FAQ’s

6 - NUTRITION: Nutrient Dosages

What is a reasonable dose of a vitamin or mineral? Some people recommend very high doses and others say that supplements are unnecessary?

Each of our organs is created with a reserve capacity so that we can tolerate stresses beyond normal daily activities.  These reserves range from four times to ten times what the organ needs for usual activity.  When symptoms in an organ occur, it is usually due to a depletion of that organ’s reserves.  The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) and Daily Value (DV) levels are designed to keep the average person from becoming deficient.

When a person is under stress from any source, there is an increased use of nutrients and the RDAs and DVs are inadequate.  There are Stop Your Pain Now! tapping methods to reduce stress as described in the short video on our Web TV Previews  – Reduce Stress in Just 30 Seconds! and also in the DVD entitled “Stop Your Pain Now! – A Self-help Guide For Acute & Chronic Pain (Injuries, Arthritis, Low Back Pain & Much More!)  These techniques may reduce your needs for higher doses of nutrients by reducing your overall stress.

When we are trying to help the body to heal itself with natural remedies such as nutrition, we may have to supply up to ten times the RDA for the organ(s) under stress to just keep even with the depletion of the organ’s reserves.  In fact, in some people, temporary doses higher than ten times the RDA may be required because they require levels of nutrients to replace depleted reserves in addition to keeping up with the increased stress.  When the proper substances in the proper amounts are supplied, patients’ symptoms, particularly those associated with low energy, low stamina, hypoglycemia, and low adrenal function improve.

I have seen many patients overdosing on nutrients by improper self-prescribing.  For example, low back pain often requires low dose vitamin E supplementation.  By low dose, I mean 200 IU or less of a mixed tocopherols source of vitamin E per day.  The DV for vitamin E is 30 IU per day.  Most people who self-prescribe take at least 400 IU of vitamin E per day which is over ten times the RDA.  Excess Vitamin E can create toxic effects and enhance, rather than relieve low back pain.  You can look at our Web TV Previews and the short video Low Back Pain Relief for a simple technique that will help to relieve low back pain.  However, if you continue to take an overdose of vitamin E, the pain will return.

Stick with four to ten times the RDA for any nutrients that you might supplement, and you will not experience any of these toxic effects.