Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey everyone, I am Courtney, your registered dietitian with E2M. I'm the one who posts your nutrition and health related information on the E2M page.
[00:00:12] Specifically in the Dietitian corner guide section I have a lot of information on nutrition. And then if you search my name in the Facebook page, you'll probably find some old videos that I've done in previous years regarding health and nutrition as well. So I would say take, take a peek at that to see if there's anything on the Facebook page that pertains to you or could be helpful to you on your health journey.
[00:00:42] Now today I'm going to talk on supplements, specifically over the counter supplements. My most recent article is already uploaded to the Facebook page, so you all can check that out once you've finished watching this video, or vice versa, whichever one works for you.
[00:01:00] But when we talk about supplements, this is going to include vitamins, minerals, herbs, and then even other substances that we may be taking.
[00:01:11] Supplements I feel are will affect all of us, whether we're taking one now, have taken them in the past, or considering taking them.
[00:01:20] And then there's a lot of promotion around supplements in the health and wellness world, whether it's from an influencer, family members, neighbors, even your medical team could recommend supplements for you.
[00:01:32] So what are some of the things that we need to know before purchasing these supplements?
[00:01:38] I think there's a lot of confusion out there on what could potentially be safe and what could potentially be dangerous when it comes to these supplements. So that's what I'm here for today to kind of help you understand a little bit of the world of supplements, over the counter supplements, and then how you can potentially choose the correct one for you if it is something that you need to have.
[00:02:03] Now, supplements are regulated by the fda, the Food and Drug Administration, but not in the same way that prescriptions are regulated by the fda.
[00:02:14] Over the counter supplements do not require proof of efficacy and safety prior to getting onto the market. Whereas prescription medications and then also prescription supplements, they do require safety data from laboratories and research and human studies. So all of these things have to be completed prior to a prescription medication coming onto the market.
[00:02:43] The manufacturers of the over the counter supplements are responsible for monitoring safety. But again, these are not things that have to be submitted to the fda, even though the FDA does regulate them.
[00:02:58] Now with the supplements, a lot of them are going to have claims. The claims could be improving heart health, improving brain health, they could say improving metabolism or boosting metabolism. A lot of the ones I see right now are Increasing GLP one Response There's a lot of supplements that are coming onto the market that are natural GLP1s as well.
[00:03:27] So keep that in mind when you're looking at the supplement, like what is it claiming? And then as a consumer, I would love it if you could do your research on that as well.
[00:03:39] So look at the ingredients that are on the label of the supplement that you're choosing.
[00:03:44] See if you can pull some peer reviewed articles, some randomized controlled trial articles to determine if the, the items that are in the supplement, vitamins, minerals, herbs or other substances, if they are truly in fact appropriate to that claim, if they do help with that claim.
[00:04:07] Now, when it comes to the ingredients, this is again something that the manufacturer has to monitor.
[00:04:17] However, some of them may not have the correct ingredients that they claim to have. There has, there have been studies completed, one specifically in 2023 that looked at over 50 different sports enhancement supplements and they found that 89% of those supplements did not claim or did not have the ingredients that they claimed to have or the appropriate amount of the ingredients they claim to have. So it's really important again to do your research.
[00:04:51] There are third party testing certifications that take place for supplements. And these testing companies do determine accuracy, they do determine safety. So when purchasing your supplements, we want to look for these specific label certifications. They're gonna be on the label.
[00:05:12] You're gonna look for a NSF certification or a USP certification or CL consumsumerlab.com certification. Now these certifications, again, they determine accuracy, they determine safety within the product. So you could feel, you should feel safe. Excuse me, purchasing a supplement with those listed on there.
[00:05:39] With supplements there's always a potential risk of interaction.
[00:05:44] So it's really important before you start taking a supplement, you talk with your medical team about it.
