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Why Taking Some Vitamins is a Waste of Time and Money

Special Offer- Complimentary Vitamin & Supplement Check-Up (valued at $40)

Australians spend more than half a billion dollars a year on vitamin and mineral supplements, and most of the time they see little or no results from them. To get improvement from a supplement or herbal product, you must cover all 3 areas of treatment- diagnosis, quality, and dosage.

1.  Diagnosis is the most important area.  There are always variations of each type of condition- for example, arthritis can be a ‘hot’ type, with lots of inflammation, or a ‘cold’ type, where warmth helps it.  (In Chinese herbal medicine, there are over 24 cold and flu formulas, each for a different type!)  Because of this, many good therapists will see another therapist rather than self-prescribe.  Every product works differently, and if you don’t take the one that correctly matches your variation, there may be little or no benefit.  Over-the-counter products are designed to have a broad-spectrum effect, a bit like using a shotgun.  This way they can be used for a wide variety of conditions, but aren’t terribly good for any one of them.  (We had a case where an over-the-counter product worked very well for the husband, but made the wife worse.)  A good practitioner will have a number of products or treatments for different variations, and they will carefully choose the one(s) that will work best for each individual client after performing a thorough assessment.

Taking supplements without a correct diagnosis is like trying to hit a target blindfolded. 

2.  Quality is also crucial.  To get good results, you have to take quality products.  We often hear “Oh, I tried that, and it didn’t work.”  Then our client is very surprised when they start taking our product (with very similar ingredients) and it works!  Unfortunately, the brands that are the most advertised are often the worst quality, despite what the ads say.  At the Clinic, we try to stock the highest quality products we can find (which are often ‘Practitioner Prescribing Only’ ranges), because we want to get results!

Other nutrients in the formula are often very important, eg calcium must be taken with magnesium in a 2:1 ratio, zinc must be taken at night on its own, vitamin C dramatically increases iron absorption, etc. The better products will take all this into account. 

3.  Dosage is the final key.  The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) is the level that, if you take less than this amount, you are likely to develop symptoms. This amount can be much lower than what is needed to keep you at peak health.  The RDA is the minimum amount needed for prevention, which is often much less than the dosage needed for treatment.  If you have developed symptoms from not having enough of that nutrient, you will likely need much higher doses to bring you back to good health.  For example, if you are anaemic, your doctor would prescribe much higher doses of iron than the Recommended Daily Allowance.

However, taking too much of some nutrients (or without combining them correctly) can be just as bad. Never take high doses without consulting an experienced therapist trained in their use.

Complimentary Vitamin and Supplement Check-Up  

Having a quick consultation with our naturopath could help stop you wasting money on products that aren’t doing you any good, either because the quality or the dosage isn’t right, or they are not what you really need.  Or there could be another product instead that will make a vast difference to your health.  Please ring or email the clinic and mention this article to receive a Voucher for a Complimentary Vitamin and Supplement Check-Up with our naturopath Ainsley, valued at $40.  You can also click here for further information on How to Avoid Damaging Your Health with the Wrong Multivitamin.  Over time, this Check-Up could save you many hundreds, or even thousands of dollars, as well as guide you towards a healthier life