Why I Won’t Take 99% of Supplements Ever Again

I have taken tens of thousands of supplements. By my estimation.

This is what people do who become highly suspicious of pharma.

We go to the "alternative" docs and we take THEIR pills. And we assume they're "natural.”

Sadly, nothing could be further from the truth.

We even give our practitioner a pass when we take $1,500 of supplements they sell, and notice absolutely no evidence of being healthier–

–certainly not permanently, though some supplements can make you “feel” something.

So we go back and buy MORE pills. Always look for the pill that finally “works.”

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I have been fascinated for years by people telling me that because they feel something different, when taking a pill (supplement), that “it’s working” and they’re going to keep buying it.

I wonder if they know that what’s “working” is almost always a throwaway byproduct of some industry, fabricated by the chemical and phama industries using solvents and acids, to be a powder in a pill.

The WILDEST example I can think of is the “niacin flush,” which is pure synthetic toxic poisons, but Google will serve you up glowing reports by its favored sites such as WebMD, NIH, and Healthline.

Google side effects of niacinamide though:

Upset stomach, diarrhea, vomiting, redness, itching, burning … have you heard enough?

Just because you can find a couple of molecules in COAL TAR that are also in healthy FOODS–doesn’t mean niacinamide in food, or medicinal.

More likely how it works that we end up with $1,500 in pills is that we just go to a practitioner, saying something’s wrong here, and we’re sold some pills.

(We weren’t specifically looking for pills. Just help.)

Have you seen this pic of the mostly-solvents, slick, oily garbage that came out of my blood?

This was while doing INUSpheresis in Switzerland in July.

No one in North America has INUSpheresis yet. AFAIK, it’s not approved by FDA. 

My pic of the “first pass” filtration–looks like motor oil–and the second pass (a bigger bag, dumping into water)--it's similar to what I saw there at the clinic, from others.

I’m not better, not worse.

Everybody else who did INUSpheresis had similar results, except one couple who claimed they had much less than average.

(I did not see their output, to confirm this. They were told by the nurses and doctor that it was less than average. They were also fit, looked younger than their years, healthy, and affluent.

The wife and I were the ONLY two to do INUSpheresis who refused the "nutrient IV's." Due to my research on what’s really in those IV’s. I used to get them.

We were also the only two who didn’t get puffy and retain water for 24 hours after the treatment. Hmmm.)

So what does somebody like me, who eats a whole-food plant-based, mostly organic diet, and I have absolutely zero plaque in my body, cardiologist Dr. Simone told me in July after doing an ECG, also saying I have the cardiovascular system of a 20-year old-

--what am I doing with a QUART of jet-fuel-like petroleum-looking product in my blood?

I have three toxic exposures that I can think of, that could explain it.

Let’s talk about my #1 theory: the MASSIVE NUMBER OF SUPPLEMENTS I used to take.

Like, I've done this an embarrassing number of times:

I’d see a supplement that I bought 5 years before, somewhere in my house. And I’m not sure what it was for, or what it even is:

I just wasn’t getting results so I forgot to keep taking it.

So then a few months or years later, I just randomly take it till it's gone. Because I spent good money on that.

And because I used to think, "Well, it's NATURAL, and my functional medicine practitioner wouldn't sell it to me if I didn't need it. So it couldn’t hurt, and it could be beneficial in some way."

Gone are those days and those beliefs. I've published a fair amount on this topic here, here, and here–and I am writing a book.

But in excess of 95% of the supplements out there are made synthetically in huge facilities in two major third-world countries, by pharmaceutical companies, with SOLVENTS involved.

My doctor in Switzerland says MOST of the crazy stuff they filter out of the blood is SOLVENTS.

Let me say this again: your supplements are made (mostly by PHARMA companies) with PETROCHEMICAL solvents.

Write the companies you're buying all your "natural" pills from and ask them:

"Can you tell me with certainty that no solvents were used in the manufacture of your capsule and the contents of the capsule?"

They likely just won't answer you. Their CSR's don't know. Because nobody asks that. They don't have the answer to that question, because nobody asks it! Customers don’t know to ask this question.

Or the CSR might ask his boss, who asks her boss, who says yes–and the CSR may be told to just ignore your email.

They might answer you and just write some vapid and shiny word salad that they hope makes you go away. (Without answering.)

Or they might tell you the truth, that your "natural supplements" have solvents in them (while telling you it's a negligible amount that ends up in your supplement).

The solvents issue is by no means my only problem with most of the supplements on the market today.

The base materials your supplements are made of are a conversation for another day.

But here’s an article I wrote about how all your “B vitamins” (and others!) are made from coal tar, and acids.

(But, for instance, there was NO citrus or some fabulous fruits or vegetables involved in your "Vitamin C" nor your Vitamin B's or K, nor your "calcium" or "magnesium"--none of them.

I honestly cannot believe how many decades I went, popping pills and ASSUMING that I was covering some "nutrient deficiency" with pills made of something very valuable. Turns out I was wrong.)

And someone is going to ask me, okay but what brand DO I buy my supplements from then?

To which if you're even still reading, I just ask that you just read this a second time.

When people ask me that, I figure this is their first exposure to these facts, and they're missing the point:

Virtually every company, 10,000's of them, are buying the "nutrients" from the same couple of massive pharma- and chemical-company sources.

(I use the qualifier “virtually every” because I’m still looking for a company that sells “B vitamins” or “vitamin D” or “vitamin C” and more–who DON’T get their raw materials in 40-gallon drums from Chinese and Indian chemical plants.

I’ve found ONE small company. That appears to be using foods and superfoods in large, pressed pills and capsules. But they refuse to answer whether solvents are used in their product. I keep asking them.)

What the label looks like, and what trusted practitioner sold it to you with his name on the label, is irrelevant. That's a matter of graphic design and printing.

They all get the base materials from the same couple of huge companies.

Please hear me when I tell you, your doc sold it to you because THEY DON’T KNOW what I’m telling you.

They haven’t dug into the narratives, either, just like you hadn’t. A marketer sold it to them, and they’re the marketer selling it to you.

If you’ve spent thousands of dollars of your hard-earned, scarce dollars (like I did) without knowing what those pills are made of, and how–is it really that hard to believe that your doctor has no idea, either?

Or, your doc may be hearing the buzz, and has heard about these topics (which are starting to spread) after spending many years building up repeat customers that net them $10K/month or more. They're certainly not going to give that up now.

I tried to talk to my own (former) hormone practitioner three times in two years, about the “vitamin D” she sells.

She just changed the subject, in person, twice. And ignored my email about it, which was my third attempt.

If the burning question on your mind at this point is still, “Then what brand do I buy?”--

–please read the blog posts I’ve linked to above, on these topics I've written in detail–

–on B "vitamins," "vitamin D," ascorbic acid falsely called “vitamin C,” and “what your supplements are really made of.”

I know it’s a shock to learn all this. But the upside is: you can save yourself a lot of money now.

If you’d like to see this article in video form, here it is.

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