How To Pick the Correct Prenatal Vitamin, Supplementing While Pregnant and the Truth About Detox
We live in a crazy world full of toxins that are often incorporated into products that we use every day. Prenatal vitamins and many other supplements are sadly no exception to this. When choosing a prenatal vitamin, it’s vitally important to choose a clean, organic product with the RIGHT forms of nutrients for you and your baby. But even if we’re choosing the correct supplements, what should we do about the thousands of various toxins we’re exposed to every day?
On this week’s episode we depart from our typical format to bring you a question and answer conversation. We discuss the importance of finding clean supplements, particularly prenatal vitamins, as well as the importance of the detoxification process and how it works.
Some Topics We Discussed:
What should people be looking for when selecting prenatal supplements? (1:54)
If you’re pregnant, are there any supplements beyond basic nutrients that are safe if you’re sick? (8:44)
What is detoxing and how should people go about it? (12:08)
Can you get enough probiotics through yogurt alone? (19:29)
When is the best time to take my vitamins? (23:26)
Key Takeaways From This Episode:
Make sure you’re buying prenatal vitamins without folic acid. Look for the natural form of folate instead. (4:56)
With omega-3s, shoot for 1000-2000 mg of EPA DHA per day. (6:56)
When you detox, sometimes you feel worse before you feel better. (17:42)
Anything that's not oil soluble, will go in and out of the body within probably 8 to 10 hours. There's only four or five oil soluble vitamins, vitamin A, D, E and K are the main ones. So anything other than that probably needs to be taken twice a day. (23:51)
Products + Resources:
Thank you to this episode’s sponsor: Straight Hemp.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL SHOW TRANSCRIPTBrian Strickland 00:43
Hello again, and welcome back to the Holistic Navigator Podcast, where we believe in the body's ability to heal itself. I'm Brian Strickland, the producer of the show. And if you're joining us for the first time, thank you so much for taking the time to listen in. We don't take it lightly, we know that your time is valuable. But we would suggest if you learned some helpful information on this episode. And for those of you who haven't already done so would you please consider rating and subscribing to the podcast on iTunes. But today we have a another great episode in the studio with me as always is Ed Jones. Ed, how are you doing today?
Ed Jones 01:25 I'm doing well, my friends sitting here and listening to the pouring rain which we have not had in several weeks. So it's very pleasant and calming.
Brian Strickland 01:33 Yes, hopefully it will settle some of the dust and pollen as well. Today, guys, we've got a little bit of a different format for you a little more relaxed episode, I guess you could say. And we're going to be doing a little bit of a q&a session with Ed about really kind of a random assortment of subjects. But we're gonna go ahead and get started, said I know that your daughter and we do have another staff member as well, that is pregnant at the moment. So let's talk about some prenatal vitamins. I know that going to, you know, the big pharmacy stores or you know, a big box store somewhere like that probably isn't the best spot to get your prenatal vitamins. So what should people be looking for? Where should they buy them? And what should be avoided in that process?
