Are you the type of person that if you see someone talking about a supplement you just automatically go out and buy it?
Over the months and years, you may have gathered up a large variety of supplements that you take daily. I will be sharing some things to think about when we try to navigate which supplements are actually needed, although it is very individual.
The fact is that so often we waste our money on supplements that we really don’t need or that aren’t good quality.
The supplements industry has grown a lot in the past few years. The 2018 statistics reveal that 77% of the U.S population is on some type of supplement. The average rate actually increased from $46 million to $80 million over the last ten years. I would say from 2018 to 2022 at the time being, I’m sure it’s even more than that because supplements are something that can definitely be needed at certain times in our lives, in our healing journey, and as support to a more stressful season.
What I often find is that people just see blanket recommendations of supplements or see someone talking about a supplement that helped them and they think it’s also going to be a great help to themselves so they will order that supplement and continue to take it for months or even years without knowing if it’s right for them.
In actuality, if we are moving towards restoring our body to its original function or are we just putting band-aids on these symptoms?
In the last two years, when the pandemic hit we’ve seen these blanket recommendations for immune support and lots of people just diving off and going on those protocols for the long term and not necessarily short term.
When start taking a supplement, do you think about if it’s needed long or short term?
Oftentimes we just want to try the supplement or we’re listening to what somebody has given us and we don’t have a set time to when we’re going to be on it.
If you’re going on a supplement, it needs to be for a specific reason and for a specific thing that you’re dealing with.
If we continually stay on the same supplements, are we really getting closer to our best health, closer toward healing? Or are we just taking a lot of supplements that we might not need for the long term. Our goal is to restore proper function to your body so you can alleviate these symptoms.
A few things you need to consider when buying supplements would include quality, side effects (What else is this going to affect?), necessity (Do you really need it?),iIs this right for YOU?, is it for long term or short term?
Oftentimes we stay in the DIY (do it yourself/figure it out yourself) territory. We all probably start out there but it can get off-road a little bit as we’re going through because if you’ve been on something for years and still have to take it then you may have some underlying issue that is causing your body to be out of balance.
While a supplement can be good to help in the interim, it might not be needed long term.
I think it’s important to consider and see if you’re getting to the real root issue or are you going to have to stay on the supplement your entire life to feel good?
Blood work + a hair test can help gain an integrative or functional viewpoint from what root causes are going on and how can we address these versus just continuing to add on a supplement to help with x symptoms.
So I want you to look at your supplement cabinet and do a little inventory! It helps to write down everything you are taking and look at it as a whole + also individually. This will help you when deciding what to continue and what to stop taking. Please let me know if I can be of help in this area for you! I love to narrow down supplements to only those needed for you specifically when I do case studies with clients. Read more on that here.
Watch the video below to know what things to think about when you try to navigate which supplements are actually needed.
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