Do you find yourself taking vitamins that you may not know what they are for or even if they are good for you? Vitamins don’t need to be expensive to be quality. Discover why all vitamins have not been created equal and what to do about it. Dr. Bryan Joseph combines the knowledge of Dr. Olivia Joseph and Dr. Jason Hamed to help you understand how to find the vitamins you need and clear up any vitamin controversy you may have!
Table of Contents
- An Introduction to Vitamin Controversy
- Are All Vitamins Created Equal?
- Real Food Versus Supplements: Where to Get Your Vitamins and Minerals?
- Bad Types of Vitamins & Supplements
- Good Types of Vitamins & Supplements
- Why Vitamins are Not Approved by the FDA
- The Price of High Quality Vitamins & Supplements
- Important Vitamins to Take
- Testing Resources
An Introduction to Vitamin Controversy
Dr. Jason: Welcome to The Wellness Connection Podcast. Giving hope, igniting health, and shaping a brighter future. It’s time to get connected.
Dr. Bryan: All right, welcome back to The Wellness Connection Show. I’m Dr. Bryan Joseph, and I am with my wife, Dr. Olivia Joseph.
Dr. Olivia: Hello.
Dr. Bryan: And I am with Dr. Jason Hamed.
Dr. Jason: Hello.
Dr. Bryan: And today, this is a really nice episode, and it’s coming straight out of New York. This originated from New York.
Dr. Jason: Manhattan.
Dr. Bryan: We had a listener that actually requested that we speak on the topic of vitamin controversy and confusion. Like where you find yourself taking a bunch of pills and you don’t know what’s right for you, what’s wrong for you. Which ones you should take. If they’re all the same? He, rightfully so, just like so many people, was confused on the topic of vitamin controversy. So today that’s our topic. We’re gonna be breaking down some of the common questions associated with the vitamin controversy.
Are All Vitamins Created Equal?
Dr. Bryan: So I didn’t think that there were many more qualified people than who we have in the room that I’m gonna be talking and answering those questions with. So here we go. Are all vitamins created equal? Let’s start there. Because everybody wants to know when they come in to a facility or when they meet with you, “Are the vitamins I’m taking appropriate or good for me versus the vitamins that somebody else might be recommending?”
A lot of the stuff that you’ll find in a doctor’s office is not necessarily things you can even buy over the counter.
Dr. Olivia: A lot of the stuff that you’ll find in a doctor’s office is not necessarily things you can even buy over the counter. You will not find them walking into a Walgreens, a Walmart, a Sam’s, even a GNC. So you have a different category of nutritional supplements available through healthcare providers that you’re not gonna get over the counter, even on Amazon. Unless you’re a really, really savvy consumer, you know exactly what you’re looking for, but people don’t want a PhD in label reading for vitamins. They wanna get what they need.
Dr. Olivia: So I do think a lot of people sometimes think they’re getting a better quality when they walk into like a nutrition superstore, not necessarily. You might have more variety. I have seen very, very expensive fitness nutrition have junk ingredients, synthetic ingredients, coloring, sweeteners. So vitamins don’t need to be expensive to be quality, but you … If you’re gonna take supplements you wanna take them in a natural, highly absorbable bio-available form.
Dr. Jason: Yeah, so the answer to that question is, uh no-
Dr. Olivia: No.
Dr. Jason: … all vitamins are not created equally.
The need to take vitamins
Dr. Bryan: All right, we’ll come back to that a little bit. Maybe break apart what you just said. But let’s begin with this then. Why do I need to consider even taking vitamins?
Dr. Jason: Well I’m gonna take the lead on that one and this is a conversation that Liv and I have had in the past, as well is, and again going back to the whole primitive … you know, a lot of the actions that we’ve talked on up to this point, have been primitive reasoning. You know you go back in time, a couple hundred years ago, or even 100 years ago, and you sample our soil. Sample the soil that we had 100 years ago and you will find that the nutrient density, some of the positive bacteria that was there that would literally force our vegetables and our fruit to grow and have more density in them, the nutrient profile of our dirt is weaker than it was 100 years ago.
