Supplement-takers - are wellness-focused

‘Improving’ and ‘maintaining’ overall health are the top reasons for consumers to use supplements, according to new data from the National Institutes of Health.

And surprise, surprise, the majority of supplement users don’t use them as a substitute for healthier lifestyle and diet, but to support both! Supplement users have lower BMIs, drink less alcohol, exercise more regularly and are less likely to smoke than the non-supplement-taking population.  Nor do the supplementers use them to treat a chronic disease or acute condition, but rather to promote or maintain wellbeing and astoundingly more than 60 percent of Americans fall into this category. That’s no small number, and no wonder Big Pharma is getting in a tizz over the potential for their profit base to be eroded as more and more people turn away from the medical solution. All of that said, the likelihood of the pharmaceutical industry going into a decline anytime soon remains a very remote possibility. 

Which raises the question, exactly which supplements should you be taking? If I were asked to single out one (and now this is solid research and key experts talking through me) I’d say a high potency probiotic tops the list. Get your gut health right and other supplements and health-promotion measures will work better! Some earlier blogs expand on the gut story if you’re new to the news that the gut bacteria are responsible for much more than the digestion of your food. 

More important than vitamins and trace elements

The good guys that grow in your gut

More good gut news

Asthma in your family? Look to your gut...

Gut health and auto-immune disorders

Get a little dirt on your hands...

The good guys that grow in your breastmilk

Restoring gut health works for the malnourished too

Want weight reduction? Look to your gut health first

Epigenetics - there's more to the weight story than DNA

Last week I followed the comments (that ran to several hundred) posted by the readers of The Sydney Morning Herald in response to the research that I mentioned January 19. Many of them were finger-pointing, there were accusations of sloth and gluttony, amongst many more balanced and reasonable. Clearly weight management is an extremely emotive issue, but it’s also a very complex one. Hormones, toxicity, and stress are contributing factors along with the more obvious issues of a sedentary lifestyle and over-supply of under-nutrition. But it’s the epigenetic effects that are really emerging as key factors - with new evidence indicating that the current epidemic of childhood obesity, is in part linked to the high fat diet of the father-to-be. 

So I’ll get on my soapbox again - ‘epigenetics’ literally means beyond genetics and it’s exciting research! About 20 years old and exploding, it has turned conventional genetic ‘wisdom’ on its head. It simply means we can no longer hold our DNA entirely responsible for our weight issues or our heart disease or our diabetes or whatever. We might have a genetic tendency to these or other conditions, but there is additional imprinting that can be both negative or positive, and there are triggers that can switch a genetic variation off or on. 

What preconception care endeavours to do is to remove any of those negative triggers and ensure that the positive ones only (and that includes positive mental and emotional effects) are the ones that will ensure the healthiest possible egg and sperm and the healthiest possible environment for the developing embryo and in that, the opportunity for the child (and grandchild and beyond) to enjoy optimal physical and mental health! As some wit said - wait until you've had your children to eat, drink and be merry!