I used to take it for granted that all supplements were created equal. Actually, I used to take it for granted that anyone even needed nutritional supplements. My father started off his career working for the FDA and later went into quality assurance for the food and drug industry. We ate what he brought home from work, grocery store brands and whatever vitamins were left over from testing (ie: generic flinstones). It was not that he thought these were good vitamins… it was more that there really was not a knowledge as to why supplements were needed. Today, we have come a long way, but we are still just emerging. Today, even the American Medical Association says that anyone who leads a life with stress, does not get enough sleep or does not eat properly, should take a multi-vitamin; however, many doctors still do not know where to lead their patients.
In the autism community, we know all too well that our children and loved ones have needs far greater than the food guide pyramid. And in many cases, we know that nutritional supplements can go a long way to healing our childrens’ bodies. However, we often do not know where to start, what brands are best or even if they are safe. I took for granted, for many years, that there had to be many safe brands. I also took for granted that the brands sold by doctors had to atleast be well tested. I now know that many nutraceutical companies do not do third party research, do not test beyond the minimum standards and many market to the medical community in the same way that the pharmacuetical companies market there medications.
As a mother of three children on the autism spectrum, I hate to give parents more work to do; however, this may be one of the more important assignments. You need to do your own research to find out the testing standards and efficacy of the products you are using. When I started calling companies to ask what I thought were basic questions, I received responses such as. “You need to talk to one of the doctors in your area who sells our brand,” “We cannot possibly tell you how many tests we do a year,” “We test for the government recommendations.” That last one kept me up at night. The government minimum in an unregulated industry is ludicrous. THAT company is one of the supplement companies that is most well known in the Autism community and not even my doctor could tell me anything about there standards.
I used to take it for granted that I could use anything other than a store brand and consider it good enough. I now routinely trust only one brand, because I have done YEARS of research that has led me to only one brand. I am completely biased and have no problem admitting so. After receiving test results, this past year that show that my daughter has barely recognizable levels of yeast, heavy metals and many of the deficiencies so common in the autism community, I use and promote the Shaklee supplements. As I share in our book, Healing Autism Naturally, our daughter went from needing to be taught to walk and talk to now entering a Catholic School, as a 9 year old, at grade level, in the Fall. If you would like to learn more about setting up a supplement program, please contact us.
