How perfect is the idea of the vitamin capsule?
Do you have an ailment but don't like the idea of herding to the doctor for a prescription?
Have you heard that every pill you take will immediately shut down your kidneys and give you Alzheimer's!?!?!?
Yep. Me too. So it only seems right that we, as the "thinking citizen", would opt out of those medications until ab.so.lute.ly. necessary. So, wayyy before chiropractic school, way back in my crunchy infancy, I started using supplements. Got a cold? Vitamin C, Zinc, echinacea. Heavy menstrual cramps? Cal/Mag, ginger tea, primrose oil, and a dash of black cohosh. These are the Dr. Google go-to's of supplementation. I firmly believed that if there was an issue, there was a vitamin, a mineral, or a pill to fix it. So maybe you are thinking, "A vitamin is way better than a prescription drug!" And in many ways you are right.
However, in my line of work, healing comes from the inside out. If you are dumping the highest quality gas into a car with a wrecked radiator.... it wont get you to your destination any quicker. As a chiropractor it is imperative that we ensure your brain is able to effectively communicate to your body and vice versa before we begin throwing the kitchen sink into the mix. You do you though. If you want to take a supplement, and you have either been advised by a trained professional or you have done your own research, I am certainly not speaking against that. What I am saying is that the sweeping protocols that make supplementation the billion dollar industry that it is, is really no better or more empowering than a prescription from the drug store. It may be better for you, it may cause less environmental and biological harm, but in simplest words: Allopathy is the method of taking a pill for an ailment
At present I can think of a few examples of supplementation that are misguided, and a few that are exceptions to my "no supplement" rule.
Misguided:
1. Vitamin D. We have ample research that says vitamin D is necessary for calcium to perform its best with bony lay down (new bone as old bone is broken down). Many people at this point will say, "The higher vit D levels the better!" This isn't true! [1]. Basically, about 2 decades ago, some researchers found that people with higher vitamin d levels had decreased homocysteine. Homocysteine is linked to cardiovascular disease. Because heart disease is still a heavy weight contender for most common cause of death, the healthcare world said, "oh, duh! Let's put everyone on a Vit D supplement and watch the heart disease plummet!" The major issue with this is that we aren't meant to ingest vitamin D. We are meant to create it inside of our bodies using our skin, our liver, and our blood. Vitamin D has a similar structure, or a base structure, of cholesterol; this is also true of estrogen and testosterone. So, structurally, vitamin d is like a hormone. What current research is showing us, is that when we put hormones in parts of our bodies that they aren't intended to be (ie estrogen in the digestive tract etc), we open a can of worms that we aren't exactly sure how to close. So oral supplementation of vitamin D is increasingly controversial. That being said, regulated sun exposure is an AMAZING option for anyone with a heartbeat. I recommend downloading the D minder app (no I don't get any kickback from them, plus it's free :)) and starting there. The app will tell you when to come inside and can even estimate the D3 produced in your body per session.
2. Iron. My grandmother was "iron deficient" for over 40 years. As a kid my iron levels were amazing, and then in my late teens/early twenties, it dipped a bit. If you've ever supplemented with iron, you may know well the constipation and other unpleasantness of supplementation. And if you "picked up what I was laying down" about the digestive tract you may be thinking, "But we do absorb iron through our digestive system!" And to that I, "Heck yeah!" So here are some questions for your healthcare provider if they suggest that you start taking iron supplements:
a) Is ferritin low? Or hemoglobin?
b) Given that Ferritin is NOT synthesized in the blood, EXACTLY how does a serum measurement of Ferritin
(i.e. an extracellular marker, and akin to “Kitchen temperature”…) relate to, or have ANY relevance to, the
Intracellular Ferritin Protein level (i.e. the storage protein synthesized INSIDE the cells, and is more akin to “Oven
temperature”)?
c) What’s the status of my mineral & vitamin co-factors that REGULATE Iron metabolism: i.e. Magnesium,
Bioavailable Copper, Zinc, Ceruloplasmin (Ferroxidase enzyme), & several select Iron markers?
d) Do I have markers of chronic inflammation (BUN/Creatinine ratio, H1c, CRP? If so, aren't those also heavily correlated to hypoferremia?
The list goes on. If you are ever interested, shoot me a message. There's about 12 other questions to ask before starting iron supplementation.
3. Folic Acid. Folic acid was synthetically created in the early 20th century. Up until that point our exposure to B9, the well known vitamin that influences neural tube development, was through folate. As of 1998 folic acid is a federally required fortification in many grain products. Unfortunately, as we have seen a dramatic decline in spina bifidas and cleft palates, we have seen an increase in tongue ties, which has an impact on bilateral head movement (ie, breastfeeding on both sides). [2]
Exceptions to the Rule:
A generalized note: Therapeutic supplementation ( short term doses for a diet, for recovery, to support a new body function (like, say, breastfeeding), and for chronic illness, are vastly different than the daily grind of 15-20 supplements that are to "raise your levels". I'm a huge supporter of using supplementation to aid the body through a transition or rehab, but not for longterm generic use.
1. Electrolytes. I don't fan girl over things, and lately the bottom of the list of my fan girl options would be supplements. However magnesium is my jam. Magnesium is necessary for ATP production in the body, as well as muscle recovery after a workout. Without potassium, magnesium, sodium, and calcium our bodies would literally immediately wither into a puddle. I have heart palpitations from my apparent inability to hold on to water/electrolytes (probably a chronic inflammation that I have yet to address). I've been supplementing with magnesium malate off and on for over a year now. If you are taking magnesium I would highly recommend against magnesium oxide (unless it is an external use) and magnesium citrate. Magnesium oxide is used as a laxative if taken orally and will only further dehydrate you. Magnesium citrate has long term negative impact on the ceruloplasmin and can negatively impact iron production.
2. Fish oils/ DHA/EPA. So fish oils....heart health....blah...blah...blah. The biggest thing about DHA/EPA is that our brain needs DHA and EPA to stay healthy. As we get older our ability to hold on to omega 3s becomes even more important. Dr. Dan Murphy claims that a ratio of O3/O6 above 1:25 wreaks havoc on the mental health and memory loss. The american diet is inundated with omega 6's. My general recommendation is to purchase an Omega 3 only, or an O3/O6 ratio as close to 1:1 as possible. There's some evidence that the body can convert DHA to DHEA, though it's hard to solidly say. At the end of the day you are eating animal fat is pretty small doses; to that I say, "No harm no foul".
A final note on quality. Calcium carbonate is calcite. It's a rock. It's a finely ground rock. You can take that rock, and eat it, and your blood calcium will likely increase. But what can your body do with rock? Chickens eat rocks and it helps to break down the food they eat. We don't have that function, as our stomach acid is pretty bad a** and can breakdown pretty much anything we can fit down our esophagus. Short advice: try to buy foods based supplements. Or even better, try to eat the foods that contain the vitamin/mineral you are looking for.
1.http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/vitamin_d_more_may_not_be_better
2. Flanagan J, Landa R, Bhat A, Bauman M. 2012. Head lag in infants at risk for autism; a preliminary study. Amer. J. Occup. Ther. 66: 577-585.
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