American Health & Fitness Magazine American Health Vitamins, Nutrition, Products, Information and Supplements

1. 

   oldtimekid2
   May 24th, 2011 - 14:23

   There’s one of two easy options. You can ask him to do a blood test for each of the vitamins and minerals that have an RDA (basically everything in a multivitamin)… the results will tell you if you’ve got too much or too little of any of them and can help you better evaluate what you should/shouldn’t take.

   The other option would be to consult a Nutritionist, Naturopath, or similar natural practitioner to have them help you evaluate what you’re taking. As long as you’re not overlapping ingredients (eg. 2 or 3 combinations with the same herb in them) and as long as the herbs don’t have any negative interactions between themselves, you can take as many as you’d like. The body sees herbs the same way it sees food (plants with nutrients in them), so there’s no limit on the variety of herbs you can take as long as those conditions are met. Granted, the increase in fiber by taking 100 different herbs compared to 1 herb may help regularity like eating extra fruits/veggies, but if it’s gradual, you wouldn’t even notice the difference. ;-) Good luck and I hope I helped!
2. 

   thenoseknows
   May 24th, 2011 - 14:23

   Here’s a pretty comprehensive book you should get: "Prescription for Natural Cures" by James F. Balch, M.D. and Mark Stengler, N.D. available through Wiley.com or Amazon.
   Having a compendium handy is faster than searching for websites.
   If you really want to help yourself, you need to do your homework.
   The reason your doctor doesn’t say anything is that most M.D.s know little about holistic medicine, and medical associations have been known to revoke the licenses of doctors who do anything other than just prescribe drugs. You can thank the American Medical Association for starting this bias in 1850.
3. 

   dave
   May 24th, 2011 - 14:23

   If you eat correctly, then you don’t need to take extra vitamins and herbs.

   The vitamin and herb industry make a fat profit from people like you who think they need this rubbish to be healthy.

   Here’s a link to give you an idea about interactions and the dangers of herbs: http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/11917.cfm

   Also, as these things are not FDA approved, they can also contain contaminants, with many prepared in grubby factories with no quality control and no way of knowing what toxins they contain. You’re probably risking your health far more by gambling on the contents of these supplements than eating improperly.

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