How To Take Supplements

We live by the laws called chemistry and understanding how that chemistry works plays a major role in our health and well-being. The body only recognizes molecular structures and these molecules fall into three categories determined by their molecular weight.
The body is far more interested in how it can access a molecule than what it is. This is why the vast majority of people who take supplements receive little or no benefit from them. I would like to have a dollar for every time someone has said to me "Oh I took that and it did nothing for me" and I ask them how and when they took it which of course was completely wrong. When I then tell them they had a better chance of getting hit by lightning then getting a benefit from the way they were taking it the response is always "Well I took it when it was convenient for me." The body could care less about what is convenient for you but requires that everything you ingest conform to its ability to absorb it.

As such nutrients can be broken into three categories:

 1) Water Soluble - Those that need to be taken on an empty stomach with water or juice depending on what they are.
 2) Large Molecular Structures - Those that need to be taken with food (digested)

 3) Fat Soluble - Those that need to be taken during the digestive process (two hours after)

MORNING - WATER SOLUBLE NUTRIENTS

    

This group of nutrients have a very small (molecular weight) and can be represented as the size of a head of a pin. In fact they are so small they need a larger sugar molecule to latch onto to carry them into the blood stream. Take this group first thing in the morning on an empty stomach with a non-acid juice waiting 30 minutes before the consumption of food.

This group can include antioxidants and immune factors that arm the immune system and support it throughout the day. This is also when you take other water soluble nutrients that build and repair the joint structures of the body including soft tissue, connective tissue, & collagen including free form amino acids, as well as B and C vitamins.

BEFORE LUNCH - GI TRACK MAINTENANCE

Taking probiotics and gastrointestinal tract (specific) nutrients allows for the recolonization of the intestinal micro-flora or friendly bacteria that protect the intestinal and mucosal tissues. At the same time I recommend taking a number of constitutional nutrients that feed and rebuild the intestinal lumen (lining) along with the entire GI Tract. Nutrients such as colostrum provide immunoglobulins in mucus secretions that line the hollow organs of the body acting as our first line of defense against foreign invaders. Butric acid helps heal the gastro-mucous (lining of stomach in the small and large intestine. Larch arabinogalactan (Larix) helps to stimulate the proliferation of Bifidobacteria in the Large Intestine.

These are also water soluble nutrients that need to be taken on an empty stomach with water waiting 30 minutes before the consumption of food. This class of nutrients do not require a sugar molecule for absorption in fact it interferes with absorption.

LUNCH - LARGE MOLECULAR STRUCTURES

This group of molecules are very large and can be represented as the size of a golf ball. The digestive process is required for the body to access them. The only thing that triggers digestion is protein. Digestion means that meal will sit in the stomach for two hours. After two hours the food empties into the first stage of the small intestine (duodenum) were the pancreas delivers 50,000 enzymes to reduce these golf balls to a size the body can assimilate.

Included in this group are  minerals, (like calcium) metals and herbs.  Also taking a digestive enzyme formula with all the pancreatic mimics helps aid the digestive process. Take with food that requires digestion (protein).

This meal should be at lunch time when the body is running at its metabolic peak. Digestion is the hardest job the body will perform in a day, fifty percent of the body's energy will go just to make it happen.

The most important aspect to keep in mind is to avoid simple sugars. Sugar in any form (artificial sweeteners, fructose and fruit) will stop digestion in its tracks. Sugar tells the pancreas no digestion required, do not send the 50,000 enzymes to complete the digestive process leaving you with no realized nutritional benefit from that meal as well as the supplements you took with it. 

One last point is drinking fluids with lunch. Limiting your water to 12 ounces during this meal prevents over hydration which can  dilute enzymatic activity.

  

AFTER LUNCH - FAT SOLUBLE NUTRIENTS

Fatty acid (Oils) absorption must be part of the digestive process. Their absorption into the body takes place in the small intestine so you want to introduce them into the stomach just as it is getting ready to pass its  contents into the duodenum (first stage of the small intestine). For this reason take fat soluble based nutrients two hours after lunch (protein meal) and waiting at least an hour after taking oils before the consuming of sugar so it does not interfere with digestion.

Essential Fatty Acids in this group would include Vitamin E, Omega 3-6-9.  Also included would be CoQ10, Carotenoids, Phosphatidylcholine and other Phospholipids from lecithin. Vitamin A and D and other oil based nutrients.

Sincerely,

Richard Helfrich  
Health Spectrum at The River
71-800 Hwy.111, A149
Rancho Mirage , California 92270

(760) 340-5935, http://www.richardhelfrich.com/ or http://www.healthspectrumpalmdesert.com/