“I’m feeling run down, what supplements should I take?”
This is a common question we encounter in our chiropractic centers. In a perfect world, if you were able to eat a high-quality, balanced diet, you wouldn’t need to take vitamins and minerals to add additional nutrients to your diet. Your food intake would be enough.
For most of us, having a well-rounded, nutritious diet on a continuous basis is simply not possible. Our lives pull us in many directions and we cannot make the time to always eat well. We have conflicting priorities, stresses and obligations and, as a result, our nutrition often suffers.
Fresh organic food can be expensive and often lacking in nutritional potency. It is hard to eat well consistently. If you are like most people, you can likely benefit from taking vitamins and minerals regularly, but you may be confused about where to start. Your immune system needs fuel to function well, and taking vitamins, minerals, and other supplements may be the missing ingredient in super-charging your immune system.
By far, the most important thing you can do to improve the health of your immune system is to correct any subluxations that may be present in your spine through chiropractic adjustments.
There are other important factors, however. This article is an introductory guide to help you make the right decisions in choosing what dietary supplements to take.
Related Blog: Do Germs Really Make You Sick?
The standard disclaimer applies: please consult your personal healthcare provider before starting a supplement regimen.
I don’t recommend getting your supplements from large retail franchised supplement stores such as Gxx as there may be additives, chemicals, and other fillers in these mass-manufactured products. I recommend iherb.sg as a good resource for many better quality supplements in Singapore.
Start with a Good Multi-Vitamin
The most fundamental supplement that works well for most people is a broad-spectrum, high quality multivitamin.
Make sure your multivitamin has vitamin A, C, D, E and the various B vitamins. It is also important for your multivitamin to have the standard, important minerals.
There is a lot of variety to multivitamins, and as long as the manufacturer is reputable, you should be in good hands.
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
We recommend that most everyone take an omega-3 fatty acid supplement as well. This type of fatty acid is also known as EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and/or DHA (docosahexaenoic acid).
This may seem a little complicated, but omega-3 fatty acids are DHA‘s and EPA’s. The bottles may be labelled with either name.
They are known as essential because our bodies cannot synthesize the substance, we need to ingest omega-3 fatty acids from external sources.
Why are Omega-3’s Important? What do they do?
- Critical for health of nerve system and brain
- Important for growth and development of the nervous systems of babies, children, and young people in general
- Reduces the inflammatory response and may reduce pain
- Supports antioxidant rejuvenation
- Good for the heart
- Promotes healthy blood flow
- Improves joint function and flexibility
- Enhances cognitive function
- Promotes immune system health and function
Many people, following the typical, modern, nutrient-lacking diet, may be woefully deficient in this essential nutrient. As you can see, omega-3 fatty acids are extremely important for a variety of reasons—immune system health is a critical one.
Antioxidants
You may have heard of antioxidants before. Simply stated, antioxidants counteract the negative effects of free radical damage. Free radicals are highly reactive molecules in our environment that cause tissue damage, inflammation, and can adversely affect your immune system.
Free radicals are the bad guys, and antioxidants are the good guys, protecting us from the cellular injury that free radicals may cause by strengthening your immune system response and coordination.
Recommended Antioxidants
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin E (as mixed tocopherol)
- Magnesium
- Alpha-Lipoic Acid
- Co-Q 10
- Selenium
Depending on your stress levels and relative lifestyle, it is likely a good idea to take the supplements above in addition to a high-quality multivitamin. That’s what I do.
Vitamin D3
Vitamin D3 is kind of the new kid on the block in the nutrition world. The positive health effects of Vitamin D3 have only recently been understood and discussed.
Benefits of Vitamin D3
- Promotes bone health
- Improves cardiovascular function
- Improves brain function
- Supports antioxidant rejuvenation
- Helps to regulate immune system function
Related Resource: Four Pain Relief Supplements
Your Nervous System is the Key to Your Health
In order to have a great life, your health needs to be functioning on all cylinders.
There are a number of areas to focus on in order to maintain and optimize your health. Keeping your immune system strong with a proper diet, stress management, and health supplements are all very important.
But there is something more fundamental: Your nervous system.
Your nervous system controls all aspects of your health and you may have interference to your master system without feeling pain or symptoms. That’s where chiropractic can likely help you.
Read more on how Chiropractic can help you boost your immune system.
