Why Many People Don’t See Results From Dietary Supplements
Whether you already take a supplement or are thinking about using one, you are not alone. In fact, 56.7% of U.S. adults report taking a dietary supplement daily, with the CDC citing the most commonly used supplement as the multivitamin. But, are people really getting all the benefits that they think they are out of their supplements?
If you regularly take supplements, there are a few reasons why you might not be seeing the results you are looking for when you purchase a bottle from the store or generic supplement company.
How Dietary Supplements React in The Body
The main reason supplements might not be working for you lies in how they react within the body. Even if you take the right vitamins for you, there are countless factors that determine how much or how little your body will actually absorb.Â
As you consume nutrients, either via food or supplements, the nutrients must undergo processing in order for your body to use them. Nutrients go through the wall of the small intestine, and into your blood vessels, to be transferred throughout the rest of the body. Â
Nutritional absorption can be affected by many things. From taking too much or too little of a supplement, to what you eat or drink within 30 minutes of it. For example, eating foods rich in vitamin C can help the body to better absorb iron. However, polyphenols, which are found in coffee, wine, and other foods, have been demonstrated to inhibit iron absorption. So, taking an iron supplement with your morning coffee would likely be a bad choice, as it can reduce the percentage of iron your body ends up actually receiving.Â
Taking the wrong supplements together, taking vitamins at the wrong time, or taking too much or too little of them, all affect how your body can use the nutrients it receives. In return, it affects the results you see. This is why personalized nutrition with guidance from wellness professionals is so important.
The Importance of Finding the Right Supplement Routine For You
Despite their tricky nature, there are many good reasons why people choose to take supplements. Dietary supplements can help you improve or maintain your overall well-being and can help you meet your daily requirements for essential nutrients. However, supplements, no matter how they are marketed, can contain ingredients that have strong effects on the body.
It is important to not only understand how a supplement will affect you but also if you are selecting the right supplements for you. A good starting point is finding a personalized vitamin routine tailored to your precise needs. That way you know exactly what you are putting in your body and why.
Five Key Benefits of Personalized Vitamin Packs
Getting a personalized vitamin pack from a trusted supplement company is one of the ways you can limit the list of unknown variables surrounding supplements, and feel safe every time you take one. A personalized vitamin pack is exactly what it sounds like, a selection of vitamin and supplement recommendations that have been ordered specifically for you.Â
Aside from peace of mind, there are many more key benefits you can expect when using personalized vitamin subscription services.
1. Give Your Body the Nutrients It Doesn’t Already Get From Food.
As the name suggests, vitamin supplements are meant to enhance the natural benefits already provided by a nutrient-rich diet. They are not meant to be meal replacements or to fix poor eating habits. If that is the case, you want to first make adjustments to your daily meals and snacks before turning to supplements as an answer.
For those individuals who already stick to a nutrient-rich eating schedule, but still find they are lacking in certain areas, that is where personalized vitamin packs can be helpful to give your body the extra boost it needs to function at peak performance.
2. See Quicker and More Effective Benefits From Personalized Vitamins.Â
Vitamins have many benefits and are essential for overall wellness and biological processes that maintain our core functions. Nutrients provide us with what we need for energy and metabolism and allow us to regulate chemical processes. Supplementing precisely what your body needs, with personalized vitamins, means your body can start to function like it should. This means you will be on your way to optimal wellness, seeing quicker and more effective results than before.Â
3. Understand How Your Body Functions.
We already know that without proper nutrition our bodies would not function the way they are supposed to. However, not all bodies are the same. Understanding how your body specifically reacts to certain vitamins and how they function is key to fully utilizing the power of individual supplements. The best way to test how your body will respond to something in your system is through genetic testing, also referred to as DNA testing.
