Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Today's mindump

There has been a lot of craziness going on in our world lately and I am having to work extra hard to keep it together. One of the best tools I have for this is saying a meditation guide while walking or sitting and taking deep breathes. Also writing this blog.
So today's rant is on the importance of being educated,informed and responsible for our health. Recently my mom was given some terrible, ignorant advice by one of her doctors. She was told to start taking an Omega3 fish oil supplement...anything on the shelf or the cheapest one. Well when she told me this I about lost it for a couple of reasons. My mother takes comedian which is a blood thinner and fish oil is a blood thinner. Right on the label or packaging of reputable brands it says not to take it if you take blood thinners. Second buying the cheapest brand is a complete waste of money. All fish oils are not created equal. A good fish oil should be molecularly distilled(purified) because many of our fish now contain unsafe levels of pollutions like lead. She was given no guidance on how to look at the EPA & DHA levels of any given brand. These are what to look for when purchasing a fish oil. So I gave her the info she needed and told her to consult her other doctor before taking it because yes it would be good for her but probably not while she is taking the blood thinner. She also had a load of vitamins that were caplets not capsules. Which is common I know but not ok if you want to benefit from them. Capsules are bioavailable where caplets are not. The body has to work hard to break them down and probably doesn't recognize them for absorption. One of the dieticians we took classes from told the story of a friend of hers that works at a water/sewage treatment plant that would see whole vitamins with the brand stamp still visible in the water. I know that we have experienced this in our home before we became educated. We joke about it but it is not funny really because that means that we did not benefit from that vitamin at all. That was a waste of money and our body's energies. It is sad that in general most of our conventional doctors do not know what they are talking about when it comes to vitamins and supplements. As a whole we trust our doctors and take their advice and when it is bad we don't usually know until it is too late. These people aren't gods or all knowing and we must take some responsibility for ourselves although there are those doctors out there that are educated in these things and the ones that aren't have no business handing out that advice. I would not tell a mechanic how to repair my car just because I know a thing or two about cars. You are your best advocate...become your best teacher.

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