Ed Jones 02:29 Well, thank you for that question. And it is such an important topic because we are being misinformed because so many suppose it experts are living in what I call the Dark Ages. What are the Dark Ages? It means that you kind of pretend to 15 years behind, and you feel comfortable saying what you said for so long, because it's your dogma that you don't want to risk changing. And that is very safe when it comes to recommending paper towels, but not when it comes to recommending nutrition. And I am hugely an evangelist, especially now that my daughter, and I'm also watching staff members and many other people carrying developing fetuses. And the way that those new babies are going to be healthy is what they are exposed to, and what they're fed from, and the nutrition and the toxins. And the prenatals, we went out and actually purchased some prenatals from the leading drugstores. And despite the fact that I really believe I'm on the cutting edge, at least in the conversation of nutrition. I was astounded of the lack of purity, the ingredients that are despicable, like colorings, and dyes. And believe it or not talc, or I now I saw on the TV commercial this morning out while I was at the gym, you know the class action lawsuits against people with cancer because of talc powder, yet they're putting men or prenatals. What is the worst? This is nonsense, it's insanity. And so we are have to be further involved in being our best advocate our best advocate for ourself and even more so for the developing baby that a woman would have inside. So when you look at a prenatal first off, don't believe someone just because they have a white coat on. No, it doesn't matter how many pieces of plaques they have on the wall. I've never seen a time we've had less current information in the conventional medical model than we do now. I believe they actually were more in some cases, other than the vitamin D story they were probably more informed years ago, because I don't know the system seems to brainwash and they're getting better at that. Well the prenatal what you have to look for number one, if you have a prenatal or you have a relative who is now taking one, the first thing you do is turn the bottle around and see if it says folic acid. If it does, and you want to take Edward Jones's opinion, go and throw it immediately in the garbage can. Why do I say that? Because of the mounting incredible research that says that folic acid can potentially be harmful. Well, haven't we heard though, that folic acid prevents birth defects? Yes, it we have heard that. And yes, it does. But the caveat to that is only if you do not have a gene called mthfr, methyl tetrahydrofolate reductase. 50% of the population has at least one hit on this mthfr gene. And if you have a double hit, it means that folic acid is going to go down a pathway that is not conducive to your health nor the babies. Now, we didn't know this stuff 15 years ago, so we can't blame time in history because of lack of information. But we do now. So it's time to grow up children and in the medical field and embrace what you have to embrace. And that is that methylfolate or the word folate is what you look for. That means it's made from food and it's not synthetic folic. Synthetic folic is a no no. Secondly, you have to look for the purity of ingredients. You don't want colorings, you don't want dyes, you don't want sucrose, which is sugar, and you certainly don't want talc powder. So your options are you shop you become an informed consumer. There are several really great companies making fantastic prenatals. So do your homework people. This is important important stuff, it's actually lifelong important is not just temporarily. And then secondly, prenatal was. We have to know that omega three, the DHA and the EPA is imperative for the developing fetus IQ, the eye health, the immune system, and their mouth that's being recommended is 200 milligrams a day was pathetic. My staff member, my daughter, we all focus on no less than 1000 with the goal being 2000 milligrams of EPA DHA. That's what the travel cultures around the world if they consume fish and they have good quality foods, it's what they intake every day. Iron we have to have the right amount and you do not have to suffer through the difficulties of prescription and or over the counter drugstore iron that causes constipation. Again, that's dark age stuff in good nutrition stores, you can get it made from food, and they it has far less tendency to bother anyone make sure your health professional is checking your iron levels, your hemoglobin, do not let that be something that I'll check later do it now. And lastly, vitamin D. Vitamin D is actually not a vitamin, it's a hormone. And it produces hundreds of positive effects when it's adequate and creates hundreds of negative outcomes If not, the ideal thing is to take whatever it takes to get to a about 50 nanogram per milliliter level in your blood. If you don't know that level, the dose normally is 5000 units per day taken with food but do not guess that. That is correct. I have to do 14,000 units a day to be barely minimum, I have other people who can literally be in the sun for 15 minutes and do it. We are guessing you don't guess with your baby.
Brian Strickland 08:44 Yeah, so now that we covered our bases with the prenatal vitamins. What about other remedies or natural supplements to take while pregnant?
Ed Jones 08:56 Well,
Brian Strickland 08:57 I mean, obviously you have to be super careful about what you take. Are there any trusted brands or, or any supplements that actually are safe to take during pregnancy?
Ed Jones 09:08 When it comes to the developing fetus, we need to take the stance of ultra conservative. You do not go in to any health store or pharmacy and start grabbing substances to help you not be nauseous to help you have different feelings or count you know if you're constipated, or many any myriad of ailments is really best to journey through pregnancy with as little synthetic or foreign substances as possible. That's why we need to be recommending as much organic foods as you can possibly purchase and consumed to prevent the glyphosate and the pesticides. However, we know that with or without pregnancy we all have our days where we don't feel as well. We have a headache, we have sore throat we have you know bowel issues. We have lack of sleep, we have anxiety. So what do you do? Well, it's tough because when people ask me specifically, they're in the first and second trimester, I really encourage them most of the time to use practically nothing or some really old fashioned homemade remedies like maybe apple cider vinegar, or soaking your feet and peroxide if you're not feeling well, it's an amazing way to up the oxygen level, it cannot hurt to soak your feet and two bottles of peroxide in warm water. I've seen it turned people around sometimes who are really starting to get ill. And that's perfectly fine. In my mind, again, legally ask your pediatrician to make sure it's okay. But there is a company called and I rarely endorse companies but Wishgarden Herbs. They actually have remedies that are completely researched and checked out for their full safety profile for pregnant women. I mean, we're talking this leap, we're talking the laxative we're talking all this normal ailments that come with living and especially with being pregnant. So wish garden herbs is one I would love to recommend. They're the only company I know that's actually done the homework and done the research to determine that these products are safe to be using.