Using your genes, we can get to the root cause of why your body is deficient in certain vitamins. After that, we begin creating a plan to attack those deficiencies head-on. You can read more about how genetic testing done by healthcare professionals supports your wellness goals in the DNA section below.Â
4. Leverage Daily Vitamins and Supplements to Reach Your Wellness Goals.Â
We all have goals we want to achieve in our lives. For some, it might be weight management. For others, getting out and exploring the beach with their grandchildren sounds like the perfect afternoon. No matter what your wellness goals are, proper use of vitamins and other supplements puts the power of managing your well-being into your own hands. Making your goals and dreams that much more attainable at every stage of your life.
5. Adjust Over Time As Your Body Ages.
Many people who begin taking supplements find that they aren’t seeing the results they hoped for, even after months of using them. That is because each body is different and requires a different combination of vitamins specifically designed to their needs. Just like our goals aren’t all the same, supplements cannot be the same either.
The beauty of personalized vitamins is that they can change as you do. As we age, our bodies require different things to best support itself. Our priorities change, too. This is why we deserve a wellness routine and team that is just as flexible.Â
At 10X Health, we’ve created a system that is different from many personalized vitamin companies. The difference is in our detailed scientific research that gets to the source of your health conditions.
How to Get Started With Personalized Vitamins
The most personalized way to figure out what supplements your body needs is through taking the genetic test and blood test offered by 10X Health. Genetic testing will identify the genetic breaks present in your genome while blood testing will confirm deficiencies that are common with those genetic breaks.
Each of these tests individually gives us a snapshot of your current health that helps inform our team of experts on how to create your personalized vitamin regime. Using both tests together provides a much more effective and cohesive look than using just one test or the other. Let’s break down how each of them works in more detail.Â
Optimal Wellness Begins With Your DNA
DNA is the cellular roadmap that directs every cell in your body on how to grow, when to grow, and what to do. That is why 10X Health likes to start each new client off with a genetic test. To get the most personalized results for you, we have to go directly to the source. We want to understand what your body actually needs and how it works before you start taking supplements.
Genetic testing works by isolating the DNA found inside the nucleus of your cells, and analyzing it for genetic markers. A genetic marker is a fancy term for a short sequence of DNA used to identify chromosomes and locate them on a genetic map. In our lab, different genes and possible changes within those genes can be looked at further and compared to standard building blocks.
How Genetic Mutations Affect Your Wellness Goals
In some instances, genes can mutate, meaning that they change the protein they were “pre-coded” for. Each protein is given a specific role in the body, like assisting in cell division or the metabolizing of nutrients. Therefore when that gene mutates, it may no longer be able to perform its role and function correctly. This malfunction can have many effects, like the disruption of metabolism and hormone regulation.Â
One of the main genetic mutations that 10X Health looks for is on the MTHFR gene. A large portion (44%) of the population has a genetic mutation with MTHFR, which has a profound impact on the methylation cycle and the body’s ability to process the nutrients it receives. The methylation cycle is a bodily process that is vital in helping your body detox, produce energy, regulate hormones, repair damage, and more.
Essentially, people with this mutation can’t properly create usable forms of essential vitamins and nutrients in the body. This can lead to diseases and vitamin deficiencies. Fortunately, with genetic testing, we are able to look for this mutation and others and determine the best way to supplement your health and get your body performing at an optimal level again.
Blood Testing Designed For Longterm Results
Just like our genetic test, the 10X Health blood test has been designed to provide detailed feedback on our client’s overall well-being. How detailed exactly? Around 6 times more detailed than the average blood test you routinely get from a doctor’s office. The 10X Health results you’ll receive include an in-depth analysis of over 60 different biomarkers compared to the standard 5-10 normally looked at. Every biomarker listed will also have a symbol indicating your results were either normal, require attention, or are in need of immediate attention.
We created our blood test to be this extensive to help you get the best results. From women’s wellness to gut function, and specific concerns, a wider panel of biomarkers allows for a more accurate reading of where your body is at. Your test will show us 3 incredibly important human elements: nutrient deficiency, hormone optimization, and glucose control.
