Head-to-Toe Wellness Guide

Few consumer items are as mind-boggling as nutritional supplements. Store shelves featuring endless bottles of vitamins, minerals and essential oils can leave the potential buyer thoroughly confused. How to choose?

Fortunately, Dr. Weil has spent a lifetime researching nutrition and health, including which forms of nutrients are the most bioactive; that is, have the greatest potential to provide benefits. In every case, the form he recommends is the form he specified for the products sold online via the Vitamin Advisor and for Weil Nutritional Supplements, sold at selected retail stores.

(Dr. Weil donates all of his after-tax profits from royalties from sales of Vitamin Advisor products and Weil Nutritional Supplements directly to the Weil Foundation, an organization dedicated to sustaining the vision of integrative medicine. Since its inception in 2005, the Weil Foundation has given out more than $3 million in grants and gifts to medical centers and other non-profit organizations nationwide.)

Here are examples of his chief insights among the major supplement classes:

• Vitamin A: Some forms of supplemental vitamin A, when taken in even moderate daily doses, can be toxic. Dr. Weil specifies the use of mixed carotenoids - these are substances that the body converts to vitamin A, avoiding toxicity potential and maximizing effectiveness.


• Vitamin D: Inexpensive vitamins tend to contain vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol), the kind synthesized by plants. But when humans eat plant-derived D2, very little is converted to D3 (choleciferol), the kind most readily used by the human body and which skin makes when exposed to ultraviolet light. Dr. Weil specifies D3 in his supplements, as this form has been shown to have greater biological activity in human tissue.


• Vitamin E: In nature, this vitamin is found as a combination of eight different active compounds - four are called tocopherols, and four are called tocotrienols. Many manufacturers use inexpensive, synthetic versions of one or only a few of those eight forms. In his supplements Dr. Weil specifies a complete, naturally derived tocopherol/tocotrienol complex that more closely mirrors the natural vitamin E found in foods.


• Calcium: Manufacturers make calcium supplements in many forms, including calcium carbonate (the most common type), calcium lactate and calcium aspartate. Dr. Weil specifies calcium citrate because it is more easily absorbed, especially by older people who may have less stomach acid. Although more expensive, calcium citrate is more than twice as bioavailable as calcium carbonate.


• Fish Oils: Oils derived from the fat of cold-water fish, a source of essential omega-3 fatty acids, can be contaminated with toxic heavy metals. Dr. Weil recommends seeking out products that, like his fish oil supplements, have received the highest rating for purity - five out of five stars - from the International Fish Oil Standards program.

“Vitamins are much like anything else - you generally get what you pay for,” says Dr. Weil. “But even very expensive vitamins sometimes miss the mark.” He says that one reason he co-directs the Annual Conference on Nutrition and Health; State of the Science & Clinical Applications, which unites the world’s leading nutrition researchers, is that it allows him to get the latest news on the best forms of supplements directly from the researchers who investigate them.

By Brad Lemley
DrWeil.com News

advertisement

Find out which vitamins are right for you.
Everyone's dietary needs are different based on a number of factors including lifestyle, diet, medications and more. To find out what vitamins you need, take Dr. Weil's Vitamin Advisor. This 4-step questionnaire requires just minutes to complete, and generates a free, no-obligation vitamin and nutritional supplement recommendation that is personalized to meet your unique nutritional needs.