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Learn the Secret to Effective Nutritional Supplements
Most nutritional supplements are very delicate formulas. Their effectiveness varies a great deal according to the way they are manufactured, transported and stored. Although the laboratories that manufacture them are not required to disclose this information, the FDA classifies supplements into three broad categories:
Most of the supplements that you buy in the supermarket, or even a health food store, fall into the first two categories. Pharmaceutical grade supplements are usually available only through the prescription of a health care professional. The secret to pharmaceutical grade supplements is that they are formulated to yield a much higher degree of bioavailability. In other words, your body can absorb them more easily, and this makes a big difference in how they improve your health and enhance the quality of your life.
Cost versus Quality: is there really a difference in Nutritional Supplements?
Let’s take a look at one example of cost vesus quality, in the case of amino acids. Most amino acid supplements are manufactured in tablet form, held together by binders and fillers that inhibit digestion. Others contain protein fragments that must be broken down (metabolized) by the body before absorption into a useful form. The real cost of these supplements is the relationship between the dollars spent on them to the effective catabolization of those amino acids into proteins for the body.
For example, an amino acid supplement may cost $.25 per capsule, but contain fillers and predigested amino acids that are limited due to the absence of a proper proportion of other nutrients that are essential for their bioavailability. Your body may be able to effectively catabolize only 10% of the product. This product would have a real cost of $2.50 per capsule. That is to say, it would take 10 capsules to get the equivalent effectiveness of one capsule that was completely metabolized.
USP Pharmaceutical Grade:
In order to have a therapeutic effect, nutrients must be absorbed into your bloodstream. The extent to which they can be absorbed is referred to as their bioavailability. In most cases, the same substance can have a greater or lesser degree of bioavailability, depending on the way it is manufactured.It is important that they are also manufactured in a FDA-registered facility. Otherwise, you have no true assurance that what is on the label is even really in the tablet or capsule. It is important that the tablet or capsule follow the US Pharmocepia guidelines (USP) for dissolution of the tablet or capsule. In other words, you want to be sure that the supplements you are taking actually dissolve or it doesn’t matter what is in them—you won’t get anything. The overwhelming majority of supplements on the market today do not follow these guidelines.
Synthetic versus Natural:
Most vitamin supplements found in drug and health food stores do not contain vitamins that are truly natural, but are synthesized predominantly from petrochemicals and less frequently from plants.There is much controversy concerning the body’s reaction to synthetic vs. natural vitamin supplements. Many believe that the small differences between synthetic and natural are of no consequence. However, clinical evidence and several studies indicate that the body detects the difference and that natural forms of vitamins including A, B-complex, C, D, and E are more easily absorbed by the body and have a more profound effect on deficiencies and disease than synthetics. There are some very real problems with synthetic vitamins and most supplements containing them. Not only are they synthesized, but are also isolated components completely removed from the family of micronutrients that accompany them naturally in whole foods. They are not intact with their co-factors such as enzymes, co-enzymes, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, trace elements, proteins, phytonutrients, and essential fatty acids as they would be in whole foods or properly manufactured whole food supplements. They cannot possibly have the synergistic, nutritional effect of the whole food vitamins.
Enteric Coatings: the secret to bioavailability
Enzymes are powerful agents in the control of arthritis pain relief. However, enzymes can be easily destroyed by stomach acids, which render them useless to metabolize into your bloodstream via the intestine. Superior quality enzymes use enteric coatings to protect the enzymes from being dissolved in your stomach acids and allow them to be released properly into your bloodstream.
Transportation and Storage Issues:
Transportation and storage can have a great effect on the bioavailability of certain supplements. For example, clinical studies have established the benefits of Omega-3 fatty acids on nearly all forms of arthritis, such as our pure fish oil tablets. However, fish oil that is processed under high heat conditions, or exposed to heat and light during transportation and storage easily becomes rancid, and loses its bioavailability. As children, we remember the poor taste of cod liver oil. Our fish oil supplements are light and sweet to the taste because they have been processed with utmost care.
Arthritis Alternatives.com Formulations:
Each of the formulations on Arthritis Alterntives.com has been chosen to comply with the highest standards for manufacturing, transportation and storage. In each category they represent the most highly effective form of arthritis pain relief.
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