Dr. Jason: So inevitably we’re … Like the dirt, the vitamin controversy, or excuse me, the vegetables and the fruit are growing in, is not even the same dirt that it was a hundred years ago. It’s lacking the nutrients. It’s lacking the stimulation, if you will, to produce more highly dense vegetables and fruit, and therefore … And we all have a more stressful life than we did 100 years ago. So, like, inevitably, we’ve got less density in our fruits and vegetables with vitamins and minerals, and we’ve got more stress. So my answer is unequivocally yes, we need vitamins.
Dr. Bryan: We need vegetables, for sure.
We created these problems
Dr. Olivia: Well, I think, too, when you think back to even just when we were kids, which is not that long ago, foods were available seasonally. You know, when I was a kid, like you looked forward to strawberry season because it was a season. Now, you can have strawberries year-round, so food is being picked before it’s ripened, which means it’s not nutrient-dense, sits on boats, sometimes for weeks, and it’s losing its nutrient density when it’s not local, when you don’t harvest it and then eat it soon.
Dr. Olivia: The other thing is, think about the amount of Americans that are on prescription medications. So America is 5% of the world’s population, but we consume 95% of the world’s medication. So we are the most medicated country in the world. Well, how do medications work? When you take a medicine, it has to activate with chemicals in your body to turn it on, to make it work, which is oftentimes nutrients.
Dr. Olivia: We know when you take a blood pressure medicine, you become deficient in what? Potassium. You take a statin drug, you become deficient in what? CoQ10. So we’re creating these nutrient deficiencies with food, with toxins, with medications. So we created these problems.
Our ancestors didn’t have to take vitamins. Our ancestors could get all their nutrition from being outside, in the sunlight, in the fresh air. We’re breathing different air. We are eating different food. We are taking different chemicals that our ancestors did not have in their life.
Being dependent on supplements
Dr. Bryan: But I also, on the flip side, not to put her down in any way, I also see people come in with lists of sometimes 30 vitamin controversy and minerals they’re on.
Dr. Olivia: I agree. I think that’s just as big a mistake.
Dr. Jason: Agreed.
Dr. Olivia: I have people walk in with two grocery bags filled with supplements, and I’m like, “If you think that that, that your health is dependent on these two bags of vitamins, then you are not getting to the root cause of your issues.” So you can medicate with supplements, you can medicate naturally, you’re still medicating if you’re not getting to the root cause.
Dr. Jason: Well, I think, I think if we can … Maybe make this shift over. I like to see it as supplementing versus medicating. Right? Like if again we go back to the concept of our soil is depleted, we’re not … It’s not as nutrient-dense as it was, so therefore, we have to have supplemental, something to supplement, to fill that gap in. You know, you alluded to it where we’ve got stressful lives. We’ve created some chemical stress, so now we can’t medicate or change this with supplements alone. We have to, again, go back to the root cause, which is our lifestyle choices, our food choices.
Dr. Jason: However, in the bridge, as we’re making that change, there is a gap, and that gap can help be served and filled with proper supplementation of vitamins and ergogenic aids, but not as its sole mean of filling the gap forever.
Real Food Versus Supplements: Where to Get Your Vitamins and Minerals?
Dr. Bryan: So would you say that it’s better, ultimately, to get your minerals and vitamins from your food or from supplements?
Dr. Olivia: It’s better from food, but you will not get all of your vitamins and minerals from food. You have to supplement with a healthy diet.
Dr. Bryan: Okay.
Dr. Olivia: It’s not one or the other.
Dr. Bryan: All right. That makes sense. So here’s one of the confusion points or frustrations that I see a lot of people experience, and I know our buddy out of New York was one of them, as well, is when they do come into the office with 20 medications or 20 supplements or vitamins they’re on, it’s usually because there are so many people out there raving that there’s this magic pill, that you need to take garlic, you need to take ginger, you need to take cinnamon, you need to take CoQ10, and the list keeps going on and on and on, like everyone’s got the magic cure.
