It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

So, no question/request too big or small 😎

❝There seems to be a lot of suggestions to take supplements for every thing, from your head to your toes. I know it’s up to the individual but what are the facts or stats to support taking them versus not?❞

Short answer:

• supplementary vitamins and minerals are probably neither needed nor beneficial for most (more on this later) people, with the exception of vitamin D which most people over a certain age need unless they are white and getting a lot of sun.
• other kinds of supplement can be very beneficial or useless, depending on what they are, of course, and also your own personal physiology.

With regard to vitamins and minerals, in most cases they should be covered by a healthy balanced diet, and the bioavailability is usually better from food anyway (bearing in mind, we say vitamin such-and-such, or name an elemental mineral, but there are usually multiple, often many, forms of each—and supplements will usually use whatever is cheapest to produce and most chemically stable).

However! It is also quite common for food to be grown in whatever way is cheapest and produces the greatest visible yield, rather than for micronutrient coverage.

This goes for most if not all plants, and it goes extra for animals (because of the greater costs and inefficiencies involved in rearing animals).

We wrote about this a while back in a mythbusting edition of 10almonds, covering:

• Food is less nutritious now than it used to be: True or False?
• Supplements aren’t absorbed properly and thus are a waste of money: True or False?
• We can get everything we need from our diet: True or False?

You can read the answers and explanations, and see the science that we presented, here:

Do We Need Supplements, And Do They Work?

You may be wondering: what was that about “most (more on this later) people”?

Sometimes someone will have a nutrient deficiency that can’t be easily remedied with diet. Often this occurs when their body:

1. has trouble absorbing that nutrient, or
2. does something inconvenient with it that makes a lot of it unusable when it gets it.

…which is why calcium, iron, vitamin B12, and vitamin D are quite common supplements to get prescribed by doctors after a certain age.

Still, it’s best to try getting things from one’s diet first all of all, of course.

Things we can’t (reasonably) get from food

This is another category entirely. There are many supplements that are convenient forms of things readily found in a lot of food, such as vitamins and minerals, or phytochemicals like quercetin, fisetin, and lycopene (to name just a few of very many).

Then there are things not readily found in food, or at least, not in food that’s readily available in supermarkets.

For example, if you go to your local supermarket and ask where the mimosa is, they’ll try to sell you a cocktail mix instead of the roots, bark, or leaves of a tropical tree. It is also unlikely they’ll stock lion’s mane mushroom, or reishi.

If perchance you do get the chance to acquire fresh lion’s mane mushroom, by the way, give it a try! It’s delicious shallow-fried in a little olive oil with black pepper and garlic.

In short, this last category, the things most of us can’t reasonably get from food without going far out of our way, are the kind of thing whereby supplements actually can be helpful.

And yet, still, not every supplement has evidence to support the claims made by its sellers, so it’s good to do your research beforehand. We do that on Mondays, with our “Research Review Monday” editions, of which you can find in our searchable research review archive ← we also review some drugs that can’t be classified as supplements, but mostly, it’s supplements.

Take care!

It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

So, no question/request too big or small

❝Questions?❞

It seems that this week, everyone was so satisfied with our information, that we received no questions! (If you sent one and we somehow missed it, please accept our apologies and do bring our attention to it)

However, we did receive some expert feedback that we wanted to share because it’s so informative:

❝I work at a detox rehab in Mexico, where we can use methods not legal in the United States. Therefore, while much of the linked articles had useful information, I’m in the “trenches” every day, and there’s some information I’d like to share that you may wish to share, with additional information:

1. Buprenorphine is widely used and ineffective for addiction because it’s synthetic and has many adverse side effects. For heavy drug users it isn’t enough and they still hit the streets for more opioid, resulting in fentanyl deaths. Depending on length of usage and dose, it can take WEEKS to get off of, and it’s extremely difficult.
2. Ibogaine is the medicine we use to detox people off opiates, alcohol, meth as well as my own specialty, bulimia. It’s psychoactive and it temporarily “resets” the brain to a pre-addictive state. Supplemented by behavior and lifestyle changes, as well as addressing the traumas that led to the addiction is extremely effective.

Our results are about 50%, meaning the client is free of the substance or behavior 1 year later. Ibogaine isn’t a “magic pill” or cure, it’s an opening tool that makes the difficult work of reclaiming one’s life easier.

Ibogaine is not something that should be done outside a medical setting. It requires an EKG to ensure the heart is healthy and doesn’t have prolonged QT intervals; also blood testing to ensure organs are functioning (especially the liver) and mineral levels such as magnetic and potassium are where they should be. It is important that this treatment be conducted by experienced doctors or practitioners, and monitoring vital signs constantly is imperative.

I’m taking time to compose this information because it needs to be shared that there is an option available most people have not heard about.❞

~ 10almonds reader (slightly edited for formatting and privacy)

Thank you for that! Definitely valuable information for people to know, and (if applicable for oneself or perhaps a loved one) ask about when it comes to local options.

We see it’s also being studied for its potential against other neurological conditions, too:

❝The combination of ibogaine and antidepressants produces a synergistic effect in reducing symptoms of psychiatric disorders such as bipolar disorder, depression, schizophrenia, paranoia, anxiety, panic disorder, mania, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and obsessive–compulsive disorder. Though ibogaine and the antidepressant act in different pathways, together they provide highly efficient therapeutic responses compared to when each of the active agents is used alone.❞

~ Dr. Robert Kargbo

Read more: Ibogaine and Their Analogs as Therapeutics for Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders

For those who missed it, today’s information about ibogaine was in response to our article:

Let’s Get Letting Go (Of These Three Things)

…which in turn referenced our previous main feature:

Which Addiction-Quitting Methods Work Best?

Take care!