Metabolism and Supplements

If knowledge is indeed power – then I feel it is my responsibility to tell you to check with your physician before adding supplements to your diet. I am not familiar with each of your individual medical histories and there could be great concern in taking some supplements.

First, discard all notions that supplements are “bad” for you. If you hold on to those thoughts you’re just buying into media hype, and that says something about yourself. We should all learn to investigate claims further because half the time we find out the people making such bold assertions cannot back them up what-so-ever.

Let’s begin. In this post we’ll be discussing how to raise your metabolism effectively by proper supplementing. What I don’t want you to do after you read this is to run to the store and start buying caffeine and metabolic enhancers, and all that jazz. While those supplements do offer positive effects, they don’t offer long-term healthy solutions. We want to supplement with nutrients and minerals that our body SHOULD be getting on a regular basis, and not those that will artificially boost certain bodily functions.

Multivitamins speak for themselves pretty much. There are few critics of vitamins, and those that are out there are most certainly the minority, probably lacking any scientific proof. A vitamin is a vital mineral. More accurately, it is an organic compound that the body cannot synthesize in sufficient amounts and therefore needs to be received in the diet (familydoctor.org editorial staff). The vitamins are crucial because they have so many different biochemical functions that are necessary for your survival. You should be eating a multivitamin daily, and note that whole food multivitamins have a higher absorption rate (typically around 90-95%) than their synthetically produced counterparts like Centrum (which is around 70%). The two vitamins I’d like to touch on are vitamins B and E. Vitamin B acts as a co-enzyme. What’s a co-enzyme? It’s a co-factor that is necessary for particular enzymes to function. So what’s an enzyme? Enzymes are molecular structures that increase the reaction rates of their respective chemicals. For example, the enzyme lactase acts on lactose (which is found in dairy products) to help speed the breakdown of this nutrient. Enzymes exponentially increase these reaction rates and that’s why co-enzymes are so important, because some enzymes need their co-factors to function. Now vitamin E is not necessarily related to metabolism, but I thought I’d share anyway for your own benefit. Vitamin E is an antioxidant. As an antioxidant it slows or halts some oxidative processes that go on in your body. According to the National Cancer Institute, oxidation releases free radicals (free-floating molecular structures that look to steal electrons) that cause reactions in your body that lead to cell damage/death, and cancer in some cases. The reason this happens is because these free radicals look to gain an extra electron from anything they can, and when they take them from healthy cells in your body this can cause the cell to mutate. The antioxidants job is to give these free radicals the electron they need so that they can neutralize them and stop them from causing harm.

B-complex is a vitamin so it may seem redundant, but hear me out. When you take a multivitamin you’re not getting the most out of those B-vitamins because there are simply so many kinds of B vitamins. They only put certain ones in there and your body could stand to take in much more since any extra that is not utilized is excreted. B-complex is going to load you up with much more co-enzymatic molecules and energizing molecules (natural alert energy) allowing your metabolism to be boosted and many times it will say on the label that they are for metabolic support.

Essential fatty acids are the next on our list. These are some more substances that cannot be synthesized in the body and therefore must be obtained in your diet. Don’t let the word fat make you think it’s automatically bad, although I know some of you think that way. Originally given the name Vitamin F, these fatty acids play a part in many metabolic processes as well as preventing some illnesses and helping your body function more efficiently in general (A.D.A.M., Inc.).

Now I must let you know that I’m about to start talking about poop. Fecal retention is known as constipation, and I bet most of you aren’t constipated, however, I know that all of you are retaining fecal matter. Bear with me now, I know this is gross to some, but the average person retains some fecal matter at all times in their body. That means when you defecate, not all of your excrements are being expelled. I’ll tell you why. If you know anything about the intestines (small and large) in your body you know that it’s a labyrinthine, tubular structure. In that structure we have cilia, which are cylindrical finger-like structures that jut out from the walls of your intestines whose purpose is to increase surface area for the absorption of nutrients. This in turn increases your metabolism because the catabolic functioning gets sped up. But what happens when your intestines get clogged and bogged down with fat and waste? Your metabolism goes down for starters, because there’s less surface area for nutrients to be absorbed through. If you’re a heavy fat/meat/fried food/protein eater then your intestines are likely to be more clogged than your average person (keeping fiber intake constant). So to give your body one of the quickest jumps in metabolism that you can, I advise a colon cleanse. You can do this in several ways, either by going to a physician and having the procedure done or the much less invasive high-fiber powders which act as laxatives. Doing this colon cleanse will expel years of built up waste and will free up clogged cilia allowing you to absorb much more of your food/nutrients.

Not only will these help boost your metabolism, but there will definitely be the added psychological effect when you lose those initial pounds. Who knows, this could be the impetus that turns you into a self-proclaimed nutrition/fitness guru yourself.

References

A.D.A.M., Inc. University of Maryland Medical Center. 1 May 2007. 20 November 2008 http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/omega-3-000316.htm.

familydoctor.org editorial staff. familydoctor.org. December 2006. 20 November 2008 http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/otc-center/otc-medicines/863.html.

National Cancer Institute. 28 July 2004. 20 November 2008 http://www.nci.nih.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/antioxidantsprevention.

Ophardt, Charles E. Virtual Chembook. 2003. 20 November 2008 http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/index.html.