Brian Strickland 11:22 Hey guys, we just wanted to break for a moment and tell you about this week's sponsor. This episode is brought to you by Straight Hemp. Straight Hemp strives to heal the world by harnessing the potential of hemp both in their products and mission. Dedicated to using the highest quality products, Straight Hemp grows their therapeutic grade hemp plants organically in Colorado. Quality and consistency are important when taking any hemp product. But with their subcritical co2 extraction and third party testing of every batch, you can be sure you're getting one of the most potent hemp products on the market. Straight hemp, CBD rich hemp oil for the body in mind. So let's switch gears just a little bit. There's there's a term that gets thrown out a lot in our industry, and has somewhat of a negative connotation I feel in a lot of in a lot of circles in that detox. Could you explain or at least tell us what detox actually means to you? And is it something you practice? Is it something you recommend? And if it is, how would people go about doing it?
Ed Jones 12:36 Well, it's a very important question, Brian. And I don't know what you know, if you remember when I talked to Dr. Mercola. And he said the number in a way, it's like we're exposed to 20 or 30,000 chemicals in our lifetime. And we don't really know what each of these does. But we certainly don't know, when they are blended together within our body what happens. And we you know, live in a toxic world, if you imagine what our environment was. And I'm not saying I would want to go back 200 years, but 200, 300, 1000 years, I mean, we didn't have any EMFs, we had no heavy metals, we had no pesticides we had, we had other issues. But generally that came from lack of plumbing and sanitation. It really wasn't from produced toxins. So today, we are filling our liver or kidney and our fatty cells with these poisons. That's what a toxin is. A toxin is really something that if you had multiple levels more than we have, it could literally kill us. But what is doing is not killing us. It's killing our health. And you know, the lack of sickness does not mean you're healthy. Most people are walking around in a very gray Twilight Zone of never feeling their best and having symptoms and just not enjoying life because they're so used to being drab and drawn down with energy they just think is normal. Well, part of that is the detox that needs to be done when your liver and everything's full of fumes that you breathe coming in this morning behind the school bus. And the glyphosate that's on every piece of food you eat the pesticides, the water you drink, that literally has the chemicals and the prescriptions from the person upstream because it's not filtered out of tap water. Now you know what each of these individually would do nothing to us. We are very resilient beings as humans, we can handle a lot that's why we've endured all the 10s of 1000s of years and famines and disease and we've we're like cat like roaches we just keep on keeping on, however, is what I use the analogy of a cup running over we really don't get a lot of symptoms until the cup is filled with certain combinations of toxins and then that's when the ailments began. That's when the symptoms that's when the fatigue, the chronic fatigue, the headaches, all the things and then eventually, we start getting the diabetes diagnosis. And eventually then we get the big C word diagnosis in so many people, which is now one in two men will have cancer and one in three women will have cancer. And I've said this before richard nixon announced the war on cancer in 1971. In 32, people had cancer in 1970. Well, why do you think this changed in the last 50 years, and a lot of its toxins a biggest part. So we do the best we can to lower intake of toxins. But the true only goal is to allow the liver to rid itself by opening the channels that were normally open in the past, but now aren't. And making this really complex issue very simple is called the P 450. system and the liver. This system has two sections, phase one and phase two, that if it's optimal, could literally take almost any single chemical and run it through these processes and turn it into water. It's one of the terms is conjugation. And the problem is our livers lack the ability of phase one and phase two very, very often. And when you do a detox and what is a detox Let me tell you what is not so many places and on websites and stores sell a detox that is simply a way to remove the poop within your body that is not detoxing people, you detox your liver and your kidneys in your blood. We at times might need a laxative, but that is not how you get rid of these deep seated poisons. They are deep seated. That's why a laxative will not work. So ignore those that have Cena and and any of the harsh laxatives or anything else it is a gimmick. So we get back to what does it take it takes a combination of things, just to throw out a few words indole three carbinol, broccoli extracts, cruciferous vegetables, milk thistle, NAC there's a whole host of these. How do you do this? Well, again, become the informed consumer. I rarely again mention a brand name, but I love Metagenics. They make a detox powder that has a very complete formula. And in fact, we're going to be listing in the notes on this podcast, a link