Dietary Supplements

I can't remember a time when I didn't take at least a multivitamin every day. Over the years, a variety of different supplements have come in and out depending on my needs at the time. Some I began taking for a specific reason and then continued to take for maintenance such as Glucosamine and Chondroitin to protect my joints from the beating they get from running.

When Phantom was diagnosed with cancer this summer, supplements took on an entirely different meaning. My husband and I started taking CoQ10 again, a higher dose of vitamin d3 and are looking into krill oil supplements as well.

A friend of mine asked me to write down what a take because now she's on the supplement bandwagon after she started taking krill oil for her cholesterol levels and heart and she suddenly feels so much better. So much better that she recently signed up for an Ironman triathlon!

The former model, Carol Alt is really into supplements. I saw her on her health show recently and she says she keeps all her supplements in boxes and has a morning box and an evening box full of supplements. She must take 100's a day! She also eats a raw diet most of the time..

All of this made me wonder exactly how many supplements I take a day. I decided to write it down and here is my list of daily supplements.

1. 2 a day multi-vitamins for hair, skin and nails (from Life Extensions)

2. Calcium with Vitamin D3 and other minerals

3. 2 or 3 per day amino acid supplements (as well as protein powder in my green smoothie.)

    More than that when I'm training hard and long such as for an Ironman triathlon.

3. Chlorella (it helps with heavy metal detox among other things)

4. N Acetyl Cysteine (also helps with detox and lung function)

5. Turmeric (anti cancer properties) I take a pill form at night and add the powder form to my smoothie.

6. Cinnamon (control blood sugar) I take a pill form at night and add the powder form to my smoothie.

7. Garlic (heart health and anti cancer) I take the pill form but we also add it to some of our food.

8. Glucosamine with Chondroitin and MSM (joint health)

9. CLA (helps body burn fat)

10. L-carnitine (also helps body use fat stores for energy) Want to loose weight? Try this!

11.Green tea fat burner pill (fat burning and antioxidant!) Same as above!

12. Fish Oil (heart health, anti cancer, just good stuff to take!)

13. Flaxseed (same as above) I use to take this as a pill but now I ground the real stuff up and add it to my green smoothie.

14. CoQ10 (heart health and energy) I use to take this for endurance, now I take it for it's anti cancer 

     and heart health benefits)

15. B12

16. Folic acid

17. Singulair - I have to take this for asthma

18. Reservatrol - I use to take this in pill form but now I get it in liquid form aka red wine!

On my list of supplements to purchase is:

1. Krill oil with astaxanthin ( it's a huge part of my cats anti cancer protocol and that's enough reason to 

    purchase for me!)

2. Spirulina (super healthy, anti cancer food)

When I race I also take an electrolyte/salt supplement and another supplement that helps the body get rid of lactic acid called Vo2 Max both from carbopro.com.

We get almost all of our other supplements either at the local drug store or at Lifeextension.com. 

  

So it looks like I take about 18 dietary supplements per day, unless I forgot one. I don't think I have. In the past, I've taken an extra C or E or zinc or evening primrose or selenium, etc. Vit. C and E is in my regular multi- vitamin though. I would take extra if I felt I needed an immune system boost. 

Have I left a really important supplement out that I really, really need to be taking? Please let me know! I'll add it to my "supplements to purchase" list.

Thanks in advance.

Toxic

Cilantro

                                                 My levels                High Levels

Lead Detected 1210 ug/kg   H 1000 ug/kg ICPMS

Mercury Detected                 1263 ug/kg   H 400 ug/kg  ICPMS

You might have read my post here last week about the chelating green smoothie I'm drinking to try to flush some of the high levels of mercury out of my body.  I have been consuming large amounts of cilantro and reading anything I can find on the internet on the process of heavy metal elimination and mercury poisoning.  For a health obsessed person like me, this hasn't been fun.

