Supplements in practice - Dosages and Cost of Supplements

Question 1

Dosage considerations:

Answer 1

How to work out the dosage? You should consider:
* Age of the client: May need higher dose with increasing age.
* Digestive capability: Ability to absorb and excrete? Constipated?
* State of health: Dosing for optimum health or for disease state?
* Therapeutic doses: Evidence of dosages that are shown in clinical trials to be effective for certain disease states.
* Dietary deficiency or insufficiency: What symptoms are there?
* Lab test results: What do these indicate?
* Safe therapeutic range: Age group of client?

Question 2

Dosages when comparing supplements:

Answer 2

• Labels in the UK / IRL state the elemental amount of minerals: This is the amount of mineral available for absorption when it has been freed from its carrier molecule.
• Compare the total amounts of minerals in a supplement; the ‘elemental mineral’ is the amount of the mineral that is actually used by the body.
• Protein supplements: Compare the amount of protein (in grams) per 100 g of powder.
• Fish oils: Compare the active ingredients, EPA and DHA.

Question 3

Dosages: Additional info

Answer 3

For additional information on therapeutic dosages:
* ANP Drug-Herb-Nutrient Database:
https://theanp.co.uk/herb-drug-nutrient
* Clinical Naturopathy (Sarris & Wardle)
* Clinical Naturopathic Medicine (Leah Hechtman)
* Clinical Nutrition: A Functional Approach (Inst. of Functional Medicine)
* Textbook of Micronutrients (Michael Zimmerman)
* The Encyclopaedia of Natural Medicine, The Clinician’s Handbook of Natural Medicine, Textbook of Natural Medicine, etc. (Murray & Pizzorno)
* The Nutrient Bible (Henry Osiecki)
* Science Direct, Google Scholar, etc. for research
http://www.stewartnutrition.co.uk/index.html

Question 4

Cost of Supplements:

Answer 4

Supplements can often be expensive. This can be due to:
* Market hype and the company you use.
* High quality source of ingredients.
* GMP-approved or compliant procedures.

Question 5

Comparison example of fish oils:

Answer 5

• It can be challenging researching different supplements to find the desired therapeutic dosage at an acceptable cost. This comparison of different fish oils is from the same company:

Fish oil (sardine & anchovy source): 330 mg EPA, 220 mg DHA
Algae source (plus primrose oil): 150 mg EPA, 300 mg DHA
Vegan source (marine algae): 334 mg EPA, 166 mg DHA
Krill oil source: 150 mg EPA, 80 mg DHA

Cheapest - Over twice the price