Supplements - what to buy and what to REALLY not buy

Following on from my previous post about diet changes (read here) there are certain supplements I now take that have definitely improved my health, improved my skin’s ability to cope with what I make it do (Roaccutane, retinols, peels, life).

I have never really believed in supplements, I was always of the philosophy that if you are deficient in something then your diet must be unhealthy.

I still believe this to a massive degree, e.g. vitamin C, iron, magnesium etc but there is no in harm in giving the body a hand in a helpful way especially if you are going through a time that puts physical stress or you have done something/going through something which alters the body in some way e.g. roaccutane, antibiotics, chemotherapy, colonic hydrotherapy, diet changes.

After my first colonic session, Jackie recommended various things to me to improve the health of the gut. It is important to say that colonic hydrotherapy does not “strip the gut of bacteria” or wash out everything. Quite the opposite, it simply removes all the crap (literally) and allows a clean and neutral environment in which you can introduce good helpful things without the unhelpful things getting in the way. Before I started looking into all things diet, I took a combined multivitamin and probiotic.

The problem with this as it turns out is that 1) the probiotic was not in the right form, the right bacterial count  or in the right carrier to actually do anything 2) multivitamins are pretty much pointless.

The issue with multivitamins is that your body processes it like a drug. Anything taken orally is already absorbed at a very low level because of the digestive process, add into this a foreign capsule shell and a load of chemically synthesised vitamins and the amount you absorb is negligible. Effectively you just pee it out.

So…I now take a probiotic with 7 or 8 different strains of gut bacteria with 30 billion bacterial count at expiry. The expiry bit is important as many probiotics will state they have significantly more than this but then do not state how stable the carrier is etc. Yes they are expensive but yes they make a massive difference AND MOST IMPORTANTLY  do not need to take them every day until the end of time unless you are on long term antibiotics. 30 days is enough to colonise the gut with enough bacteria for them to then continue to multiply by themselves (as long as you are eating well, minimal alcohol or medications etc).

The second thing she recommended was something to replace the multivitamin aspect. I now take either chlorella or spirulina ( you can get a huge pack for about £5 on ebay – I have linked some below). These provide all the vitamins and nutrients a normal healthy (ish) person will need on a daily basis. INCLUDING the buzz word of the moment “magnesium” – which everyone seems to herald as the miracle cure for everything. Both supplements are made from green leafy plants which have simply been dried and crushed. For this reason your body processes it from food, so not only does it contain everything you need, your body actually stands a chance of absorbing it. Interestingly they have more iron than beef, more potassium than bananas and more calcium than whole milk as well as protein, zinc AND Vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B8, B9, C, D, E, k AND all 8 essential amino acids that the body does not synthesize. Sold yet?

I also take hyaluronic acid capsules which helped immensely during my roaccutane treatment. I bought one bottle and could not see a massive difference, I then stopped taking them and within a week my flaky skin had upped its game and the dry-PVA-glue skin was back.

Vitamin D3 is a new one. I thought I would give it a go after Dr Sam Bunting recommended its use especially being on Roaccutane and avoiding the sun like the plague. Vitamin D is a tricky one as the levels set for appropriate levels are a cause for contention. In the UK where we see the sun for about 3 hours a year, pretty much EVERYONE will be vitamin D deficient compared to these levels yet only a small proportion will have symptoms of deficiency. This being said, I found myself in February feeling ill, sluggish, unmotivated. Whilst I have days like this sometimes, I am very much a bounce-off-the-walls-with-energy kinda girl, and this awful feeling had been going on for months.

A week into taking D3 and boom, I was back to having to jog on the spot in work to release the extra energy I had. A month later and I still feel that way (much to my nurse’s annoyance as she has to careful work around my jogging with the dirty instruments)

As I say, not everyone will need it, but I leave the house at 6:45 in my car, go to a leisure centre until its time to go to work, drive the 2 minutes from there to the hospital, work in a basement level in said hospital for 8 hours, then drive home. Whilst I am very active, little of this activity takes place outdoors, so my vitamin d levels were probably rock bottom despite my efforts to eat well.

Omega 3, 6 and 9. This was especially important during Roaccutane treatment as it hammers your liver risking change to fatty acids and triglycerides in the body. My good cholesterol levels were 3 times the level of a normal healthy person and were even slightly higher by the end of treatment. Now yes you can get these from eating fish, but my boyfriend hates fish so while I still eat it, it is not at a level that will provide enough.

I prefer getting mine from vegan sources (flaxseed etc – which I also add to my porridge), see below

Heliocare care ultra capsules are my latest addition. Sun safety is obviously hugely important but with Roaccutane treatment your skin is extremely sensitised so while I am now careful in the sun and wear my high SPF’s etc, anything that can boost the body’s ability to protect and repair from UV damage is obviously a good thing.

What NOT to take

Separate tablets for every nutrient. Unless you have severe dietary restrictions then you really do not need as many nutrients as Instagram tells you you’re missing.

