Reading other discussions on what glutathione is, where it comes from, what it's good for and so on, i happened across an important note! It seems that when supplementing this important chemical, people often need more zinc, which has itself been the topic of conversation at the Scribble Pad recently. Now, zinc is a VERY important mineral in the thyroid world, and one which even a lot of "normal, healthy" people tend to be a little short of ... and a significant shortage WILL make you miserable.
THIS is why running out and impulsively adding supplements to one's regimen can be a big mistake. I suppose this is why a lot of proponents of supplementation insist that one should work with one's physician in tweaking nutrients, too -- though the shortcoming with this notion is that most doctors are more ignorant about nutrients than the "interested amateur." One has to do quite a bit of extra reading to find information such as the glutathione-zinc connection, and that kind of rabbit-trail tracking is time-consuming and nerdier than most professionals care for.
It's been suggested that hypothyroid people who have had trouble with iodine started supplementing too lavishly or without having their selenium bases covered. I'm in no position to make judgements on the situation, but it IS a valid question to ask. So many vitamins, minerals and aminos don't operate as lone-wolves; they need their mates or their entire packs to help do their jobs properly. Unless one does some pretty extensive homework, "details" like balancing one's A and D are totally overlooked, and some ugly little results can appear.
The homework necessary for success in tweaking one's health through supplementation is far more demanding than merely cleaning up one's diet paleo-style. A significant variety of sources needs to be accessed, because a lot of websites quote each other without doing THEIR homework! I look at conventional sources like WebMD and the Mayo Clinic sites (and many others) just to attempt to find VALID naysayers to what i've found in "alternative" circles. I occasionally read some of the wingnuts too, even if i take their recommendations with quite a few grains of (unrefined sea) salt.
When we become disillusioned with mainstream medicine and seek to be our OWN arbiters of wellness, we take a responsibility that most sheeple don't. If good health is our goal (and what else COULD be our aim?), then we have to go the EXTRA distance to learn things that conventionally-trained medical personnel picked up in the course of their educations -- what we excitedly observe as a big revelation is often a "duh moment" for them. On the other hand, we have a greater incentive to get it right for our particular situation and genome, and to them we're just another statistic or victim of probabilities.
Short version? (Too late....) Don't be in a hurry to invest in the (usually expensive) supplement-du-jour without doing a LOT of reading in a variety of sources! Just because Oz (or Mercola or Kruse or Rosedale) makes a "new" nutrient or superfood sound like the answer to prayer, checking up with somebody who could easily be an "anti" might be the best idea you ever had.
Don't believe ME, either. ...Oh, okay, believe that what i say is what I EXPERIENCED (because i have no incentive or desire to lie about it), but don't believe that what works with me will work for YOU, till you do your own checking up and careful experimentation. ;-)
I am very intimidated with the whole area of supplements, too much confusion, too many opportunities to screw-up body complex system even more. It looks like my decision to start using some hormone replacement therapy was the right one - I feel better and less carbohydrate sensitive, my body is less eager to gain weight. During pregnancies I always felt really well, allergies got way better, I didn't gain weight , the weight gain was during lactation. I think that higher progesterone could make my thyroid to work more intense, and more estrogen means less fat deposits in my middle-section.
ReplyDeletei wonder if it was progesterone, or the histamine-inhibiting action of greater diamine-oxidase in pregnancy normalizing metabolism? i'd heard that higher progesterone coincided with greater thyroid function, but adding the single hormone never seemed to make a difference with me. if that correlation was observed in pregnancy rather than in later life, it makes more sense to me....
DeleteSure, immune-suppression is not likely be explained by the increase in progesterone . I remember feeling more energetic and alive..
DeleteHi Tess
ReplyDelete"what i'm here for is passing along what i've actually found HELPFUL,"
I've cheated a bit here and used your words, but, I do think that is what is so good about blogs. We can exchange views, ideas - let people know what we found works.
Of course what the reader then decides to do is always a personal decision.
Life, our bodies, our diet, our health we have to try and get the right balance and sometimes health can be a very fine balance.
All the best Jan
:-) it was when i had a hard time finding what helped people LIKE ME that i started writing here. theories can be interesting, but if they don't pan out in real life, they aren't "true" ... if i may paraphrase an old idea.
DeleteWhat I don't like about a lot of supplements is that they have a ridiculous amount of B vitamins. Maybe if you're living on a diet of veggie burgers and ho-hos, you need that.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was taking large doses of zinc (100mg a day, as I recall), I ended up with a long sinus infection. Zinc can prevent the absorption of copper, which is important for the immune system.
it's a tricky business! i don't blame the temptation to simply take a multi -- but as i learned more about how vitamins and minerals interact and compete, i do the head-bang more and more....
DeleteI take a multivitamin, vitamin D and CoQ10. I go back and forth on the vitamin D. Even with the supplementation my level is low (36 in October) but I haven't read whatever research keeps prompting my doctors to tell me to take it.
ReplyDeleteI actually feel better on the CoQ10....and that scares me.
my biggest gripes about multis is that the manufacturers put in things that block each other's absorption (like calcium and iron), and that they use the cheaper and less effective versions (like cyanocobalamin instead of methyl/hydroxy, and my pet peeve provitamin A instead of active). if i were to go back to using a combination product, i think i'd go for the Caltons' version, which has a morning set and an evening set.
Deletedo you read the Weston Price site? i believe it was Masterjohn who presented good info about supplementing D and A....