Not all supplements are created equal

 

If you have no idea what you are looking at in this picture, let me help you. Those are undigested supplements in the colon. What does that mean? Well, I’m glad you are interested. Simply, you spent your hard-earned money on supplements that were supposed to help you when instead they are indigestible because the manufacturers were more focused on making a good profit than a great digestible product. We can safely say that these supplements that you see on the x-ray, are not of any benefit to this person at all. They go in one end and leave from the other still fully intact. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to differ you from supplements, but not all of the supplement are created equally.

When we purchase supplements and vitamins for our patients, I look for the following: purity, quality, potency, dissolvability, etc. How do we find this? We do an extensive research: visit the manufacturers’ warehouse; figure out where they get their herbs and materials; how they control the quality of these ingredients and what is the company’s standards when making their products.

We know that for the most people it would be impossible to do such extensive research before buying supplements, so here are a few rules of thumb to follow. If possible, buy the supplements from a provider (doctor, chiropractor, naturopath, acupuncturist, etc.). If that is not possible, try to find a local vitamin shop with knowledgeable workers. Those stores in comparison with Walmart, Target or GNC, will carry a much higher grade product. Always choose capsules over tablets, because tablets have to be held together by fillers (15-40% of tablets are fillers while capsules are 97-100% of the product). And lastly, for the best way to know if you will be digesting your supplements, the capsules should dissolve very quickly when mixed with saliva 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Don’t be afraid to test it out by breaking open a capsule and putting the empty shell in your mouth. It should dissolve very quickly!