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Why Use Nutritional Supplementation? |
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Nutritional Supplementation can play a very important role in wellness, disease prevention, and the treatment of many health conditions.
Nutrients are the building blocks of our bodies. The human body requires several vitamins, minerals, amino acids, carbohydrates, essential fatty acids, and nuclear material to function optimally.
Diet is the most important source of these required nutrients but in today's world it is not possible to achieve optimal nutrition without supplementation.
Nutrients come from the soil and when the soil is deficient in certain nutrients the crops grown in those conditions also become deficient. Unfortunately, most of the soil used to grow crops in our food chain is deficient in micronutrients and trace minerals.
The fertilizers used in the agricultural industry supply large quantities of phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium in order to grow large crops efficiently.
However, with each year the soil continues to lose essential minerals like iodine, selenium, and magnesium.
Nutrients are at their highest level in foods immediately after they are harvested. The longer food sits in a warehouse to ripen, the further it travels from the farm on a ship or truck, and the longer it waits on the shelves the more nutrients are depleted.
Foods also lose nutrients during the cooking process, as vitamins and minerals are lost or altered during heating and exposure to oxygen.
Buying local, fresh, organic foods is the best way to ensure optimal nutrition from your food. However, most foods available to us at our grocery stores do not fit these criteria because of where we live, logistics, and economic considerations.
Even when we do the best we can with our diets it is unlikely that we can obtain optimal nutrition from food alone because of the stressors from the modern world and the demands we put on our bodies.
Our organ systems and metabolic pathways exist in a relatively stressful and toxic world compared to the world our ancestors lived in. The cells of our body require better nutrition now than at any point in human evolution because of these factors.
Dr. Barlow prescribes Nutritional supplementation based on each patient's individual needs and goals. Proper diagnosis and evaluation is vital because there is no one size fits all solution to supplementation, wellness, or medical treatment.
The individual demands of life and unique biochemistries of each person alters which nutrients may be required. Too much of anything is not a good thing.
Proper evaluation, testing, and prescription is the best way to provide optimal levels of nutrients while avoiding excesses and toxicity.
To learn more about Dr. Barlow or to schedule a consultation call 250-860-8855.
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