Do Supplements Help or Hinder Your Health?

By Dr. Jon Thomas D.C.

Image courtesy of Vibrant Life Health Center

Nutritional supplements are a big business.  In 2015, Americans spent more than $21 billion on supplements.  Whether we’re talking vitamins, minerals, or other over-the-counter compounds, supplements are important when it comes to addressing deficiencies in the body. This can include glandular and organ deficiencies at the cellular level.  Supplements are a critical component in helping your body perform at its best.  Physiology relies on the proper balance of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and metabolites to function.  By identifying specific deficiencies in an individual, it’s critical that the proper supplements are taken at the proper doses to achieve balance.

Grabbing a multivitamin off the shelf is the worst thing you can do from a physiological standpoint.  This is what’s known as “Shotgun Supplementation.”  You may not need the 32 things that are contained in a multivitamin.  You may only need 4 of them.  The rest of what you get from that multivitamin is considered a toxin by your body.  This requires the liver and the kidneys to filter all that stuff out of your system. 

On top of that, as you become more toxic, the body starts making more fat to store the toxins.  This can cause an allergic reaction.  Here you were just trying to do something good for the body because that’s what you read in a magazine.  What can happen all too often is exactly the opposite of what you thought would happen?   That doesn’t mean that supplements can’t be beneficial.  They can, but only if you know precisely what the body needs.

How to Eliminate the Guesswork

We always say in our office, “We don’t guess, we test.”  We use things like hair-based analysis, blood tests, and we also do what is known as a Quantum Reflux Analysis. The QRA allows us to determine precisely what turns on and what turns off certain things in your system.  All together these three tests allow us to determine precisely what you need in terms of supplements.  Without testing, all you can do is guess.

 Another reason to avoid shopping for your supplements at supermarkets and big box stores is that you don’t know exactly what you’re getting.  At our office, we buy some of our supplements from a company called Premier Research Labs.  The reason we use that line is because it addresses two components of the cell.  The first is the chemical component of your cell.  That means it has the proper balance of nutrients that your body needs to physiologically transform how your body is functioning.  At the same time, the ingredients in these supplements also help balance cellular resonance.  As we introduce these supplements into your system, they affect your cellular structure in 2 different ways.

We also have a line that’s focused on glandular function.  These supplements are great at helping the liver, the gall bladder, and the kidneys.  We have other supplements that deal with your brain function and neurotransmitter function. If your child is hyperactive, we have supplements that can help with that too.   If you hate being laid up for weeks on end with a cold or the flu, we have Nucleo Immune and Colostrum that can help you fight off or shorten the effects of a cold or the flu.  We also have supplements that can help with digestion. So, there are lots of tools that we can bring to bear to help people live healthier, more active lives, once we know what their body lacks.

Can Losing Weight Cause You to Lose Nutritional Balance?

The first thing people do when they go on a diet is they reduce the amount and type of food they eat.  What they don’t realize is once soon as they start doing that, they will force their bodies to shift into a different state of metabolism. That immediately puts a lot of stress on all their organs.  Most people don’t even think about taking supplements during a diet to support the process.  The diet plan that we use at Vibrant Life Health Center starts off by identifying what your needs are, as well as what you need nutritionally to help your body reduce stress throughout the process.  This is especially important when you conclude a diet to make sure you don’t gain the weight back.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

Another thing which the public is unaware is that as you shed fat, your body will be forced to deal with the toxins that are stored there.  As you start burning fat, like it or not, you are going to detoxify the body.  That’s another reason you want to make sure you have the right supplementation, so you can support the process of cleaning out your body without any nasty side effects.  These can manifest themselves in everything from severe headaches or nausea, to diarrhea or constipation.  It can also cause skin rashes or acid reflux. 

Whether you are trying to lose weight, overcome a condition such as fatigue or memory loss, or are considering starting an exercise regimen, the last thing you want to do is throw darts at a dartboard when it comes to nutritional supplements.  The first step in making sure that the supplements you take help as opposed to hinder your health is to get tested, so you know exactly which supplements to take.  Because, if you buy a bottle of generic supplements, all you are going to do is get generic results. 


Dr. Jon Thomas is a Board Certified Chiropractic Physician. His practice, The Vibrant Life Health Center, is located in the Mandarin section of Jacksonville. After studying and learning from some of the top health experts throughout the world, Dr. Thomas dedicated his life to helping people of all ages to transform their lives. The objective for each patient is to initiate the body’s healing and to work progressively toward a body that functions optimally. Dr. Thomas is seen regularly on TV on First Coast Living, where he discusses the transformations of his patients. He also speaks at events throughout the community and writes informative articles to improve the health of residents throughout Northeast Florida.