Vitamins and Minerals
People often ask if I think vitamins and other supplements
are necessary for optimal health. My answer: There’s probably no need for you to take vitamins — if you happen to
eat only wild, fresh, whole, organic, nongenetically modified food. And if all that food was grown in virgin mineral
and nutrient-rich soils — and was local, not transported
across vast distances and stored for months before being
eaten. And if you work and live outside; breathe only fresh
unpolluted air; drink only pure, clean water, sleep nine
hours a night, move your body every day; and are free from
all chronic stressors and exposure to environmental toxins.
If you live like that, you probably don’t need vitamins.
Of course, virtually no one on the planet lives like
that these days. So I believe we all need vitamins, minerals
and other supplements — for the health of our bodies and
the proper functioning of our brains.
Most people don’t understand the role that vitamins and
minerals play in our bodies. I certainly didn’t when I finished
medical training. I thought if we just had enough to prevent
us from some horrible deficiency state like scurvy (vitamin-C
deficiency), then we didn’t have to worry about how much
we were getting. I also thought that if we ate “enriched
food” like white flour with a few vitamins added, or milk
with vitamin D, additional supplementation was a waste.
What most people don’t realize is the same thing I was
unaware of when I first started practicing medicine: The real
reason our food supply must be “enriched” is because it is
so processed and nutritionally impoverished to begin with.
Today, even with our “enriched food,” more than 92
percent of Americans are deficient in one or more vitamins. That doesn’t mean they are receiving less than the
amount they need for optimal health. It means they’re
receiving less than the minimum amount necessary to
prevent deficiency diseases. For example, a report in the
Journal of Pediatrics found obesity and malnutrition coexisting. You never think of overweight people as malnourished, but they can be — and often are!
Virtually none of us regularly gets enough of the
basic nutrients we need to create optimal health or give
ourselves a metabolic tune-up. So, in today’s world,
everyone needs a basic multivitamin and mineral supplement.
The research is overwhelming on this point.
In fact, I would like to institute a new model of nutrition, one that turns the “minimum daily requirements”
upside down. Most doctors learn that vitamins are important
to prevent deficiency diseases like scurvy or rickets. Yet,
there is a new concept emerging about which very few doctors are yet aware: Having enough of a nutrient to prevent
one of these deficiency diseases, but not enough to optimize
cellular function, will lead to “long-latency” deficiency diseases (diseases that take a long time to manifest themselves)
like depression or Alzheimer’s disease.
I have tested thousands of patients for vitamin and
nutrient deficiencies and found that by correcting them,
people feel better and improve not just their physical health,
but their mood, mental sharpness, memory and ability to
focus. Vitamins and minerals are required to repair and rebalance brains that aren’t functioning the way they should.
Let’s look again at serotonin, the neurotransmitter that boosts our mood. You don’t eat serotonin, but
your body makes it from the amino-acid tryptophan that
comes, for example, from the protein in a turkey sandwich. The enzyme designed to convert tryptophan into
serotonin needs vitamin B6 to help it perform its chemical
wizardry. No B6, no enzyme reaction, no serotonin, no
happy mood. The result? Depression — along with a host
of other potential problems.
That’s why nutrients are so essential. Without them,
your biochemical wheels grind to a halt. Your enzymes
don’t get the messages they need to perform their
critical functions.
Of course, every individual has unique nutritional
requirements and enzymes that respond differently to certain nutrients than other people’s enzymes do. That is why
making sure you have the right amount of nutrients for you
is so important. And one of the easiest ways to do that is by
taking supplemental vitamins and minerals, which supply the
raw materials most people need to keep their brains healthy.
These supplements (see next page) provide the
basics your body requires to perform the trillions of critically important tasks required to function properly, the
source for all the raw materials you need to thrive. This