Your body cannot absorb collagen through tablet form, the molecule is too large, so don’t bother taking those .

Vitamin c to prevent a cold – absolutely no evidence for this, there is some anecdotal evidence that increasing vitamin c intake during illness might help speed up recovery but you are FAR better doing this through food than you are through supplements

Please DO NOT BUY COD LIVER OIL. The liver is the filtration system of the body. The sea is full of the rubbish that we have put in there, including the much feared mercury, so the liver will also be full of this. Concentrate this down a few hundred times to give the potency of a cod liver oil capsule and you’re doing far more harm than good. Krill oil is far better, you want the oil that has come from the flesh not the liver.

Perfectil. Biotin is the only proven supplement that will increase hair and nail growth/strength. This issue with this is that it makes ALL hair grow quicker and stronger. Your upper lip wax will be getting moved to weekly rather than monthly. That’s all I’m saying. If you don’t suffer with this, just buy plain Biotin rather than spending your life’s savings on Perfectil or branded ones. Whilst this is the only supplement that alone will help hair and nail growth, having the right amount of amino acids and fatty acids will also do the same job. You're covered there by the chlorella/spirulina and the omega oils

Food substitutions – just a quickie.

As I found I was intolerant to most sweeteners, but did not want to use sugar, I found this was the best to use. It takes the same as sugar, is not gritty, does not have an after taste like pure stevia, and causes no bloating.

Natvia All Natural Sweetener

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/291614360

Protein – my first blood test for Roaccutane showed my albumin was towards the lower end of the range, and having not scored low on a test my whole life, I wanted to fix this. I REFUSE to take the disgusting stuff they have in the gym and fitness shops. It is absolutely loaded with garbage – sweeteners, enzymes to break down the protein, flavouring etc etc so eventually I found this. I use the soy one, but they also do a hemp and a brown rice protein too in case anyone has soy allergies . Please note, these do not taste good, hence why I use sweetener. The plain soy is completely inoffensive, it just does not taste of anything. The cocoa brown rice one STAY FAR AWAY.

Pulsin Soy Protein Powder

https://www.hollandandbarrett.com/shop/product/pulsin-soya-protein-1kg-60006973

I also now use almond milk in my cooking etc as I needed a dairy free alternative. Its also great to use in curries etc as well as in the obvious porridge. I have tried several that taste like actual soil but this one is great

Alpro Almond Roasted Unsweetened Fresh Milk Alternative

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/275067782

Supplement links

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Udos-Choice-Super-8-Probiotics/dp/B0036E5KG6

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hyaluronic-Acid-Capsules-250mg-High-Strength-and-100-Pure-Supplement/112813220964?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vitamin-D3-5000IU-x-150-Caps-MAX-Strength-Bones-SAD-Immune-System-Lindens/322481059234?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/255431548

http://www.zestbeauty.com/heliocare-ultra-capsules-30-capsules.html

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Suma-Bagged-Down-Organic-Linseed-golden-organic-1kg/182948960066?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Bloat be gone. My diet - past, present and future.

Another requested one

My diet is a topic I have tackled from both health and bloat/skinvanity perspectives.

Ever since I was a teenager, I have always had issues with my skin after eating chocolate. It would be like clockwork, 24-48 hours after said chocolate indulgence, *poof*, a mountain range of spots would appear around my mouth.

After being told by many GP’s that chocolate does not cause acne, I did my own research and found that in fact whilst dairy, and iodine found in dairy, does not cause acne, it certainly can trigger it or worsen it. At this point I cut out dairy almost entirely and ta da, I noticed a significant improvement in my skin. If I must have chocolate I try and have dark (as it’s the milk that is the problem not the cocoa) or, and this is the more likely option, enjoy all the chocolate and just accept I will have spots in a few days (I avoid this option if I have a big even in said upcoming days).

Funnily enough, years later, we are now being told by every “health coach” and nutritional “expert” out there that dairy is the devil when it comes to acne.

I have suffered from IBS since I was about 16 so bloating was nothing new to me, but this was about all the diet modifications I made until last year when a dose of norovirus left me....digestively challenged.

It was at this point I decided that action need to be taken, and being one for  not doing things by halves, I booked to see a dietician and a colonic hydrotherapist.

The colonic was an enlightening experience. There was no pain, neither physically or mentally. My therapist (Jackie Turner, who I now see every 4-6 months, link below) was welcoming and knowledgeable. The process took around an hour for the first session as it required a history and explanation of the procedure. Said “procedure” involves body-temperature water entering the colon, and leaving the colon again with the rubbish your body cannot effectively get rid of itself. There is no “pump”, the water is in a tank near the ceiling, and enters the body through a pipe via gravity alone. 

Your body then ejects the water through its normal peristaltic action, so there is nothing being forced; it works naturally with the body.

