There is no doubt about it, supplements can be a useful tool to include in a healthy lifestyle, especially in our high stress modern world. They can be an excellent tool for boosting healing processes and providing your body with extra support when your life circumstance calls for it. Supplementation can even take you from good to exceptional physical and mental performance (when done properly). However, supplementation can lead some down a frustrating and expensive path when done blindly and with misguided reasoning. Before you consider purchasing a supplement, always begin by looking up its efficacy and potential to support and heal your body. Then, take a mindful minute to ask yourself some important questions, answering them openly and honestly:
1. Are you consciously and actively meeting personal nutrition and hydration needs?
2. How do you mitigate stress? Is it effective? Or do you feel regular bouts of energy lulls and dis-ease?
3. Do you feel you generally get optimal sleep quantity and quality?
4. Are you active and moving enough during the day? Are you limber and free of pain?
5. What kinds of stress are you exposing yourself to? Are you exposing yourself to acute, positive, resilience forming stress (eustress) or chronic westernized stress inputs?
Your body is intelligent. It will let you know loud and clear as to whether your nutrition and lifestyle practices aren’t right for you via pain and symptoms. And it will continue sending these signals until it is heard and something is changed. Attempting to silence the body, whether it be with natural supplements or drugs, is generally not addressing the often multi-factorial, underlying issues that lead to body dysfunction. Don't get trapped spending your hard earned money on supplements in an attempt to cut off the body’s feedback loops (pain and symptoms) that are trying to indicate a nutrition or lifestyle change is required. When you do not begin to deal with the underlying nutrition and lifestyle issues that have led to you feeling you need supplementation, the supplementation is not likely going to make a lasting difference anyways. You cannot out-supplement improper nutrition and lifestyle practices.
Ironically, many of the practices I am referring to would likely quash the need for many supplements in the first place. And the real kicker is that many of these practices don’t cost any money!