In today’s fast-paced world, many people turn to the internet for health advice—especially TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. While some content creators offer useful tips, there’s a growing amount of misinformation (or, information that I strongly disagree with) about supplements floating around. As a healthcare professional who actively sees patients and isn’t a “health influencer”, I want to clear the air and help you make better choices for your health. I understand how hypocritical this may sound, given the fact that I’m a doctor who offers health advice on all of the aforementioned platforms. However, within the techniques I utilize and clinical experience under my belt, these are my opinions on things to pay attention to. Maybe you should stop doing these things!
Stop Making Excuses
This one might be a little blunt, but hear me out. The best things that you can do for your health require discipline. Eating right, exercising, spending time outside, work-life balance, and following recommendations from a professional can all be a burden sometimes. In order to fix problems, you have to come to terms with the fact that it is absolutely going to take work.
One of the most important aspects of patient care in my office is eating properly. Eating in such a way that hormone dependence to regulate blood sugar is as minimal as possible. It takes WORK, hard work, to completely change your diet and optimize that part of your life. However, the most common causes of death in the United States all start with metabolic disease that spirals out of control. Fixing blood sugar and eating properly is the only way to fix this.
The only person that can fix your health is you. Stop making excuses and eat right, exercise, and regulate that sleep schedule!
Stop Believing Everything You See on TikTok About Supplements
TikTok is full of videos promoting “miracle” supplements like various drinks, catch-all multivitamins, or probiotics that supposedly work for everyone. This can’t be any further from the truth. If you’re trying to make some serious change to chronic health issues, your supplement choices must be personalized, specific, and from high quality sources. Many creators aim to sell products rather than provide accurate health advice. This often leads to wasted money and ineffective treatments.
Even if products found online are good quality, having too many ingredients in a supplement increases the chances that at least one of the ingredients causes you some trouble. Dysbiosis/SIBO is a common condition I will see this with. Riboflavin, iron, and probiotics can feed overgrown microbes or increase the amount of microbes in the gut and cause symptoms to get worse. Single ingredient nutrients can help you avoid this problem.
Stop Buying Low-Quality Supplements
Supplements sold at major retailers like Walmart, Kroger, or Costco often contain low-quality ingredients or additives that may do more harm than good. Instead of buying generic supplements, it’s important to seek trusted brands recommended by qualified healthcare providers. I can’t stress enough how often I see this problem. All supplements are NOT created equal.
In the office, I only use brands that are tried and true. Not only do they come from reputable brands, but they also will consistently test well utilizing the Systems Health Care technique that is the core of the diagnostic process in our office.
We offer resources on our website outlining good versus poor-quality supplements for anyone interested.
Stop Using Popular Supplements Without Proper Guidance
Some popular supplements such as fulvic acid, clay binders, activated charcoal, and methylene blue are often misunderstood. While these can have certain benefits, many patients show adverse reactions or poor test results when using them.
For example, methylene blue might improve muscle strength but can disrupt acupuncture meridians and overall system balance. Fulvic acid does the same. I have NEVER seen a patient take that without serious downstream affects. Probiotics are probably the most common on this list. Whenever somebody comes into the office with any sort of gut issue. I tell patients to stop them before they even set foot in my office. Fighting fire with fire isn’t something that makes sense to me. At lease in this circumstance!
Stop Guessing—Work With a Holistic Healthcare Provider
Instead of trying a new supplement every week, work with a holistic healthcare provider who uses systems-based testing like applied kinesiology. This approach identifies exactly what your body needs and at what dose—removing guesswork and preventing unnecessary or harmful supplements. Supplements get expensive quickly. Especially if you take 10+ every day like many of my patients do before coming to see me. In the long run, it’s cheaper to fix problems and not have to take supplements everyday. Also, that many pills in a day just doesn’t sound very fun.
If you are considering taking a prescription medication, seek the care and advice of a medical professional. This is my take on nutritional supplements, not medications.
If you are experiencing any health issues and would like to discuss them, book a free consultation with me here. To find other docs that practice how I do, click here. For more health articles, click here.
If you aren’t too short on time, tune into my podcast below to listen more about why you should STOP doing these things!