Seriously, see my levels of mercury above.  Not to mention lead!  Your body is suppose to natural flush these things out so apparently my body is not doing the job or either I'm doing something that is putting large amounts of mercury in my body.  I don't eat fish so that's not where it's coming from.  I have one silver filling left, but could that produce toxic levels of mercury?  I had a mouth full of silver amalgams when I was 12 years old.  The more I read about them and mercury, the angrier I get about it.

I received the NAC from Life Extensions the other day and have started taking them.  This should also help my asthma and lung issues.  I wonder if my lung issues have any connection with the high mercury levels in my body?   I took one of these for the first time ever before bed the other night and I swear I could feel it working.  My entire body hurt.  I was afraid it was causing some kind of liver damage so I did some research and it actually saves the liver from toxins in your body.  Guess I had LOTs of toxins that night cause every time I've taken it since then it has had less of a noticeable effect.

I'm taking Chorella as well because it helps remove the mercury that the cilantro has pulled from wherever it is being stored (the brain among other places) and get it out of your body.  Apparently, if you don't flush it from your body, it will sit in the small intestines and will just get reabsorbed back into your body.

Mercury isn't the only heavy metal I have in my body.  Here's the report as well as the reccomendations on how to remove some of it.  As you can see, Cilantro was mentioned.  I'm not making this crap up.  Who knew!

Substance Lab Result Test Value High Value Test Method

Arsenic Detected 28.12 ug/kg 80 ug/kg ICPMS

Cadmium Detected 88.98 ug/kg 100 ug/kg ICPMS
Chromium Detected 376.6 ug/kg 500 ug/kg ICPMS

Lead Detected 1210 ug/kg   H 1000 ug/kg ICPMS

Mercury Detected 1263 ug/kg   H 400 ug/kg ICPMS

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Comments 

The Lead detection was slightly elevated. The Mercury detection presented at a level three (3) times higher than reference high values. Please review the Chelation Therapy comment below.

Chelation Therapy - The Reduction of Heavy Metal Levels

If one or more of your heavy metal detection levels reported above substantially exceed the stated reference ranges for the provided test sample you may wish to consider starting a chelation treatment. Chelation is designed to reduce heavy metal levels over a period of time. There are two (2) ways to approach the use of chelation. Present your test report to either an M.D. who specializes in chelation treatments or your local health food store who can offer you effective, non-prescription, products designed for this purpose. Consider a product identified as NAC (N-Acetyl Cysteine- oral) or equivalent. Follow the suggestions of the store technician who should have adequate product knowledge. Follow the product dosage directions stated on the product and/ or packaging container. Of equal importance you need to examine your daily food and drink intake to try and establish a cause for your elevated heavy metals levels. Following chelation therapy of 90-120 days or so you should have another hair strand or urine toxicology test conducted to see if the heavy metals levels are being reduced.

For your information Cilantro, the leaves of the Coriander plant, also known as Chinese parsley, have been reported as being an effective natural herb remedy in the reduction of some excessive heavy metal levels.  HYPERLINK "http://www.google.com/" Learn more. Cilantro is a very popular herbal ingredient found in Mexican cuisine, particularly in the salsa.

I came across this while doing research on mercury toxicity and the health benefits of cilantro.   We are living in such a polluted environment that anyone with any kind of compromised immune system and low glutathione levels could be accumulating this stuff faster than they are able to get rid of it.  I don't know if the Boy has high mercury levels like I do, but he won't touch cilantro or green smoothies anyway.

This guy reminds me of the guys who use to white water kayak with us.  The guys with long hair pulled back in a pony tail that we called "Dude" who found all the best spots on the river to show off their advanced kayaking maneuvers.  The guys that could do a perfect ender and then go right into a pirouette in their kayaks and we would be on the sidelines all clapping and yelling, "DUDE!  YEAH!"

Read more on mercury poisoning here.

