MY SUPPLEMENT PHILOSOPHY

READER'S DIGEST VERSION

"You can’t supplement your way out of an unhealthy lifestyle." Abraham Lincoln.

Just kidding. Those are my words.

THE WHOLE STORY

It’s easy to assume, since I work in the holistic arena in Functional Nutrition, that I will be a supplement pusher or a health junkie’s dealer (fair warning, automatic download with that link). Neither could be farther from the truth.

Don’t get me wrong, well made supplements from a reputable supplier can be very useful when there is a known deficiency, to bridge a short-term, fixable gap, address a specific, ongoing condition (like MTHFR), or compensate for a lifestyle choice such as veganism or vegetarianism. Many just want a quick fix – and it is ok when triaging a situation like an injury or seasonal illness. But if you want lasting effects, it is important to get to the root cause of your symptoms - try to figure out “why” they’re happening - and make any changes that address problems at their foundation. Doing anything less than this is like trying to bail water out of a sinking boat without patching the holes and expecting it to stay afloat.

Taking supplements without a clear understanding of the origin of the ingredients, effect on your body, and interaction with existing conditions, medications, and lifestyle choices can become a fool’s errand, and possibly make you sick. For instance, too much of one nutrient in concentrated doses or over a prolonged period of time can cause an equally bad or worse imbalance in another area (copper is a great example). Ingesting a poorly made (weak, counterfeit) supplement can have zero effect on your progress or expose you to toxic chemicals or contaminants. If you don’t have a good understanding of the way they are intended to work synergistically with your body (e.g.: time of day and manner in which they are taken), you can create a whole new set of issues in any number of areas including digestion, energy, attention, and sleep.

None of these remarks are intended to scare you, to say that supplements are all bad, or to inflate or give credence the rhetoric that demonizes natural remedies. What is important to recognize is, as with all things, not all supplements are created equal and employing a healthy awareness will serve you well.

The absolute best way to obtain nutrients and promote optimal health is through diet and lifestyle. This is admittedly more challenging when our food is not locally sourced, seasonally selected, has been grown in depleted soil, in the absence of responsible farming practices, but it is not impossible. You can help reset any imbalances in this area of the market by voting with your pocketbook and raising the bar for service providers and suppliers.

Despite label directions for use of supplements, it is not one-size-fits-all. If you are looking for specific, detailed recommendations through this website or in casual conversation with me, you will be hard pressed to find them; any talk about them shouldn’t be interpreted as such. Without working 1:1 and having the benefit of all of the pieces to the puzzle, I just won’t make those kinds of tailored plans. I caution you about directives from others who don't have a complete picture of your needs and goals.

When you are my client, you will notice that if I recommend supplementing, I don’t make that suggestion lightly or in absence of relevant information. I help you explore what might be happening to cause you to experience your symptoms, discover ways to make adjustments to your eating and lifestyle to address these issues, understand how to find the same specific nutrients in certain foods, support healthy digestion, and realize and apply lifestyle opportunities to make the need for supplements, in many cases, temporary. Finally, I teach you how to tune in to your body and encourage you to do your own homework.

Keep in mind, I am not a dispensary, I’m not out to make a buck from the sale of whatever the latest supplement fad is, and your involvement is paramount to the success of not only your vitamin regimen but your health and well-being. Your participation in the selection of supplements and applying the protocol that is best suited for your unique you will insure a positive outcome.

Here's to "happy, peppy people"!
Marie Stumphauzer, FNTP

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