Is this the right supplement for me?
Dr. Bryan: Is there a way for someone really to figure out what they should be supplementing with, versus just because they heard it was good for them, they should take it?
Dr. Olivia: Mm-hmm (affirmative). So you want to supplement with things that are not easy to get from your diet, right? Like a lot of things, if you do eat meat, for example, there’s a lot of B vitamins. You’re going to get iron. You’re gonna get things of that nature. If you choose not to eat meat because you’re a vegetarian or a vegan, not a big deal. You’re gonna have to supplement with those things because you’re not gonna get it in your diet, right?
Dr. Olivia: So there’s way to test, but the things you can get every day in your diet, you don’t need to supplement with. But things like Brazil nuts are rich in selenium. Do people eat nuts? Yeah. How many people eat Brazil nuts? Not many. You know what I mean? And selenium’s a required nutrient for thyroid function. You think of things like chromium, which is a sexy mineral that used to be in the soil. What does it do? It keeps blood sugar stable.
Dr. Olivia: So I’m not saying you have to supplement with chromium or selenium. I will put people with thyroid issues on selenium, with blood sugar issues on chromium.
So I think you supplement based on what you’re trying to accomplish, what you’re trying to enhance. And you supplement based on what you can’t get in food. Vitamin D. You cannot get enough Vitamin D in your diet.
Dr. Jason: And if you live in the Midwest in the winter, you can’t go outside.
Building positive fats
Dr. Olivia: 50% of the world, 50% of the world does not get enough sunlight in the winter months. This is different if you live in California. You have one doctor out in California. He practices in California and in Hawaii, and he runs podcasts on how he never gives Vitamin D supplementation. Well, no kidding!
Dr. Jason: Yeah, no kidding.
Dr. Olivia: You practice in Hawaii and in California. I don’t know that I would give it to my patients there, either. It’s relevant to your environment, and it’s relevant to your diet, and it’s relevant to what your health needs or your health goals are. That’s why you supplement.
Dr. Jason: Well, the other thing too, you mentioned a good point of what you have access to. Again, if you’re not in a coastal part of the world, then you don’t … Fish isn’t maybe … Like, we’re here in the Midwest. It’s not like we roll up to a local joint and we’ve got like a fresh fish of the day, right?
Dr. Bryan: We’ve got goldfish! [crosstalk 00:10:27]
Dr. Jason: We’ve got goldfish, right! But like fish oils and the good fats that are from there … It’s a necessity.
Dr. Olivia: Right.
Dr. Jason: If you talk about primally, what our body genetically, inherently needs, not my opinion, but what it needs, is these positive fats to decrease the inflammatory spots, build positive fats in our body, cholesterols to build hormones, et cetera, et cetera. If you don’t have those, you don’t work. And if you’re in the Midwest and the, again, our fishes are the little orange ones at the local tavern or whatever, then you’re not going to get that, so you need to supplement with a fish oil.
Dr. Olivia: Yep.
Athletes on supplements
Dr. Jason: As well as, there’s some of you out there that are also have desires to enhance performance from a standpoint of exercise. Like, again, as you now look at where is it you can fine-tune your supplementation to perform better, to gain more muscle, to run longer, run faster … Then again, as Dr. Olivia said, you now have a new need that needs to be met. It’s how can you improve from an … What they call an ergogenic or performance base. How can you safely do that with supplementation?
Dr. Olivia: So that’s one thing I do want to touch on because I think that the performance or the athletic demographic have been open to supplements longer than anybody else. They’ve been taking supplements longer than everybody else. But what you have to watch out for is that’s probably the dirtiest, most toxic supplements you’ll find out there. Finding really clean, natural performance supplements .That’s like a needle in a haystack, and that’s where we’re seeing these disgusting proteins and sweeteners and coloring and nasty oils, so you’re right. You want to take it for performance, but that’s where quality matters. Or you said fish oil. A lot of people are afraid to take fish oil. I would be, too. Many of them contain mercury. Many of them are rancid and smelly and quality really matters.
