FAQs

I'm taking medication prescribed by my doctor. Can I stop taking my meds and use holistic medicine instead?

It can be dangerous to your health to stop prescribed medication without supervision. You should talk to your doctor about the changes you'd like to make. If your doctor isn't interested in nutrition or other holistic methods, ask around in your area for a doctor who is interested in complementary or integrative medicine or check our resources page to find a nutrition-oriented physician near you. You've got a right to a second opinion. Bear in mind that there are medical conditions, particularly acute conditions (those that appear or get worse suddenly,) where holistic therapy used alone may not be appropriate.

I hate pills. Can't I get everything I need nutritionally from food if I only eat organic?

Certainly it's a good idea to eat organic. Organic farming methods typically produce foods that are more nutrient-dense without artificial toxins. But there are still reasons why it's smart to supplement a well-chosen organic diet:

• Nutrient Mining drains critical trace minerals from farmers' soil, even organic farmers.
  Unless farmers spread ground granite or carefully-prepared pot ash (ashes from a woodstove) regularly over their fields, harvesting crops slowly drains the mineral content of the soil along with the crops it produces. Food grown on land that's been farmed for generations can be seriously mineral-deficient. This can even happen to organic farmers.
  
  
• Cooking and storing food can destroy essential nutrients.
  B vitamins and essential fatty acids are particularly fragile in this respect.



• It can be difficult to get optimal amounts of certain nutrients from food alone.
  This varies according to individual needs. Some people derive benefit from relatively large quantities of nutrients like vitamin C, the B vitamins, or specialized nutrients like Co-enzyme Q10, CDP choline or phosphatidylserine. People who've gone for long periods of time without adequate vitamin B consumption may not assimilate them very well since the B vitamins are themselves critical to the enzymes that help us absorb Bs from food. One would have to eat very large amounts of fresh fruit and vegetables to consume significant quantities of Vitamin C.



• Life today places demands on us that our ancestors didn't face.
  Just one example of this is our elevated exposure to novel toxins when living in the modern world, many of which are pro-oxidant. The body can make the protective detoxifying antioxidant glutathione when high sulphur foods are eaten. But, if only for social reasons, taking l-Cysteine in supplement form may be preferable to eating large quantities of high-sulphur foods like onions or garlic.

In the end this is a question of personal preference. My own choice, as a lifelong organic-food eating vegetarian, is to supplement. I find myself doing a lot better when I do. And this is the course I recommend.

What are the best brands of supplements to take?

I'm not very picky about B vitamin or antioxidant supplements. My experience is that any of the available products will do as long as the dosages are adequate. I myself take a high-potency B that gives me 8-10x the Daily Value levels, and 3-5,000 mg of vitamin C, every day. But I'm not too worried about the source.

The situation is different with trace minerals and essential fatty acid products. The quick test for a trace mineral product is to see what form the magnesium is in, and how much there is. There should be at least 400 mg of magnesium and there should be no magnesium oxide since the oxide form assimilates very poorly,especially in older people.

It's virtually impossible to find a multi-vitamin with Daily Value levels of fully chelated trace minerals. Given this situation I don't recommend multi-vitamins, instead recommending that my patients get their trace minerals as a stand-alone product and then build a supplement program around that.

I think Flora brand Udo's Choice Oil Blend is the best source of EFAs. There are many pitfalls in manufacturing an EFA product since omega-3s (w3s) spoil so easily. Udo's is the only brand I'm fairly certain covers all its bases.

Solgar, Nature's Plus, Country Life, Jarrow and Solaray all have good reputations. I myself am not a fan of chain brands or the brands advertised on television.

Isn't taking large amounts of vitamins and minerals dangerous?

There's still some controversy about this, a lot of it based on misunderstandings but some of it well founded. Especially if you're taking pharmaceuticals, but indeed if you have any medical or psychological condition, it's important to get professional advice before starting a supplement program.

Studies show that large amounts of vitamin C increase the risk of getting one type of kidney stone (oxalate.)^1,2 But this may be primarily a consequence of epidemic levels of magnesium deficiency.^3,4,5 Adequate magnesium decreases the risk of kidney stones almost exactly as much as vitamin C increases it.⁶

Large doses of vitamins C and E taken together can act as a fairly effective blood thinner. In older folks taking Warfarin, aspirin or other blood thinners to guard against clotting and strokes, this additional blood-thinning action can be an issue. But this is a situation one's doctor can easily monitor.

Don't take large doses of single trace minerals over long periods of time. Trace minerals compete with each other when being absorbed and used in the body; large amounts of one or a few can interfere with others.

Amino acids require some precautions:

• L-tyrosine can be fatal if taken along with a class of drugs called MAO inhibitors. But one shouldn't be taking supplements and meds together without professional advice anyway (see the first item, above.)
• L-glutamine shouldn't be taken for long periods of time. It can be overstimulating to the nervous system and, while it's not a cause of cancer itself, it's very nourishing to growing brain tumors.
• If you haven't been taking B vitamins for a long time then starting an aggressive B supplement program can create problems. Most multi-vitamins contain adequate if not generous amounts of Bs; if you've been taking one of these you usually don't have to worry. If you haven't been taking any B vitamins or multi-vitamins you can find out what to do here. And it's not a good idea to take large amounts of individual Bs without professional advice; niacin (B3) and pyridoxine (B6) present special problems if taken in large doses.

Why do you have to be a medical or health professional to access the professional level course?

Because the laws governing the providers of continuing education state specifically that courses designed for non-professionals aren't acceptable. One way we make it clear to our licensing bodies that we're following this rule is by restricting access to the courses to the professionals those courses are designed for.

We do make some of the information available to professionals available to everyone somewhere on our website. But we leave out a lot of the technical details to make it easier to understand.

The Nutrition and the Mind course is offered as continuing education for mental health therapists. Yet prescribing nutrition is not in the mental health therapist scope of practice. Why then can this be continuing education for them?

The short answer is that the purpose of the Nutrition and the Mind course is not to teach mental health therapists to prescribe nutrients. It's to make professionals aware of the way poor nutrition habits can contribute to emotional and cognitive disorders, help them decide when to suggest attention to nutrition issues might be helpful and suggest some good resources and places to refer when that's indicated.

Here's a more complete answer:

The Nutrition and the Mind course's subject falls within the statutory definition of coursework acceptable as continuing education under California Business and Professions Code §4980.54(g)(3) as well as §4996.22(e)(3):

"Aspects of other disciplines that enhance the understanding or the practice of marriage and family therapy/social work."

The legislative intent of the enabling legislation establishing §4980.54 was:

"(b) In order to continuously improve the competence of licensed marriage, family, and child counselors and as a model for all psychotherapeutic professions, the Legislature encourages all licensees to regularly engage in continuing education related to the profession

or

scope of practice as defined in this chapter."

California Business and Professions Code §1887.4 states:

"(a) A provider shall ensure that the content of a course shall be relevant to the practice of marriage, family, and child counseling or clinical social work and meet the requirements set forth in Sections 4980.54 and 4996.22 of the Code. The content of a course shall also be related to direct or indirect patient/client care."

The content of this course complies with these requirements.

Aren't people who say nutrition is the answer to everyone's health problems quacks?

Perhaps. But that's not our position.

The information we present here and the tools we recommend work for some and not for others. Of course the same thing could be said of every type of medicine.