Written by: Leslie Parran, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Choosing the right supplements to support your health can be like going through the alphabet ABCs. There are a lot of supplements out there. In addition, many products contain a myriad of supplement ingredients within them. So, choosing the right ones for you can seem like eating alphabet soup.
The best way to meet your body’s nutritional needs is to get them from whole foods. Unfortunately, our food supply has been challenged with depleted and even contaminated soils, so the actual nutrients in whole foods are not what they used to be 20 years ago.
Most people will require basic supplements to meet their body’s nutritional needs. Common nutrient deficiencies include things like vitamin D, vitamin B’s, or magnesium. Often practitioners recommend that basic supplement support include vitamin D, fish oil, magnesium, Co Q-10, vitamin B, prebiotics,and probiotics. While practitioners may differ in what nutrients should be included in basic supplement support, most agree that our food intake does not keep up with our requirements.
Why Take Supplements? Considerations for Using Supplements:
Age - As we age, we often are less able to digest and absorb nutrients than when we were younger. So, it is more likely that general supplementation and/or specific supplementation may be needed for health support.
Menstrual/Pregnancy Status - Some supplements are recommended in pregnancy, and some are contraindicated. Do not use supplements without consulting your prenatal provider. Also, if you are pre or post-menopausal, you may have different supplement requirements to support your hormones.
Diet - While supplements are not a substitute for a poor diet, the quality of your diet is important to whether you are getting the supplements you need. Some diets, for example, vegan or keto diets may not provide key nutrients that you can get from the foods that are restricted from these diets.
Gut health - The condition of your gut will impact your ability to digest, absorb, and assimilate nutrients. If you have a gut that does not have a well-balanced microbiome, digest well, or is leaky, this can contribute to deficiencies. Also, if your liver and gallbladder functions are not working to produce and provide the bile you need to digest fats, this can also present issues with nutrient absorption.
Medications - Medications can interfere with digestion and absorption of nutrients. Some supplements are contraindicated or need to be supervised when taking specific medications. An example is when you are taking anti-depressants or blood thinners.
Stress - Physical, psychological, and environmental stress can burn through your body’s vitamins and minerals, increasing your body’s requirements.
Specific Conditions - Specific conditions may benefit from specific supplements. For example, with joint pain, individuals may benefit from fish oil (omega-3s with pro-resolving mediators), astaxanthin, turmeric, glucosamine, chondroitin, Boswellia, and collagen, among others.
When should you take supplements and for how long?
Ongoing - Some supplements are good to take on an ongoing basis, simply because you may not be getting enough in your diet or your condition may warrant ongoing supplementation.
Temporary Usage - Supplements may be needed temporarily to restore balance to the body along with adjustments in diet and lifestyle. Examples may be additional minerals to restore mineral balance when the body is depleted, hormonal support supplements to correct hormonal imbalances or herbals to address gut pathogens.
With or without food and time of day - Taking supplements with or without food depends on the vitamin. While for some it may not matter when you take them, for others, such as vitamin B, they are best taken with food in the morning. Melatonin is best taken before bed.
With or without other supplements -Some supplements should not be taken in combination with other supplements. Some supplements should be taken in combination to support each other.
Discontinuing a supplement - Discontinuing a supplement temporarily may be recommended anywhere from a few days to a week or more in advance if you are having a procedure or surgery, to avoid complications such as bleeding. It is best to consult with your practitioner. Also, if you experience a reaction or new symptom from a supplement recommended by your practitioner, you should discontinue it and inform them of when and why you discontinued it.
The best way to determine when your body’s requirements are not being met includes:
Determine the right diet for your type - Getting the right diet for your body type is important. Our metabolisms are unique. Dialing in the right amount of carbs, fats, and proteins is important to your energy level. Our mitochondria, the energy powerhouses of our cells can be impacted by many factors, including diet. There is no one diet right for everyone. A diet should be based on how a client typically processes food and responds to varying proportions of carbs, fats, and proteins. It should include a variety of foods to support essential vitamins and nutrients. A functional practitioner can help you identify a diet that is best able to support your body’s needs through appropriate assessments and testing.
Test don’t guess - Nutrient deficiencies are associated with inflammation, pain, and chronic disease. There are several functional lab tests to help you determine if your body may be depleted of specific nutrients. Micronutrient testing can provide insight into cellular nutrient efficiencies. An Organic Acids Test (OATs test) is a nutritional evaluation that assesses important metabolic pathways. These are just 2 examples of functional lab tests that can help identify imbalances. Functional Lab test results guide functional practitioners in determining what supplements may be helpful to their clients to rebalance their metabolism. Functional practitioners also use clues from standard lab tests and compare them to functional ranges, not typical lab ranges. This is because functional ranges are looking to compare them to well, and not sick individuals, which are what labs use to compare results.
What are other things to think about when taking supplements?
Supplement Quality -There are more than the ABC’s worth of supplements out there, making it confusing for consumers to figure out the best quality supplements. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) protects the supplement industry from making false claims such as curing a disease or preventing a heart attack. The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) requires all manufacturers to adhere to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) regulations, although not all supplement manufacturers are GMP certified. However, you will not see a specific seal on a product label for a certified GMP facility. Supplements may contain fillers or other ingredients that you don’t need. Many individuals need to know if a supplement is gluten-free, soy-free, or without GMOs. Supplements also may not contain a form of ingredient that is easily absorbed in the gut or provided in recommended amounts. Supplements should be bioavailable, meaning that the body can actually absorb and use them. While some supplements are only available through a practitioner, other quality supplements are available to the general public. Practitioners usually have access to dispensaries that carry quality supplements and store them appropriately.
Supplement Transportation and Storage - Storage and shipping of supplements is also something to consider as huge warehouses may not store them in temperature-controlled facilities that supplement dispensaries do.
Type of Supplement - Vitamins, minerals, herbals, botanicals, amino acids, and hormones are typical types of supplements. Of the 13 essential vitamins, there are fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D, E, and K that are stored in fat tissue. Water-soluble ones such as vitamin C and the different types of B are not typically stored and excess is excreted in the urine. This makes fat-soluble vitamins particularly risky to take in high doses and could lead to over accumulation and toxicity.
Summary
To benefit from supplement use, it is important to know your supplement ABCs. This means using the right resources such as your provider’s recommendations, supplement labels, and your pharmacist to make sure that you are taking the right supplements and using them appropriately. Reviewing your supplement list periodically and with your provider can help you avoid unnecessary and inappropriate supplement usage.
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Leslie Parran, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Leslie Parran is a leader in natural holistic healing from inflammation and pain. As a nurse for 40 years with advanced nursing certifications, Leslie helped patients with chronic diseases and pain. Now as a Board-Certified Functional Wellness Coach and Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner with several other holistic and functional practitioner certifications, she helps active and motivated people with chronic inflammation and pain move from pain to peace so that they feel better, move better, and live better.
Leslie is the Owner and Champion Peacemaker of Peace x Piece Wellness coaching. As a functional practitioner, she uses in-home lab testing to uncover hidden metabolic healing opportunities such as food sensitivities, hormonal imbalances, gut pathogens, and toxins that can sometimes, unknowingly, lead to inflammation, pain, and chronic health conditions. As a health coach, she uses positive psychology and personalized holistic healing protocols, including diet, rest, exercise, stress management, and supplementation, to help her clients make their bodies work the way they are supposed to and achieve their wellness goals.
