Immune system food supplements for clinical use
We’ve just uploaded our latest video, narrated by Janice Shayne, CEO, on the uses of Immune Support, FlavoC and Ultimate Defense.

About the Immune Support video
Each of our videos are short and easy to watch. The immune system video highlights the Immune Support in cases of illness, symptoms, infections and suppressed immune system function.

If you have any specific suggestions for more videos, please let us know.

New Training Videos for Our Doctors

Here’s something new and much-requested by our doctors: training videos on how to use NutriPlex Formulas’ whole food supplements.

Starting with ProMin’s clinical use
We’ve just uploaded our newest video, narrated by Vic Shayne, PhD, elucidating the uses of ProMin and CalMag. Watch it here:

More videos to come
Over the next several months, we’ll be uploading new videos here, covering our other products and their clinical uses.

On the ProMin video
Each video is very short and easy to watch. The newest one, on ProMin, talks about the product’s use for musculoskeletal repair for joints, ligaments, cartilage, tendons and bones.

If you have any specific suggestions for more videos, please let us know.

The liver is one of the most active of all organs, featuring the greatest number of functions. It should get an award for all of its work.

DEAR LIVER, HOW DO I LOVE THEE? LET ME COUNT THE WAYS…

Here are a few functions of your liver, and you can see why it’s so important to keep it healthy.

The liver:

• produces hormones
• filters out toxins
• produces vitamin A
• produces bile to break down fats
• stores iron
• creates enzymes and proteins
• controls levels of fats, amino acids and glucose in the blood

TREAT YOUR LIVER TO A WONDERFUL SNACK

One of the greatest finds in all of herbal and nutritional healing is the plant calledMilk Thistle.

Milk thistle has been used for 2000 years to treat chronic liver disease and protect the liver against toxins

Milk thistle is typically used to treat liver cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis (liver inflammation), toxin-induced liver damage (including the prevention of severe liver damage from Amanita phalloides (‘death cap’ mushroom poisoning), and gallbladder disorders.

WHERE TO FIND MILK THISTLE

Milk thistle grows in the wild like a weed and is indigenous to Kashmir, but is found in North America from Canada to Mexico.

Lucky for you, milk thistle can be found in our VitaLiv formula, along with lots of other great foods that support liver health.

Give VitaLiv a try for three months, especially if you’re dealing with chronic illness, skin conditions, toxic overload and, of course, liver problems.

Read more about VitaLiv – Click Here.

Glucosamine is a natural amino-sugar compound found in cartilage.

Glucosamine is derived from glucose molecules and is believed to:

• aid in repairing damaged cartilage
• build new cartilage
• cushion joints
• relieve pain
• reduce inflammation

Usually, glucosamine is prescribed with pain AND inflammation.

Glucosamine’s not all that’s needed

When your patient walks in presenting joint problems and inflammation, is it best to offer a glucosamine isolate or a whole food that contains glucosamine and MORE?

The “more” part includes nutrition that is supportive to the tissues that are obviously affected. Feeding these tissues is a much better approach to merely trying to eradicate the pain and inflammation.

Clearly, the whole food formula is superior.

ProMin is a whole food supplement from NutriPlex Formulas.

ProMin contains cartilage for the glucosamine, but provides the building blocks of health within foods rather than as isolates. (InflaPlex is used as part of a one-two punch when there is inflammation).

Read more about ProMin here.

The Research

Scientific research shows that equally important to addressing musculoskeletal issues are vitamin D, C and K, plus amino acids, and other minerals, including sulfur, phosphorus, magnesium, silicon and more.

Vitamins, minerals and amino acids, especially the sulfur-bearing amino acids used as building blocks to form proteins and the highly touted compounds known as glucosamine sulfate and chondroitin.

Silicic acid and silicates providing approximately two to three percent elemental silicon, are used in bone and cartilage formulation.

