Making Sense of Vitamin Supplements and How to Get the Good Stuff
Taking supplements to augment cognition – or for any health condition - is a touchy subject in the medical world. Some practitioners sneer at the idea of a vitamin making any difference at all unless, perhaps, a deficiency is identified. And some go overboard at recommendations, leaving their patients with handfuls of capsules to swallow every day and often at great expense.
I sit in the middle ground of this camp. I think that supplementation should be considered on an individual basis, based upon what a person really needs. I don’t think it should be terribly costly or ridiculously time-consuming. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone.
Be Careful at the Vitamin Store
To complicate matters, there is no lack of snake oil on the market. The supplement industry is, for the most part, unregulated by the FDA or any other agency. Failure of proper regulation and enforcement of the guidelines for human consumption has resulted in varying degrees of purity and quality in drugstore supplements. In research quality tests, over 80 percent of products from the shelves of stores like Walgreens and Target, did not have the ingredients listed on the label.
That’s why my first choice in recommending a supplement is to use “pharmaceutical grade” practitioner-only sources for any supplements. Pharmaceutical grade supplements adhere to stricter guidelines and procedures when producing a formula for consumer use. Nutritional companies that supply pharmaceutical grade products will sample and test to ensure that the formulation protocols result in a high- quality product that is accurately labeled. So you actually get what the label tells you is in the bottle.
Looking at Vitamin B12
Let’s start with the example of one of my favorite supplements, one that people ask me for again and again. Vitamin B12 is known as the “energy vitamin” because it’s such a powerhouse nutrient that helps keep the body’s nerve and blood cells healthy. It also has a role in making DNA, the genetic material in all cells.
But it’s not uncommon for people to unknowingly have a B12 deficiency. Because it’s found in animal products, including eggs and dairy products, a vegan or strict vegetarian might not consume enough B12-fortified foods to get the daily dosage, about 2.4 micrograms(mcg) per day, they need. B12 is not manufactured by the body; it must be ingested in some form.
Another common factor affecting deficiency involves adults who do not have enough hydrochloric acid in their stomach to absorb the vitamin B12 naturally present in food. In fact, according to the NIH, people over 50 should get most of their vitamin B12 from fortified foods or dietary supplements because, in most cases, their bodies can absorb vitamin B12 from these sources better than diet alone.
Symptoms of Deficiency
Vitamin B12 deficiency symptoms are all over the place, from fatigue to constipation. But the most common ones I hear about are general tiredness, weakness, depression and problems with cognition and balance. People with low B12 complain about brain fog, the muddled condition of slow mental processing described in last week’s blog. “I just don’t want to get out of my chair” a 48-year-old man (a strict vegan) told me.
How to Get the Good Stuff!
Now comes the tricky part of finding a quality product of a pharma-grade and how to access without a medical license.
Some of you have purchased a pharmaceutical-grade supplement, like sublingual liquid B12, from me if you live in my area. But now the practitioner-only supplement companies are allowing us to let others shop online directly. All you need is a website link and a patient code from me. Of course, you’re not limited to purchasing B-vitamins – you can view and select any products you like, order online and have shipped to your door.
If you’d like to peruse and purchase such products, please email me here and I’ll send you that link and patient code: info@brainstormmindfitness.com