Vitamins and Supplements - More Harm Than Good?

When it comes to minerals, supplements may be indicated. For one example: we are told that you can get your necessary dose of Selenium from brazil nuts because the brazil nut tree is an accumulator, but if the soil has become depleted, the tree can still grow and produce fruit, but there will be little or none in the nut itself. This is true about every food plant that acts as an accumulator of one type of mineral or another.

Problems show up, I guess, when the supplements contain too much of the needed mineral (or vitamin) or if it is in a hard-to-digest form, e.g., folic acid vs folate. As far as I can see, the development of vitamin and mineral supplements has improved greatly over the past generation.

I don’t for one minute believe that your standard issue healthy diet contains all the minerals and vitamins we need for nutritional purposes, but vitamins can also be used as medicine, that is, therapy. It’s best for people with health challenges to consult with someone who has much knowledge in this area iinstead of stuffing themselves with tons of supplements any old way.

Years ago, I found an article entitled “Traditional Chinese Medicine’s Functions of Vitamins”. This consisted of a list of 19 vitamins or vitamin-type substances and how they behave according to TCM lingo. Here’s a few examples:

VITAMIN B1: Regulates the Qi, activates the Qi, strengthens the spleen, dries dampness, help preent stagnation, expedites the free flow of liver Qi and stop pain.

BIOTIN: Nourishes blood, relaxes the liver, nourishes the skin, tonifies the heart blood, calms the Shen.

CHOLINE: Nourishes the blood, extinguishes wind, nourishes the Jin sinews, moistens the intestines.

VITAMIN C: Clears heat, stops bleeding, clears heat and dissolves toxins, clears heat from the Heart and calms the Shen.

VITAMIN B6: Clears heat from liver/gallbladder, extinguishes wind, harmonizes wood and earth, relieves depression, clears heat from the stomach and damp heat from the gallbladder.

Also, a chart I have of “Five Phase Correspondences” includes Major Minerals and Vitamins. For example, Vitamin A and B2, Copper and Iron, belong to Phase 1 (L/GB); Vitamin B1 and B6, Manganese and Zinc are Phase 3 (Sp/S) and so on and so forth.

Thank you.

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