How to tell if your supplement is dissolving in your body

How To Tell If Your Supplement Is 

Dissolving In Your Body

As chiropractors, we see a lot of x-rays, and it is not an uncommon finding to see undigested supplements in the colon. Once a supplement reaches the colon, it has lost it's chance at being used in the body. So how can you make sure the supplements you're using are dissolving properly in the body?

Luckily there is a simple little test known as the vinegar test. Pour a small amount of white vinegar into a glass and place a supplement in, making sure to cover the whole thing. Leave it in for 20 minutes, and stir it once every 5 minutes trying not to touch the pill.

If at the end of 20 minutes the supplement is not well dissolved, or the capsule around it is still well formed, then chances are the pill won't dissolve inside you either. Time to switch to a new and better supplement!

News Flash: Heartburn Actually Caused by Too Little Acid (Part 2)

What are some of the symptoms of too little acid?

Here are some other symptoms associated with too little stomach acid. Notice that it is not just heartburn. Two of the more important ones are mineral deficiencies, along with poor digestion of other foods, and chronic intestinal infections. Both of these will cause other more serious issues. 

Remember……

• Acid is needed to digest proteins.
• Acid is helpful in digesting carbohydrates.
• Acid is essential for the absorption of minerals as well as some vitamins.
• Acid is very protective against certain pathogens, especially E. Coli and H. Pylori (H. Pylori is a known cause of stomach ulcers).

And because mineral absorption and a properly functioning gut are so important to having a healthy body, numerous disorders have been associated with low acid.

So how can you test for low stomach acid?

Most of the tests for low stomach acid are very easy. 

The first one is the lemon water test. Put 2 tsp of lemon juice into a half cup of water and drink it right before eating. If after a few meals, you notice less bloating, less burning, and easier digestion, then you know you’re on the right track. However, lemon juice can be acidic in the mouth and esophagus, and can cause some irritation and burning feeling by itself, leading to false negatives.

In my office, I like to use Betaine HCL pills. There is no irritation to the lining of the mouth or esophagus, and so it is a better test. At the very start of the meal, take one capsule of Betaine HCL. Take careful note of how you feel during and after eating. If burning or bloating appears, or if burning was present before taking the supplement and is now worsened with the use of the Betaine HCL, do not continue using this supplement! This is an indication that the stomach lining may be damaged and needs to be repaired with other methods before normalizing pH. However, again, if after a few meals, you notice less bloating, less burning, and easier digestion, then you know you’re on the right track.

For some people it may take up to two weeks to really notice a difference and many people will need to take 2 pills with each meal.

News Flash: Heartburn Actually Caused by Too Little Stomach Acid

News Flash: Heartburn Actually Caused by 

Too Little Stomach Acid

How Heartburn Medications are Just Prolonging the Problem

Heartburn is extremely common, affecting almost 50% of Americans.

20% have heartburn on a weekly basis!

Heartburn medications are among the most common over-the-counter medications sold. However, once people start taking them, it seems like they need to keep taking them forever.

Why?

Because…..the problem isn’t too much acid, it’s too little acid!

Let’s take a look at what is really going on. The pH of our stomach is supposed to be very low, or in other words, the acidity needs to be very high. If it is not, we can’t break down the food we eat, we can’t absorb minerals properly, and we can’t fight off infections in our gastrointestinal tract as well. Normal stomach pH should be between 1 and 3. However, as we age, we lose some of the cells that make acid, causing the pH to rise. 

Numerous studies have shown that hydrochloric acid secretion declines with advancing age. If too much acid was actually causing heartburn, we would see tons of children running around on acid reflux medication and then getting better as they grow up! But that’s not the case.  So how is too little acid causing symptoms of GERD, heartburn, and acid reflux?

The answer lies in a small flap known as the lower esophageal sphincter. Normally, the lower esophageal sphincter is constantly closed and only opens up long enough to allow food to pass from the esophagus into the stomach. However, physiologically, it needs a low pH to stay closed. If the pH gets too high or there is not enough acid in the stomach, this sphincter stays open, allowing food contents to pass from the stomach back into the esophagus. 

Any amount of stomach acid hitting the esophagus is going to burn. And that is why heartburn medications work. They lower the amount of acid so not that not as much acid is crossing over into the esophagus. However, they are also just prolonging the problem and making it worse, because now this flap never closes. More acid continues to get into the esophagus, causing more damage and  more pain.

On Wednesday, we will discuss how to increase the acid content in your stomach, which will lower the pH and help keep that flap closed!

What are medications doing to your nutrition?

