ARE SUPPLEMENTS NECESSARY?

In the mountains of Tibet, eastern Pakistan, Russian Georgia, certain regions of Turkey, and in the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Andes are five well-known human cultures whose peoples routinely live to their maximum genetic potential of 120 and over.

These cultures have some interesting similarities. Their populations live at remote elevations ranging from 8,500 to 14,000 feet, far removed from the pollution of heavy industry. Their water source for drinking and irrigation runs down from the glaciers over pulverized rock and is so highly mineralized that it's opaque and whitish as milk. And they use only natural fertilizer for growing their crops.

If we all could maintain a low-stress, pollution-free, nutrient-rich lifestyle like those remote mountainous cultures, we probably wouldn't need supplements. But alas, our lives are not so simple. In our hurried lifestyle, we fail to eat properly. Our food and air are often polluted. And the stresses of modern life undercut our body's ability to fight disease.

Some of us try to compensate by turning to organically grown foods. But what we don't realize is that our earth is becoming anemic.

"Those who now advocate eating natural foods as the only source of vitamins and minerals live in a dream world of yesterday," say Joel D. Wallach, M.D., and Ma Lan, M.D., authors of the book Rare Earths: Forbidden Cures. "It really doesn't matter how well you balance your meals, you still run the risk of malnutrition if you try to get all your vitamins and minerals exclusively from the foods you eat."

Why is that? In many parts of the industrialized world, the topsoil that formerly contained a rich supply of trace minerals...minerals that found their way into our diet...has long been exhausted. Instead, this rich topsoil has been replaced by chemical fertilizers. As a result, our foods no longer contain the micronutrients that are so essential to a healthy life.

Macronutrients vs. micronutrients

To be properly assimilated, the macronutrients we consume - carbohydrates, proteins, fats, water, and fiber - need to be combined with micronutrients in the form of vitamins and minerals. In fact, there's not a single organic function in the human body that can take place without a trace mineral or vitamin to facilitate the process.

If your food does not give you all the vitamins and minerals you need, can you correct this situation by simply dropping by Costco and loading up on vitamin and mineral supplements?

It's not that easy.

Not all supplements are the same

How much of a vitamin or mineral you assimilate from the supplement is determined by several factors. First, there's the delivery system.

Until the 1950s the only supplements we had were composed of inorganic minerals like calcium carbonate and zinc carbonate. The problem is, the body is capable of absorbing only about 10 percent of a mineral in its inorganic form.

Then, chelated minerals were introduced in which the minerals were biologically attached to an organic substance. Because our bodies accept a chelate more effectively than they do an inorganic form of the mineral, up to 50 percent of the mineral can be absorbed.

Finally, in the 90s, colloidal minerals were introduced. That's where the micronutrient particles have been made so small that up to 90 percent can be absorbed by the cells.

Thus, the form of supplement you take is critical in determining how effectively you're meeting your need for supplements.

You also have to consider whether you're taking a micronutrient in its natural state, since vitamins and minerals in this form are absorbed far more effectively than anything distilled in the laboratory. For example, your body will more readily absorb vitamin C when it's combined with other naturally occurring factors such as bioflavinoids. This form of vitamin C is described on the bottle as 'C complex.' However, most people take vitamin C in the form of ascorbic acid which contains only the antioxident component of the C complex. So they're getting their vitamin C, but they're not absorbing as much of it as they think.

The quality of supplements can also vary tremendously between one retail source and the next. Most of the supplements you see in the mass retail outlets were created chemically in test tubes, and some companies do a better job of it than others.

What supplements do we need?

For certain, we all need to take a healthy supply of antioxidents - vitamins C, A, E, selenium, grape seed extract, and so on - to neutralize the pollution from the environment that slows down or stops enzyme activity in the body and creates disease or disfunction. We also need a good selection of naturally extracted vitamins and minerals.

Your micronutrient deficiencies can be evaluated in various ways, such as with hair analysis and various blood tests. However, a more cost effective approach is to have Dr. G. access your body energetically through applied kinesiology. He can also use the same process to test the supplements you're now using to see if they are having a beneficial effect on you.

You might even be surprised at what you discover.