Supplements: Useful Or Useless? | This episode is brought to you by Audible

Even with a perfect diet, the combination of many things—including our depleted soils, the storage and transportation of our food, genetic alterations of traditional heirloom species, and the increased stress and nutritional demands resulting from a toxic environment—make it impossible for us to get all the vitamins and minerals we need solely from the foods we eat. And large-scale deficiencies of nutrients in our population—including omega-3 fats, vitamin D, folate, zinc, magnesium, and iron—have been well documented. So what do we need to know when it comes to combating these deficiencies with supplementation?

In this episode, Dr. Hyman sits down with Dr. Elizabeth Boham to discuss common nutrient deficiencies and what you need to know about determining what supplements are best for you.

Elizabeth Boham is a physician and nutritionist who practices functional medicine at The UltraWellness Center in Lenox, MA. Through her practice and lecturing she has helped thousands of people achieve their goals of optimum health and wellness. She witnesses the power of nutrition every day in her practice and is committed to training other physicians to utilize nutrition in healing. Dr. Boham has contributed to many articles and wrote the latest chapter on Obesity for the Rankel Textbook of Family Medicine. She is part of the faculty of the Institute for Functional Medicine and has been featured on the Dr. Oz show and in a variety of publications and media including Huffington Post, The Chalkboard Magazine, and Experience Life. Her DVD Breast Wellness: Tools to Prevent and Heal from Breast Cancer explores the functional medicine approach to keeping your breasts and whole body well.

For more information, please visit drhyman.com/uwc

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In this episode, Dr. Hyman and Dr. Boham discuss:

• Personalizing supplement use

• Why nutrient deficiencies are so prevalent 

• Common nutrient deficiencies including magnesium, zinc, vitamin D, and folate  

• Understanding research on the effectiveness of of vitamins and supplements

• Physical signs of nutrient deficiencies

• Functional Medicine testing for nutrient deficiencies

• Why the quality of supplements matter

• Symptoms of magnesium deficiency and things that deplete magnesium

• The various forms of magnesium

Additional resources:

Optimizing Nutrition Through IV Therapy

https://www.ultrawellnesscenter.com/2020/06/03/optimizing-nutrition-through-iv-therapy/

Supplement Safety Demystified

https://www.ultrawellnesscenter.com/2017/12/11/supplement-safety-demystified/

Magical Magnesium

https://www.ultrawellnesscenter.com/2020/03/11/magic-magnesium/

Do You Need Supplements?

https://drhyman.com/blog/2015/04/02/do-you-need-supplements/

Digesting Fat, Optimizing Your Health, and My Daily Supplements

https://drhyman.com/blog/2017/04/28/digesting-fat-optimizing-health-daily-supplements/

Magnesium: Meet the Most Powerful Relaxation Mineral Available

https://drhyman.com/blog/2010/05/20/magnesium-the-most-powerful-relaxation-mineral-available/

Vitamin D – Why You are Probably NOT Getting Enough

https://drhyman.com/blog/2010/08/24/vitamin-d-why-you-are-probably-not-getting-enough/

Why You Should Not Stop Taking Your Vitamins

https://drhyman.com/blog/2013/06/11/why-you-should-not-stop-taking-your-vitamins-2/