Potassium and manganese, along with fifteen different types of bioflavonoids cause diuretic action while silicon exerts connective tissue strengthening and anti-arthritic action.

Saponins are needed too

“According to arthritis research, saponins found in the herb yucca appear to block the release of toxins from the intestines that inhibit normal formation of cartilage. A double blind but preliminary study suggested yucca might reduce symptoms of osteoarthritis.”*

Lininger, Healthnotes, p. 132: Re: Bingham R, Bellow Ba, Bellow JG. Yucca plants saponin in the management of arthritis. J Applied Nutrition 1975; 27; 45-51.)

When we think of what eye doctors and surgeons do for the eyes, it’s usually in the form of a crutch (eye glasses and contacts) or reactive surgery (for cataracts, etc).

But did you realize there are certain nutrients that can save your eyes from some of the most troublesome and debilitating eye diseases?

Your eyes need a blood supply

The eyes have a lot of working parts, and all of these need a healthy blood supply.

The blood vessels of the eye are tiny, but if they are not carrying enough blood then the physical structure of the eye may deteriorate. The result can be cataracts, glaucoma, retinopathy, etc.

Nutrients your eyes need

Eye health depends on certain nutrients for optimum health. These include vitamins A and C, bioflavonoids, carotenoids, omega 3 fatty acids, minerals and antioxidants.

7 super foods that feed your eyes:

1. Carrots. Carrots contain beta-carotene that your body converts into vitamin A.
2. Beets contain lutein and zeaxanthin, good for eye health and common age-related eye problems involving the macula and retina.
3. Spinach. A great source of vitamin A, spinach also contains other important eye nutrients including lutein and zeaxathin.
4. Tomatoes. High in vitamin C and lycopene.
5. Fish oils. High in omega 3 fatty acids.
6. Acerola berries. High in vitamin C.
7. Bilberry. The flavonoids in bilberry feed the tiny blood vessels of the eyes and lower ocular pressure. (Clinical Ophthalmology 2010, Volume 4, Pages 471-476)

Try consuming more of the above superfoods and give your eyes the nutritional support they need to be at their best!

photo © 2006 Ana Ulin

Grape Seed Extract

By now, you’ve heard of the wonders of grape seed extract. It’s in NutriPlex Formulas’ Super Greens, in the amounts used in many of the leading studies. As of late, grape seed extract is being heralded as being able to balance female hormonal health.

What the science shows

Aromatase is the enzyme that converts androgen to estrogen. Grape seed extract (GSE) contains high levels of procyanidin that have been shown to be potent inhibitors of aromatase.*

Breast cancer and too much estrogen

Too much estrogen — that’s the prevailing consensus among researchers as the reason women have hormonal problems, including cancers. Especially breast cancer.

Researchers found that grape seed extract can suppress estrogen in cancerous tissue — which produces excess amounts of estrogen — without inhibiting critical estrogen production from healthy tissue.

** The same researchers, a the Beckman Research Institute, City of Hope, say there’s more than just the procyanadins at play in grape seed extract. This is yet another testament to the multiplicity of nutrients within a food (grape seeds) as opposed to an isolate (resveratrol).

Resveratrol could be a safer alternative

Resveratrol (found in grape seed extract) could prove a safer alternative to hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in postmenopausal women and could help prevent breast cancer, according to a study published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry.

The study indicates that resveratrol is the most likely candidate of the phytoestrogens to offer safer HRT and chemoprevention of breast cancer due to its estrogenic activity and high antitumor activity.

READ MORE ABOUT SUPERGREENS – CLICK HERE.

* Cancer Res. 2006 Jun 1;66(11):5960-7; Kijima I, Phung S, Hur G, Kwok SL, Chen S., Grape seed extract is an aromatase inhibitor and a suppressor of aromatase expression.

** Wheeler, Mar, Grape seed extract suppresses estrogen in breast cancer, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, investigator Shiuan Chen, PhD, Duarte, CA, 2006

photo © 2009 Sebastian Fritzon

Life is complex and always changing.

