Dangers of Natural Herbal Supplementation

[We are the Foolish Couple, Andy and Minna, founders of the Foco Academy. We focus on mentoring and teaching the Success Principles and how to apply the principles to the 3 areas of life that money can’t buy: Health, Time, and Love Relationship.] 

Dangers of “Natural” Supplementation

Nowadays, more and more people are looking for natural supplements such as Ayurvedic and herbal medicine from traditional Chinese medicine to lose weight, for adrenal support, performance enhancement, digestive health or just general health and well-being. But there is one common mistake that can pretty much overwrite any of the benefits of their supplementation.

And that mistake is people make the assumption that because the supplementation is supposedly ‘all natural’ and is not a prescription drug, that it is safe for them to use.

Just because something is ‘labeled’ as natural doesn’t necessarily mean that it is good for your body.

In a recent study called, “Ayurvedic and herbal medicine-induced liver injury: It is time to wake up and take notice”, the article talks about the dangers of ayurvedic and traditional Chinese medicine and how they can cause liver damage.

Many people buy random off the shelf ayurvedic supplementation from Amazon or other online stores, looking for adrenal support to help with hormones or better sleep or they may be taking herbal remedies from their acupuncturists or Chinese doctor for liver and kidney support. Or they may be taking herbal remedies just because they feel “under the weather”.

In the journal, studies found that there are toxic levels of heavy metals such as Lead, Mercury and even Arsenic in a lot of these so-called natural supplements. The heavy metals inside the supplements will cause damage to the liver rather than supporting it.

The problem with heavy metals is that once they are in your body, they are really hard to get out. And they cause all sorts of health problems such as chronic fatigue, brain fog and weight loss resistance. All symptoms that people think are signs of aging, they are actually symptoms of heavy metal poisoning.

So why is it that so many of these supplementation contains foreign materials that are not listed in the label? One of the reason is that most of these ayurvedic supplements are manufactured without any testing or certifications or standards. Many of the Chinese herbal remedies are grown in regions where the soil was tainted with heavy metals so that the plants themselves are grown with heavy metals inside them.

So what can we do about it? Before you throw away all those bottoms of natural herbal medicine, first, check your bottle and see if is manufactured in a certified GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) facility or if it has a NSF certification. If it has that label, you should be ok.

For Chinese medicine and other foreign remedies, it may be a little harder to tell whether the herbs are polluted or not, unless they are labeled as ‘certified organic’, which I have seen in some Ginseng products. Many of these supplements comes in raw form, and they look like dried leaves and dead tree branches, so it’s really no way to tell whether it contains heavy metals. My suggestion would be to stop taking those. The fact is, even if you ask the person who sell those herbs to you, chances are that they have no idea where they were grown and what their farming practices are like. So, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Also, if you have been using Ayurvedic supplementation or Chinese medicine in the past, I suggest that you get tested for heavy metals. Heavy metals get stuck in your cells in your liver and your brain and cannot be removed with simple detoxification methods. If you have heavy metals in your system you will need a True Cellular Detoxification method to get it all out. Be aware that a normal blood test may not even show the toxicity levels of heavy metals in your bodies because they may not be in your blood. The test that I recommend my clients take is a meta-oxy test and it is not a common test that you can go to Quest lab to get. If you are interested, book a time with me and I can give you more information about it.

Until next time, Love What You Live, and Live What You Love.

 If you are experiencing brain fog, weight loss resistance, digestive problems, hormone dysregulation, muscle and joint pains, and many other chronic problems, the underlying cause to your problems may be due to toxins and heavy metals that are in your body. If you want to find out more about the effects of heavy metal and toxins in your body and what you can do about it, sign up here for our upcoming True Cellular Detox Webinar!

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