Taken from a recent Ask Tony Isaacs CureZone forum question
Q:
Hi Tony ,
I see a lot of valuable information in your posts and I thank you for that, but it amazes me how you keep recommending different supplements, vitamins (synthetic) and other stuff that is supposed to be healthy and yet you miss the fact that all supplements are made by the same companies that make drugs, they don't work, they have side effects just like drugs,they are not natural – synthetic Vitamin C is not real Vitamin C, it is a mirror image of the real one and is toxic. For decades now humans try to imitate nature and never succeed. You cannot take a real Vitamin and put it in a pill, you cannot take herbs and make drugs from them and expect miracles. I think it is misleading for a lot of people to push synthetic stuff. I think if nature made it and it's not processed by humans in any way or form then it's good for you. Why bother taking 10grams Vitamin C (synthetic) when you can just have some rosehips and get all the other minerals and vitamins on top of Vitamin C. Colloidal Silver? Are you sure? What for? There are so many natural antibiotics in nature (natural, not man made) that I don't see why would anyone bother with Colloidal Silver and take any chances.
No offense intended, just my opinion. Let me know what you think.
Thanks
A:
No offense taken and you ask a good question. My answer is that first of all, there is a big difference between a chemically and bio-identical form of a vitamin as opposed to a patented altered version not found in nature. Take Vitamin C. No one is more respected than two-time Nobel laureate Linus Pauling when it comes to vitamin C. According to the Linus Pauling Institute:
• Natural vs. synthetic ascorbic acid: Natural and synthetic ascorbic acid are chemically identical. As assessed by at least two studies, there appears to be no clinically significant difference in the bioavailability and bioactivity of natural ascorbic acid and synthetic ascorbic acid.
Jane Higdon, R.N., Ph.D.
LPI Research Associate
In an ideal and idyllic world, we would be able to get from nature all the vitamins and minerals and other nutrition we needed to supply our basic needs and to build and maintain a strong immune system so we could beat and ward off disease.
In order to do that, we would have to have sources for a constant supply of a wide variety of fresh vegetables and fruits which came from uncontaminated nutrient rich soils, as well as meat and fish that was free of contaminants and not subject to feedlot or artificial growth practices.
We would also need a supply of clean air, fresh uncontaminated mineral rich water and a superior herb garden with all the best medicinal plants nature had to offer.
Few of us can come even close to such a world. And even if we could, contamination of the soil and air and water is world-wide now with chemicals nature did not intend our immune systems to have to overcome. Believing that you can get everything you want from your diet and a few herbs is a nice thought. In your grandmother's day it would likely have been true. Back then, a bowl of fresh spinach had eight times the nutrition as it does today, and many hundreds of times less contamination. The same as was true for other foods, the soil, the air, and the water.
Cancer and other chronic illnesses are in large part man-made diseases, as we have failed miserably in our duties to be good shepherds of the bounty nature has supplied for us. For the 99.999% of the people who cannot live in such an idyllic world, especially here in the United States and most other developed countries, you simply cannot get the nutrients you need from diet and available fresh herbs alone to maintain an optimum immune system, much less to boost it and help it face the onslaught of modern chemicals man has dumped into our water, foods, air, soil, plants and animals.
Silver and the oleander I write extensively about are both natural. Both have been used for thousands of years to combat illness and promote health. Many of the products that I recommend are derived from nature, such as the 75 plant derived colloidal trace minerals. And the others, contrary to what you may believe are almost entirely NOT made by pharmaceutical companies and have not been changed to a different patentable chemical compound. Sorry, but your statement, "all supplements are made by the same companies that make drugs" is incorrect.
You say that man has tried to imitate nature and failed. I say that man could do much worse than imitate or mirror nature (as opposed to alter it). It is when man has tried to change nature that he has failed most. To say that we should only consume something if nature made it and it's not been processed by humans in any shape or form would rule out all cooked foods and most natural beverages. I have yet to find a whole wheat muffin and glass of hot tea sitting in the field or woods. And as far as taking out a part of a plant, it is usually only when that is done in such a way that leaves out synergistic supporting compounds that causes problems. As an analogy, when I catch fish I usually like to separate the fillets from the skin, bones and entrails. In the same way, you normally take an orange from the tree and peel it and eat only the flesh. You do not also eat a branch along with it.
For thousands of years, man has taken the natural medicinals of the earth and made natural remedies from them – either by processing them naturally or combining them. And the best of them have indeed worked what some might consider miracles. For a fraction of that time, man and his labs have tried to improve on what you can make from nature with altered and invented compounds and that is where the failures have largely come from – along with the failure to address proper nutrition, lifestyle, prevention and treating the whole body instead of just symptoms.
Whenever you can get vitamins, minerals, medicinal plants and/or herbs from nature, by all means do so. But do realize that even dried herbs are not the same as those found in nature. Much depends on the soil and conditions they were grown in and how they were harvested, dried, stored and transported.
So, while pure natural sources are always best, for the huge majority of us who cannot get everything we need from a safe and healthy diet and fresh from the fields to meet the requirements of maintaining a healthy body, much less get the therapeutic amounts we need to treat a serious condition, I think supplements are a good and proven alternative.