Dr. Bryan: So not everybody understands that concept. And what I find when I have a discussion with people, and maybe you can further explain this, is not everyone knows that a lot of supplements or vitamin controversy are manufactured with fillers inside of them, versus making them pure, and consequently, you’re finding yourself really just peeing them out or actually creating more toxicity with some of these things that you’re taking.
Bad Types of Vitamins & Supplements
Dr. Bryan: So when we asked the opening question, are all vitamins created equally, just because they’re available everywhere now doesn’t mean that they’re equal. There are different levels that are higher in quality than others. So what are some of the things that you may be aware of that are found inside of some of the bad types of vitamins or supplements?
Dr. Olivia: Well, things you won’t see on the label are going to be things like sawdust and fillers that might contain gluten or potential allergens. Things you will see on the label … Here is one of my … This is my cheat sheet, to quickly teach people how to find crappy supplements, like don’t use that brand. If it contains an artificial sweetener, that is gonna be Nutrisweet, aspartame, sucralose … I had a patient with diabetes yesterday bring me a bar. He goes, “Oh, it’s only one gram of sugar.” I said, “It has sucralose. No more. Get rid of it. You’re not allowed to do that one.”
Dr. Olivia: Artificial coloring. They don’t even hide that in vitamin controversy. It says right there. Look at your pre-natals. It says-
Dr. Jason: Yellow 10.
Dr. Olivia: Blue-
Dr. Jason: Yellow 10.
Dr. Olivia: Yeah, I’m like, “Really?” Should we be taking this when we’re pregnant?
Dr. Jason: Is that like the Flintstone vitamins?
Dr. Bryan: Not so much.
Spotting synthetic nutrients
Dr. Olivia: And here’s another way, is this is the easiest way to spot synthetic nutrients. Go to B12, look right next to it, and if it says cyanocobalamin, it is synthetic. You want methylcobalamin. Or go to folate, and if it says folic acid, it’s synthetic. If it says methylfolate, it’s natural. So if you can just remember, no coloring, no sweeteners, and just look at the B12 or the folate … That’s how you’re going to spot one easily and quickly that is made with synthetic ingredients.
Good Types of Vitamins & Supplements
Dr. Jason: Now, when, on the opposite end of that, when you’re looking for a wholesome or better supplement, and I’m thinking of some of the ergogenic aids that I’ve gone through over the years … Now, the coloring that would be acceptable, correct me if I’m wrong, Liv, is like the beet-carrot coloring.
Dr. Olivia: Yeah.
Dr. Jason: So they’ll basically take an actual vegetable, and they’ll extract out of it some of the positive aspects of that vegetable and some of its preservative form or the way it can color up the supplement itself.
Dr. Olivia: So but beet is also used for arginine, which creates nitric oxide, so it’s used a lot in cardiovascular and recovery supplements. When you say carrot, carrot is really rich in Vitamin A, so carrot is another option. Sometimes you’ll see vegetables juiced, flavorless ones like spinach if you’re trying to turn something green doesn’t really have much flavor.
Dr. Jason: Then we’ve got cane sugar, as opposed to the processed sugar, correct?
Dr. Olivia: Yeah, well, I mean, cane sugar could still be processed. Yeah.
Dr. Jason: Of the like the protein shakes, the recovery drinks, and we don’t see a lot of that in the vitamins, per se, but a cane sugar itself processed, no good? Yes good?
Dr. Olivia: Well, cane sugar is processed, right? It is. So I don’t know how you’re going to make a shake without some type of sweetener. Otherwise, it’s going to taste bad, so most of the really quality ones are using stevia or monk fruit extract. That’s probably the most quality sweeteners that you’ll find.
Dr. Bryan: All right. So there’s clearly a difference on the quality that’s out there, right?