How does this affect the supplements you use in your practice?

By realizing that life is complex and dynamic, the best you can do for your patients is to make educated guesses, try not to do any harm and respect their complexities.

Regarding the latter, we have to admit that we don’t know everything. Nor can we, with any certainty, know what’s going on inside a person’s body.

Sure, we can run a battery of tests, but we still have to respect that the body is in a constant state of change.

Playing with chemistry creates chain reactions

When you use isolates, including isolated vitamins, minerals amino acids or even drugs, there are always side effects. The reason for this is competition.

The body’s biochemistry requires complex nutrients, not isolated chemicals.

Researchers reporting in Journal of American Medical Association stated:

“Data suggests that other factors in food or the relative presence of some foods and the absence of other foods are more important than the level of individual nutrients consumed.”*

Take amino acids for example. “Because many amino acids are absorbed and metabolized in a similar fashion, there is a great deal of competition between molecules. Sometimes, one amino acid can cancel the effect of others.”**

THE Dangers of Isolates

Here are some examples of what isolated substances can do:

1. Copper can offset zinc and vitamin C
2. Magnesium can offset calcium
3. Vitamin A can offset vitamin D
4. Tryptophan competes with tyrosine
5. Cysteine competes with zinc
6. Taurine competes with glutamic acid

There are many, many examples of how vitamins, minerals and amino acids compete with one another.

The Benefit of Whole Food Supplements

Whole foods provide a variety of nutrients in a form that the body views as friendly. This is crucial.

With whole food complexes, there’s far less of a possibility of causing an imbalance as opposed to using isolates of any kind.

Read more about our clinical line of Whole Food Supplements here.

* Alice H. Lichtenstein, DSc; Robert M. Russell, MD, Essential Nutrients: Food or Supplements?, Where Should the Emphasis Be?JAMA. 2005;294:351-358.

** Braverman, MD, Eric, Carl Pfeiffer, et.a., The healing nutrients within, 2003

photo © 2008 greg westfall

by Vic Shayne, PhD

Do you offer the following advice to your patients?

Every doctor has at least this phrase stuck in his/her head as sound advice: “Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables for better health.”

Why do we offer such advice?

Natural, whole fruits and vegetables (along with modest amounts of natural meats and fish) contain the key to healing, prevention and energy.

How realistic is it to expect most people to take this advice?

Not very.

We live in a difficult time. People are eating for taste, texture, smell, presentation and convenience. All are poor reasons to eat.

We should all be eating for one main reason only: Nutrient value of our food.

Whole Food Supplements are a great way to get these vital nutrients to your patients.

Why not just go to the grocery store?

Another reality check. Most people just won’t get the foods they have to have to address their nutritional deficiencies.

If they go to the store they aren’t likely to buy (let alone eat) a box of vegetables. They aren’t like to eat the variety they need.

AND, even if they are eating vegetables, the local grocery or health food store is unlikely to carry the specific types of foods we have in our products.

NutriPlex’s whole food ingredients are gathered from around the world for their nutrient value. They go above and beyond your average produce aisle in terms of nutritional impact.

The Best Ingredients gathered from around the world

Here are some ingredients from NutriPlex products you’re not likely to find at the local supermarket:

• Acerola cherry, from the Amazon rain forest, high in vitamin C (in Flavo-C)
• Dandelion, often on your lawn but rarely at the grocer, high in potassium and minerals (in Caro-C, Green Nutrients + more)
• Cereal grasses cut at the jointing stage when the green plant is most nutrient-dense
• Liver, which is rarely served but used to be a household staple, high in iron, minerals and vitamins B and A (in GTF Complex + more)
• Wild pansies which are very high in rutin, a critical bioflavonoid to support small blood vessels and produce collagen (in Flavo-C + others)

There are many other examples as you look through our product ingredients.

