Supplementation and Nutrition
After 40 Years: Do Nutrients Really Work?
by Murray Susser, MD
Do nutrient supplements really work? That question should elicit a guffaw or at least a silly smirk. In my seasoned, much traveled mind, it boggles me to think that people still ask that question. It baffles me that many medical “experts” who can use their agile and misguided minds to present preposterous arguments denying the therapeutic value (not just value, actually vital importance) of nutritional supplements. It is plain as an acne scarred nose, that nutritional supplementation has proven itself many times over. I, for one, have used nutritional therapeutics for nigh on three dog life spans, on perhaps 30,000 patients, and res ipsa loquitur, the matter speaks for itself. I think that is how the lawyers say it, but of course they use it entirely differently. But I think that I am being ingenuous. I really know that everyone has at least a little axe to grind and there is no such thing as a totally unbiased and even-handed opinion. Remember Diogenes, that great Greek eccentric, roamed ancient Athens with a lantern, day and night, looking into everyone’s face —— searching for an honest man. As legend goes, he never found one. Perhaps, he should have spent more time looking at women’s faces.
I propose that the people who deny the values of nutritional supplements are wrong. I have held that position for about four decades and I am not likely to change my emblazoned mind. I have found that there are only three reasons for a person to be wrong:
- Ignorance
- Craziness
- Corruption
All the other nouns and adjectives fit into one or more of these categories. If someone finds another reason, I will be delighted to add it to the list. Until then, just know that a lot of experts are smart and knowledgeable and do not easily fit into Category 1. They may have aberrations and mental glitches or just be overzealous, which could also be called a little crazy and they then might squeeze into Category 2. The most worrisome group is, of course, Category 3. It is also very difficult to prove since it may be that powerful and wealthy forces are competing with vitamin therapies, and use sly measures to influence the experts who oppose vitamins.
With this background on the battleground that surrounds the use of vitamin therapies, just know that the amount written about this subject, both pro and con, could fill massive libraries and data bases. I will no longer dwell on the trenchant subject; I just want to talk about my experience in using these controversial vitamin therapies and why they can be so good and perhaps why they are so controversial.
There are many reasons why the use of vitamin therapy is good. The main reason is that it works. That means that the problem we are treating improves or disappears. That obvious result should seem inescapably easy to assess. But assessment is in the eye of the assessor. All of my doctor colleagues who use vitamin therapy, have experienced “The Emperor’s New Clothes” in a lab coat. The conventional doctor who shares the patient care, and sees the unconventional vitamin treatment work miraculously, often promptly denies it as if he had not seen the obvious. Just as no one but the little child could see that the Emperor was actually naked and his new clothes did not exist, the conventional doctor sees a “spontaneous remission” instead of a nutritional cure.
The second reason for using nutrient therapies whenever possible would be because they do no harm. Virtually all side effects from nutritional therapy benefit the patient. This directly contrasts with drug therapy the side effects that almost always harm the patient. Remember, the best definition of a drug is that it is a selective poison. In the USA, to compare the number of harmful reactions to vitamins versus the number of drug reactions staggers the mind. Where as we get perhaps a few dozen significant reactions to vitamins yearly, we get over 100,000 fatal reactions to pharmaceuticals and some say that figure should be tripled. Keep in mind those reactions occur when the drug is used properly. What does that say about the improper use of the prescription drugs?
Another important distinction between nutrient and drug therapy surfaces often as addiction and dependency. The more one uses drugs, the more one needs them. With the exception of anti-biotics, drugs generally use up the raw materials the body provides for the drugs to perform their functions. The modern psychotropic drugs such as the seratonin anti-depressants, provide the clearest examples. As they metabolize the body seratonin, they seem to use it up, thereby constantly needing more and more. This would mimic the addiction to narcotics and other such drugs with abuse potential. Anti-biotics seem to be the most benign class of drug toxicity, but they carry their own abuse potential. They breed resistant organisms leading to types of virulent bugs that are becoming impervious to anti-biotic treatment