The fallacy of taking random supplements
The following is attributed to Dr. Paul Eck, the founder of Nutritional Balancing. It is sad to see what goes on in the health field today. You could probably switch the labels on all the vitamins and minerals being sold and probably few people would physically notice the difference. Some people would even get better! That’s how unscientific things are. You can see why I get so passionate when I talk about this. The way I see it, it is better and far safer to take nothing than to practice scientific guess-making. “…the way people go about choosing supplements, they could do almost as good using a roulette wheel.” People read in a magazine that zinc is good for them and they take some. They read that vitamin C is good for them and they take that too. They read that we are all deficient in magnesium (or so they think), so they add some of that. If there is a special 2-for-1 sale on calcium tablets, they stock up on that. It is pathetic, but the way people go about choosing supplements, they could do almost as good using a roulette wheel. I’m not trying to make fun of anyone. When you don’t know what to take, you have to guess. I used to do it myself. Another thing that you frequently find in the health field is the taking of a little of every mineral — “just to be on the safe side.” They believe that the body with its infinite wisdom knows exactly what to do with each and every mineral. They believe that whatever the body needs, it keeps; and whatever it doesn’t need, it simply excretes in the urine, or through the proper body channels. If this were the case, then why do so many individuals have hair analyses which indicate that they have toxic amounts of copper, lead, cadmium, calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc in their tissues? If everything was the way everybody said it was — if all the minerals the body did not need were excreted, and if all you had to do to correct “deficiencies” in the body was to give people the minerals they were low in, then it would be the easiest thing in the world to correct mineral imbalances. Continued in comments ....
hair_analysis_ukAll you would have to do would be to give them a mineral supplement which contained all the essential minerals. If it were as easy as this, very few people on the various mineral programs would ever remain ill for long. But you know as well as I do that this is not the case. The idea behind taking a multiple mineral and vitamin supplement is logical. But you have to make sure that the multiple supplement is “balanced” for your particular metabolism. “The whole philosophy of everyone’s taking the same kind of multiple supplement is just as absurd as everyone wearing the same shoe size.” But for the sake of argument, let’s say that a balanced supplement has just the minerals which your body needs for your particular metabolism. Now the next question is, “Are all the minerals in the right ratios to one another?” Most people do not realise it but the ratios of minerals in relation to one another are just as important as the minerals themselves. That’s why I say over and over: the only way you can tell what supplements to take for yourb specific physical/emotional imbalances is to use the results of hair tests. There just is no other way and no better way. If there was, I would be using it.— Dr. Paul Eck
