shiny-coloured pill that looks nice, that puts you into a trusting comfort zone, and yet does nothing whatsoever for your body.

The supplement pill is usually packed with strange binding agents like magnesium stearate, stearic acid, micro-cellulose agents, starch etc. In other words, if your are convinced by the advertising then you've been emotionally suckered by the supplement pill manufacturers and you may be buying something that is completely useless and not so body-friendly.

So the only way is to educate yourself. Anyone who comes to this Earth Clinic site will soon learn more about herbs, body-friendly chemicals and natural medications than at any other website I know. Here, they show both sides -- the yeas and nays -- of a protocol. Better than any expensive, double-blind placebo, FDA steered wacko research anyday. And the part I love about this site is that everyone tries to genuinely help each other. There is no more honest and better way.

Dear Linda from Higbo, MO

12/20/2006: Linda from Higbo, MO writes, "Just found your website so this question may have already been answered. If your daily vitamin doesn't dissolve completely in water within 15-20 minutes will it work to wait until it dissolves (or to pulverize it) and then drink it?"

Twenty some years ago I was doing some colonics to remove old mucus from my colon. I found the un-disolved tablets of supplements I had be taking in what came out of me. The enteric coating of some the suplements were still intact. That means that the supplement went completely through me with out disolving and therefore I did not absorb any of the supplement. The problem with tablets is that some of the fillers used in them are binders and when the manufacturer compresses them they become rocks and never dissolve. This is why it is better to buy supplements in capsules which have less fillers. It is even better to buy them in powders that have no fillers. Some fillers can cause bad reactions in some people and can interfer with the absorption of some supplements. If you can't take the taste of the supplement then cap them yourself otherwise you are just wasting your money and not getting the benefits of the supplements you are taking. There are some manufacturers that are mindful of their customers and make tablets that dissolve. You will find that these tablets disolve in the mouth if you leave them there 2 or 3 minutes. This is a subject that everyone should keep in mind when buying supplements in order to get maximum potential from them. It is also thoughtful when leaving posts here at EC that one would consider using a supplement with maximum absorption vs leaving a post on a supplement which will give no benefit because it cannot be absorbed.

Some of us with methlylation issues may well overload on supplements. I also found out I have a gene where I do not detox normally. That can also mean too much of a good thing will also not detox as needed.

Just curious, if I'm very low income and can't afford extra's, what supplements and or vitamins should I take at a bare minimum? I do what I can--exercise, avoid chemicals for bathing/cleaning/etc, but food options aren't so great. I eat a lot of beans, oatmeal, lentils, onions, garlic, cabbage, potatoes, carrots. If I spend my little reserve on something, what should it be. I have around $80/m to spend on food & refuse to get on welfare. The food bank at church hands out prepared cereals, canned soups, etc which I am grateful for but that may not be better than my pintos with onion. What say you?

Raw Liver supplements or even cooked liver is one of the (imho) top ten super-foods.