Chelating Green Smoothie

I recently got a heavy metal test on my hair and found that I have 3x the high level of mercury. That means there is a level that is considered high (most people apparently have traces of heavy metals) and I am 3x over that limit.   It was recommended that I chelate (remove) the mercury and they gave me some natural ways to do it.   My level of lead was also a tad bit high.  I was surprised when they suggested the herb Cilantro, which is used in salsa and other Mexican dishes.  I did some research and was surprised at all the benefits of this herb.  The benefits of cilantro can be found here.

I had heard about the green smoothie fad that's been going around with Kale being one of the main ingredients. Read more about the benefits of kale here.   The Murph and I had talked about buying kale and creating our own smoothie concoction with it.  The Murph drinks his smoothie concoction every day and I have my standard one when I'm training long and need additional calories and protein.  However, none of these smoothies had anything green in it.  When I found out about my high mercury levels I immediately decided to do something about it.

Yesterday I created my own personalized green smoothie using Kale, 1/2 Banana, Cilantro, small slice of Avocado, Apple slices, Pear slice, Cranberry juice, 1/2 scoop Protein powder.

I have to say it wasn't that tasty.  I used way to much Cilantro and threw the stems and all in the smoothie.  Not good.  Today I put less cilantro and made sure I only included the leaves not the stem and I added a small amount of Turmeric and Cinnamon.  I added a full scoop of protein powder and some cranberry juice with 1/2 banana and pear slices and a slice of avocado.

You can also put spinach and different seeds (flaxseed, chia seed) in the smoothie. The Murph always puts flax seeds in his smoothie, as well as chili powder and ginger root.

Then Dr. Oz had his green smoothie recipe in last months People magazine.  There was an entire article on his 2 day detox program which included two different kinds of smoothies, green and berry, as well as a recipe for detox vegetable soup.  He used pineapple in his green smoothie.

Here's my final product and it was delicious.  Well, delicious for a green smoothie with a strong herb such as cilantro.  I am going to keep doing this at least 5 days a week minimum in hopes that it will chelate the mercury in my body.  I am also thinking about removing the silver filling in my tooth and replacing it with the white ones.  I only have one silver one left because all the others I got as a child have been replaced with white ones.  I am not really sure how I got such high levels of mercury in my body or how long it's been that high.  That's something I will probably never know.  Three times over the high limit is way too high not to take action though.

We just ordered some Chlorella, a green algae super food, that aids the cilantro in heavy metal removal and  NAC- N acetyl cysteine,  which also helps remove toxins from the body.  Using NAC was suggested in my hair report.  Chlorella I came across on my own.  I am also taking a garlic supplement because I read an article that says it is suppose to aid the cilantro and the chlorella in the removal of the  heavy metals.

Now I just have to get the Boy to drink one of these things.  He doesn't eat enough green vegetables and has trouble swallowing multi-vitamins.  This is a great way for him to get his daily servings of fruits and vegetables and I can customize it for him any way he likes or whatever I think he needs.  I've done this before when he was really stressed out in high school.  I added some botanical stress relief drops from GNC, a powder multi-vitamin from GNC to make sure he was getting enough B vitamins and vitamin C, some fruit- banana and strawberries,  protein powder and yogurt.  He really liked it.  I hope he will drink a smoothie that has leafy greens in it.

I feel better already after only two green smoothies. It's a great way to get nutrients.  My skin looks better and I have more energy.  I hope I am removing some of the high levels of mercury in my body as well and that the NAC will help my asthma and lung health as it is chelating!

Either way, eating more green, leafy vegetables is probably not a bad thing.

Disclaimer - I am not a doctor or nutritionist or even close, but I self diagnose all the time.   I don't even like doctors very much right now after what happened to me last week.   This post is just my ideas and opinions on what I like and use.  You're on your own if should decide to try any of these smoothie/supplement ideas. Please don't hold me responsible in any way.   Good luck!

May cause gas or green skin.  Does not taste as good as cookies or donuts.