Brenda Skidmore's Health Tips

No matter how long you have been interested in a particular subject, in studying it intently or living it, you will always be discovering important aspects about it that you never knew before. That seems to be the nature of all of life in general, and you will eventually come to realize that no matter how much you know in your present moment of awareness you will never know all there is to know about your subject of interest, or anything else. Even the so-called pros or experts have their new light-bulb moments of new discoveries too, and just as often as the rest of us.

That, I think, keeps the whole game of living interesting with plenty of contrast. If we knew everything there was to know about life, or our field of interest, then how quickly would we become bored with it all? When it comes to dietary supplementing, I know a fair share of knowledge about it compared to someone who is interested just enough for the sake of their health, but not really interested in taking the time or interest to learn more about it themselves. This is why I do what I do here on this web page, it fills a helpful need to others. A lot of people find learning about nutritional knowledge outrageously boring. I love learning more about it. I believe living with someone who was seriously mentally ill, for 29 years, had something to do with why I gravitated towards nutrition.

It made sense to me, and I truly believed in it. When I began dabbling with it, over 10 years ago, I managed to gradually eliminate all of the physical health problems that were limiting my enjoyment of life. Of course there are many things I still do not know, but I continue to read, study, and apply from the experts. I realize that in sharing what has worked for me, may not necessarily work, completely, in every area for you. Why? Because, everyone will have some variances in their nutritional needs, have different metabolic rates, and noticeable differences in lifestyles.

Americans spend a huge amount of money on dietary supplements each year. More will be spent each year than the year before. Why? Because, it simply makes sense to a whole lot of people. Strangely, though, despite this fact, some forms of chronic disease rates have not gotten any better or changed much, and others have actually gotten worse.

One thing seems to be apparent, despite the large amount of money people are spending on them, they do not seem to be making much more of an improvement on diseases than pharmaceuticals. The problem may lie in being able to find quality assured brands of supplements. That will require you to do some homework in researching companies that use real whole food ingredients with a minimal amount of processing, and not synthetic substances that have been altered in a lab. It can be confusing for people who don't know where to start.

Remember, the first rule about supplementing is this, supplements can not make up for not eating right in the first place. Supplements are designed to help you take in more of certain kinds of food groups that you may not be getting enough of in an overall well balanced diet. And well established diseases are probably not going to respond very well to synthetic nutrients, just like diseases do not respond very well to chemical drugs.

Another fact that has come to my attention recently, is that you can not always judge the quality of a supplement by its price. But overall, the best rule of thumb, most of the time, is the cheaper they are the more likely you are wasting your time and money. Of course there will always be an exception to the rule, occasionally. Most companies who use quality raw food ingredients, will voluntarily adhere to quality control standards. And, even if they do, it still may not necessarily be a completely safe supplement to take.

Back to the first paragraph of this post. Remember when I said you will always be learning new things through out your entire life, and you will often be discovering new things you didn't know yesterday? Well...last week my son sent me a phone text message. Mom, look up 'magnesium stearate'. He told me he had been listening to a radio broadcast, and had heard the message that this additive was a potential health hazard in dietary supplements.

Knowing that his mom would be really interested in this juicy tidbit, I was on it like a hunting dog. I looked it up here.What I learned there concerned me, and decided I had to help pass this message on to you. I was only thinking about how many supplements a lot of people take. Some people take an unrealistic amount of them everyday. We are sadly, a pill popping culture.

I take a few, not a lot, but of the ones I do take, I examined the labels of the ones I was not so sure of. Turns out, that my chewable digestive enzyme tablets, and a well-known and respected brand of garlic supplement tablet had magnesium stearate in the list of ingredients.

Was I disappointed? Well, yes and no. Yes because I pay a little more for these products, because I shop for them at my local health food store thinking they are better products than what I would, most likely, find in big discount store chain or grocery store. And no, because now I know more than I did yesterday, and I will be looking harder for a company that knows enough to not put this junk in an, otherwise, fine nutritional dietary supplement.

You can bet I will be scrutinizing labels more carefully from here on out. I have also learned that this additive is not as likely to be present in a liquid supplement mixture. Most of us choose tablets or capsules out of convenience. Maybe the supplement industry needs more customers to contact them personally with this information, and together we can help influence sales enough to let them know that we don't want this stuff in our supplements. Declining sales, due to widespread knowledge like this, usually gets the message across pretty clearly, and helps the industry regulate itself in customer demand.

This additive is in a lot of higher-end priced nutritional supplements. So, no matter how much you pay for a nutritional supplement, there is no guarantee that it will NOT be in the product. I'm honored to be a part of this team, and you will not find this additive in this fine nutritional supplement.

What fluid makes healthier diets, supplements, and other complimentary techniques work even better?

Water.