Supplementing for Enhanced Health
Recently I’ve been getting more and more people asking me about dietary supplements. I used to co-own a company that sold high-quality supplements online, so I do know a thing or two about them.
My top tip for supplements – Know what you are supplementing for and buy accordingly. For recovery from sports training? For protection from illness? To make up for some deficiency? To lose weight? To enhance performance? There’s a different answer for each one.
1. Now, having said that, the closest thing to a does-it-all, magic bullet is a high-quality multivitamin & mineral supp. Because we eat nutrient-poor processed food, live in a polluted world, drink water that contains metal from the pipes it runs through, consume alcohol, stress, exercise, make love, etc. it’s pretty much impossible to get all the vitamins & minerals that we really need from the food that we can get, so a good multivitamin & mineral supp can cover the gaps well. Here’s the one I take. Note that it’s iron free because too much iron can have negative consequences for men : https://www.swansonvitamins.
He’s the womens version, which contains the iron that they need : https://www.swansonvitamins.
2. Next up is Vitamin C. I take tons of it because it can’t be stored in the body and gets passed out quickly. We need vitamin C for the growth and repair of tissues in all parts of our bodies. It helps the body make collagen, an important protein used to make skin, cartilage, tendons, ligaments, and blood vessels. Vitamin C is also an antioxidant, pulling nasty free radicals out of our bodies, and is also needed for healing wounds and for repairing and maintaining bones and teeth. But the main thing for me is that it makes me smarter! In the 80s I read an interview with the Nobel prize winner for chemistry at the time who said flatly that the secret of his success was the cognitive ability and clarity of thought that high doses of vitamin C gave him. I’ve taken a vitamin C supplement ever since. Here’s the one I use : https://www.swansonvitamins.
3. Last up (out of the MANY that I could talk about here) is fish oil. The omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil reduce inflammation in the body, which has been called the silent killer. Inflammation in the body results from an acidic condition due to toxins in our food, water & air, and has been said to be at least partly responsible for most of the major diseases that modern humans suffer – cancer, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, Alzheimer’s, Crohn’s and a bunch of others, as well as general fatigue and lack of energy. Here’s the one I use. It’s krill oil, as these little shrimp are at the bottom of the food chain and so don’t contain the mercury and other contaminants that the big fish often have : https://www.swansonvitamins.com/swanson-efas-pure-krill-oil-500-mg-60-sgels
And finally, water! Yes, water! We are 90% water, and constantly getting proper quantities of fresh water is absolutely essential, as is a proper reverse-osmosis water purifier to deliver it in it’s cleanest state. Japanese people say that the water supply in this country is safe to drink, and it is at it’s source. But delivery through pipes which are up to 100 years old brings heavy metals and other contaminants which can seriously damage us overtime. Here’s the purifier that I use in Japan, which also slightly alkalises the water it delivers to further protect me from inflammation : http://www.panasonic.com/tw/
So there you have it – One supplement for building and thinking, one for cleaning and protecting, one to cover any gaps in what we need to be fit & healthy, and pure water to wash it all down. 🙂
I use the supplement manufacturer Swanson for my supps because before I launched my supplement reseller business years ago, my business partner and I did extensive research (because there’s some really low-quality junk out there) and Swanson outshone just about all the rest.
Systems Engineer > Project Manager > Tech Entrepreneur > Health Consultant > Website Specialist
