Targeting your nutrition

In the wake of my overwhelming success with vitamin therapy, it soon became apparent that I would need to develop a formal system of selecting vitamins for my patients. This programme would be able to provide both the nutrients that everyone needs and the effective dosages of the nutrients that correct a person’s specific problems.
Not surprisingly, these two requisites often called for a large number of supplements. Therefore in order to create a supplement programme targeted for your specific health goals, you’ll need to determine which are most important to you. (For example, if you decide you want to control cholesterol, improve sleep and prevent osteoporosis, you might need to cut down supplementation in another arena.)

And that is exactly what you will have to do. To establish this kind of programme, follow these ten steps:

Step One: Establish the basics

• Select a basic vitamin and mineral formula of good quality and great breadth. (It is the breadth of this combination of vita-nutrients that will prove most important, because your greatest need in a basic formula is to make sure that no essential nutrient is missing.) Your goal is to make sure your nutrient intake heeds Roger Williams’s dictum: ‘A nutritional programme is only as good as the weakest link in the chain.’ Check to make sure that all of the trace minerals and В-complex constituents (as described in part two) are present.
• Another part of the basic requisite is an essential fatty acid formula. I am mentioning them separately because the mechanics of vitamin manufacturing keeps them separate. In their physical states they exist as an oil, whereas most other vita-nutri- ents are dried powders. It is particularly important to keep these oils in mind, as an essential fatty acid deficiency could be the most significant type of nutritional shortfall.
• I am tempted to add one other ingredient to your list of basic requirements – a nutrient-dense, phytochemical-rich natural source of undiscovered nutrient. By this I mean algae, brewer’s yeast, bee pollen and the like. If your diet contains a liberal assortment of a variety of fresh vegetables, you are probably meeting that need. A superfood supplement, though, would still be a nice addition to the mix. As you read the superfood chapter, see if one or more of the featured performers sounds particularly attuned to your needs.

Step Two: Identify the specific vita-nutrients that are appropriate for you

First of all, identify any medical problems that you need to deal with.

Are you taking medications, or have you been prescribed them?

I believe that unnecessary medications, in general, pose the greatest health risk of all. I have learned that nutrients can replace drugs for treating chronic illness more than four times out of five, and this is the vita-nutrient solution’s greatest achievement.

Have you been diagnosed with any illness ?

Here is where your levels of cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar, blood pressure and the like enter the picture. Here, too, is where it is important to consider your family history or other genetic factors. Vita-nutrients are ideally suited for improving risk factors. A bona fide diagnosis is usually, but not always, a call for treatment. Where there is no effective treatment in mainstream medicine, none is offered, nor should it be. The treatment could be worse than the disease. I know of no examples where that statement applies to nutritional therapies.

Identify any symptoms that need to be dealt with.

In reviewing your medical history, it is important to consider everyday symptoms that you may take for granted.

• Are you tired, cranky, subject to mood swings or forgetful?
• Are you achy, stiff, subject to colds and viruses?
• Do you get drowsy or have trouble sleeping?
• How about your bowel function, your appetite, your stamina, your temperament?

All these and more are eminently approachable with vita-nutrition.

Are there any physical life stresses you may have to overcome?

• Is your work schedule too gruelling?
• Do you get enough sleep?
• Are your home and workplace properly ventilated?
• Do you frequently encounter odours you cannot tolerate?
• Is your community blanketed with smog or pollution?

If so, antioxidants are particularly important in your basic vita-nutrient formula.

Step Three: Create a list of all of the areas discovered in the foregoing that you feel apply specifically to you

If your list is a long one, divide it into primary and secondary needs.

Step Four: Pinpoint the specific vita-nutrients that address the problems you have listed in step three

Although this process can be rather time-consuming, it is in fact the most direct way in which this book can help you. Start by looking through the vita-nutrient treatment section and locating those examples that are similar to your specific problems. If you can’t find any matching descriptions, look in the index (the discussion may be located under the named condition or perhaps under a cause of your symptom or illness). And, of course, if you have further questions or feel unsure about the correct vita-nutrient therapy, you may wish to contact a nutritional or medical counsellor.

Step Five: List all the nutrients that address the conditions or symptoms you wish to deal with

This step is easier than it may first appear because there are now targeted vita-nutrient formulations for specific conditions. Therefore you should be able to find the formulations that combine as many vita-nutrient building blocks into a single capsule or tablet as are available.

Step Six: Use as many appropriate building block formulas as possible

Write down all of the formulations and individual nutrients that are appropriate to you, along with the dosage range. Then note the number of tablets/capsules that most closely approximates the dosage range suggested. Here, you may find some variation in quantities if you use building block formulations, but come as close as you can. If a nutrient appears on your list more than once, it is likely to be extremely valuable to you; therefore keep such nutrients at the high end of the dosage range.

Step Seven: Add up the actual number of vita-nutrient formulations and pills you would have to swallow every day to achieve the goals denoted in step six

– If the total number seems manageable, proceed to step nine.

– If not, go to step eight.

Step Eight: Estimate the number of listed vita-nutrients in step seven that you could take comfortably with each of your three meals

Divide that number by the total in step six and determine the percentage of the vita-nutrients that you would be comfort-able taking. Multiply the enire list by that fraction to get your complete programme.

Another option is to omit vita-nutrients related to therapeutic objectives of lesser importance to you.

Step Nine: You now have your personalized, targeted vita- nutrient solution

If you are not accustomed to taking supplements, start slowly. Begin at one-third to one-half the total vita-nutrient supple-ments and increase the number each day. That way you may find you can eventually build up to the total indicated in step six.

Step Ten: Taper down your vita-nutrient dosage

Once you notice the maximum benefit from your vita-nutrient programme, you may decrease the quantities you take. And as your particular health problems become controllable, you will also be able to reduce the nutrients pertinent to those problems. The reason is, in part, that it takes higher doses of vita-nutrients to overcome a long-term deficiency than it does to maintain an optimum level after the gross deficiency is corrected.

These ten steps should enable you to do for yourself, with some homework, what I do for my patients every day. If the process at first seems daunting, rest assured: as you gather more experience using vita-nutrients, targeted therapy will become much easier.