Improved nutrition benefits everyone no matter what their previous health status was, diseased or otherwise.

In Short, take a group of diet supplements for at least a few months.

Monitor your results. Inventory your body as to lumps, bumps, aches, pains, blood, medication doses, sleep habits, athletic performance times, fat percentages.

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Improving Health Through Nutrition: No Quick Fix
By: Michael Wagner, BA, LMT, CFT

INTRODUCTION:
When recommending dietary supplements to persons with health deficiencies,
one of the most common questions we'll hear is, "How fast will this stuff work?"
If we can help steer people away from the "quick fix" mentality and, instead,
adapt realistic expectations for realizing improved health through nutrition,
I believe we've performed a great service. That's because the restoration of
genuine optimal health takes time and patience the quick fix mind set will
never allow.

True, there are exceptional cases, especially with exceptional supplements or
unique circumstances. Some people begin a dietary supplement regime and
realize amazing results. But they are exceptions. And although certain
symptoms may have subsided, the body very often has a lot more healing to
accomplish over the long term.

To assist consumers of dietary supplements to "stay the course" and not quit
their program prematurely because they "weren't seeing anything" we need to
educate them. Not only about the supplements in their regime, but about their
own body and how nutrition supports the body to effect improvements in overallhealth.

To this end, I've found seven principles worth remembering and passing on to
those people we wish to see benefit from nutritional supplements and programs.

1. With nutrition, we are not suppressing or manipulating symptoms as with
pharmaceuticals. We are not treating conditions as with herbology. We are
simply giving the body what it needs to heal itself and rebuild itself anew
and this takes time.

When correcting nutritional deficiencies, while we won't see instant
improvements in most cases, we will be promoting true and lasting healing.
Pharmaceuticals may sometimes "work" instantly, yet never address underlying causes and possess unwanted side effects. Contrary to popular thinking, drugs don't heal anything: only the body can do that - when it gets what it needs.

In Optimum Sports Nutrition, Dr. Michael Colgan explains why patience is the
key:

"A principle of nutrition you need to know is physiological dynamics. Unlike
drugs, nutrients do not have rapid effects. No quick fix. The business of
nutrition is to build a better body. That has to wait on Nature to turn over
body cells. A blood cell lasts 60-120 days. In 3-4 months your whole blood
supply is completely replaced. In 6 months almost all the proteins in your
body die and are replaced, even the DNA of your genes. In a year all your
bones and even the enamel of your teeth is replaced, constructed entirely out
of the nutrients you eat."

This time course is well illustrated by the course of deficiency diseases. If
I remove all the vitamin C from your diet within 4 weeks blood vitamin C will
drop to zero. But, you will see no symptoms of disease at 4 weeks. You will
have to wait until enough of the healthy cells have been replaced with
unhealthy cells. It is another 12 weeks before the symptoms of scurvy start
to ravage your body.

"So when you implement an optimum nutrition program, don't expect to see rapid
results. In one of our studies at the Colgan Institute, runners were
supplemented to try to improve their hemoglobin, hematrocit, and red blood
cell count. But after one month of supplementation, there was no improvement
at all. After 6 months, however, all three indices were significantly
increased."

"Think of it this way: If you take a neglected houseplant and start feeding
and watering it, the leaves may perk up a bit from the improved nutrition. But
you have to wait for the old leaves to die off and new leaves to grow before
you get a really healthy plant. It is the same with a human body. When you
start feeding it better, you have to wait on physiological dynamics of the
body to grow new, improved cells in the improved medium. After 18 years in
sports nutrition, the shortest program we will give any athlete is six
months". With patience, nature can do its work and produce its miracles.

2. We are all unique. Individual biochemistry's are affected by diet,
lifestyle, drug usage, stress, fitness level, genetics, toxins, etc. It's
inevitable, therefore, that some persons will respond more rapidly than others
to improved nutrition. If you're not experiencing results as fast as you'd
like, it could be a factor of any number of things. It might be that the body
has priorities other than the one upon which you're focusing. For example,
you may be wanting to lose body fat while your body may want to lose a tumor
you don't even know you have. Give your body permission to have its own
priorities and timetable.

3. Positive health changes can be occurring without your "feeling something".
Research studies utilizing blood tests, bone density and body fat
measurements, etc. confirm this. Improved health begins on the molecular and
cellular levels. Latter, this may translate into the alleviation or
disappearance of specific symptoms and conditions.

(The already healthy or symptom-free person, especially persons with abundant energy, might take note: Your health benefits from optimal nutrition tend to come in the form of your body's correcting sub-clinical problems - depletions, imbalances and toxic build-ups that haven't yet become clinical conditions or "felt" diseases. In other words, in optimizing and maintaining health, remember "feeling healthy" really only means "feeling symptom free". Actor Michael Landin was "feeling great" on National TV: three months later he died of cancer.

Virtually everyone can benefit from improved nutrition since, simply by living, toxins accumulate within our bodies, the body wears out and chronic degeneration slowly settles in. Giving the body what it needs to stay
healthy can minimize the ravages of modern living and optimize health.)

4. The Greatest health benefits of improved nutrition may well come in the
latter years of life. Regardless of the rate your current health challenge is
improving, continued optimum nutrition just makes good sense, since the
greatest benefits may be experienced in your senior years. While others are
painfully shuffling around nursing homes and tending to medicine schedules,
you might be enjoying your summers on the Colorado River and winters in
Hawaii. Is this the benefit you want? Learn what your dietary supplements
can do for you. Then make an educated choice.

5. If you experience a "correcting crisis" while on an optimal nutritional
program, stay the course - its working! When your body begins cleaning out
toxins, metabolic wastes, parasites, candida die-off and the like, you may
experience uncomfortable symptoms. Because you may feel worse before you feel better, it's important to read the articles and books, which address this
phenomenon so you can better understand this process. The correcting crisis,
when understood, is a clear indication that your improved nutrition program is
truly working and leading you to improved health.

6. Licensed health care practitioners still make educated guesses as to how
long it might take to see a specific health improvement using nutrition.
Admittedly an imprecise science, but as a starting point, a holistic medical
doctor uses the following formula: For a specific health improvements, figure
three months, then add one additional month for each year the chronic
condition has existed. For example, a chronic condition of 5 years might be
expected to see a good improvement within 8 months, provided the body, mind
and spirit of the patient gets everything it needs. Experience with
nutraceuticals largely indicated the longer the consumption, the greater the
benefit.

7. As one very prestigious medical doctor has well stated, dietary
supplements ought carry the warning: "Not to be taken on an empty spirit".
The human mind and spirit are powerful beyond measure. They can easily
override any optimal health plan. They must therefore be in alignment with
the healing process. Sometimes the non-physical causes of ill health are
poorly understood by the individual dealing with it. If long term attempts to
achieve better health bring minimal or no results, there may be a deeper
reasons that need exploration. Caroline Myss' works, including Why People
Don't Heal, or the works of Bernie Siegel, M.D. might be a good starting
point. Tend to your thinking; nurture your spirit.

Staying mindful of these seven principles of nutrition and healing will
hopefully keep all of us out of the trap of quick fix thinking and help allow
us to create the time and patience to achieve true healing and enjoy lasting
optimal health.