How Do You Know What Supplements to Take?
This question is what started us on the path of
putting this web page together. We have been on a search for the right
supplement/vitamins for years. We knew supplements and vitamins would
contribute to health but there was no criteria. Many things pointed to
we should be taking vitamins. But which one and what company?
Dennis, one of the authors of this set of
pages, had the unique opportunity to hear Dr. Ray Strand
speak in Minneapolis. Dr. Strand stuck an enormous chord. Here was a
real medical doctor saying that after 30 years of practicing
medicine like all other doctors, his wife Elizabeth, showed him
there was a missing piece, diet and nutrition are more important
than taking drugs.
Elizabeth Strand had been dealing with
Fibromyalgia for years eventually ended up bedridden, only able to
be up a couple hours a day. Strand said she also had developed
Chronic Fatigue. Her children took turns staying home from school to
care for her. One day a friend of hers visited and seeing how
bad she was, suggested Elizabeth try some supplements that she had
heard some good things about. Elizabeth asked her husband what he
thought. He said he told her that it was obvious none of the drugs
he prescribed were helping her so she
had nothing to lose. She started taking the supplements. In three weeks she was out of bed, staying up
later than her husband was. In three months she was out training her
horses again. Dr. Strand said he was amazed and could hardly believe
it. He had been watching his wife slowly succumb to her aliments.
All the medical information and treatments he offered her did
nothing to stop her slide. She starts taking a high quality supplement and gets
better- rapidly.
Dr. Strand said he picked the five of his worse
Fibromyalgia patients. He recommended they each take the same
supplements. They all improved. This changed the way he practiced
medicine. To actually hear this story and more from Dr. Strand go to
his web page
www.bionutrition.org. Dr. Strand has also written numerous books.
So where did that chance encounter with Dr. Strand
and his information and confirmations lead us? In addition to
bringing huge confirmation to what we believed and were seeking, he
also brought us the name of a supplement company that was different
than all the others. This company approached supplements from a
clinical & scientific perspective and produced top rated
products. And he could document that these products were rated number
one. Dr. Strand is now on the advisory committee of the company.
So we took Dr. Strand's recommendation to this company
he thought so highly of and did our own research. Dennis even made a
trip to Utah. The more we learned about the company, the better it
looked. We discovered there are many professionals like Dr. Strand
working with this company.
But the bottomline question was what about the
products? Were they different than others we were familiar with? Was
the manufacturing process top rated? Were those stories about the
good effects people were having true? Yes to all those questions and
much more.
The Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements
A missing piece all those years was:
In our research we learned about a book published
in Canada that actually rated supplements. The book is called
The Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements. Lyle
McWilliams, a biochemist and former member of the Canadian
Parliament and a member of the of the Legislative Assembly of
British Columbia, served "at the behest of Canada's federal Minister
of Health to develop a new regulatory framework for natural health
products, ensuring Canadians access to safe, effective and high
quality nutritional supplements." His collected information became
The Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements.
McWilliams asked five well known, respected and
published nutritional authorities to create a list of specific
recommendations for daily nutrition. In other words, if they could
create a supplement what would each of them want the supplement to
contain or do? McWilliams took those recommendations and came up
with a blended standard. He used this standard to evaluate over
1,000
different products. His team then gave each product a score. The
supplement company Dr. Strand recommended to his patients was number
one.
The Guide is much more than a listing of
supplement & vitamin companies, it also contains a lot of
information about different kinds of vitamins and minerals and the
value to us. There is a great chapter on antioxidants. If you have
an interest in your health and want to learn more about how
nutrition can help, you need to read this book. The Chapters in the
book are: