Is High Potency 'Natural', or Pharmacological?
by Vic Shayne, Ph.D.
Welcome to America, land of the biggest, best, boldest and most powerful! Whereas these may be noble characteristics of a blossoming nation, some caution and common sense needs to be maintained to avoid applying the same standards for nutritional supplements. In defiance of biochemical integrity, Americans have been misled to believe that the best supplements are highest in potency — more powerful than their predecessors. And so the phrase "high potency" has been confused with latent healing qualities. Of course, nutrients need to be potent, yet only as nature provides. Once nature is altered to increase potency, biochemical integrity is sacrificed. This matter of semantics is leading many healthcare practitioners (and the laypublic) down the pharmaceutical road instead of nature's path.

Where does the Doctor Get His/Her Facts?
"Now in the field of natural healthcare," says clinical nutritionist Wiles Andrews, Ph.D., "to many practioners are getting their erroneous, slanted information from representatives of vitamin companies in the same way that the medical doctor gets his/her 'facts' from the pharmaceutical rep. THe more money and effort that can be poured into marketing, the more the unenlightened healthcare practitioner becomes sold on high potency, fractionated substances which are by no means nutritional. Whole food complex supplements have been around for many years, but the concept in confused with buzz words such as 'natural,' 'high potency,' colloidal,' and 'enriched.'"

Webster's Dictionary defines "potent" as 'capable of causing strong physiological or chemical effects, as medicines or alcoholic beverages." Is this what a natural healthcare practitioner is really looking for? How natural is any man-made, highly potent substance?

Confusing the Issue
In the beginning there was food, provided by nature in a state of balance, rich with nutrients to feed and nurture living organisms on this planet. Somehow, in the wake of scientific intervention mixed with politics and modern medicine, the notion of natural has somehow become so bastardized that very few can tell the difference. Highly potent herbs and isolated extracts (standardized), fractionated and synthetic vitamins, and inorganic and isolated minerals, and even specific foods and spices are being used as drugs to stimulate or suppress or interrupt natural biochemical and physiological functions. Although the nutritional quality of many herbs is undeniable, the truth is that most herbs and herbal preparations are currently being used as pharmacological agents to halt inflammation, numb pain, dry up the sinuses, induce sleep, force bowel contractions, kill microbes, etc. And sadly, the use of herbs in this manner is ""supported" by ancient tradition, long before biochemists discovered that there is a good reason for the body to present its myriad symptoms. The difference between pharmacological use of supplementation and natural use of supplementation is the difference between forcing the body to act in a specific fashion (stimulation and suppressing) and feeding the body to restore natural function and biochemical equilibrium.

PArts of Vitamins Fail as Whole Food Nutrients
Author?Biochemical Researcher Judith A. DeCava, Ph.D. writes:
There are two general points of view when it comes to vitamin supplements. One is that vitamin factors — parts — can be made (synthesized, manufactured) and should be prepared in a chemically "pure" (free from all associated components) form, in a high concentration ("high potency"). The result is crystalline-pure chemical hardly resembling the original intricate vitamin complex. This is the principle followed by drug (pharmaceutical) companies and most supplement companies. Unfortunately, most contemporary biochemical researchers and nutritionists believe — accept as fact the currently published way of thinking — that there is no difference between natural and synthetic vitamins; that the body does not know the difference.

The other viewpoint is that vitamins are just like other food factors: they exist as extremely complex groups of associated substances of a synergistic (cooperative) nature, and that if the complex is taken apart (fractionated), it is no longer capable of producing its normal, nutritional and metabolic effect or function.

"These vitamin and mineral elements are so complex and multiplex that their nutritional importance has been invariable discovered only by investigating the symptoms of physical degeneration and functional failures in animal and human subjects who were suppled with food lacking some of these essential elements. Further investigations have always shown that the lost material was so complex in its organic nature as to defy artificial substitution, if complete restoration was attempted, the results have been extremely unsuccessful."

Synthetic Vitamins are Sold on Potency
Dr. DeCava writes;
Chemically-pure, synthetic vitamins are virtually always given in "high-potency" amounts. That is it requires a large amount of the separated vitamin fraction to achieve a specific reaction in animals as well as in humans, though not necessarily a nutritional reaction.

Conversely, natural food concentrates will show a much lower "potency" in milligrams (mgs.) or micrograms (mcgs.) . This is frequently interpreted to mean they are less effective, not as powerful. Unfortunately, the "more is better" philosophy is far from nutritional truth. For one, the potency listed for most food concentrates is based on the clinical effect on humans (clinical potency) rather than its effect on test animals (e.g., rat unit potency). Second, an overdose of such a natural vitamin complex is not harmful (unless massive, but is still easily reversed), whereas an overdose of a chemically-pure vitamin is certainly potentially harmful (with sometimes permanent effects). Finally, vitamins are part of food complexes and must be associated with their natural synergists ("co-workers") to be properly utilized and be a potent nutritional factor. In other words, a minute amount of a vitamin that is left intact in its whole food form is tremendously more functional, powerful, and effective nutritionally than a large amount of a chemically-pure, vitamin fraction. therefore, only small amounts of natural vitamin complexes are required. Actually, that is how nature intended for them to be ingested. They are organic micronutrients, nutrients needed in tiny quantities, to accomplish many big biochemical jobs.

If a person feels well ingesting his or her normal daily requirements of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, it would be ludicrous to assume that he or she would get twice as good effects from eating twice the amount of food. Yet, synthetic or fractionated vitamins commonly appear in formulas with five or ten times — or more — times the daily requirement, the consumer thinking he/she is getting a "high-potency" product that will yield noticeable results in a hurry. There will be a quick reaction, but it is not nutritional.

Rapid Heartbeat Concurrent with Unnatural Substances
The deceptive, treacherous action of "high-potency," synthetic vitamins can well be illustrated with thiamin. The major portion of synthetic thiamin taken in amounts higher than 10mg. (some research indicates 5 mg.) is rapidly excreted in the urine. Any substance ingested that the body does not recognize as food is handled as a toxin; rushed through the circulatory system to the kidneys to be excreted. Arthur F. Cocoa, M.D., discovered that the heart rate (pulse count) rises after eating or ingesting a substance that creates an "allergic" reaction — a toxic reaction. The increased pulse rate means faster circulation, increased to accelerate the toxin's journey to the kidneys for elimination. (A related phenomenon is an increase in white blood cell (leukocyte) counts experienced after consumption of foods altered by high temperatures, refining, or processing, which never follows ingestion of raw foods, as documented by Paul Kouchadoff, M.D. It is "food-stuffs in the state in which they exist in nature" that do not cause any "infringement" on the blood formula. He stressed the importance of "quality of food." The physiological phenomenon experienced by consumption of cooked or refined foods is a "pathological one," the body's reaction to toxic materials.)

This is what occurs with all synthetic vitamins: the body treats them as toxins, leading to the "expensive urine" of excess vitamin intake referred to frequently, since the human system via the urinary tract attempts to rid itself of the major quantity of such foreign chemicals.

The Drug-like Effect
The initial effect of synthetic vitamin intake is almost immediate energy increase, almost a euphoria as occurs with many drugs (which mask symptoms). Thus, taking synthetic thiamin will initially allay fatigue, but will eventually cause fatigue by the buildup of pyruvic acid. This leads to the vicious cycle of thinking more and more thiamin is needed, resulting in more and more fatigue along with other accumulated complaints.

"High potency" alpha-tocopherol or mixed tocopherols — commonly called "vitamin E" — will cause demineralization (loss of calcium and other mineral) of bone. Bioflavonoids, rutin and vitamin K are essentially a part of the vitamin C complex. However, if separated or manufactured synthetically, difficulties will develop. For instance, bioflavonoids in large amounts will aggravate and/or create a deficiency of vitamin K needed for blood coagulation (clotting), and excess bleeding occurs such as bleeding gums, hemorrhaging, excessive menstrual flow, nosebleeds, bruises, When the whole vitamin C complex is taken, such symptoms are alleviated. Only an excess of fractions — parts — of vitamin C complex results in development of these difficulties.

Proven Health Risks
Scientific evidence exists to indicate the potential health risks associated with synthetic and fractionated supplementation disguised as "more" healthful due to high potency. Bone demineralization, liver disease, chemical castration, immune system breakdown and destruction of smooth muscle tissue are only a few of the possible results of the ensuing biochemical imbalance.

Dr.DeCava writes, "Regardless of the seemingly good initial response, using such "high potency" synthetic vitamins will, in time, bring a person into that "intermediate zone" where the effects begin to reverse. This partially explains the confusion between natural and synthetic vitamins. A natural complex will "produce results quite unattainable by any known combination of synthetic products," and they do their work in "phenomenally small dosages."