To make some sense of the anatomy, your colon empties in the bottom left corner of your abdomen. It travels upwards towards your ribs, turns 90 degrees and twists to run horizontal to your diaphragm then turns again (in a more gentle manner this time) and runs down to join onto the small intestine.

You can in fact aid your own bloating by massaging in a circle from your right hip bone, up to your ribs, from right to left of your ribs and down to your left hip bone. This is the path of digestion in the large intestine

At the first session the water was only able to get halfway along the transverse colon, so a second session was needed, which took round 30-45 mins. In this session the water was much more quickly able to reach the first portion of the ascending colon. After these 2 sessions I felt light as air. There was some slight cramping and discomfort the afternoon after my second session but immediately the bloating disappeared and the pain under my left ribs vanished (this is where the descending colon twists and becomes the transverse colon, so if this area is blocked rib pain occurs, I thought it was just my bra digging in!)

At the same time, I had been researching solutions to me continuous bloating. Various things appear on Google including food intolerance testing.

This is where it got complicated. There seemed a million different companies offering various ways to tell you what foods you were “allergic” or intolerant to. The most common way was through a pin prick of blood which you drew at home and sent to a lab/placed on a strip which then changed colour. The blood is supposedly tested for levels of IgG (an antibody produced by the body in response to pretty much ANYTHING which isn’t itself).

According to NICE guidelines (the body that basically makes guidelines for anything medical – they are the rules we abide by as dentists and doctors), the only true detector of food allergy is IgA. This is the antibody produced in response to pollen in hayfever sufferers, bee stings, insect bites and to peanuts in those with a true peanut allergy. It leads to swelling, redness, watery eyes, runny nose etc. Yes you can test for this, but you could still be intolerant to a food without being allergic to it.

Therefore I disregarded any of the IgG testing method.

There is also something called “kinesiology” where a therapist places a food item on the body and pressing on a muscle. If the person is stressed by the food, the muscle will unlock (go weak) whereas if there is no stress involved, the muscle will remain locked (strong). Personally, if a blood test for IgG antibodies is deemed not a reliable method of intolerance testing, then I believe even less strongly in the ability of this method to truly detect a problem.

So....off to the dietician I went to be led on the FODMAP elimination diet. It is worth noting that while technically you could do this yourself, even with my science background it was difficult to get my head around. Similarly, nutritionists or nutritional therapists cannot introduce the FODMAP elimination diet as their professions (unlike dieticians) are not subject to any registration and so their level of education is not regulated.

The premise is, that certain carbohydrates stay in the digestive system long enough to start fermenting. This is great for the body as longer digestion = more calories burnt, more nutrients absorbed, feel full longer. However, this fermentation produces gases which lead to bloating.

FODMAP stands for the food groups which you have to eliminate.

Before seeing the dietician, the only pre made food I ate were cinnamon Quaker oats sachets and the “natural” pea snacks from Lidl so I thought I was going to get off pretty easy with not having much to eliminate. I was wrong. There were a plethora of fruits I had to eliminate, no gluten, no lactose. This was relatively easy compared to having to delete onions, garlic, nuts, soy and celery. Turns out they put this in EVERYTHING. Meatballs, sausages, lea and perrins, stock, gravy. It also means you pretty much cannot go out for food because even though they may cook something with no sauce (although frankly what’s the point of food without sauce when you’re paying for it!), they will probably have involved seasoning or stock at some point so it just wasn’t worth the effort or in fact embarrassment of being “that” customer.

Cutting a long story short, you cut these out for 4-8 weeks (depending how long it takes for the symptoms to go), then you introduce the big 3 (onions, garlic, leek) individually then the food groups. Turns out I am intolerant to:

sweet potato (a massive bummer as I was having this every day)

broccoli - only if eaten every day or in combination with other trigger foods such as sweet potato 

gluten (I can live without it and will take the hit if it’s a home-made cake)

sweet corn and corn cakes (which I thought would be better for me than rice cakes, turns out not!)

lactose (I sort of assumed this from the acne reactions), especially in cheese and cream forms

apples and dried fruit or in fact anything high in fructose

beans and peas – although fortunately hummus in small amounts is fine

sweetener other than sucralose, stevia and erythritol. I can also have aspartame but won’t because of the negative effects it has

As a by product of this FODMAP elimination diet, which technically is only designed for reducing symptoms of IBS, I lost 2 kilos, and my skin completely settled down. I did not have a single new spot the whole time I was on the diet and any bumps or scars I had completely calmed down.

Here is a before and after. I managed to dig out the same clothing in an effort to try and keep the 2 images as similar as possible. Bear in mind, there are no filters, no fake tan, no posing, no lighting modifications because I am not an Instagram model, I am a real person and I want you to see the difference in reality, not from one pose to another.

I have written a shorter post on the supplements I use/food group substitutes I use so stay tuned for that

Link to colonic hydrotherapist:
http://gardenofhealth.co.uk/

And dietician: http://www.ckennynutrition.co.uk/