How To Choose The Right Vitamins Every Time! by DONNA F. SMITH, C.C.N., C.N.

     A cupboard full of unfinished bottles of vitamins and herbs is an obvious sign that symptoms are not reliable sources for choosing your supplements and here is why: Take for example, a headache. This one symptom may be caused by at least five different areas of the body. So if you choose your supplements based upon your symptoms, you have 1 in 5 chances that you have chosen the right supplement for the right area of the body producing the headache.
     However, when you obtain a clinical nutrition analysis of your blood, urine, stool, hair, etc., your own body reveals your nutritional supplements requirements -- the lab tests indicate your nutritional deficiencies, insufficiencies and excesses. You can now select the exact supplement(s) required to get to the cause of your headache, or any other nutrition-related symptom. Then, updated tests will reveal changes in your nutritional requirements so that you will know when you should stop taking the supplements you are currently on and which supplements are required next. This is the true art of preventive healthcare for nutrition-related diseases.
     A C.C.N. has been specifically trained and educated in how to nutritionally interpret the standard laboratory reports your medical doctor reads to interpret your illnesses and diseases.
     Have you or someone you know experienced annoying or painful symptoms, and after having a thorough medical exam with tests, been informed by your physician that either:

     It is important to have your body chemistry regularly analyzed by a C.C.N. as part of your ongoing preventive healthcare plan. Why? Because it takes far less time, money, effort and pain to correct nutritional imbalances in your biochemistry to stay healthy, than it does to manage a disease.
     You see, nutritional deficiencies lead to biochemical/metabolic imbalances which then cause organ/gland dysfunction and later lead to nutrition-related diseases. In 1988, the Nutrition and Health Report by the U.S. Surgeon General indicated 68 percent of all deaths are nutrition-related. If this report was updated today, do you think it would be better or worse. Worse? I agree.
     Whether you are currently ill or interested in prevention, having a quarterly Comprehensive Clinical Nutrition Analysis of your biochemistries provides the best opportunity to correct your nutritional deficiencies and reverse any pattern towards disease. Thus, you may truly enjoy good health all of your life, instead of being unaware of the state of your health and then surprised when you are diagnosed with a disease in your later years. Clinical Nutrition Analysis is true preventive healthcare.

Biochemical Individuality

Biochemical Individuality is a term introduced by the research of Dr. Roger Williams of Texas, who proved that just as each person is physically different in appearance (on the outside), each of us are biochemically different on the inside. So what works for one person may not work for you because of your biochemical individuality. This is why, as mentioned earlier, when people try a supplement that worked for their friends or was suggested in a book, sometimes the supplement did not work for them. Because of this, some people think vitamins are unreliable.

When you obtain a clinical nutrition analysis of your biochemistry, you are, in fact, having your biochemical individuality tested, and the supplements recommended from the findings of your lab tests are unique to you and will work only for your body.

Taking OTC/MO Vitamins For Nutritional Deficiencies
     Requiring Clinical Formulations

In the field of medicine you have over-the-counter drugs and prescribed medications. Similarly in the field of clinical nutrition, you have Over-The-Counter (OTC) and Mail Order (MO) supplements and Clinical Formulations available only through licensed health professionals.
     Because the company distributing the OTC/MO supplements does not know how much you are taking, how long you are taking or why you are taking their OTC/MO supplement, nor have they performed any tests to determine your nutritional requirements, the company, for legal and safety reasons, must formulate supplements that are for general use, less potent and mild enough that if someone took too many the worse that would happen would be vomiting or diarrhea, the natural process of eliminating excess food.
     If you have taken an OTC/MO supplement for three months or longer and still have the symptoms for which you originally took the OTC/MO supplement, this may indicate that you have "clinical" level nutritional deficiencies which require more potent clinical formulations. This would be like expecting an over-the-counter drug to work for you like prescribed medication. (To get results consult with a C.C.N.)
     Clinical Formulations are supplements formulated for clinical use only and are available only through licensed nutritional health professionals, like a C.C.N. They are specifically formulated to correct clinical nutrition deficiencies, insufficiencies, excesses and imbalances in biochemistry and the metabolism. They provide clinical nutrition support for dysfunctional organs/glands and nutrition-related diseases. These supplements are potent and must be tested for and monitored by licensed health professionals.
     Both OTC/MO and Clinically Formulated Supplements have an important purpose in the restoration and maintenance of health today. In my clinical nutrition practice, I coach my clients on how to use natural OTC remedies for temporary relief of their symptoms (which are healthier alternatives to OTC drugs); while at the same time, we use the clinical formulations to correct the nutritional cause. OTC/MO supplements are also excellent for maintaining nutritional sufficiency once it is reached.
     Another consideration is that some people are using herbs and vitamins, thinking that because their symptoms leave while taking the supplement they are getting healthier, whereas, the results from clinical nutrition analysis of their biochemistry may show they were simply manipulating their body, naturally, not actually correcting the cause.
     In my experience, I have occasionally come across some OTC/MO supplements that have a clinical nutrition affect on the body. So it is important to view all supplements individually. You can test the effectiveness of any supplement on your biochemistry by simply obtaining a clinical nutrition analysis before and after using the supplement. This is the real indicator if the supplement is working for you or against you.

Vitamin Choices Caused Further Under- or
     Over-Nutrition or Altered A Metabolic Pathway

     In America, people have been taking vitamins and mineral supplements since the 1920s, though the number has increased more rapidly in the past 20 years. Supplementing the diet is vital today for the reasons mentioned earlier--soil depletion, environmental pollution and food additives, all of which cause nutritional deficiencies.
     However, taking supplements for any reason other than the findings from a clinical nutrition analysis of your biochemistry can lead to getting too much of some vitamins/minerals and still not enough of others. This can also cause disturbances in metabolic pathways, which leads to other areas of the body becoming excessive in some vitamins/minerals and insufficient in others. These may have been nutritionally sound before taking supplements. Disturbances in metabolic pathways can then lead to dysfunctional organs and glands, and this can lead to illness and disease, which is the opposite results from enhanced health, the original intention for which the person was taking supplements.

Summary

     Yes, you can end the guess work and choose the right supplements the first time and every time by simply having your nutritional biochemistry regularly analyzed by a C.C.N. For information on how you may obtain a clinical nutrition analysis of your biochemistry, go to www.womensportsnutrition.com.

Copyright 1998 Donna F. Smith