Why do I need Vitamins or Food Supplements?
Short answer: Because we need to if we are going to maintain our optimal health.
"We can no longer afford to abuse our health and expect the health care profession to put us back together." - Dr. Bruce Miller
The words vitamin and food supplement have almost become synonymous. I prefer the latter because it better describes their proper function. We want to supplement our body with the nutrients we are unable to obtain through a healthy eating style.
In TCM a first class doctor is one who can treat disharmonies (dis-ease) before they actually manifest - only a second class doctor has to wait for the problem to develop to begin treatment. The only downside to prevention that I can think of is the fact you will never know for sure what you have avoided but if you are curious, observation of your less diligent peers will give you a pretty good idea.
For too many years we have been a society of reactionists. What do I mean by that? It was our primary way of dealing with life - wait for a problem to develop and then react. A small percentage of the population followed the adage: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!" In Canada our socialized medicine has been, and continues to be very supportive of being reactive rather than proactive in our approach to health.
Now this attitude is creating a tremendous strain on our medical system. Our aging baby boomer bulge in the population demographic combined with increased costs of high-tech medicine have created a situation that is not sustainable, regardless of how much money our government du jour is willing to prescribe. Do they actully think improving services such as "shorter wait-lists" will create a healthy turn out at the poles on election day?
The tide is finally turning and millions of health-smart people are turning to wise supplementation. The major problem in today's information overload is where do we turn?
Even though there have been numerous studies that demonstrate and prove our commercially grown crops just do not contain the nutrients we think they do, there are still many people , including some doctors who either believe:
a) Foods that we eat have nothing to do with our health; or
b) Taking Food supplements and /or vitamins is just creating expensive urine.
I suppose we could be naive enough to believe the former concept if we have never consumed a gaseous legume (beans) or a copius quantity of prunes.
Unfortuneatly the latter statement can be true in some cases. There is also the potential to be far more dangerous than expensive urine. Have you ever wondered why a well-accepted manufacturer of children's vitamins would include a proven neurotoxin (aspartame) in the formulation of their vitamin? Read Aspartame - a very dangerous substance!
Some other problems that plague the potential benefits of good supplements are the companies that use slick advertising and promotions to attract customers who do not take the time to research the credability of the manufactureer. Always remember the caveat that if something sounds too good to be true - it usually is!
As a child, my mom wouldn't allow me to leave for primary school without my daily dose of encapsulated cod liver oil. I loved it but my sister thought I was wierd. Of course there was that period in my life where mom's wisdom was placed on the back burner due to my perception of immortality common to most young people. In my teens I had aspirations of becoming a veteranarian and I used to quiz my dad on why we used certain supplements to keep our livestock healthy. Did you know that the science of nutrition in animal husbandry was at least a decade ahead of nutrition for we humans for many years? Do you read your food labels as meticuously as you do those on your pet food? Generally only pets that get fed "table scraps" develop poor health problems that parallel human pathologies.
My competitive nature and quest for perfection initiated my activity in high level sports competition at both a National and International level. World records do not come easy. Success demanded that I fuel my body in the best way that I knew at that time. This pursiut of excellence in sport was a major incentive to obtain sound nutritional information.
In my next blog I will be outlining how you can select a good supplement manufacturer by sharing how I chose the company that I personally use and recommend to my family, friends and my patients.
Good health,
Dr. Bill
"We can no longer afford to abuse our health and expect the health care profession to put us back together." - Dr. Bruce Miller
The words vitamin and food supplement have almost become synonymous. I prefer the latter because it better describes their proper function. We want to supplement our body with the nutrients we are unable to obtain through a healthy eating style.
In TCM a first class doctor is one who can treat disharmonies (dis-ease) before they actually manifest - only a second class doctor has to wait for the problem to develop to begin treatment. The only downside to prevention that I can think of is the fact you will never know for sure what you have avoided but if you are curious, observation of your less diligent peers will give you a pretty good idea.
For too many years we have been a society of reactionists. What do I mean by that? It was our primary way of dealing with life - wait for a problem to develop and then react. A small percentage of the population followed the adage: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!" In Canada our socialized medicine has been, and continues to be very supportive of being reactive rather than proactive in our approach to health.
Now this attitude is creating a tremendous strain on our medical system. Our aging baby boomer bulge in the population demographic combined with increased costs of high-tech medicine have created a situation that is not sustainable, regardless of how much money our government du jour is willing to prescribe. Do they actully think improving services such as "shorter wait-lists" will create a healthy turn out at the poles on election day?
The tide is finally turning and millions of health-smart people are turning to wise supplementation. The major problem in today's information overload is where do we turn?
Even though there have been numerous studies that demonstrate and prove our commercially grown crops just do not contain the nutrients we think they do, there are still many people , including some doctors who either believe:
a) Foods that we eat have nothing to do with our health; or
b) Taking Food supplements and /or vitamins is just creating expensive urine.
I suppose we could be naive enough to believe the former concept if we have never consumed a gaseous legume (beans) or a copius quantity of prunes.
Unfortuneatly the latter statement can be true in some cases. There is also the potential to be far more dangerous than expensive urine. Have you ever wondered why a well-accepted manufacturer of children's vitamins would include a proven neurotoxin (aspartame) in the formulation of their vitamin? Read Aspartame - a very dangerous substance!
Some other problems that plague the potential benefits of good supplements are the companies that use slick advertising and promotions to attract customers who do not take the time to research the credability of the manufactureer. Always remember the caveat that if something sounds too good to be true - it usually is!
As a child, my mom wouldn't allow me to leave for primary school without my daily dose of encapsulated cod liver oil. I loved it but my sister thought I was wierd. Of course there was that period in my life where mom's wisdom was placed on the back burner due to my perception of immortality common to most young people. In my teens I had aspirations of becoming a veteranarian and I used to quiz my dad on why we used certain supplements to keep our livestock healthy. Did you know that the science of nutrition in animal husbandry was at least a decade ahead of nutrition for we humans for many years? Do you read your food labels as meticuously as you do those on your pet food? Generally only pets that get fed "table scraps" develop poor health problems that parallel human pathologies.
My competitive nature and quest for perfection initiated my activity in high level sports competition at both a National and International level. World records do not come easy. Success demanded that I fuel my body in the best way that I knew at that time. This pursiut of excellence in sport was a major incentive to obtain sound nutritional information.
In my next blog I will be outlining how you can select a good supplement manufacturer by sharing how I chose the company that I personally use and recommend to my family, friends and my patients.
Good health,
Dr. Bill
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