Nutritional Supplementation
Listen to Dr. Joel Swisher's presentation on Nutritional Supplementation and Mineral Water Therapy a Nutritional Natural Healing. Audio requires Windows Media Player or Real Player (free downloads).
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Mineral and Vitamin Supplementation...so many choices!
Is there a difference?
In the fast-paced, fast-food American society of today, many people are starting to incorporate mineral and vitamin supplements into their daily routines in an effort to enhance their health and well-being. This move on the part of the American public has led to hundreds of manufacturers mixing up and bottling vitamins and minerals galore! Tablets, capsules, mono-automic liquids, gel caps, chelated, colloidals, food bars, powders, ionized, power drinks, and more! So many choices, so much marketing hype, so little real, educational, scientific information provided! So, how to choose?
Wait, there's more... on top of all that, the media is buzzing with reports of wasted money, non-absorbable supplements, and America's health continuing to decline. Is it true? Is there a difference in supplements? Are we getting healthier from all the vitamins and minerals we're spending our hard earned dollars on? Or are we flushing our money down the toilets?
YES!! Yes, what? Yes, in most cases, we're flushing our money down the toilet! FACT: As stated in the Journal of Chiropractic Economics (March 1998), 250,000 pounds of undigested multi-mineral and vitamin tablets and pills are pulled out of the city sewage filters every 6 weeks in Seattle, WA - many of them with the brand names still readable! In Salt Lake City, UT, 150 gallons of vitamin and mineral pills end up in their municipal water treatment plants every month! According to the Physicians Desk Reference - found in every doctor's office and medical school in the country - "supplements in tablet or pill form are only 10% absorbed by the body." What about capsules, colloidals? Doesn't chelation help? What about ionization? Is supplementation working at all? According to CNN News, Americans consume 40,000,000 pounds of aspirin each year; we lead the world in heart disease; 58% of American children fail their fitness tests; and 40% of bankruptcies are caused by medical bills. These findings suggest to me that something is still very, very wrong!
I hope the following information will help you to make more sense out of all of the products, advertising, and hype out there. Our health and well-being, as well as the health and well-being of our children, grand-children, and beyond depends upon us doing everything we can to figure it out!
First, a brief look at the NECESSITY for vitamin and mineral supplementation.
One of the most amazing attributes of the plant kingdom is it's ability to extract metallic compounds (minerals) from simple dirt and rocks and, with the help of the sun, rain, and soil bacteria, transform those metallic minerals into crystalline, water-soluble forms of the same pure minerals, and in doing so, make them usable to the animal life on the planet, including humans! I can't, you can't, dogs can't, horses can't, no animals can eat the dirt and rocks and absorb the minerals, but the plants can!
GREAT! So, then, let's just eat lots of plants! Right? Well, unfortunately, the story doesn't end there. Let's continue.
In order for our plants to absorb and transform our earth's minerals, the minerals have to be in the dirt to begin with. Doesn't really sound like a problem here in the land of abundance, does it? Well...According to a study called US Senate Document 264, presented at the 74th Congress, "The alarming fact is that foods, fruits, vegetables, and grains now being raised on millions of acres of land in this country no longer contain enough certain needed minerals and are starving us, no matter how much of them we eat." The report also stated, "99% of the American people are deficient in minerals, and a marked deficiency in any one of the more important minerals actually results in disease." WOW!! Can you believe this wasn't all over the 6 o'clock news??? Wonder why? I'll tell you why...this report was presented to the 74th Congress...in 1936!! 1936!!! Nearly three-quarters of a century ago, the food grown on our abundant American soils was already virtually void of essential nutrients, and our ancestors were already being starved of the nutrition essential for long and healthy lives! So, "they" must have fixed it by now, right? Unfortunately, no "they" haven't. With all of the chemical fertilizers, which make growing big, pretty, consistent fields possible regardless of what's in the soil, and with antibiotics and growth hormones that allow animals to grow to market weight in record time, without any need whatsoever for nutrient-rich grazing fields, we're producing more and more food in our country, that contains less and less nutrient content. The situation isn't getting better... according to the 1992 Earth Summit, North America's farmlands were the worst in the world, being 85% nutrient deplete, with farmlands specifically in the United States showing the worst mineral depletion in all categories! No, the situation has not improved since the alarming findings of 1936. And all of this when the simple fact is that at least 15 minerals, 13 vitamins, 8 amino acids, numerous enzymes, probiotics, essential fatty acids (3,6 & 9), and certain carbohydrates are absolutely NECESSARY for healthy human life!
What this means to all of us is that supplementation IS necessary if we hope to live long, disease-free lives. This subject, longevity and disease-free life, is the subject of yet another article entirely, and I encourage you to consider it at another time - YES, we are genetically engineered to live long, long, healthy, disease-free lives!! Our general acceptance of disease and life spans of just 60 to 80 years is just not right but, again, this is a subject for another article. Let's get back to the subject at hand; figuring out the supplements available to us!
We already know that science has proven that most supplements are only 10% absorbed by the body. But why? Why are the vitamins and minerals in plants completely bioavailable to us? What's the difference? The differences are many.