Why do we need to supplement? PART THREE

So far we have discussed how our healthy food is becoming less nutritious as well as how the food we are eating is not only less nutritious, but also actively causing the body to not absorb nutrients.

What more could possibly be causing poor nutrition?

Medication-Induced Depletions

In this day and age, we are also having a lot of medication-induced nutrient depletions. 75% of American are on at least one medication, 50% are on two or more, and 20% are on at least five medications. Many medications cause certain nutrient deficiencies that have been well researched

 If you’re doctor is doing his job, he will tell you about them and place you on a supplement to avoid consequences. However, many doctors either don’t worry about it, or they just don’t know. 

Here are some common medications and the nutrient depletions they cause…….

• Female Hormones: Folate, B6, B1, B2, B3, B12, C, Mg, Se, Zn, tyrosine
• Acid Reflux Medication: Folate, B12, Iron, Zinc, Mg, and Ca
• Anti-hypertensives: B6, CoQ10, Ca, Mg, K, Zn
• Anti-inflammatories: B6, CoQ10, Ca, Mg, K, Zn
• Cholesterol Lowering Drugs: CoQ10
• Antiobiotics: B1, B2, B3, B6, B9, B12, K

People taking these medications and others are going to have nutrient deficiencies unless they are adequately supplementing.

In Conclusion……..

Supplements are needed in today’s society because of the decreased nutritional value of our healthy food, the lack of nutrition in our unhealthy food, and drug induced nutrient depletions.

There are ways to test for deficiencies, and deficiency patterns can be seen in the blood.

Plus, by increasing your nutrition through a healthy diet and supplementation, it is possible to not only prevent future health problems, but also to reverse and end current ones altogether!

Why do we need to supplement? PART TWO

On Monday we talked about how our healthy food has been decreasing in nutrition due to over-farming as well as chemicals and pesticides. We also discussed that most of the foods we are eating today are not the best for your health, and now we're going to go a little deeper into that topic.

White Flour

Most of the wheat and flour products in America are made using refined wheat. With refined wheat, they take two parts of the wheat out; the bran and the germ. The bran and the germ are where most of the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and healthy fats are. So in essence, they remove about 34 essential nutrients and then put back in 4-6 and call it enriched. This does not sound very enriched.

Why are they removing these parts?

It’s lucrative!

The bran and germ are sold for high prices. And just who is buying these parts of the wheat? The supplement companies of course! They are able to extract many needed nutrients from them for use in their products. 

Look at the difference in nutrition between whole wheat products and refined wheat products as well as whole rice and refined rice. Remember, almost all pre-made foods using flour (baked goods, pastas, breads, cereals, bagels and muffins, and more) are made using refined wheat!

There is a huge difference in nutrient levels! Even though they add a few back in, most of vitamins and minerals are forgotten about. And they are just as important!

Sugar

We are also eating far more sugar than we ever have before. I’m not just talking about the sugar that you put in your coffee or add in when you’re baking cookies. Today there is sugar in everything! They add sugar into the breads, sauces, drinks other than water, soups, all processed foods, etc. 

Sugar is very inflammatory in our bodies, and especially affects our digestive system. When our digestive system is inflamed, it has a harder time absorbing vitamins, minerals, and other valuable nutrients. This leads to even higher nutrient deficiencies in the body.

Remove white flour and sugar from your diet to the best of your ability! Not only are they not giving you much nutrition, but they can actually take away some of the nutrients you do have! 

yours in health,

dr. samantha boldt

Why do I even need to supplement?

What Are Supplements?

Supplements are not a replacement for food, they are there to enhance an already healthy diet and help correct nutritional deficiencies and imbalances. There are normally 5 main groups; vitamins, minerals, proteins, enzymes, and oils.

But I eat all the time! How can I be

deficient in anything?

To answer that, we have to look at what we are eating.

What is Chemical Farming Doing to Our Food?

Each year the United States Department of Agriculture tests for nutrient levels in different fruits and vegetables. They have been making this information harder and harder to get a hold of in the past few years. However, many papers and studies were done between the 1950s and 1990s determining how nutrient levels were changing. Below shows some of the data.

USDA nutrient data from 1975 to 1997 

§Average calcium levels in 12 fresh vegetables  declined 27%

§Iron levels have dropped 37%

§Vitamin A levels, 21%

§Vitamin C levels, 30%

In that 22 year time span, there was an average decrease in nutrient levels of 28.2% in all 12 vegetables. 

Why?

