Nutritional Supplement Questions Answered!

I read an article not long ago(sorry, can't remember the website) where the article author was analyzing the usefulness, efficacy and safety of supplements. So he went to a city sewage complex and questioned the sewage manager, the main man who dealt mainly with human sewage. On questioning him, this sewage manager freely admitted that, everyday, when he inspected the human sewage, he saw thousands upon thousands of multi-coloured pills in the faeces, which could only have been multivitamin pills and other supplements. All undigested.

So what Ted says about pills being insoluble and therefore useless is entirely correct.

Whenever I do take any form of pill supplement -- such as simple Ascorbic Acid -- I always pulverize it into a powder first and then dissolve this in a glass of water before I take it(as per Ted's advice). With Ascorbic acid, I also add baking soda to the solution to create the much friendlier and absorbable alkaline form of vitamin C -- Sodium Ascorbate. And even when I do this alkalizing procedure I have to scrape off the strange scum that forms on the surface of the water(caused by the strange binding agents and additives in the pill).

Most vitamin and multi-vitamin manufacturers don't give a tinker's cuss whether their products are in the right form for your body or not, they just produce a bright shiny-coloured pill that looks nice, that puts you into a trusting comfort zone, and yet does nothing whatsoever for your body.

The supplement pill is usually packed with strange binding agents like magnesium stearate, stearic acid, micro-cellulose agents, starch etc. In other words, if your are convinced by the advertising then you've been emotionally suckered by the supplement pill manufacturers and you may be buying something that is completely useless and not so body-friendly.

So the only way is to educate yourself. Anyone who comes to this Earth Clinic site will soon learn more about herbs, body-friendly chemicals and natural medications than at any other website I know. Here, they show both sides -- the yeas and nays -- of a protocol. Better than any expensive, double-blind placebo, FDA steered wacko research anyday. And the part I love about this site is that everyone tries to genuinely help each other. There is no more honest and better way.

First of all congratulations for this wonderful and helpful site. Thank you very much to all who keep this going.
I would like to ask Ted, who recommends taking half cooked liver for vitamins and minerals, if he supposes it to be from a biologically raised animal, as non biological animals which are given antibiotics and hormones have very toxic livers. And from which animal's? (beef, chicken, lamb...)
Sorry my English is not very good.

12/20/2006: Linda from Higbo, MO writes, "Just found your website so this question may have already been answered. If your daily vitamin doesn't dissolve completely in water within 15-20 minutes will it work to wait until it dissolves (or to pulverize it) and then drink it?"

Twenty some years ago I was doing some colonics to remove old mucus from my colon. I found the un-disolved tablets of supplements I had be taking in what came out of me. The enteric coating of some the suplements were still intact. That means that the supplement went completely through me with out disolving and therefore I did not absorb any of the supplement. The problem with tablets is that some of the fillers used in them are binders and when the manufacturer compresses them they become rocks and never dissolve. This is why it is better to buy supplements in capsules which have less fillers. It is even better to buy them in powders that have no fillers. Some fillers can cause bad reactions in some people and can interfer with the absorption of some supplements. If you can't take the taste of the supplement then cap them yourself otherwise you are just wasting your money and not getting the benefits of the supplements you are taking. There are some manufacturers that are mindful of their customers and make tablets that dissolve. You will find that these tablets disolve in the mouth if you leave them there 2 or 3 minutes. This is a subject that everyone should keep in mind when buying supplements in order to get maximum potential from them. It is also thoughtful when leaving posts here at EC that one would consider using a supplement with maximum absorption vs leaving a post on a supplement which will give no benefit because it cannot be absorbed.