The Right Way to Take Vitamins

Dr. Bruce West

Most people do not take their supplements properly. The following tips are critical to successfully altering your lifestyle, changing your diet and taking nutritional supplements. If you have been reading Health Alert you already understand that that I consider nutritional supplements as those that have been made from food. Any other supplements that are either synthetic (made in the laboratory) or fractionated away from their food counterparts via processing are chemicals. These produce a pharmacological reaction in the body which can be detrimental to health. The supplements discussed in Health Alert are nutritional supplements. With that said, note that the following helpful information will make your protocol or program more effective and give you the best odds of achieving your good health.

What to Do:
1.) Chew your supplements This naturally is impossible with synthetic or highly processed nutrient fractions. But with real food supplements, they work best when chewed as food. This involves the natural digestive processes which begin in the mouth. I must admit here that the supplements I recommend can often be difficult to chew because of the taste (real supplements do not taste great). If you can’t chew your supplements at least make sure to take them with food. This will ensure their mix with healthy food in the digestive process. There have been more then a handful of patients that did not get well on their protocol and were about to give up only to find that once they chewed their supplements they were cured. Note: The only supplements you do not want to chew is your enzymes (Zypan, Multizyme) because it could erode the enamel on your teeth.

2.) Two to three times a day If you take all your supplements at one time, you are really only getting the benefit of about one third of them. That is because your body can only utilize a certain amount of nutrition in a given amount of time. Since most supplements are water soluble, the ones not digested within the first hour will simply pass through your system and be eliminated via your kidneys.

Since the goal is to keep nutrients in your bloodstream throughout the day, you will need to replenish this supply three or four times daily. Take your supplements with each meal. This ensures better titrations (amounts) of nutrients in your blood throughout the day.

What Not to Do:
1.) Don’t fall for time released “vitamins”. These are so foreign to the body to begin with that any time-release mechanism built into the pill won’t make much of a difference.

2.) Don’t fall for the super high-dose game. The perfect example is “high potency” vitamin B pills, most of these are thiamine. Since your body can only absorb about 2-5 mgs daily, the only thing potent will be your urine. If you get a rush from this type of B vitamin, it is a nervous system or adrenal response from your body as it struggles to metabolize the chemicals.

3.) The same is true for antioxidants. The real antioxidants come from food. Isolating certain chemicals and either fractionating them or producing their mirror image in the lab and then marketing them as powerful antioxidant nutrients is a false game. In fact, these chemicals that are sold as nutrients do little to nothing in your body.

4.) How about beta carotene? Beta carotene converts to useable vitamin A in your body. The studies which show wonderful results from beta carotene come from people who get this nutrient from their food. Scientists surmise that the active carotene is the beta type. So they fraction this out or worse produce it synthetically, add it to a batch of other chemicals and then sell it to you under the guise of good health. Some folks can’t even make real vitamin A from carotene, others have difficulty. There are more than 650 carotenes in food with more than 65 being converted into vitamin A for your body’s use. So where does that put synthetic beta carotene supplements?

Add the Catalyst for Success
If you are using the right products, chewing your supplements or taking them with food, spacing out your supplements throughout the day and you are not getting well, consider adding Catalyn to your protocol. Catalyn is the original product produced by Dr. Royal Lee, founder of Standard Process, Inc. back in 1929. It is considered the original catalyst and its ingredients and original formula have remained unchanged for 70 years.

Dr. Lee knew that the adrenal glands are a rich source of vitamin C, alfalfa plants had the deepest roots and are a rich source of minerals, that organic wheat germ and pea vines are the richest sources of vitamin E, that carrots contains all the carotenes, that yeast is rich in the selenium that is safe and effective for the human body, that rice bran is a source of real vitamin B and so much more. This is Catalyn. If your protocol is not working, add this catalyst at a dose of three to six daily.

Indigestion from Supplements
If you get indigestion from your supplements you are probably incapable of digesting food or nutrients properly. In this case try the Zypan test. Take one Zypan tablet per meal, unless you have an ulcer, along with your supplements. If indigestion improves, try taking 2-4 per meal. If things go well you know that enzyme production in your stomach and pancreas was impaired and that you have not been digesting and metabolizing your nutrients properly (including those from your supplements).

If you seem allergic to all kinds of foods and supplements you are probably suffering from a toxic liver and kidneys. Constant liver and kidney congestion will lead to indigestion, allergies, increased blood pressure (especially the systolic or first number), achy joints and more. In these cases you will need to detoxify these organs before you can get full benefit from your supplements. The Standard Process Purification Program is a good place to start in this case.

Parasites
Let’s face it, if your gut contains abnormal parasites, you will have a hard time getting much good from your protocol. Some of the most common symptoms associated with parasites are an itchy anus and grinding of teeth at night, so if you have been overseas and suffer from these symptoms it might be wise to do a three month anti-parasite program. SP makes a product called Zymex II which is helpful in eradicating parasites from your gut. You will need to take 3-4 capsules 3x a day on an empty stomach for 3 months to get the job done. In stubborn cases you will need to add 3 Multizyme and 2 Cal-Amo 3x daily on an empty stomach.

Diet and Foods
The data in this article will go a long way in helping you make your supplement protocol more effective. But remember, vitamins are catalysts that make nutrition from food work for you. If you eat garbage, no nutritional product will get the job done. Likewise if you eat nothing but processed carbohydrates you will never get well. Eat foods in their natural state, eat a varied diet and whenever possible eat foods that organically grown, they are more nutritious and safer. Use these hints and guidelines to develop a protocol and health plan that will really produce miracles and these will be real miracles, not just advertising hype.