First, the minerals in plants are water soluble - meaning they are not metallic but are, instead, crystalline when not in solution (ie; when dehydrated). The difference? An approximate 10,000 times size difference! Tablets, capsules, and even colloidal minerals, whether chelated, ionized, or colored purple, all contain metallic mineral particles that are a micron in size or larger. A water soluble mineral (such as those found in plants) is a mere angstrom in size - an angstrom is 1/10,000th the size of a micron! So, what?? Well, the human body was designed to assimilate minerals of about an angstrom in size and that's, quite simply, what it's able to do. So what about the micron sized particles in most supplements? What about that 10% that the Physician's Desk Reference says we absorb? Well, the body is an amazing machine - it does its best with what it's given... give it a mineral tablet, a capsule, or a colloid, and it'll do its best to figure out how to use it. It'll give it all the digestion and processing it can (yes, things like chelation and colloiding help that digestion process), and it'll be partially successful in its valiant attempt. If the body can break down the supplement to its individual micron sized particles, through digestion, it'll be able to absorb some of those particles into the bloodstream - that's a start! Unfortunately, however, it's a dangerous start, because piling up large (to the body, a micron is large!) mineral particles in the bloodstream can result in a toxic build-up over time. So, if some of the nutrients make it to the blood, why aren't they utilized by the body? Why would they build up in the bloodstream and cause toxicity? Quite simply, because for the body to be able to use a nutrient, the nutrient must be able to enter a cell. A cell is about 15 angstroms in size - and a micron-sized particle just won't fit! It's like trying to fit an elephant into a toy truck! Cells were designed to absorb angstrom-sized nutrients - just like those graciously provided to us by the plant kingdom! Digestion breaks down foods (and supplements) to find the nutrients hidden inside, and it uses whatever nutrients it finds in a useable size/state, but the human body can not digest minerals in their metallic "rock" form and size.
Second, most of the minerals used in the manufacturing of supplements are complex elemental compounds, which are not the same as the base elements needed by the body, nor the same as the base elements or loose elemental molecules presented to us by plants. Our bodies are basically a chemistry lab, and to this chemistry lab, the difference between complex elemental compounds and base elements is huge. The difference means that most of the minerals presented to the body through supplements are not recognized by cells as the minerals needed because they are in sizes and forms that are ineffective for cell assimilation. Calcium carbonate (one calcium atom and three carbon atoms) is not calcium (one calcium atom), chromium picolinate is not chromium, copper glutamate is not copper, etc., and none of these kinds of complex compounds are recognized by the cells as welcome nutrients, nor are they able to bond with water to enter the cell membrane. This would help to explain why people can take calcium carbonate supplements religiously, and yet their bodies continue to rob calcium from their bones causing osteoporosis. Two elements that are also a part of this chemistry equation are hydrogen and oxygen, and they are absolutely necessary to carry nutrients into the cells. Hydrogen and oxygen, when molecularly bound, make water. This water molecule, containing one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms, attracts various elemental minerals (one nutrient per water molecule) through opposite electrical charges, and carries them into the cell. The very strong molecular bonds in man-made complex elemental compounds such as calcium carbonate, make them virtually useless to the human body, as the body's ability to break such bonds in search of base elements, such as pure calcium, is very limited. And so, the forms in which most vitamin and mineral supplements are presented to the body are not recognizable or useable by the body, regardless of other factors, such as particle size or digestibility.
There is another option. Medical science has proven that mono-atomic minerals are used by the body far more efficiently than minerals presented in any other form. Mono-atomic, ionic minerals are water-soluble, crystalline rather than metallic, and are approximately an angstrom in size. Because mono-atomic minerals are in their elemental form and size, they carry a true ionic electrical charge that attracts the water molecule that assists the nutrient's assimilation into the cell, and also allows easy exit from the body through the urine if the mineral is not needed at the time, eliminating the probability of toxicity.
The Mineral Water Store has combined the technological advances of science and the wonders of nature, and is providing mono-atomic, ionic minerals; water-soluble, pure elemental minerals in liquid form. Just plain pure elements and ultra-pure water (USP 23 grade), completely bio-available and cell-ready, just like plants provide. Our minerals can be found in perspiration within 30 minutes of consumption, attesting to the cell assimilation of the minerals! If our mineral solutions are dehydrated, they'll form crystals, rather than metallic powders. Our mineral solutions pass the Tyndall Effect test, meaning that when a laser beam is directed through the solution, no light will be refracted, attesting to mineral particle sizes of an angstrom or less. It's simple, pure natural chemistry, supported by medical science, and available through technology. Mono-atomic, ionic minerals are available to the cells of the body, other forms and larger sizes are not. Yes, it's really that simple.
It's time to get healthy! I hope you'll seek this goal of adding years to your lives and LIFE to your years!
References and Suggested Reading
- Alternative Medicine, the Definitive Guide, Future Medicines Publishing Group
- The Chemistry of Man, Dr. Bernard Jensen
- Mono-Atomic Minerals, Information & Reference Guide, Fifth Edition, Annette Hasalone
- Killer Calcium & The Rest of the Story, Dr. Joel Swisher
- Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon
- 35 Practical Ways to Improve Your Health, Reid E. Lassonde
- Empty Harvest, Dr. Bernard Jenson & Mark Anderson
- Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, 6th Edition, Weston A. Price, DDS
- Longevity Secrets, Dr. D. Gary Young
Mineral Supplement Products
Combination Mineral Supplements
Individual Mineral Supplements