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Nutritional Supplements
Nutritional supplements are never as good as whole food, since whole food contains far more than just a few vitamins and minerals. Another problem is that most pharmaceutical supplements contain, with few exceptions, only one, maybe two, and at best, a few trace elements, but none of all the trace elements work in isolation. Calcium, for instance, works only in conjunction with magnesium, and cannot be used by our bodies in the absence of magnesium.
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Further, and although they may offer some improvement, the trace element supplements alone cannot eliminate some diseases. The Omega-3 fatty acids are also required to eliminate some neural and mental diseases, such as MS for instance.
Two years ago, and after 13 years on the daily seafood routine, I switched to a 72 trace element supplement, partially out of boredom with the daily seafood routine, and to see just how effective these nutritional supplements are. Well, and after two years on this trace element supplement, some MS-caused numbness in my right hand has returned. So, I am back on the daily seafood routine - which contains both the complete natural range of the 72 trace elements, as well as high levels of the Omega-3 fatty acids.
There are two kinds of trace element supplements available today: Pharmaceutically formulated supplements, and non-pharmaceutical supplements. We'll look at the pharmaceutically formulated supplements first.
PHARMACEUTICAL SUPPLEMENTS
The best of the pharmaceutical supplements contain the currently recognized 17 elements and trace elements - including the five newly recognized trace elements chromium, nickel, silicon, tin and vanadium, along with 12 essential vitamins. In addition these supplements also contain, among others, the vitamins beta carotine, folic acid, B-12 and d-pantothenic acid, all of which have recently been recognized as being crucial to our health
and well being.
Since these companies make other supplements, make sure that the product you are buying states and lists -
"29 Essential Vitamins and Minerals".
Among the over-the-counter vitamin-plus-minerals nutritional supplements are products such as "Centrum", "Spectrum", "Balance", "Optimum" and "Century". The trace elements (called "minerals") in these supplements are pharmaceutically formulated and chelated - combined with organic compounds - for optimum absorption by our bodies. It is the next best thing to the real thing. Nevertheless, and while this is a substantial forward step, this still leaves us short of more than 60 vitally important trace elements. Please note that these supplements, although they have many very important benefits, do not eliminate many diseases as the complete natural range of the 72 trace elements does.
Nevertheless, these pharmaceutical supplements are highly recommended as a daily supplement, as a small but vitally important step towards the full spectrum of the 72 trace elements which we need in order to stay healthy and well. And since these supplements contain at least 5 of the newly recognized trace elements - trace elements which are not yet recognized and maintained in our agriculture, and hence, deficient in our daily food - they are recommended even for apparently healthy people.
A note of caution is necessary here.
Never take more than the recommended daily amount of these supplements - because too much of the trace elements is as deadly as too little! |
NON-PHARMACEUTICAL SUPPLEMENTS
Since today's biomedical sciences are just slowly waking up to the fact that we need far more than the totally insufficient 8 known trace elements to remain healthy, there are, as yet, no pharmaceutically formulated supplements which contain the complete range of the 72 nutritional trace elements.
The only exception, and the best of these nutritional 72 trace element supplements, are those which are derived from seaweed, and these are as good, as safe, as natural, and as valid as all seafood. The only concern here is the place of their origin. If the seaweed comes from polluted coastal waters, it may do more harm than good. We depend entirely upon the manufacturer's integrity and commitment to quality in regard to these products. The seaweed derived supplements are the only ones which can be fully recommended. However, we would have to consume large amounts of the seaweed-derived supplements to equal the daily minimum requirement of 4 to 6 ounces of seafood.
The second best of the 72 trace element supplements are those obtained from the Utah Salt Flats - the highly concentrated remains of an archaeic sea, which should be free of all modern age pollution (depending upon method of extraction), and which have been 99% desalinated.
In addition, there exist a wide variety of 'raw' sources of 72 trace element supplements, derived from all kinds of natural, but 'raw' sources, such as archaeic clay, mud and silt (shale), ancient mines, archaeic soil and archaeic caves. And while they do contain the 72 natural trace elements, the amounts are miniscule, about 1% all in all, and the remaining 99% is archaeic soil in one form or another. Then there are products derived from archaeic plant deposits (shale, coal), seawater and, inevitably, the newly popular "Rain Forest". All of these supplements are essentially valid, if miniscule, sources of the 72 nutritional trace elements, and have many shortcomings.
