To support body immunity, there’s neem, for your eyes there’s lutein, for your skin, collagen and for your hair, inositol. At the end of the day just pop another pill to detox your whole system. We’ve become a nation of pill poppers. Too bad, there isn’t a pill to increase your intelligence!
A row of bottles on my shelf
Caused me to analyze myself.
One yellow pill I have to pop
Goes to my heart so it won’t stop.
A little white one that I take
Goes to my hands so they won’t shake.
The blue ones that I use a lot
Tell me I’m happy when I’m not.
The purple pill goes to my brain
And tells me that I have no pain.
The capsules tell me not to wheeze
Or cough or choke or even sneeze.
The red ones, smallest of them all
Go to my blood so I won’t fall.
The orange ones, very big and bright
Prevent my leg cramps in the night.
Such an array of brilliant pills
Helping to cure all kinds of ills.
But what I’d really like to know…
Is what tells each one where to go!
I have a friend who spends a couple of hundred bucks a month on supplements but I see no visible improvements to this person’s health. No wonder the scientific community is divided on the impact of supplements on the body.
Many people assume that because herbs and vitamins come from “natural” sources, they are safe. However, this is not necessarily true.
The line between the drugs and supplements is often blurred, especially when one considers that many drugs come from natural sources, and many nutritional supplements have been extracted from plants in such a way that some do not differ from what are more commonly defined as drugs. Additionally, both can have powerful pharmacological effects and cause problems if taken incorrectly.
It should be noted that herbal medicines designed for medicinal purposes often come from plants which are not meant to be consumed ordinarily, and although they may “natural” they can contain highly concentrated extracts of pharmacologically active substances. Consequently, they are acting as a drug, and should be treated with the same precautions as a drug. Many can have unfavorable side effects or can react adversely with other medications. Some can also be toxic if not used correctly. Whilst there are a few herbal medicines which have been thoroughly studied, many have not been, so available information is often based on anecdotal accounts.
Many supplements can cause health problems, when taken in excess amounts, taken by the wrong person, combined with certain medicines, or taken with other supplements. In fact, hypertension is the most common health effect resulting from supplement use.
Some supplements have been found to contain little of the named substance and may contain chemicals, pesticides, bacteria, heavy metals, and even pharmaceutical drugs.
Well-known nutritional supplement manufacturers may have a higher quality of product, but they are still not regulated by any outside agency, so all claims of potency and safety are internally produced – of more than 20,000 products on the market, only 46 have received even a cursory independent safety review at the FDA.
Although many doctors agree that proper nutrition is important for good health, not all believe that supplementation is the answer.
In fact, research found no evidence for example to support antioxidant supplements for primary or secondary prevention. On the contrary beta-carotene, vitamin A and vitamin E given singly or combined with other antioxidant supplements significantly increase mortality.
Many experts also caution against using supplements to add vitamins and minerals to the diet as multivitamins may not contain the personal balance of nutrition a person needs. It may actually assist in depleting some nutrients from the body. Individual supplements and vitamin pills may not be as well absorbed by the body as nutrients in foods and some supplements also can have toxic effects in high quantities.
For example, studies at the University of North Carolina have shown that the same anti-inflammatory properties of fish oil, a popular supplement, can also suppress the immune’s system response to viral infections.
Additionally, some supplements in excess can even interfere with the body’s ability to absorb other vitamins and minerals. An excess of zinc, for example, can interfere with absorption of iron and copper.
When asked why they take vitamin and mineral supplements, many people explain that it is because they fear that they may not be getting enough from their food alone, and that our food supply is somehow lacking in the nutrients we need to stay healthy. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth, and this single misconception is largely responsible for the widespread unnecessary use of these supplements.
Unless you are a prisoner in one of those Khmer Rogue hellholes, and fed only rice water on an irregular basis, it is highly unlikely that you need additional supplements. The billons retards spend on expensive, over-priced supplements only go to make companies like GNC and others become wealthy at your expense.
Please don’t flush your money down the toilet.