Supplements
Are Dietary Supplements Unnecessary?
Dietary supplements without healthy nutrition don't make sense. But a truly healthy lifestyle without supplementation is often impossible—here's why.
Supplements
Dietary supplements without healthy nutrition don't make sense. But a truly healthy lifestyle without supplementation is often impossible—here's why.
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One thing is always important to us: Even though we're suppliers of dietary supplements and see ourselves as "advocates" for a healthy lifestyle—dietary supplements have their limits.
We've always been clear about this. That's why all our content is about lifestyle, about healthy eating, about applied biochemistry. We rarely speak solely about the benefits of supplementation.
Because dietary supplements are only one part—sometimes a larger part, sometimes a smaller one—of a healthy lifestyle.
Let's put it this way: Dietary supplements without healthy nutrition don't make sense. A truly healthy lifestyle without dietary supplements is... impossible.
Everyone Has Micronutrient Deficiencies
Because each of us has weaknesses. Even the best diet plan (what would that even be?), even an apparently well-balanced lifestyle with minimal stress (who has that?) and plenty of sunlight (like in southern regions, for example...), cannot optimally nourish us.
In reality, things work the opposite way:
And so on—we've all heard this a thousand times and told it a thousand times.
What's rarely discussed is that none of us have perfect genetics:
Furthermore, it's rarely discussed that "more" could also be beneficial. Here we think of one of the world's most famous biochemists, Bruce Ames.
He was once chief toxicologist for the Americans (the "Ames Test"). Eventually he got bored with that and became a nutritional scientist later on, introducing the Triage Theory.
The observation that the body quickly becomes satisfied with micronutrients when it comes to bare survival. But when it comes to living as long as possible in good health, sometimes you need considerably more.
He proved this, for example, with vitamin K: Small amounts of vitamin K are enough to protect us from bleeding to death. But we need considerably more—at least 2–3 times as much—for vitamin K to also support our immune system or keep our blood vessels clean. This is something we need in the long term.3
The Example of Magnesium
That's why micronutrients. One of the best examples is magnesium. In Switzerland too, the picture is similar: a significant share of the population does not meet the recommended daily magnesium intake.4 This pattern is consistent across Central European countries.
The sad part is that most people still only associate magnesium with muscle cramps. Recent high-quality research published in respected scientific journals rarely reaches them.
One such study was published about two years ago.5 The researchers showed that our most important immune cells, T cells, need magnesium for a protein on the cell surface to function—a protein with which the T cell recognizes cancer-infected or virus-infected cells.
The researchers found that "adequate magnesium supply translates into better performance of pathogen- and tumor-specific T cells, increased antibody effectiveness, and improved function of CAR-T cells."
CAR-T cells are modern cancer immunotherapy. They work better with magnesium, because the body's own T cells function better. Accordingly, the researchers found that cancer patients who consume too little magnesium perform worse and die sooner.
A similar study was published nearly ten years ago in the respected British Journal of Cancer.6 The scientists showed: For every 100 mg below daily requirement, the risk of pancreatic cancer rose by 24%. Big numbers.
Smart Prevention With Supplements
Of course, we would never say at this point that magnesium deficiency causes cancer or that magnesium supplementation cures cancer. That would be irresponsible.
But we all have only one life. And the data on micronutrients (see above) should encourage us to make smart decisions that help us stay healthy as long as possible.
That means: with supplements. There's no other way.
Research by Carsten Carlberg ("Vitamin D response index")
https://genetisches-maximum.de/naehrstoffe/genetik-drei-wichtige-naehrstoffe-fuer-veganer/
Joyce McCann & Bruce N Ames (2009): Vitamin K, an example of triage theory: is micronutrient inadequacy linked to diseases of aging?
National Consumption Study II (Germany) – comparable data available for Switzerland and other Central European countries
Lötscher et al. (2022): Magnesium sensing via LFA-1 regulates CD8+ T cell effector function
Dibaba et al. (2015): Magnesium intake and incidence of pancreatic cancer: the VITamins and Lifestyle study