[00:05:51] For instance, if you are taking a blood thinner, it's not recommended that you take a fish oil supplement or an omega 3 supplement, as this could in fact increase or increase your risk of bleeding. Excuse me, with calcium, if you have an increased risk of kidney disease or kidney stones, calcium can increase that risk as well. Calcium supplements, or calcium in general can also alter the absorption of iron within your body. So if you have anemia, we probably want to be cautious with taking a calcium supplement unless your doctor says you need to take take a calcium supplement.
[00:06:31] Red yeast rice is a popular heart health type supplement. This can cause liver damage. So if you have a risk of liver damage or end stage liver disease or cirrhosis or fatty liver, we probably don't want to take a red yeast rice supplement. So again, do your research and always, always, always talk with your medical team before taking a supplement.
[00:07:00] Now, when do we take supplements? Supplements are not intended to replace a healthy, well balanced diet. Supplements are intended as a bridge to fill a nutritional deficiency or a nutritional gap.
[00:07:14] Supplements also help for individuals that could have a condition where your vitamins or your minerals are low.
[00:07:23] So if you have osteoporosis, it's often recommended that you take a calcium and vitamin D supplements to help maintain bone health. If you have heart disease and are not on blood thinners, it's often recommended that you take an omega 3 fatty acid because this helps to lower lipid and cholesterol. Labs to help reduce your risk of a cardiac event if you have anemia. Excuse me? If you have anemia, oftentimes an iron supplement is recommended to help boost your iron numbers to improve your anemia. If you are pregnant, folic acid is recommended. During pregnancy, increased folic acid is recommended and this is to help reduce the risk of neural tube defects during infancy if you have diabetes or if you have high cholesterol or even an issue with your bowel movement. So we're not consistently having bowel movements. Fiber is often recommended in those individuals.
[00:08:28] So all of these are supplements, but we need to be aware and mindful that these are not intended to be forever. These are intended to help bridge gap. Now, some of them could be taken for the rest of your life, but that is between you and your physician, you and your medical team to determine what needs to be taken continually versus what's taken for a set amount of time.
[00:08:53] So bottom line, when it comes to supplements, they're there to help you maintain health. They're there to help you bridge that nutritional deficiency or nutritional gap that you have. But again, they're not intended to replace a healthy, well balanced diet. And when I talk about a healthy, well balanced diet, sometimes I feel like a broken record. You've heard it a lot. It is making sure we're getting protein in every time we eat, making sure we're getting vegetables and fiber in every time we eat, making sure we're choosing healthy whole grain starches. So brown rice and brown bread, quinoa, whole wheat pasta, even oats, cream of wheat. Those are going to be healthy whole grain carbs and starches to include into your diet.
[00:09:46] We also want to make sure that we are choosing fruit over sugary items like pastries and ice creams and sugar sweetened beverages, choosing to have more water over sugar sweetened beverages. These are all ways that we can incorporate a healthy, balanced diet into our life and then hopefully minimize the need of having the supplements.
[00:10:13] Also, it's really important, again, if you take anything away today to do your research on the supplement, look for those third party testing agency labels on your supplement. So we want to look for the nsf, we want to look for the usp, we want to look for the cl.
[00:10:33] These are going to help us know that, okay, this item was third party tested. It is accurate with the ingredients, it is accurate with its safety claims.
[00:10:45] And then also do more digging. Look for peer reviewed journal articles. Look for randomized control articles about the ingredients that are in the item before you purchase it. And always, always, always talk with your medical team before taking any supplements because we don't know if they're going to interact with a disease you may have. We don't know if they're going to interact with a medication that you may be taking now. If anybody has questions later, please reach out to me on the Facebook page. You can shoot a little like tag me in a post on the E2M Facebook page. I'm happy to answer questions that way. Or you can post questions into the article that I posted in the features tab on the Facebook page.
[00:11:31] Otherwise, I will see you all later. I hope you all have a great day. Thanks guys.
[00:11:36] Bye.
