Supplements: Are They Right for You?

It has been estimated that Americans spend $25–33 BILLION a year on supplements! Now that is a lot of supplementing. Multivitamins are very common and probably the most taken across various ages and cultures. I did a search on supplements and got over 15 million hits on Google.

So, are they really good for you? Don’t most of the supplements or vitamins just run right through us? How do you know what to take? These are very common questions people have and there are many different opinions and answers to these questions.

I want to be real clear. I take supplements. I do not have any great studies to support my use of supplements. I only have my years of experience as a family doctor and my own personal experiences with the use of supplements. I have done extensive reading and continue to improve my own knowledge on the subject. I am in no way an expert on supplements.

So, if you are still reading this, understand these are my opinions.

I am often asked about the absorptions of supplements and how your body uses them. I do believe some of the supplements are probably excreted from our bodies fairly rapidly. If you take a B vitamin, it does not take very long (15–30 minutes) before your urine becomes bright yellow. So why take them if they get out of your system so fast?

My first answer is to compare supplements to water. Water basically just goes right through our system. But I have to believe the water does some good along the way. I think supplements are much the same. They may go right through us, but I think they do some good along the way.

Secondly, I am sure not all the B vitamin ends up in my urine right away. I do think it will circulate through my body and be used if needed. It helps ensure the systems in my body that use the B vitamins have plenty of it.

Which supplements should you take? Again, a very common question. My answer is: it depends. It depends on what you are expecting or needing as far as supplements. It depends on your overall health status and your nutrition. It depends on your genetics. I do not think there is a one-size-fits-all. A growing athletic adolescent is going to have some different requirements than a guy in his sixties.

I do think the first thing to start with is to be sure you are doing the basic things well. Eating clean will help your overall wellness and health more than any supplement can. If you are not exercising regularly, get started. Try to get 7–8 hours of sleep and drink plenty of water.

My next blog will be about my personal favorite supplement.

Wishing You an Amazing Life,

Dr. Curtis Brown

Supplements: To Take or Not to Take?

I have been helping people with their health issues for 30 years now and I believe I have learned a lot of things over those decades. I have learned we do not necessarily always know the truth. Medical opinions change with increased knowledge and better information.

I remember when we told everyone to quit eating eggs if you needed to lower your cholesterol. Well, now we have decided it is okay to eat some eggs in moderation. It used to be common practice to advise all women to take calcium. Now, not so much. Calcium probably will not hurt you, but it also probably does not help as much as we thought.

Medical advice and opinion tend to shift and change all of the time. There are some basic truths (at least, I think there are) that still make sense. For instance, if you have high blood pressure, you should do everything you can, including taking medication if necessary, to reduce your blood pressure to normal levels. This will dramatically lower your risk of heart attack and/or stroke. Getting regular sleep is really good for your overall energy and mood. Regular exercise will increase your energy and enhance your life. Still true!

Supplements are very popular today. I personally take them and I think they are helpful. However, recently I was listening to a popular wellness radio show and the host was taking lots of supplements. He was recommending all sorts of stuff to help with weight loss, memory, fatigue, energy, skin, bloating, and a multitude of other common ailments.

I tried to calculate how much it would cost to take everything he was recommending as a must-have. NO ONE could afford to spend that kind of money! It was over a thousand dollars a month.

Again, I am not against supplements. I take them myself. But I think some common sense should be used in deciding which supplements to take. Part of the problem of deciding what to take is filtering through all the noise around supplements.

Many mainstream doctors avoid recommending supplements altogether. We have been trained to look for documentation of efficacy through double-blind studies. It is really hard to find long-term, double-blind studies when it comes to supplements. I know there are a few good studies, but they are often biased in their design.

Over the next few weeks, I will blog about my thoughts and recommendations on supplements. I will not quote any studies. These recommendations will be based off of my personal experience and my own research of available information (which changes frequently).

I hope you will find this information practical and informative.

Wishing You an Amazing Life,

Dr. Curtis Brown

3 Supplements for Everyone to Consider

 

Supplements use in the USA are up dramatically. It is estimated that over 70% of Americans are using supplements. There are so many to choose from and so many opinions. It is a multibillion-dollar market and there is a lot of confusion and even fraud. It is hard to know what to believe and whom to trust. In this blog post, I want to discuss three supplements that I think most people can benefit from taking. Please discuss with your healthcare provider before starting any supplements.

