Greetings, Eric Bakker, the naturopath. Thanks for coming back to my channel. We're still
talking about candida, but this time we're going to talk about supplements, dietary supplements,
and I'm going to give you a sort of 10 reasons why I think many people are on the wrong track
or could be misguided. Let's just start this list and just see what comes out. Number one,
taking too many supplements. This is quite common with a lot of people. I think the most amazing one
I saw and I think I wrote about this one in my book was a lady taking around about the 50 to
60 dietary supplements per day. Like different ones. I couldn't believe the regime. It was like
literally three pages of just supplements she was taking, handfuls and handfuls. It's not uncommon.
And we see that with some people. This one's for my calcium, this was my vitamin D supplement.
This is an anti-inflammatory, this one so I can poop, this one so I can sleep,
this one so I can... it goes on and on and on. But that's not how you take dietary supplements.
That's the wrong way to do it. Okay. So taking too much of all kinds of stuff.
Second one, you're not researching carefully what you're taking and it
could even come from a non GMP lab. So GMP is really the good manufacturing procedures.
So there are standards in place now for making products, but I still see supplements out there
that have being sold through iHerb and various channels that are not really GMP.
So they're not really made according to a very high standard. So just be careful because when you
self prescribe, you don't know what you're buying or what factory it comes from, where it's made.
The third one is don't use a multivitamin as an excuse for a sloppy or a poor diet.
And this is something I've also noticed with some people, particularly people, my age, like 50 or
60, they could be drinking too much alcohol, eating poorly, but they take multivitamins
every day and fish oils thinking they're going to cover all bases. It's not a good idea. You're far
better off eating on a higher level and then supplementing to fill in the gaps rather than
just trying to fill a huge, big pothole in with a supplement that's created by all the junk that
you're eating. So always, always food is the best medicine. I've always maintained that.
Fourth one, I need a calcium supplement because of my bones are weak. I need a vitamin D supplement
because I'm not spending time in the sun. Now people have these ideas, they need this, or they
need that based on what they read on Facebook, or they don't seek professional advice regarding
supplements. They don't get any tests done. They just take the supplement because they'd been told.
Well, if they'd been told to jump off a cliff, do you think they'd do it?
Maybe. So, but what about dairy foods? What about age cheeses? What about almonds? What about leafy
greens? What about sardines? What about all the foods that contain calcium? Makes sense.
One of the books I enjoyed reading when I was a student, it was called Paleolithic Nutrition. I
think it was called. I remember reading about a graveyard that they uncovered in England
when they were putting a major highway through. And this graveyard was from the 1700s, 1800s.
What they found was extraordinary is when they started to shift these graves, there goes my
water, they found that most of these skeletons had no signs of osteoporosis or any kind of arthritis.
So these people obviously had, they lived on the land. These people basically grew food
and consumed food. It's a far cry from today with all of the hips, hip problems that we get and bone
breakages and osteoporosis. So, and they didn't take calcium supplements back then. They've worked
and they ate good food. And that's what we can learn of today. Right.
So five, mixing pharma drugs and supplements. This is a no-no. This is where you need to get
a medical advice. You need to get a doctor or someone like me who's trained in that area,
particularly in that area of understanding pharmaceutical medications and their interactions
with dietary supplements, because you can imagine the people I've seen over the years, many of
them are self prescribing or taking things, sometimes several doctors were giving them things
and it was a bit of a mess. So you need to be very careful when you're taking various
pharmaceutical medications and you think you can pop pills from the health food shops here
and there. It's not a good idea. You need to get someone on board who can go through that and say,
no, wouldn't do that. Or yes, I would do that. So you need the correct advice.
And that's point number six, taking supplements from several healthcare providers. And that's
not uncommon. We see that with people. They'll go to this doctor over here, will put them on two or
three medications, maybe a Centrum multivitamin, something like that. Then they'll go to this
chiropractor who put them on, say CoQ-10 or this or that. Then they'll go to a naturopath
and they'll get more stuff. Next thing they're on 10, 15 things. And no one's keeping an eye on what
they're taking. So often I would look at all these things and I'd have a whole table full of things
from several healthcare providers in front of me. So if healthcare providers and watching this
video, you need to talk to your patient about what they're taking from who, and then maybe
write some notes or letters saying, well, this is probably clashing, or this is not a good idea.
Number seven, what do we got here? Self prescribing, taking supplements off your own back,
not getting any professional advice and not knowing a end point for that supplement. When
you take a product, you need to take it for a reason. You don't just take it because it might
be good for my bones or whatever. You need to take it for a determined time and then preferably test
or work out if there's still a need for that product. If there's no need you stop it. So the
question you may ask of me is how long do I take XYZ supplement? Answer is until you no longer have
benefit from that product. All right. That's how long you take it for. And it doesn't mean forever.
Sometimes it can mean taking it for three months, six months, or a year, but it doesn't always mean
forever. Certain supplements however, you can take for long periods of time without any issue.
And that's usually omega-3, for example, or a vitamin C as an adjunct to of course a healthy
diet containing plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Is there still a need for vitamin
C on top? Yes, there is. Especially if you're very sick, it's always good to take extra.
Number eight, have you had any tests done to determine if you need that product? Are you taking
something for your gut? Do you have parasites? Do you have a candida problem? Have you had a
test to confirm that you've got that? Are you taking it for the right reasons? Are you taking
it long enough? Why are you taking it too long? Testing, especially stool testing will be very
good for you here, because if you do a test before you start those products, that's your baseline,
and then after that test, take your product. Repeat the test in three months or six months,
let's just see if you still need that product. You may not need it anymore. All right.
So testing will save you time and money. Number nine, you're taking a turmeric supplement,
but you're not eating any turmeric. Many people do this. Right. Turmeric fantastic
spice and is a very complicated spice that contains curcumin. We know that, but it contains
many other compounds as well. So if you're going to take a curcumin supplement, I also recommend
that what I do is I actually have fresh turmeric. I got fresh ginger and garlic. So I cook with
those all the time. So turmeric powder is very nice to use as part of your Curry. So have a
look at it, check it out. It's always good to eat turmeric as well as to take it as a supplement.
And number 10, what do we got here? Probiotics are not cure alls for all diseases. Some people think
if they've got any kind of gut problem, they'll take a probiotic. I've seen people, naughty people
that I know as patients that drink lots of wine, for example, but take probiotics thinking that
it's going to help the gut. But when you're drinking a bottle a day, it's a waste of time
taking your probiotic. It really is. It's not going to do much for you. So that's what you've
got to think of too. Am I trying to take a multi to prop up a crappy diet? Am I taking a probiotic
to prop up a crappy gut that keeps getting fueled with my habits? Good question to ask.
I hope you got something out of this video. Thanks for tuning.