First of all, these supplements usually contain the complete spectrum of the 84 naturally occurring elements, including the heavy metals - such elements as lead, mercury, cadmium, uranium, and so forth. And while this sounds much worse than it actually is - very recent research has found that we also need a micro-miniscule trace of these elements - we are getting too much of these heavy elements already from industrial and chemical pollution.
Please note! And note carefully! Any of these non-pharmaceutical supplements are not - and I repeat, are NOT - to be taken by pregnant women, or by women planning to have a baby!!! This can easily result in physically and/or mentally defective babies or still births. And while a slight 'overdose' of the heavy elements in these supplements can be tolerated by the relatively large body mass of a fully developed adult, such a minor overdose is a HUGE overdose to the very small organism of a developing embryo, foetus, a baby or small child.
Any woman who has taken any of these non-pharmaceutical 72 trace elements supplements should wait at least 6 months before becoming pregnant, so that her body can purge itself of the heavy elements.
Secondly, the trace elements in these 'raw' sources do not contain - like all seafoods - the vitally important Omega-3 fatty acids, which are a major preventative and healing factor in all nervous system and mental diseases.
Finally, the trace elements in the raw sources are not 'chelated' - not combined with organic compounds, as by all plant and animal life. And while our bodies appear to be capable of absorbing and using 'raw' elements (as from drinking water, for instance), our metabolism can best use the trace elements in their complex chelated form, as derived from all plant and animal food sources.
Further, the greatest danger inherent in supplements - any kind of supplement - is that one can very easily overdose on them - which is impossible with food. The chief caution with the nutritional trace element supplements is - and I emphasize this as strongly as possible -
CAUTION:
TOO MUCH OF THE TRACE ELEMENTS IS AS DEADLY AS TOO LITTLE!!! |
The popular notion that "more of a good thing is better" is just not true for the trace elements, and can easily result in poisoning the body and doing much harm. And given the ease of a supplement, the temptation to take more is often just too great.
And finally, we have no way of knowing about the integrity of the manufacturers of these non-pharmaceutical 72 trace element supplements, nor of the quality of their products. There is one supplier, for instance, who touts seawater from the coast of India, seawater which is highly polluted with everything under the sun.
For all of these reasons, shortcomings and dangers - and although they eliminate and prevent many diseases nearly as well as a daily serving of seafood does - the non-pharmaceutical nutritional trace element supplements cannot be recommended here. All I can say of the non-pharmaceutical 72 trace element supplements now available, is that anyone takes them entirely and completely at their own risk.
However, for many people and for many reasons, such as an allergy to seafood, for instance, the non-pharmaceutical 72 trace element supplements are the only readily available alternative. In these situations, and particularly so when it is a situation of life or death, or of progressive suffering and deterioration, it comes down to the trade-off between the potential harm that the heavy elements in these non-pharmaceutical nutritional 72 trace element supplements can do - and the substantial, and sometimes dramatic benefits that can be obtained from them. But this decision can only be made by the individual for him or herself. However, and with all the cautions and reservations mentioned here, and with the full and complete understanding that anyone taking these supplements does so entirely and completely at their own risk, they are a valid alternative to the daily seafood diet, and they do work, although not nearly as well as a daily serving of seafood.
In any case, the daily seafood nutritional routine is a completely natural and (almost) perfectly safe source of the complete natural range of the 72 nutritional trace element we need in order to stay healthy and well. But even here we are in a bit of trouble nowadays. Chemical and industrial pollution is now so wide-spread and pervasive on the Earth that all environments and every living thing is now contaminated - including fish in the high seas. Even our daily food from our farms is now contaminated in this manner, and worse, it is also contaminated with the agricultural poisons used in its production. And while we can easily eliminate all agricultural poisons - see "POISON-FREE AGRICULTURE" in these pages - there is nothing we can do about the industrial and chemical pollution of the Earth, and we must now live as best as we can with what we have wrought.
NEXT - supplement sources
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