where you can go in and purchase their product. And I think you'll get a 20% off the first time you get it. But it is a wonderful detox that you drink twice a day, they have a 10 day or a 28 day protocol. I've never seen anyone who's done it, who has not slept better felt better lost weight had less gas and other issues, I will make a warning. However, anytime you detox too aggressively, you can feel worse, before you feel better. If that happens, your two choices is to suffer through it or just cut back 50% on whatever protocol you are using. And that generally will let your body catch up. Again, if you are being treated for diseases and taking medications, do check with your health professional, please advise you to get a health professional who actually is intelligent. So do that before you super get on to a detox. Now, all your fats contain where most of the toxins are is in the fatty cells. The other way to detox is a far Infrared Sauna or a regular sauna. That means that you superheat the body up for somewhere around 25 to 30 minutes, and then you wash it off the skin very quickly or you'll reabsorb a lot of that. And that is a wonderful, inexpensive way if you have access to a sauna. And lastly, for those who have no access in the middle of summer, you can sweat for an hour out in the sun and still accomplish some good stuff.
Brian Strickland 19:00 Anyone is welcome to come mow my grass. It'll do it in a heartbeat. I guarantee you.
Ed Jones 19:03 There you go. We will just give out your number. And maybe I doubt you'll get many takers. But but so and you know, I'm not going to talk about the common sense of drinking water blank, blank, blank blank. But there's a good little summary of detoxing, why you would want to do it and the value of it. Because it is invaluable. Even if you eat a clean diet. Clean today is nothing compared to what the American Indians ate, and all of the previous people on this earth.
Brian Strickland 19:29 So let's go ahead and switch gears real quick. Marketing is such an effective tool, and sometimes that's very unfortunate. So the next question that we have, is it enough to eat yogurt to get your daily probiotic intake?
Ed Jones 19:50 I could make this real short by the day one word. No. It's simply physically impossible to consume teeny amounts of something to make A significant result in the end. And in the old days, again, we're living in a new age. This is not the 1930s or 40s, and 50s, where we were not inundated for a big part of our life with antibiotics. Once you destroy the micro flora, which is the bacteria that resides within the gut, it is, is kind of like the famine that would wipe out, like the flu that came in 1918 that killed millions of people worldwide. You know what, you just don't rebuild that overnight. And it's going to takes aggressiveness to do this, because one is we're losing the battle, sometimes as fast as we're gaining. And that is because of glyphosate, Roundup, glyphosate, it was approved as an antibiotic, before it was approved as a weed killer. And there's not a food around that doesn't have some even organic because of the way the rain comes down, and you cannot completely protect the plant. So I told these two gentlemen this morning, I was actually doing another podcast, Brian, across town on a totally different subject. And I looked at him and I said, you don't know it, but you've been on antibiotics for 20 years. Why would you expect your gut to be healthy? And they're like, no, haven't. I said, Yeah, you've been eating foods. And they're not organic. Even though organics not perfect is better, but you are full of antibiotics and it's true. And so when you are you have to keep adding back the right level potency and purity of probiotics and I'd really don't see a way other than combining supplementation with cultured foods like kimchi or cabbage or other cultured foods. And if you want to eat a yogurt is perfectly fine. It just keeps adding to the mix. We did a wonderful podcast with Brenda Watson who was on PBS television for years speaking on gut and colon health, and she is what I regard one of the experts on micro flora and probiotics living in today and in this industry. So if you wanted to go back and listen to that podcast on The Holistic Navigator, you will learn the ins and outs of how this all works. Because it's not always about what's in the pill. It's how well does it trance for through the stomach acids and how well does it implant? And then how long does it live once is implanted. Those are very critical issues. And most of your probiotics you are purchasing are not stable enough to make it through the trip. There is a gastroenterologist named Dr. Chutkan actually recommended her information a couple days ago to a lady who needed a fecal implant could not afford one. Dr. Chutkan actually advises you how to do it on your own. Fecal implants are the only truly effective way to conquer C. diff, which is what killed my father. And it is a very terrible infection of the colon that causes massive diarrhea. What causes it? Antibiotics are at the cause of 95% of all c diff. And if you have enough probiotics and microflora you are far less susceptible to get these things even if you have to do an antibiotic. So preload, be ready, build your body instead of waiting for some crisis to happen.
