Supplements, Why You Should NOT Self Medicate.

As a Naturopath one of the most worrying things I see all the time is people self medicating supplements.

Supplements come in many forms, both natural and synthetic. Companies advertise all the time and don't always tell the whole story and they often use scare tactics to sell their products.

One thing that I see often is the self medication of calcium and without knowing what your blood chemistry status is you could be doing more damage than good.

For instance, you may go off and have a bone density scan which reveals that you are on your way to developing osteoporosis, so you rush off and purchase calcium supplements. However, if you don't know if you have excess free calcium you run the risk of this free calcium depositing into your arteries and tissues and causing calcification.

You will most certainly need supplements but the key is knowing which ones, and what type, do you need more calcium, or do you need more vitamin A or D or K? Or perhaps your pH is out of balance which is leaching the calcium out of your bones? Even though you may have plenty of calcium available, you may not be utilising it correcly. All of these possibilities need to be considered before your undertake supplementing.

As well as this, supplementing with an isolated vitamin or mineral can cause an imbalance within the body, so it's imperative that the correct dose is taken with it's other co-factors in mind. If you think that you are lacking in a particular vitamin or mineral it's best to make an appointment and discuss it with us first.