“POISON! DANGER! MAY BE FATAL IF SWALLOWED. HARMFUL IF INHALED. CAUSES SEVERE IRRITATION TO SKIN AND EYES. CAUSES IRRITATION TO RESPIRATORY TRACT. AFFECTS LIVER, KIDNEYS, BLOOD, SPLEEN.”
What do you think this warning is referring to? Rat poison? Chemical cleaning agent? Pesticide?
Think again! This is the Material Safety Data Sheet description of the hazards of sodium selenite. Which is the common and inexpensive USP form of selenium used in many vitamin supplements.
Sure there are those who will say that the ‘devil is in the dosage’. And it would be easy to argue that a small amount of USP grade selenium is good for you, as it represents a mineral that is recommended for many reasons. But consider this:
In April of 2001, the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center reported that supplementations of selenium at high dosages resulted in DNA damage. This is the exact opposite effect for why you would be inclined to take selenium supplements in the first place.
And if you thought those reports were shocking, listen to this…
If you thought that taking a daily dosage of Vitamin C is good for you – You may be terribly mistaken…
Synthetic Vitamin C is called Ascorbic Acid. And it is more refined than white table sugar. As a matter of fact it is produced out of glucose. Starting with refined glucose, 6 more levels of refinement are gone through to create what is called ascorbic acid. And this is what the ‘natural products’ industry calls Vitamin C.
A study presented in 2000 at the American Heart Association said that taking “just” 500 mg of ascorbic acid appeared to be hastening the onset of hardening of the arteries. More recently the University of Pennsylvania indicated that even 200 mg of ascorbic acid could trigger DNA oxidative damage.
And now let’s briefly stroll down the frightening research involving calcium supplements:
Dr. Colin Campbell, a nutritional biochemist at Cornell University, devoted a lifetime of study to the link between calcium consumption and bone fracture. In Discover Magazine of 2000 an article on his work concluded that the more calcium people consumed, the more susceptible they became to getting hip fractures.
Furthermore, the Harvard Nurses’ Health study involved 78,000 nurses over a 12-year study. The Harvard researchers noted:
“Nurses who drank the most milk – two or more glasses a day – broke more bones than the others.”
Disturbing evidence of the harmful health effects of excessive calcium supplementation has been linked to:
- · Cardiovascular problems
- · Arthritis
- · Kidney Stones
- · Prostate Cancer
- · Osteoporosis
So what does all this mean? Does it mean the supplementation is a total crock and does more harm than good?
Not exactly. All these studies around the negative effects of vitamins involve USP forms of vitamins and minerals. USP refers to the United States Pharmacopoeia. Simply put, it is a synthetic form of the vitamin. Simply put, when science finds a positive vitamin in a fruit, what they do is isolate the molecular form of the vitamin. Then through chemical refinement the molecular is reproduced. And mass industrial production of this molecule follows in order to supply the USP vitamin to the hundreds of vitamin companies around the world.
The interesting thing is that there are very few industrial sources for synthetic vitamins. And the vast majority of the supplementation companies buy their USP compounds from the same sources. They just mix and blend them differently with varying other compounds and elements to create their own brand. But in essence it’s all just USP grade synthetic vitamins.
Am I saying that synthetic vitamins are bad? No! Perhaps in the decades to follow research will show that ingesting large amounts of synthetic chemicals are actually good for us. Right now there is a lot of research showing us that we must use USP supplements carefully and under proper health supervision.
But what I do know is that there is a way to totally circumvent the potential risk in taking USP grade supplements. That’s to get your vitamins from natural sources. There are two that I know of:
1. Natural foods. Obviously organic foods have the highest amounts of vitamins and minerals. The only problem is that our bodies require more vitamins than ever before because of our high stress lives. So we must rely on:
2. Non-synthetic supplements. There are a very small number of companies that I know of that use non-synthetic vitamins. The brand that I recommend and that we carry at our clinic is New Chapters. Click here for more details.
Not only are New Chapters vitamins certified organic. But they undergo a unique fermentation process, so that they are imbued with a healthy and natural amount of probiotics. This not only increases the absorbability of the supplements but it also helps improve the overall health of your digestive system.
On top of that New Chapters includes super-critically extracted botanicals that are grown on their own biodynamic farm in Costa Rica and brimming with protective antioxidants.
If you would like to receive a supplementation diagnosis with one of our doctors of natural medicine call our clinic at 613-216-2135. We can diagnose your needs and give you a personalized non-synthetic supplementation program.
