Myth: If one has a healthy diet, one does not need any supplementation. |
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Fact: If a large group of people were to follow the exact same dietary lifestyle & exercise program, a certain |
number would still suffer from high or low blood pressure, high or low blood sugar, or high or low stomach acid, |
while the rest may develop arthritis, cardiovascular disease, cancer, mental illness, or other medical conditions. |
Most nutrition-related conditions in the Western world are not caused by nutritional deficiencies such as |
scurvy, pellagra, beriberi, or rickets, but nutritional imbalances, which are responsible for many common |
medical problems, while metabolic disorders can cause nutritional deficiencies following the malabsorption of |
certain nutrients. |
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Age-related hormonal imbalances, and diminishing renal capacity also affect nutritional requirements in the |
body. Without adequate androgenic (DHEA) support, minerals such as zinc or potassium will frequently become |
depleted even when maintaining the same - and previously adequate dietary intake. |
Failure to compensate for these deficiencies contributes to the risk of developing blood sugar, blood pressure, |
weight, and/or a variety of hormone imbalance-related organic problems, including cancer. Neither a "healthy" |
diet, nor standard multi-vitamin / mineral formulations will be helpful in these cases since the nutrients from |
these sources are not customized to match a patient's specific requirements, so abnormal mineral levels or |
ratios remain the same. |
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One's genetic background has an even greater impact to promote, or help resist the development of a wide |
range of medical conditions. As a result, only individualized supplementation, based on someone's cellular |
chemistry and genetic background has the best potential to resolve these medical disorders nutritionally, while |
specific dietary changes alone may be helpful in less serious medical conditions. |
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Myth: After menopause, every female needs to supplement extra calcium. |
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Fact: There is no magic age when either females or males suddenly need to adjust their calcium intake. In |
contrast to a number of other nutrients whose requirements tend to change with advancing age, requirements |
for calcium are dependent on multiple genetic, metabolic, and lifestyle factors, none of which are age or |
gender-related. Only with pregnant or lactating females it may be justified to increase their calcium intake by |
about 400 mg per day to cover additional needs for the baby. |
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However, even then it is far better to assess individual requirements since that amount would be totally |
inadequate when there is a history of the mother being chronically calcium deficient, which increases the risk |
of birth defects in the baby, while at the same time there are plenty of pregnant women whose calcium levels |
are perfectly adequate, or even on the high side, without extra supplementation. |
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This is no different than what applies to the general population, where some individuals (regardless of age |
or gender) suffer from chronic calcium deficiency and require rather large amounts of extra calcium to meet |
requirements, while the opposite applies to many other individuals who suffer from chronic calcium overload. |
So the "one-size-fits-all" recommendations used by most practitioners for post-menopausal women not only |
perpetuate the dilemma for those with calcium assimilation problems, but they also add to the woes of those |
who retain too much calcium. |
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A younger body is generally much more forgiving when dealing with high calcium levels, however with every |
decade, excessive calcium intake, or excessive storage from a lack of calcium co-factors, will take an |
increasingly irreversible toll by calcifying an individual's organs, joints, and/or cardiovascular system, in addition |
to causing a negative impact on stomach acid levels, mood, energy, and general mineral balance. |
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Myth: One may liberally supplement mega-doses of water-soluble vitamins since they - unlike fat-soluble |
vitamins - are not stored in the body, so they cannot cause any harm. |
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Fact: Despite being water-soluble, Vitamin B6 can cause permanent, irreversible nerve damage when |
improperly used, while an excessive intake of Vitamin C has the potential of eventually causing copper or |
calcium deficiencies in prone individuals. Many nutrients do not have to be stored in the body in high amounts |
to be able to cause, or contribute to disease. While being metabolized, even water-soluble nutrients interact |
with other nutritional elements either as synergists or antagonists, and thus are capable of creating abnormal |
mineral ratios or imbalances when overdosed on, which over time will establish a more favorable environment |
to develop medical problems. |
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Claim: Some researchers concluded that nutritional supplements either did not help, or worsened certain |
diseases. |
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Fact: This is no less surprising than randomly choosing a drug, randomly treating any medical disorder, and |
then claiming that it did not help, or worsened the disease. One obviously needs to match the right nutrients |
- and the right amounts to a patient's specific requirements if one intends to go beyond deficiency-preventive |
measures and attempt to rectify more difficult-to-treat medical situations! |
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In contrast to Drug Research, which tends to focus on single, concentrated ingredients, Nutritional Research |
yields much better results when using complexed nutrients. So instead of taking plain ascorbic acid, Vitamin C |
needs to be complexed with adequate amounts of flavonoids such as rutin and hesperidin, to duplicate more |
food-like benefits. |
The same applies to supplementing Mixed Carotenoids, which include alpha-carotene, lycopene, zeaxanthin, |
cryptoxanthin, and lutein - instead of taking (synthetic) beta-carotene alone. Equally superior is supplementing |
a Vitamin E Complex in the form of alpha, beta, gamma, delta tocopherols, and alpha, beta, gamma, delta |
tocotrienols, rather than taking large, single amounts of dl-alpha tocopheryl alone. |
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Instead of presenting - or developing new concepts in Clinical Nutrition, some "researchers" are wasting |
everyone's time with negative, or misleading headlines, trying to impress the public with what is frequently |
rehashed old news. Real experts on nutrition are well aware that common vitamin pills, particularly the non- |
complexed or synthetic variety are no panacea for everything that ails society, and they would not make any |
claims to that effect. Resolving more complex medical conditions nutritionally requires equally more technically |
advanced resources that utilize a patient's cellular chemistry to establish precise, person-specific requirements |
- not population averages. ¤ |
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Copyright © 2000-2009 Dr. Ronald Roth D.Acu.       Cellular Nutrition |
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