Why Vitamins are Not Approved by the FDA
Dr. Bryan: Another common question that brings up some vitamin controversy is why are they not approved by the FDA?
Dr. Olivia: Mm-hmm (affirmative)- It’s not that they’re not approved. The FDA won’t regulate vitamins because vitamins are considered a food. They won’t regulate that. Now, there is an organization that polices vitamins. There is. It’s not the FDA, but there are organizations that are doing so. They randomly check vitamin companies to see what they’re claiming on their website and to make sure that their marketing matches their manufacturing processes.
Dr. Olivia: For example, the supplement I manufacture, it says it’s GMP certified. So this little organization will back check me and make sure that I am GMP certified, that I’m made in a GMP certified facility. At any point, you can get a report from a supplement company, meaning when we manufacture a supplement, we have to purchase the raw materials, run it for purity and potency through a third party, and then I get a report. So I have a report on every batch of every supplement that’s manufactured-
Dr. Bryan: Do all supplements go through that process?
Dr. Jason: No.
Dr. Olivia: Good, good quality ones. Everything you will get in a doctor’s office will absolutely go through that scrutiny, because they’re being regulated more than anything else.
The Price of High Quality Vitamins & Supplements
Dr. Bryan: So I would think that a lot of people would purchase vitamins based off of price. A lot of times, because you have to be economical a lot of times. So is there a big variance between the people that actually have put quality ingredients in them versus the ones that haven’t? Does it show up in price?
Dr. Olivia: I think it’ll show up in certain supplements. In fish oil, it absolutely will. To manufacture a good quality fish oil, you’re going to spend more money. Just expect to spend more money if you’re going to take a fish oil. To take a cheap one on clearance, don’t waste your money, because you’re taking something that could potentially contain toxins and be rancid. Just don’t take it. Just try to eat more essential fatty acids in your diet.
Dr. Olivia: So not necessarily. Magnesium’s a perfect example of that. It’s a cheap vitamin, B vitamins, to produce one from methylcobalamin instead of cyanocobalamin, you’re looking at one dollar difference. So don’t shop for the best price. Shop for the best ingredients, and that doesn’t mean you will pay more. I mean, you can come out about pretty stinking close.
All about the marketing
Dr. Jason: Well, that’s a hundred percent true. Again, like we were talking before we went on air, in regards to some of the bigger chains that have great marketing behind it, and I did research for one of those companies back in the day. Like, when you have a big marketing budget, all of a sudden, you’re putting out great supplement lines, and you’re charging prime dollars for it. And then at the end of the day, you fast forward several years, and you end up looking at some of the actual products around the shelf that are one or two times more expensive than a competitor. And when they’re actually looking at it and they’re actually going through it, the analysis you said, it’s half-filled with polymer.
Dr. Jason: It’s not even the real stuff! Like you’re sitting here getting 24 grams of protein or 5 grams of creatine, and actually, it’s B.S.
Take good quality supplements
Dr. Olivia: I do think that that’s one thing we pay for, is marketing. So companies that do a ton of marketing is, you’re paying for that when you buy that product. And sometimes they are marked up more because they have to budget for their marketing.
The company we use in the clinic is primarily Metagenics. Why is Metagenics more? Because we’re paying for the testing and the certification. Somebody has to pay for that. But what that is to me is it’s a guarantee, what’s on the label is in the bottle, and when I see someone with a high C-reactive protein, which is a marker of inflammation, and I put them on a medical food for inflammation that was tested in clinical trials and proved to be effective for that, I don’t care what the cost is. I know what result they’re gonna get, and it’s been proven, and we can prove it.
Dr. Olivia: So I think that, when you take good quality supplements, and you’re doing testing, you see profound changes on lab work before and after. Versus I’ve had people come to me, and I’m like, “Well, look, your Vitamin D is extremely low. I need you taking 5,000 units of Vitamin D a day.” And they look at me, and they say, “I’m already taking 5,000 units of Vitamin D a day.” I’m like, “Well, I don’t trust what you’re taking. Take this one for 12 weeks that I know is regulated, and let me check your levels again in 12 weeks. Problem solved.”