Multivitamins

Multivitamins are by far the most common supplements used today. There are many to choose from and many excellent products. I think of multivitamins kind of like insurance. I am not sure when I will need my insurance or how much of it I will need. The way we grow and consume our foods today increase the chances that we are not getting the basic vitamins and minerals from our diet. By taking a multivitamin, I think I am covering the basics.

One of the first things to consider when thinking about multivitamins is iron. If you are low on iron or tend to be borderline low, take one with iron. If you have iron deficient anemia, take iron. Most women who are having regular periods would benefit from a MVI with iron. Iron can be constipating and some people have GI sensitivity with iron. If you are sensitive to iron, you may want to try to eat more leafy green vegetables.

There are also different vitamins recommended for different stages of life. You can find vitamins for men over forty that can help with prostate issues. There are multivitamins for menopausal women. There are vitamins for children. There are also vitamins that are designed to support eye health.

It can become confusing to know which vitamins are best for you. For most healthy people, you can pick a good basic multivitamin and be satisfied that you are covering the basics. I have found Thorne.com to be a good resource for information and for products. I take one of their products for men over forty called Al’s Formula.

There are several one-a-day vitamins on the market. I do not believe that you can adequately supplement with just one pill a day. There are so many micronutrients, minerals, and vitamins that we know are beneficial. There is simply no way to combine them into one pill. It would be difficult to swallow that size of a pill.

The bottom line is that there are many good multivitamins on the market. Find one that you like and one that meets your basic needs based off your age and life situation. 

Fish Oil

Fish oil is another common and popular supplement. Recently there has been some negative press on fish oil. I believe that fish oil is still an important supplement with many positive benefits.

Fish oils are compromised of the essential fatty acids eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexanoic (DHA). These are classified as Omega 3 fatty acids.

With most things in life, you get what you pay for. The higher the quality of fish oil, the fewer side effects, the more it costs. In general, the higher the levels of EPA and DHA, the better the fish oil. Look for around 200mg of DHA and 1,300mg of EPA in your fish oil. The main reason most people stop fish oil is secondary to burping. If you get a high-quality product, it should decrease the burping.

The beneficial effects of fish oil have been studied for over 20 years. Fish oil has a positive effect on triglycerides and LDL cholesterol. Fish oil also has a positive effect on platelet aggregation. These effects are believed to improve your cardiovascular health.

Fish oil also may help with other problems. Our brains and our joints are bathed or lubricated with omega-3 fatty acids. In my experience, about 30–40% percent of people get some form of arthritis relief. There is also some evidence that fish oil may help with depression and even Alzheimer’s diseases. I do not think the effects are very dramatic, but any help is appreciated.

There are studies that suggest EPA and DHA help the body in suppressing cancer cells and improve insulin sensitivity for prevention of diabetes.

I would recommend that you start with 2 grams of fish oil daily for a high-quality source. There are lab tests that can be done to measure your omega-3 for more precise dosing. These can get somewhat expensive, and insurance does not always cover it. Eating a good cold water fish a couple of times a week is also a good way to get some added omega-3 into your diet. 

Probiotics

Probiotics are bacteria that are good for your intestinal tract. Our intestinal tracts are full of bacteria. They can become overpopulated with bad bacteria, and this can lead to several problems. Supplementing with probiotics helps keep the balance of healthy bacteria in place and helps prevent an overgrowth of bad bacteria.

Probiotics can help maintain the delicate balance of the gastrointestinal tract and the immune system. When the balance is disrupted, disease and inflammation can break out. Normal beneficial bacteria competitively inhibit inflammation and over stimulation of our immune system by pathogenic bacteria.

Probiotics are supportive in the treatment of many medical problems including irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, diarrhea, eczema, and maldigestion, to name a few. 

Probiotics can also help support weight loss. I recently reviewed a weight loss study of 300 patients all on the same program. The only difference was half took a probiotic and half did not. At the end of the six-week study, the group that took the probiotic had lost 4.6% more weight.

Conclusion

I hope you have found this quick review on 3 supplements that everyone should consider to be helpful. If you have any questions, please drop me an e-mail and I will try to answer as quickly as I can. Wishing you an amazing life.