Nutrient Deficiency
You probably already know that your body needs a wide range of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients to function at 100%. When you don’t get enough of these vital substances, your body can suffer. For example, several studies have linked an insufficient amount of vitamin D to autoimmune and cardiovascular diseases as well as some cancers. And that is just one vitamin!
Hormone Optimization
Similarly, if your hormones are not in balance, you cannot expect the rest of your body to be either. Hormones, which act like tiny “messengers” in your body, regulate everything from your mood to libido, weight gain, fatigue, and so much more. The same is true with glucose.
Glucose Control
Glucose is a type of sugar that our bodies use for energy. That’s why you most commonly hear it referred to as “blood sugar.” When your blood sugar, or blood glucose levels, get either too high or too low, many problems can occur. Some of the most common are brain fog, fatigue, diabetes, and heart disease. Although serious, these are concerns that can be mitigated when monitored regularly. That’s why we put so much emphasis on knowing what is going on in your system.Â
Generic Supplements Vs. Personalized Vitamin Subscriptions
Consistent blood testing also tells us if supplements are working the way they are intended or if we need to adjust the recommended amount. When taking personalized vitamins and supplements, it’s important to remember that results don’t happen overnight. Just like any new treatment, it takes time to work and for your body to react to the ingredients.Â
Depending on the vitamin and your rate of metabolism, it can take different amounts of time to absorb nutrients. Fat-soluble vitamins like vitamins A, D, E, and K, are stored in the liver and remain in the body longer. Water-soluble vitamins, however, don’t stay in your system long and are required in small amounts every day. Some examples of these vitamins are vitamin C and vitamin B12.Â
Regardless of their solubility, almost all vitamins require metabolic activation to perform their role in the body. This process is how we change food into energy our bodies can use and it is all controlled by our genes. As vitamins and minerals are metabolized, their nutritional potency can be affected.
Depending on your genes, you may also have abnormalities in how your body metabolizes nutrients. All of these factors and more are what is going on behind the scenes in your body and can affect the results you see when taking supplements. That’s why having access to personalized vitamin subscription services and healthcare professionals who know what to look for, is vital.
Blood tests allow us to get an accurate read on the levels of vitamins in your system, and see how they are working, or not working, for you. Along the way, it is normal to need an increase or decrease in specific vitamins as your body acclimates to the nutrients it is receiving.Â
A Personal Wellness Journey
Although it is easy to forget, human bodies are ever-changing ecosystems. Just like the seasons around us, our bodies change and adapt during different times of our lives, and the events going on at the time. Whether we are experiencing sickness, have more or fewer stressors in our week, or get more sleep on a given night, these are just a few of the variables that affect how our body functions and how it processes nutrients.Â
Without understanding the root of your symptoms, there’s no way to truly hear and heal your body. At the end of the day, learning more about your body helps you take control of your healing journey. Because your personal wellness journey is not a “one-size-fits-all” plan. It is based on your body’s needs and what is going on in your life.
By using your individualized results from blood and genetic testing to guide the recommended wellness plan, we know that together, we can not only reach your wellness goals but optimize them to see results you never thought were possible.
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10X Health’s supplements and personalized vitamins are manufactured with our client’s well-being in mind. We never use synthetic fillers or artificial flavors that can be found in some other brands offering vitamin subscription services. We go further than the majority of “the best-personalized vitamin” companies that have you fill out a quick survey and ask you a few questions about your goals. The problem is that this isn’t truly personalized, only scratching the surface of your needs. Leveraging scientific evidence from our truly customized tests, our personalized packs of recommended vitamins are created to address the root of the cause and help you reach your health goals.
If you are tired of not seeing results from your wellness routine and want to see how 10X Health’s supplements can work for you, contact our team to schedule comprehensive blood and genetic tests and get yourself on the path to better well-being.