Brian Strickland 23:25 Alright, lastly Ed there, I feel like you get this question a lot in particular. And that's the timing of supplementation. People are really curious about what's the best time to take my vitamins, what's the best time to take these particular supplements? So do you have a schedule that you practice? Or do you have any recommendations for the listeners?
Ed Jones 23:51 Oh, yes, absolutely. The deal is that remember these couple bullet points. Anything that's not oil soluble, will go in and out of the body within probably eight to 10 hours. What does that mean? There's only five for four or five oil soluble vitamins, vitamin A, D, E and K are the main ones. So anything other than that is probably needs to be taken twice a day. I pull all my vitamins together I put them in baggies. So I have a morning and I have an evening at least. I will also sometimes have a noon one but I have to do twice a day dosing because of the reason that I just explained. Now if you're a poor sleeper and you're fearful of, you know, not sleeping well due to vitamins and do a morning and noon, but something that's going to separate the water soluble vitamins from going in doing their job and then leaving and then you've got, you know, 14 hours left of the 24 hours with no nutritional support. So it's pretty easy and then secondly, almost every vitamin K should be taken with food unless it specifies otherwise. Now, the couple caveats on this, if you're taking something like charcoal, or bentonite, those are things that absorb toxins absorb bad guys in your system, you don't want to take those with vitamins because they actually will absorb the vitamins and will decrease the effectiveness. And charcoal would do that with drugs too. So that's the other warning on that. But twice a day dosing for everything except for vitamin A, D, E, and K, those could be done once a day. And omega threes, that's the other one because they're fat soluble. There. You could do them all in the morning, if you would like I don't want to discourage people if they're really not into this and are just beginning. Lord, one time a day is far better than what you've probably been doing. So just do everything with breakfast. And let's graduate when we can.
Brian Strickland 25:50 So are you talking about split dosing, so if the serving size is two capsules, you take one in the morning and one in the evening?
Ed Jones 25:57 Yes, most of the things you purchase. And I do highly recommend multivitamins that are two pill per day dosing, whether it be tablet or capsule. Because of the exact reason I just explained Do not try to do one day daily pills because you missed the boat on the other parts of the day. So vitamin C, do the same thing with that joint support, I'm doing the same thing with that most supplements you take if they're really labeled correctly for your body weight as an adult would probably require two per day. So that makes it easy to you know, split that dose up. Now of course if it only if you only need one per day, then you just do one like only do one co q 10 I will say this anyone over the age of 40 who's not doing 12 pills per day is will not in my opinion ever be in the optimal ranges unless they live eat and breathe for shopping and preparing their food and growing it and if you do that then you don't need many supplements at all but I don't know of hardly anyone who can do that.
Brian Strickland 27:05 All right, well that's gonna wrap it up. Is there anything else you wanted to add?
Ed Jones 27:09 No you know health is a complex issue and is also does not need to be overwhelming. You have to find those people on your team and I talk about this constantly create a team that you trust, one that you have history with. That means that even your health care practitioner, it needs to be a trusted individual, but they don't need to be the nutrition expert. You get different people who have different skill levels and different focuses of their life. But as we journey into growing older, it's like a racecar. How many times have you seen Daytona 500 with only one person in the pit crew? Never because we need a crew. And so start working on developing this trusted crew for your life. So good luck to everybody and do remember that if a doctor cannot do good be must be kept from doing harm.
Brian Strickland 28:06 The information on this podcast and the topics discussed have not been evaluated by the FDA or anyone of the medical profession and is not aimed to replace any advice you may receive from your medical practitioner. The holistic navigator assumes no responsibility or liability whatsoever on the behalf of any purchaser or reader of these materials. The listing navigator is not a doctor nor does he claim to be please consult your physician before beginning any health regimen.