NutriPlex Whole Food Supplements are packed with nutrients

What could be an easier way to get these powerful ingredients to your patients than in NutriPlex whole food supplements?

Even better, your patients can eat these foods in a pill or powder so they’ll never end up in the back of their refrigerators.

Learn more about NutriPlex Formulas Whole Food Supplements - click here.

photo © 2009 greggavedon.com

“We cure the disease not the symptom.”

Can the same be said today?

You have to wonder because drugs and even supplements aim at symptoms like never before. It’s a veritable war over the consumer dollar. Your patient is left confused.

Patients lose in the end because his/her health is on the line and an unresolved symptom continues to devolve without real, whole nutrients, avoidance of toxins, exercise and stress reduction.

Here are 5 Tips to let your patients see the difference between getting better and feeling better:

1. Marketing, marketing, marketing.
   Send out emails, flyers, brochures and newsletters. Each one should contain the message that your interest is to target the problem not the symptom.
2. Teach them about food.
   Few people know what foods do for their health. This includes most doctors. If a patient understands that there are nutrients and phytochemicals in foods that can’t be duplicated in a lab, then you’ll have their attention.
3. Never give your patients too much info at once.
   A patient eating the SAD (standard American) diet isn’t likely to walk out and change his/her diet the same day. You have to slowly educate each patient as to how nutrition is the building block of health because it makes the kinds of physiological improvements that stimulants and suppressants fail to make.
4. Use analogies.
   You can never use too many. Compare how Coca cola, a slice of pie and a barbiturate can stimulate you but that they always come with a health-depleting price, whether it’s high blood sugar, an overworked pancreas, cancer, destruction of mucous membranes or an addiction. To truly get better, your patients need nothing short of real, whole, natural foods.
5. Use whole food supplements WITHOUT isolates
   (be careful because most whole food companies spike their supplements, so you have to read the labels to discover them). Whole foods feed the cells the building blocks of prevention, healing, energy and health. Isolates and drugs cannot make the same claim in truth.

Read more about our Whole Food Supplements - click here.

But makes no mistake: Almost all Vitamin C in pill form comes from one not so sweet source:

CORN SUGAR.

Let’s take a look at what vitamin C does for your body and which sources of vitamin C are healthier options.

What Vitamin C does for You

We all know that vitamin C is good for us. In the 1700s, it was discovered that it prevents scurvy.

It also supports and is used in the manufacture of collagen, protects the lung tissues, supports arterial endogenous and exogenous linings, feeds the heart, nourishes the adrenal glands and keeps the skin from falling apart. And there’s much more.

Whole Foods beat Isolates

Your body processes vitamins better when they come in a whole food form. This is because they are accompanied by all the cofactors that help break down the vitamin and use its nutrients.

When a vitamin is extracted from its food complex form, it loses a great deal of its efficacy and can even cause side effects.

When you buy Vitamin C ascorbic acid (the most common form of vitamin C sold in stores) you should know it is not even made from fruits, as most people are misled to believe with photos of bright oranges on bottle labels.

Getting better Vitamin C from Foods (and loads more of it!)

Like any other nutrient, the best vitamin C is and will always be contained inside of a natural food.

Examples of foods containing vitamin C are lemons, limes, grapefruit and apples.

And one of the highest sources is acerola cherry which we use in a few of our supplements (Flavo-C, Whole Food Complex, ImmuneSupport).

Acerola Berry: a Great Source of C

In acerola: in addition to vitamin C, you get the other nutritional benefits that you will NOT find in vitamin C isolates, no matter how potent.

Acerola also contains magnesium, pantothenic acid and potassium. It has vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin and niacin. Plus there’s calcium, protein, iron, limonen and phosphorus.

Again, These Vitamin C whole foods contain not only the vitamin, but also all of the cofactors that make it viable to human biochemistry.

Click here to learn more about Flavo-C.

vitamin photo © 2007 SOCIALisBETTER

fruit photo © 2010 Lori Greig