First of all, we are over-farming our soil. Not only do we have to grow food for ourselves, but now we also need to grow food for all of the animals we eat. Today, we grow more food in America for the purpose of feeding animals than we do for us. This over-farming is causing a huge nutrient depletion in the soil.

Secondly, the chemicals, pesticides, fertilizers that we’re adding on top of that are only decreasing nutrition levels more. In order to grow healthy vegetables and fruit, they need to be planted in a healthy ecosystem. By constantly spraying the plants with chemicals and pesticides, not only are we killing off the bugs we don’t want eating the plants, but we are killing off all other insects, plant life, and bacteria in the area. All that is left is barren soil where nothing nutritious can grow. 

It has now been another 18 years since that data was taken. We have  even more animals and people to feed, have used more chemicals, and have used more pesticides. It is now safe to assume that we need to eat 30-50% more than we did 100-200 years ago to get the same nutrition. 

AND THIS IS IF YOU’RE EVEN EATING VEGETABLES!

In the standard American Diet, people are not consuming the 6-8 servings of vegetables a day that they should be. What are we eating instead?

Bad Carbs

Sugar-filled drinks

Boxed dinners

Processed Foods

Supplementation is important because most of the food we eat has little nutrition in it, and even the good food that we're eating has less nutrition that it used to. It is now almost impossible to get all of the nutrition you need through food! Please consult with your nutritionist or functional medicine practitioner on what supplements are right for you in order for you to feel at your best!

Delicious Black Bean Brownie Recipe with Two Different Versions!

Recipe: Black Bean Brownies (cakier version)

Ingredients:
1 15 ounce can of unseasoned black beans, drained and rinsed
5 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1⁄2 tablespoon salt
6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 cup of sugar (or xylitol)
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1⁄2 teaspoon of baking soda
1 tablespoon water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x9 inch cake pan. Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into the greased cake pan and place into the oven for 20 minutes. The brownies will be ready once a toothpick comes out clean.

Recipe: Black Bean Brownies (fudgier version)

   1 15 oz. can (~ 1 3/4 cups) black beans, well rinsed and drained

   4 Large eggs

   3 T coconut oil, melted (or sub other oil of choice)

   3/4 cup cocoa powder (the higher quality the better)

   1/4 tsp sea salt

  1 tsp pure vanilla extract

   1/2 cup sugar (or xylitol)

   1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x9 inch cake pan. Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into the greased cake pan and place into the oven for 25 minutes. These ones are meant to be more fudgey and the toothpick will not come out as clean!

If our cholesterol levels aren’t causing cardiovascular disease, then what is?

Let’s first take a closer look at what cholesterol is.

•Cholesterol  is needed in every cell of our body.

•Cholesterol helps our bodies produce hormones.

•Cholesterol  is used in the production of bile, which then helps to digest other foods with fat in them.

•Cholesterol helps with the absorption of the fat-soluble vitamins; A, D, E, and K. 

Cell Membrane

Most people know about their HDL and LDL markers. These stand for high-density lipoprotein and low-density lipoprotein and  that HDL is good and LDL is bad. What most people don’t know is that these are not cholesterol. Our HDLs and LDLs are more like little submarines that transport fat-soluble particles around our body. On the outside are the proteins and on the inside are the fats, cholesterols, and vitamins.

LDLs transport fats, cholesterol, and the fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) around the body to where they are needed.

HDLs return the empty LDL particles back to the liver for recycling, which includes proteins, some fats, and some cholesterols.

We need this system and healthy amounts of HDLs, LDLs, and cholesterol in order to function properly. The important thing that we should be testing for is particle size.

Our LDLs are normally big and fluffy. The bigger and fluffier our LDLs are, the less likely they are to get stuck in the walls of our blood vessels. Sometimes, however, we start having more small, dense LDLs, and these are much easier to get stuck in walls of our arteries and cause plaquing.

So why do some people have more small , dense LDLs than others?

Too much Sugar!

In the bloodstream, sugar can latch on to the LDLs, causing them to become small, dense LDLs. Eating too much sugar increases your chance of cardiovascular disease. As our sugar consumption goes up, so does the amount of cardiovascular disease.

How Do You Test for Particle Size?

The VAP test, or the vertical auto profile test, is a cholesterol, lipid, and lipoprotein test. It measures the different sizes of your HDLs and LDLs and gives you a much better idea of your risk of heart disease. Testing your cholesterol, HDLs, and LDLs the normal way gives very little information into the state of your heart health. 

You can have an LDL level of 150, but if they are all fluffy, it doesn’t pose much of a health risk. You can also have an LDL level of 50, but if they are all small and dense, you are at much greater risk than the person at 150!

The VAP test