What are your thoughts about dietary supplements? My position is that we live in a less than perfect world, so I endorse the use of dietary supplements as a patch up, but as regular dosage I am philosophically uncomfortable as it means my regular diet is deficient. There can also be other problems such as zinc tablets causing copper deficiency; iron tablets causing Vitamin E deficiency and constipation.
yes, i think that supplements are a good idea for some people under some circumstances. they are very useful, but as you say, one must use caution last year i took extra zinc for a while to boost my immune system, and ended up developing the classic lupus-like facial butterfly rash, extreme fatigue, etc... quit the zinc, and levelled back out. i was really worried for a while. sooo.... since then, i aim to get my extra vites and minerals from nutrient dense food sources when i can. when food is grown biodynamically, it is very rich in nutrients. and look at foods like seaweed! amazing stuff! complete with all of the co-factors that nature put together. our bodies need those cofactors to utilize all the goodness in the foods properly. you just dont get all of the co-factors and companion nutrients when you pop a pill. i wildcrafted some seaweed in the spring, and now it goes into hearty warming dishes like stews/chili. can almost feel the energy emanating from it anyways, the most important supplements for me right now are fish oils, cod liver oil, vite c. i take a b50 when i feel like i'm starting to drag. we dont do dairy, and it's not always easy to do bone broths and that sort of thing, so we do take cal/mag/mang/zinc/horsetail supplements abram hoffer did extensive work with niacin. it's really fascinating to read about. i havent needed to use it myself, but it's amazing how well it's supposed to work with heart disease, arthritis, schizophrenia etc... even mainstream docs use it for their cardiac patients.
Niacin is awesome. I don't believe in taking anything regularly. I don't think that people usually need as much supplementation and the fact that their in certain sizes doesn't help. If I take something regularly for a few days or weeks, I stop for a long time before starting up again. I usually feel what I need is working and usually try to get what I need from foods. Mainly what I take, I take occassionally when I feel I really need it.
My doctor has me on Niaspan. It lowers my LDL levels and raises my HDL levels. I use to take niacin, Niaspan is pretty much the same thing but in high dosages. I also take a multi-vitamin daily and 1oz of acai juice. And calcium
Supplements can be very efficient and healthy especially if we use natural remedies. Such as honey, pollen, biologic iron (chlorella). We also need to know how to combine them to insure that they are absorbed efficiently, for instance we need vitamin C to help absorb iron...
Supplements are great. The vast majority of people think that they're getting all the nutrients they need because they feel healthy, but it's not always so. Especially with the quality of North American produce being so low. I take organic greens powder, calcium/magnesium, zinc, vitamin e, fish oil and potassium and I've never been healthier. Of course none of these make up for eating junk, so you're right, dietary supplementation should only be what the name suggests, a supplement, not a replacement for healthy eating.
