It’s natural (no pun intended) for people seeking help at my clinic to want a natural solution to their problems. More often than not, they have started that journey on their own with a trip to the local health food store. After obtaining their health history form and past medical records, I comb through everything before we even sit down to meet. Something I see in common is that their supplement list isn’t for the purposes of adding nutrients that they aren’t getting through food but instead a ‘natural’ pharmacy looking to treat their symptoms.
Big surprise, it’s not working. That’s why they are coming to see me. I will say I’m a fan of supplements but not treating symptoms with supplements.
They are taking red yeast rice to lower cholesterol, calcium to build bone density, 5-HTP and tryptophan to regulate depression, and fish oil for pain and inflammation.
What’s wrong with this picture?
What’s wrong is that the patient and most likely the health food store advisor are basing their decisions on faulty premises. You are trying to replicate the same mechanism with something natural that mimics what the pharmaceutical intervention does. You assume the pharmaceutical intervention actually works.
You assume things like high cholesterol is the cause of heart disease and that depression is an imbalance of serotonin.