Dr. Olivia: You know what I mean? So it doesn’t matter if it was $2 different. That was $20 they were wasting instead of the $22 one that was actually regulated and actually did something in their body.
Is the price worth it?
Dr. Bryan: Makes a lot of sense, and I tend to see it from the side of protein powder so frequently.
Dr. Bryan: Like you see some protein powders you can buy a big vat of it for $14. Other ones, like, the labels are fancy, and they mark all the different things that make it, like you talk about marketing dollars, but then you’re looking at like $90 for the protein. And then you start to wonder, is it worth it? Right?
Dr. Jason: Well, again, just like Liv said, though … it’s how it’s produced.
Dr. Bryan: Correct.
Dr. Jason: Right? So if you’ve got a slow, denatured protein that they’re actually able to keep the bioavailability of it … Which if you look in the back, it talks about the process that it went through. But if you’re paying for the marketing dollars, I alluded to some of the larger chains that are out there have big marketing dollars that could drive up the prices, but actually, their products were not solid products. Versus getting, you know, getting yourself in a position in an environment, whether it be in a health food store that has a, the reputation is that they’re carrying top-notch products, like a Whole Foods, if you will, based on my experience there, a Fresh Thyme, you know, a Trader Joe’s. I’m not sure if I’ve had any protein from Trader Joe’s actually, now I take that back.
Always check the label
Dr. Jason: But like looking at the products they carry and reading the labels and recognizing, all right, hey, they’re promising it’s not denatured. Like they’ve got the stamp of approval that Dr. Olivia mentioned, too, in regards to they have certifications that go behind it versus a bunch of fancy labels that you’d see on a commercial on television, and you’re just sucked into it.
Dr. Jason: And actually, you’re filling yourself up with crap, coloring, sugar, and it’s not even … it says 24 grams of protein. Actually, you’re only absorbing like five.
Dr. Bryan: That’s when people reference it as expensive pee.
Dr. Olivia: Right.
Dr. Jason: Right, it totally is. Right.
Dr. Olivia: Yeah.
Dr. Bryan: So let’s wipe the slate clean for a second.
Dr. Olivia: Yep.
Important Vitamins to Take
Dr. Bryan: Is there a most important vitamin? Like maybe a short list of, okay, here’s the top three, four, five things that everybody should consider supplementing with.
Dr. Olivia: Yes, absolutely.
Dr. Olivia: So magnesium. It is so difficult to get enough magnesium in your diet, and because our diets are so acidic and our lives are so stressful, I really believe we have to supplement with it. And quality matters. Magnesium glycinate is not a brand. It’s my favorite type of magnesium. I believe everybody needs to take magnesium glycinate nightly.
Dr. Olivia: Secondly, vitamin D. It’s got to be vitamin D3, not D2. It’s got to be seasonally. I don’t care if you take one or two thousand units year-round. It doesn’t matter. You don’t need it year-round, and when you do need it, you probably need more than 2,000 units.
Dr. Olivia: Essential fatty acids, that’s where you hear Omega-3 fish oils. Our brain really needs that DHA. Our joints need it. Our heart needs it. DHA and omega-3s are so important. I’m not saying you can’t eat a diet rich in omegas, but most people still are not getting enough.
Dr. Olivia: Probiotics. You cannot get enough probiotics in your life. And when you think about our food that’s treated with antibiotics, animals, water that we drink that has medications in it killing our good bugs, probiotics.
Dr. Olivia: So if you have a good multivitamin that has antioxidants like resveratrol, that has good B vitamins like methylcobalamin and methylfolate, you can get enough nutrients from a multivitamin where there’s your top five. Right there.
Dr. Bryan: Wow.
Multivitamins being the last on the shortlist
Dr. Bryan: I was wondering if you were going to add a multivitamin, because I would think that’s the most popular vitamin that most people would find themselves on, and I’m glad to hear that you did, but it wasn’t the number one.
Dr. Olivia: Well, and that might be something I add later. Like right now, the whole book of patients that I saw this morning, I don’t think I put a single person on a multivitamin because I wasn’t seeing them for wellness, maintenance, and prevention. I was trying to lower their thyroid antibodies or lower their homocysteine levels, so I’m choosing formulas more specific to get bang in that area when we’re trying to accomplish something in their health.
Dr. Olivia: When I’m detoxing somebody, you don’t need to take a multivitamin when you’re detoxing. Your detox program and protocol will have those nutrients in it. So I think for wellness, yeah, you do need a multivitamin. But it’s got to be quality. Otherwise, don’t bother taking it. If it’s got coloring, if it’s got cyanocobalamin, folic acid, don’t bother.
Know where your holes are
Dr. Jason: You know, as Dr. Liv was just talking, I really hit home to, just from a listener perspective. We’re talking a lot of things, there’s a lot of moving parts in this conversation right now, and as Dr. Liv was just speaking, it just really dawned on me. You know, she started out discussing really about really what your needs are, and so if you’re just going to the grocery store and trying to pick up a bunch of stuff, then you’re really kind of shooting kind of blind. Do you know what I mean? Like out there if you’re listening?
Dr. Jason: Like what I’m getting at is you really don’t know where your holes are. So if you’re just going in saying, well, I just need to get like 25 different supplements because I heard that’s what I should be doing … I think that we all here would make the argument that, although a great attempt, and we applaud you for taking the effort, but actually taking a look under the hood and really seeing where your deficiencies are is probably the most prudent and best use of your time. Therefore, you now know where you can put your time, energy, and yes, your money, on the good products that will actually fill that gap as we alluded to and get you healthier, versus shotgun a bunch of stuff at a big chain store thinking you’re going to get everything when you’re actually getting nothing.
Dr. Bryan: This is good, guys. This was good.
Testing Resources
Dr. Olivia: Can I just wrap up? I just want to give people some testing resources, because I feel like that’s a question that we consistently get is there a test for that? Is there a test for that? There absolutely is. One thing I suggest with your most basic testing, one of the most common deficiencies we see along with Vitamin D deficiency, you want your vitamin D around 55. That’s the sweet spot. The normal range is huge. It’s 30 to 100, but another common deficiency we see is in iron and ferritin, and it’s the most common cause for hair loss. Every single week, I have people who come to me with fatigue and hair loss, and it’s due to iron or ferritin deficiency.
Dr. Olivia: So you can test for iron and ferritin, vitamin D through blood. I also recommend checking inflammatory markers, like homocysteine and C-reactive protein, because if your homocysteine’s high, you’re usually deficient in folate and B12, methylcobalamin, and if your C-reactive protein’s high, it means you have inflammation and you could benefit from natural anti-inflammatories like turmeric. But there are nutrient tests out there called that I know at least two labs do, and these labs are becoming direct-to-consumer available, so you don’t have to say, “Oh, my doctor won’t order them.” Guess what? You can order it yourself.
Dr. Olivia: So I think that that gives people access to the testing that they need to really know what they’re deficient in or what they could be toxic in.
Wrapping Up
Dr. Bryan: Excellent. Excellent. So there’s ways to actually to test to figure this out, so thank you for sharing that, so much. Well, that wraps up another episode. That’s episode 13 of the Wellness Connection. So if you want to find us and find this exact episode or find some of the details because we spoke relatively fast, or some of us spoke fast in this, so if you want the transcribed version or you want to see it written, then we have it available to you. Just go to TheWellnessConnection.com/e13, and you’ll find all this information available for you at any time.
Dr. Bryan: With that said, thank you for all your feedback. Thank you for your comments. We appreciate all the different questions and comments that are coming in. The feedback has been outstanding. If you’re enjoying what you’re hearing, please share it with other people because that’s the whole idea of this, trying to help more people actually live a life of health and prosperity. Until next time.
Check out our page for more of our podcasts.