Health and Vitamins – Who Should Take Dietary Supplements And Why?
Is it any wonder that so many women wake up to their health problems at mid-life? That’s the really positive change we see in perimenopause and menopause — women wake up to the choices that have given rise to their symptoms, such as poor nutrition — and then take control of their health. Improving dietary choices is a good start, but you need a pharmaceutical-grade vitamin, too. Let’s find out why.
Why ordinary nutrition isn’t enough
Americans appear to be so well fed, it seems impossible that we aren’t getting enough nutrients. But study after study has shown that most of us don’t get adequate amounts of key vitamins and minerals. One of the consequences is the increase in chronic diseases. Beyond that, many of us are living longer, but feeling worse – our quality of life is suffering as we age. We are also seeing chronic diseases manifest in younger and younger people — children are now routinely seen with adult diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure — which arise from the insulin resistance caused by modern diets.
How can it be true that ordinary nutrition is not enough? It’s partly a quantity-versus-quality problem. Most of us aren’t eating enough of the right things. We eat a lot of what I would call non-food: fast food, over-processed food, food with highly refined sugar, simple carbohydrates, preservatives, and large quantities of trans fats. We ingest stimulants that actually get in the way of our bodies’ ability to absorb vitamins and minerals.
Another reason is that our farming methods have changed for the worse. In the past our crops contained the nutrients of the soil, and those nutrients nourished us. 
Now we use pesticides, inorganic fertilizers, and waste-treated water to grow a lot of food quickly and cheaply in soil that would otherwise be unable to support life. They make the crops big and colorful but nutritionally empty — and mostly tasteless, too! Think of what store-bought tomatoes taste like now compared to when you were a child.
We also import our food from vast distances, so it must be treated chemically to keep from spoiling. We buy lettuce in a bag because it’s easier than washing it. But did you know that pre-bagged salad greens go through “post-harvest processing” in which the greens are exposed to a variety of gases before the bag is sealed to ensure crispness for weeks? These gases, by the way, are not required to be disclosed as preservatives. By the time you make your salad, the enzyme activity of those greens is only a memory.
A final factor is dieting for weight loss. Almost half of all American women are on some kind of diet at any given time. Many of these diets rob the body of vital nutrients. And yo-yo dieting (weight loss followed by weight gain, and then another cycle of weight loss) is a major source of stress for our bodies.
The link between stress and nutrition
On top of our questionable diet, our bodies have to deal with a lot of external stressors that are beyond our control. Whether environmental or emotional, these stresses are far beyond what our bodies were designed to deal with — and they increase the gap between our bodies’ nutritional needs and the vitamins and minerals that are available in our diets.
Let’s start with the environmental issues. Toxic chemicals, air pollution, radiation, artificial polymers, hormones in beef and milk, and pesticides and chlorine in our drinking water are just a few of the man-made hazards we all face. Fast food hamburgers have been shown to contain traces of over 100 pesticides. Even the common practice of microwaving in plastic containers imbues our food with toxins.
We also have the extraordinary stresses of everyday life: children, spouses, work, friends, parents, obligations. 
Stress has been shown to deplete nutrients and suppress immune function. That’s in part because stress produces cortisol, and sustained high levels of cortisol are very detrimental to the body and the brain. It’s why we see so many women in our clinic with adrenal fatigue. And there’s no doubt in my mind that the level of stress women deal with today is unprecedented.
So stress worsens the lack of nutrition in the modern diet. If the deficiency is sudden we can get very sick very quickly. But more often the nutritional deficiency wears us down bit by bit, and we slowly, steadily deteriorate. Eventually we show signs of accelerated aging and chronic disease. This is why so many of us crash and burn in perimenopause. Our problems will persist and likely worsen unless and until we consistently get the necessary nutrients we need. This is why nutritional supplements can make such a dramatic difference for women at mid-life.
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