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Americans spend billions on vitamins but get
little-to-no health improvement in return, say studies
Vitamin-gate: Who removed the health
benefits from America’s dietary supplements?
According to the Council for Responsible Nutrition(1), last year Americans spent $30.7 billion on dietary supplements, a category that includes such things as vitamins, minerals, protein powders, fish oils, seed oils, probiotics, and a wide variety of other consumable products to help us live better and longer.
However, researchers are pointing out a puzzling twist connected to the steadily climbing supplement sales figures: clinical studies are showing that those of us buying and taking dietary supplements aren’t living any better or longer than the folks that don’t take them!
Studies such as the recently published “Dietary Supplement Use Not Linked to Mortality Benefits” (April 9, 2019, Annals of Internal Medicine)(2) made us vitamin takers feel more than just a little foolish, as did the comments of Dr. Pieter Cohen, associate professor at Harvard Medical School, who authored an editorial published in JAMA entitled, “The Supplement Paradox: Negligible Benefits, Robust Consumption”, wherein he remarked that “supplements are essential to treat vitamin and mineral deficiencies… but for the majority of adults supplements likely provide little, if any, benefit.”
So, what happened to all the health benefits we’ve always expected our dietary supplements to provide? Did they somehow evaporate and disappear through their sealed packaging on their journey from the manufacturer to the store shelf to the consumer’s kitchen? Or is there something more nefarious going on?
“This is not about a conspiracy by supplement makers — it’s about an outdated technology,” says medical researcher and naturopathic physician Margie Adelman. “In about 95 percent of cases, supplement users haven’t been receiving all the nutrients they paid for because the nutrients were introduced into the body in the form of tablets, capsules, and powders; seventy-year-old delivery systems that limit the nutrients’ absorption.”
“Just because we put a pill in our mouth and swallow it, that is no guarantee that the nutrients are able to find their way into the bloodstream and then into cells where they are needed to improve health,” says Adelman,
Adelman says a new state-of-the-art delivery system for supplements called “bioactive gel” has been researched, piloted, and is currently in use around the country. Here’s how it differs from capsules, tablets, and powders:
· Uses micro-sized nutrients — Most supplements contain nutrients in the form of solid particles, like little grains of sand, that are 10-to-100 times too big to absorb. The supplement industry’s “dirty little secret” is that it requires dietary supplements to be tested for disintegration only, not for dissolution. To be absorbed, nutrients need to be completely dissolved, and only then are they small enough to enter the blood stream.
Controlled release ensures proper delivery – The potential health benefits of many nutraceuticals are not fully realized because the nutrients they carry are destroyed by coming in contact with stomach acid before they reach the small intestine. The new delivery system suspends micro-sized nutrients in a protective gel until they reach the small intestine, where they are released and absorbed.
No “excipients” – No synthetic binding glues, fillers, coatings and anti-caking agents (often listed on labels as “other ingredients”) are used. The active nutrients are suspended in a natural gel matrix made with soluble plant fiber.
A great-tasting, pill-free experience – For those who consume multiple supplements multiple-times per day, switching to a bioactive gel multi-vitamin can be life-changing.
SAMPLE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Dietary supplements are more popular than ever, but we’re starting to see studies that say supplements aren’t really improving consumer health. Tell us what’s going on.
2. Why is our absorption of vitamins and minerals in pill form so poor?
3. If we’re swallowing pills that we can’t absorb, could that be hurting our digestive system?
4. Why do most Americans take supplements in pill form if there is little to no benefit, and maybe some harm?
5. For our listeners taking a vitamin in pill form, should they stop?
6. A new nutrient delivery system using “bioactive gel” has been developed that you say can revolutionize the supplement industry. Tell us about it, how it was developed, and how it works.
7. Why does this new technology represent a huge advance for consumer health?
8. The first commercially available product using the new bioactive gel technology is a multivitamin called “Bioactive Multi” from the company, Healthycell.
9. Tell us a little about this supplement and what’s in it.
10. Can you arrange to get our listeners some free samples? www.Healthycell.com or call 800-975-9606
11. How can they learn more about bioactive gel and the makers, Healthycell?
ABOUT TODAY’S GUEST:
MEDICAL RESEARCHER & NATUROPATHIC PHYSICIAN MARGIE ADELMAN
Margie Adelman is a naturopathic physician, health consultant, and medical researcher of integrative therapies for over 25 years. She has consulted and worked for some of the largest companies in the dietary supplement industry and currently serves as educator for Healthycell. She is the author of “Living Lean: A Healthy Guide to A Beautiful Life”.
REFS:
1) https://www.crnusa.org/CRNConsumerSurvey
2)https://www.practiceupdate.com/content/dietary-supplement-use-not-linked-to-mortality-benefits/82153/5/6/2?elsca1=TrendMD_CPA
3) Dr. Pieter Cohen, remarks on a study “Trends in Dietary Supplement Use among US Adults from 1999-2012,” Elizabeth D. Kantor et al. JAMA. 2016;316(14):1464-1474
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2565748