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Nutritional Supplements
I'm often asked by my patients about what I think about nutritional supplements. In an ideal world, where we all lead an active life and eat a balanced, healthy diet with a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes and healthy fats, grown in soil that has not been depleted by over-farming or raised in an environment that is not contaminated by hormones, antibiotics, or environmental toxins, nutritional supplementation would probably not be necessary. However, few of us inhabit that world. Purchasing supplements can be an intimidating process. Faced with the myriad number of choices at the grocery store, the health food store or the internet, it's difficult to know where to begin to pick the right combination of nutrients. As the industry is not FDA-approved, there are no guarantees that a product will contain the nutrients listed on the label, that those nutrients are in a form that can be absorbed and utilized by the human body and that the product does not contain harmful contaminants.
As probably many of you know, the typical western medical education, while doing a great job in many things, provides very little education in nutrition. In the past, when asked by patients what supplements I recommended I was at a loss for an answer. Fortunately, about two years ago I began collaborating with Dr Kathleen Young. Dr Young is a biochemist who went on to attend 4 years medical school at a accredited naturopathic medical school. Needless to say, given her scientific background and her naturopathic training, she is an expert when it comes to nutrition and appropriate supplementation. She researched a number of the available supplement companies, looking at the purity and bio-availability of their products and the quality of the science behind their product development and chose "Designs for Health" as our supplement provider. (See their website at www.designsforhealth.com.) Designs for Health products are marketed only through qualified health care practitioners. We were required to provide a copy of my state medical license and my professional degree to distribute their supplements.*
Currently we have a number of their supplements in stock in our office. Just click on any of the listed supplements for more information.
*Statements regarding nutritional supplements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
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