Take Appropriate Supplements to Ward Off Disease

I know we all have heard of supplements. It’s a huge area in our country of profit for many, many companies, and many people take lots of supplements and all kinds of people take all kinds of different supplements. It sure would be nice to know what are the most important ones and when in our life should we be taking these supplements?

The trouble with supplements is this. If you take a prescription drug, let’s say you get an infection, like an ear infection and you take a prescription drug, you can see the benefit in usually just a few days, the pain goes away, the infection goes away. We can just see cause and effect, take the prescription, see what happens. Not so much with vitamins. Vitamins typically have a much longer time to have an effect and in many cases we just can’t see that effect. An example would be if your blood glucose level is high and you’re pre-diabetic unless you’re measuring it, you don’t know. And you wouldn’t know probably if you went from pre-diabetic to diabetic unless you had a blood test. And so when should you take supplements that would keep your sugar and your blood level low?

Let’s start with teenagers. From all of our research from all of our five doctors, our chief medical officer, and four regional medical officers, they’ve analyzed this and come up with the 15 supplements that we need to take, all of us, and the reasons. And there are six of them that even teenagers should start taking, I know it sounds crazy. And here’s what they are and their reason.

The first is a multivitamin. And the reason is that our soil has been so depleted of vitamins and minerals over so many crops being raised over so many years, that in many cases we are not getting enough vitamins and minerals, especially certain ones.

Second, fish oil is another mandatory supplement. And the reason is all the processed foods we’re eating are full of omega sixes and we want omega six and Omega-3 to be in the right ratio. Our body does not make either Omega-3 or Omega-6. And so you can get your Omega-3 up by taking fish oil.

The third is vitamin D, which is particularly important for people who cannot get enough sun. And so the people in Alaska typically get more diseases earlier than anybody else, and the reason is they’re just not getting enough sun.

Fourth is curcumin, and it has been taken in Asia for 6,000 years for overall organ health.

The fifth is vitamin K because unless you’re eating enough meat and eggs and cheese you’re not getting enough vitamin K and many kids aren’t eating it.

And then of course maintain the optimum blood level by keeping it low, and again, it’s because so many teenagers eat so much sugar, either in food or in soft drinks.

Let’s take a look at these six in a little bit more detail. Let’s take the multivitamin. I believe everybody should take it just as an insurance policy, just to make sure. And here’s the reason. Now, this comes from the Journal of American Diabetic Association, 92% of men and 97% of women do not consume the recommended amount of nutrients. That’s essentially everybody, and most diets fail to provide even the minimal amounts of some important nutrients, such as calcium, zinc, potassium, vitamin B5, and B6. That’s the reason everybody should take a multivitamin, even starting as a teenager.

Second I mentioned fish oil. And again, our body does not make Omega-3 or Omega-6, the essential fatty acids. And so if we’re going to eat processed foods that raise our Omega-6, we need to raise our Omega-3 to keep the ratio in alignment. And the best way to get Omega-3 is from fatty fish, walnuts, or flaxseed. And some kids just don’t like fish, so, again, taking Omega-3 is another insurance policy. And if you remember the gut lining and its importance, and if the gut lining is ruptured from eating too much processed foods and lectin, meat, then it causes all those 11 diseases and three conditions, fish oil helps repair the gut lining. And many studies will show that people with the highest levels of Omega-3 have the best memory and a bigger brain.

And the next is vitamin D that I mentioned. People who have low levels of vitamin D have a 71% higher chance of dying from all causes than people with sufficient levels of vitamin D. And particularly as we age, the body is less able to convert the sun’s rays to vitamin D, so we need to take a lot of vitamin D every day, typically 500 to eight thousand IUs or international units.

I mentioned curcumin, its use dates back over 6,000 years in the Middle East and the Far East, and Asia. It, it benefits all organs and so it’s another one even teenagers should be taking.

And then the next to last is vitamin K. And again, the reason vitamin K is so important is that its most efficient way of getting vitamin K is with supplements, and the reason is the food that’s mainly rich in vitamin K is meat, eggs, and dairy. And so if kids are not eating those regularly, they’re not getting enough vitamin K.

And then finally, for even teenagers is blood glucose, especially when kids are eating too much sugar. And there are very good supplements that include plant extracts that are known to keep the level low. One of these, the Mulberry leaf has been used in traditional Chinese medicine to keep blood levels low for about 2,000 years.

Again, those are the five that as even as we approach adulthood should be taken by teenagers. Now, there are also nine more that should be taken by every adult.

70% of cardiologists will recommend their patients all take CoQ10, no matter what their condition. And one of the reasons as we age, for example, when you’re over 70, CoQ10 levels in our bodies have decreased by 50%. And the importance of CoQ10 is that it provides energy to our heart, brain, and kidney cells, so a very important supplement to take.

Next is improving the energy in every cell and the bacteria, mitochondria, are called the fat-burning furnaces in every cell. And of course, youthful cellular energy is a key to a longer life. And so certain supplements can promote the growth of new mitochondria, the good bacteria in aging cells.

Next is DHEA. It is the body’s most abundant hormone in circulation and the body’s production of it peaks at age 25. And by age 70, our DHEA levels have declined by 80%. And since DHEA is one of the master hormones, it creates hormonal imbalances and so literally thousands of studies show how DHEA will retard the effects of aging.

The next is to keep our brains sharp. And so taking a supplement with a broad spectrum of nutrients to protect our brain is important and it’ll typically improve our mental focus and promote cognitive planning and organizational acuity, and also help us retain spatial relationships. An example would be assessing the distance between cars ahead of us when we’re driving. Supplements to keep our brain sharp are important. And these are just simple plant nutrients.

Next, and many of us have heard about this, especially for women, and that is protecting our bones. Again, as we age our bones lose calcium. And when we’re taking calcium, also a lot of people take calcium supplements, when we’re taking calcium, we need to take other nutrients that support the bioavailability of the calcium, the absorption of the calcium, and those are magnesium, zinc, phosphorous and manganese. When we take a calcium supplement we just want to make sure they’ve got those other supporting nutrients that help the absorption of the calcium into our bones.

And of course, for men, protecting our prostate and for women protecting their breasts. When men become over 50, they typically start suffering from prostate discomforts and so taking a group of supplements, there’s nine together, they’re all plant-based can help protect our prostate as we grow older. And for women, of course, taking nutrients that will protect the breasts and can positively influence the cellular status of the breast.

And then magnesium, many people take magnesium because it prevents leg cramps, but it has other benefits, and one of the best benefits is if you take a certain type of magnesium, threonate, it can get through the blood-brain barrier into our brain. And anytime people are taking it, like that wavy scan I mentioned in the previous podcast, it improves the performance and speed of our brains on a battery of tests for cognitive factors and prevents early cognitive impairment. And one of these studies showed that if you’re taking this supplement, this type of magnesium, it reduced brain age by nine years in a large study of humans, so it’s another very important supplement.

And then finally B vitamins. Many of you know that people as they get older, get a B vitamin shot periodically, my mother used to 70 years ago, 60 years ago, and there’s a whole range of different Bs, and in some cases says we can’t get them all from food so being able to take a broad range B vitamin can be very, very helpful. It helps the body fight off germs and make energy.

And so what I’ve covered are the six vitamins that everybody should take, starting as a teenager, and the top 15 that are pretty much mandatory for longevity.