Nutrition
What Is Nutritional Supplementation?
The idea behind nutritional supplementation is to give the body all that it requires for functioning smoothly. Nutritional supplementation aims to provide the optimum level of each nutrient for each individual, through giving to the cells of the body the full range of substances they need. In the body itself, these are contained within a thin layer of water that surrounds each cell. Therein are assembled all the nutrients, hormones, waste products and other substances essential for the cell's function. Ideally, all the forty-five nutrients required by the cell should be present in optimum quantities, at all times.
However, not only does nutritional supplementation strive to provide these optimum quantities to the cells, it also takes into account our biochemical individuality. For every metabolism the needs will vary, sometimes dramatically. For example, as testing reveals, some people may require seven times more lysine in their diet than others for proper functioning. And to make it even more complex: nutritional needs may not only vary from individual to individual, as a rule they also always go up and down with the highs and lows caused by time and stress. Remember: the human body is NOT a machine but a living organism. It is a little more complex and also more delicate than your car that can be serviced according to standard procedure, like all the other cars of the same model. You can't. If you or your conventional physician thinks otherwise, you are both mistaken.
Nutritional Supplementation therefore involves a complex body of knowledge and requires expertise. It has been a part of integrative medicine since the time when two-time Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling published his bestselling book about Vitamin C and the Common Cold in 1970, which was the first to popularize the concept and scientific base for nutritional supplements.
What Kind of Nutritional Counseling and Supplementation Does Healthy Healing Center Provide?
Because everyone's needs are different, we offer individualized counseling and care. Yet, some of our other treatment modalities, like chelation therapy, also require a standardized formula for supplements together with the treatment, for better results. These prescriptions are part of the treatment plan and more individualized additional supplementation is then suggested for the time after the treatment has been completed.
In general, we can differentiate between three groups or categories of people that require or may want to take a regimen of supplements:
- People who even now enjoy almost perfect health but would like to up their chances to stay so for the rest of their days; in other words people who take supplements as a precaution, for the sake of prevention.
- People in need of mild to more drastic lifestyle changes who are not yet stricken with a chronic condition but tending toward it; the walking ill – people who are not sick but also not totally well, let alone in top form.
- People who are already suffering from a serious condition or disability.
At Healthy Healing Center, we have been successfully counseling people of all three categories.
Why Do We Need to Add Nutritional Supplements to What We Eat – and Watch Our Diet, Too?
Today the full and complete nutrition of the body cannot be achieved, not even nearly, alone through the regular meals that we eat. Modern industrialized agriculture and animal husbandry has tampered too much with our food supply for this to still be even a remote possibility. Our food now comes from soils depleted of essential nutrients and minerals and is riddled with toxins, additives and preservatives. Therefore in modern households that are buying produce, dairy and meat from supermarkets, nutritional supplementation is a must in order to keep the body functioning properly.
Not alone that: a lot of what is usually bought at the supermarket also needs to be as quickly thrown into the dustbin and crossed off the shopping list forever. Much of it is actually pure poison, no matter how nice and appealing it is packaged. It harms the consumer even more than it fills and bloats the body with empty calories, devoid of any nutritional value – screwing up the metabolism in the process. If you ever wondered why obesity has become a problem these days, this is your answer.
For this very reason, the nutritional counseling at our center also involves dietary counseling in form of individualized recommendations, in addition to the prescribing of nutritional supplements.
What Purpose Do Nutritional Supplements Serve in the Body?
Literally every body needs the right amount of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and co-enzymes. "But why?", you may ask. Not because some advertisement, or some health guru says so. The body needs them because of the services they provide within proper metabolic function that keeps this very body healthy and, as a result, this very person happy.
According to the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS,
"The key function of nutrients like vitamins and minerals in the human body is to serve as essential components in enzymes and co-enzymes. Enzymes are molecules involved in speeding up chemical reactions necessary for human bodily function. Co-enzymes are molecules that help the enzymes in their chemical reactions. Enzymes and co-enzymes work to either join molecules together or split them apart by making or breaking the chemical bonds that join molecules together…
Most enzymes are composed of a protein along with an essential mineral and possibly a vitamin. If an enzyme is lacking the essential mineral or vitamin, it cannot function properly. By providing the necessary mineral through diet or a nutritional formula, the enzyme is then able to perform its vital function. For example, zinc is necessary for the enzyme that activates vitamin A in the visual process. Without zinc in the enzyme, the vitamin A cannot be converted to the active form. This deficiency can result in what is known as night blindness. By supplying the enzyme with zinc, we are performing 'enzymatic therapy' and allowing the enzyme to function.
Many enzymes require additional support in order to perform their functions. The support is in the form of a co-enzyme, a molecule that functions along with the enzyme."
