08 May Why do even the healthiest of us need to Supplement?

There are several reasons why everyone needs to supplement with micronutrients such as vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, even those that claim that they are healthy.

The first main reason we need to supplement is because of chemical and pollutant exposure. More than 800,000 chemicals have been discovered and utilised over the past two hundred years. These are all, in some way, toxic to our bodies. We are exposed daily to these, from the pesticides on our foods, the cleaning products we clean our houses with, the washing powder we clean our clothes with and the pollution from factories and cars.
Our bodies were never designed to be exposed to such a high level of chemicals. They were designed 100,000 years ago before many of these chemicals were around.
Our bodies can deal with toxic build-up in our cells, by utilising antioxidants, vitamins and minerals to help to neutralise them and then expel them from the body. With increased exposure, however, we need extra micronutrients to help to protect our bodies. When these toxins build up in our cells, they age and may even start to display pathological tendencies, leading to disease. These chemicals are a big part to blame in the worsening incidences of disease within younger individuals.

The next reason why we need to consider supplementing is that with our bodies increased requirements for micronutrients they are not obtaining the levels they need for ultimate protection. This is because of two reasons:
1. Modern farming techniques do not allow the soil to regain a good level of nutrition. The crops are only as good as the soil they are grown in. Many farming techniques do not allow the soil time to replenish its nutrient stores. The livestock is only as nutritional as the crops they eat and so if the crops are lacking so are they too and hence us, all the way up the food chain.
2. When we get our food we then often cook it. Heat energy depletes the nutrition within our food. For example, all of vitamin C is destroyed during the cooking process. Half of the proteins and enzymes in our foods won’t make it into our bodies due to cooking.

The final reason does not apply to everyone, but those with poor diets. Diets are becoming increasingly poorer as we are placing convenience over quality. With people eating less fruit and vegetables than ever before this is becoming a serious modern world problem, especially when the above points are added to the equation.

So how can we supplement?
We can start by eating more nutritious food to our diets. Fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds are all amazing foods packed with nutrients. Especially when eaten in their raw forms (e.g juicing) and organic. Organic produce has less pesticide exposure and therefore reduces the toxic exposure to our bodies.
Oral supplementation with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants; like Vitamin C, B vitamins, and Glutathione, whether in their scientific form or food state form, is a great way to increase our levels of these powerful body-protecting agents. We absorb on average 30-45% of these nutrients when taken orally. This is usually due to the bioavailability factors within our guts. However, it is still a really useful, cheap and convenient way of increasing our levels of nutrients.

Intravenous (IV) and Intramuscular (IM) supplementation has been a hugely growing area of the wellness industry that can offer near to 100% supplementation of the nutrients given. Directly administered into the muscle or vein, these nutrients saturate the blood and therefore the cells of the body, fast and effectively. This, therefore, makes it a very successful and fast way of saturating the cells of the body with these protective nutrients.

Dr Michael Barnish MBChB
Head of Genetics & Nutrition
REVIV Global Ltd.