what are the best supplements or do you even need supplements stay tuned and
I'll explain hey I'm Dr. Ekberg with Wellness For Life and by subscribing to
this channel you will learn everything that you need to master true health
today we're going to talk about supplements and there is so much
confusion and so much misunderstanding about what they are first of all we want
to start understanding what is the purpose of supplements we want to talk
about four different categories of things that people take on the one side
we have nutrition and on the other side we have pharmaceuticals I put those
opposites because they serve absolutely totally opposite functions and then in
between we have herbs and nutraceuticals so what's the difference well nutrition
is that which sustains life nutrition is that which comes from life it is all the
stuff that Mother Nature has produced that we have developed alongside for
millions and millions of years so just like there is no scientist in the world
that can create life or they can create a single cell there is no scientist in
the world that can have a test-tube and produce things that sustain life that is
the area of mother nature so it doesn't mean that these things aren't good at
some point so nutrition is food and we want to get as much nutrition as
possible from whole food unfortunately we don't really get enough anymore
because there even the best of efforts even if we buy all organic food the soil
has been depleted the minerals just aren't there anymore the food has to be
transported we don't know exactly what went on in producing it there's so much
hybridization and GMO going on that with all of that even the best
efforts may not give us all the nutrition that we need so it's a good
idea to supplement but when we do we want to look for things that are made
from food concentrates it is very difficult to find and I'll clarify a
little bit what to look for but you want something that is made from whole food
concentrate that has all of the vitamin complexes all of the mineral complexes
all of the genuine replacement parts that you need to rebuild your body all
right the next category is herbs herbal therapy we use a lot of it in our office
and that's when we're looking for a little bit stronger effect the body may
not be ready for healing it may need some cleansing it may need some support
or some stimulation and some other way and herbs can do that they're a form of
natural medicine that can go in and change and alter things at a subtle
level they are made by nature so they are also very natural and they work with
the body however they are not the genuine replacement part they are not
the thing that's going to help rebuild the body so we look for them only in
certain circumstances the next category is nutraceuticals and this is what most
people get when they go shopping for supplements ninety-eight percent of
everything sold in vitamin stores are nutraceuticals
they were developed by pharmaceutical companies who managed to isolate and
extract what they believe to be the critical component of a vitamin but it's
only part of alignment it's not the vitamin complex it is a small
crystalline fraction of the whole thing and as such it can stimulate it can do
some good for a limited time but again it does not sustain life it is no
two thing that the body is looking for you want to think of the difference
between a complex and the synthetic as a complex being a tree and the synthetic
fraction being a part of a tree maybe a leaf or a piece of bark or something and
it can help for a little bit but it creates problems in the long run
the last on the list is pharmaceuticals and there's a place for them but they
are the most powerful they are completely synthetic and their job is
their purpose is to interfere they are supposed to go in and block some
physiology when the physiology for whatever reason has gone haywire a
pharmaceutical is strong enough to go in and block it and stop it and create a
short-term desired effect all right that's the purpose of these things well
nutrition like we mentioned is made by mother nature it's things that are alive
herbs are also made by mother nature they're things that are alive they have
all natural properties nutraceuticals are made in a lab most of them are made
from synthetic products or from petroleum like coal tar most B vitamins
are made from petroleum coal tar product a lot of vitamin C which is not actually
vitamin C but ascorbic acid is made from corn starch they're made in a laboratory
setting their crystalline partial fractions of the real thing and of
course pharmaceuticals are synthetic they're made in a lab so on that note
here's the timeframe for these things nutrition works forever that's the food
and the food concentrate because that is what sustains the body that's what
sustains life it works forever and what we find is the nutrients that we use the
supplements there are whole food supplements people do well on them for a
very very long time herbs like I mentioned in the beginning
we use them for special circumstances they're not intended for long-term use
but they do have their place once they have done their job then we try to
switch over to get more of our nutrients from food and whole food supplements
nutriceuticals go in and they do something quickly and
over time what happens with a nutraceutical is because it's a fraction
it sort of senses it has a relationship to the things that it used to hang out
with so when you take a nutraceutical when you take a fractional supplement
into your body it's going to attract the other portions that it used to hang out
with and now you're in essence leeching those cofactors from your body and
therefore in the long run something like ascorbic acid which isn't actually
vitamin c but a fraction of it ascorbic acid can create a vitamin C deficiency
and today we're seeing a lot of things that is actually scurvy
but that go by other names so any type of nosebleed or fragile gums or retinal
bleeding or weak varicose veins and things like that spider veins a lot of
those things are a deficiency in the vitamin C complex and we're not getting
enough of it and we can actually deplete ourselves by using mega doses of
ascorbic acid pharmaceuticals finally there's a place for it but it's for
crisis intervention only if you're trying to save a life if someone has a
bleeding if someone has a shock if there's an emergency there's a time for
it but in the long run crisis intervention will do more damage
then good always so now you're starting to see that that which is natural
supports the body that which is synthetic interferes with the body
side-effects go along with that so things that Nature Made that's the
stuff that's supposed to sustain life it has no side effect it's the thing that
builds life herbs are very very limited in side effects they do have some
medicinal properties so side effects are possible but they're very very limited
synthetic supplements look really good initially and a lot of people they when
they're extremely deficient they start taking something and then they feel
great and they swear by and they say oh I'll take this for the rest of my life
and then a few months later they start crashing but they stay on it because
they felt so good initially well those are side effects that start to develop
so nutraceuticals typically develop some side effects over time and of course a
pharmaceutical always has a side effect by its very design and mechanism once
you go into an ecosystem and you push something you're going to upset the
balance you're going to have a side effect now that doesn't make them evil
in an emergency that can be very useful and save lives but we have to understand
the appropriate time and place and that they always have side effects of their
short-term use only we have to change the way that we're thinking when I look
on the internet I see millions and millions of questions and answers and
they're always the same I have this what do I take for this and someone answers
if you have that then take that that is not how it works because even though
something works for one person it doesn't mean it's gonna work for you
because the source of the problem could have a different origin and also we
never ever want to get into the habit of taking supplements because they're
supposed to do something they're not supposed to change a symptom
they're not supposed to work they're supposed to provide the building blocks
they're supposed to support life if you're missing something and you provide
it you get healthier you want to get out of
the mindset of taking something for something that's just using a safer drug
one with less side effects sure you could take a nutraceutical or an herb
and there's less side effects but you haven't fixed the source of the problem
we have to start understanding the body and supporting physiology and getting to
the source of the problem I hope you enjoyed this little explanation I know
it's very different and we will keep getting good and different information
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thank you