Basic Supplements

Everybody can benefit from the following four basic supplements, taken twice a day, every day. We take these every day despite having no addictions or abstinence symptoms. You will, however, need specific amino acids as well, depending on your abstinence symptoms and on the substance you are quitting (this is explained in the book).

These are:

  1. An optimum nutrition multivitamin and mineral
  2. Additional vitamin C, ideally with berry extracts (bioflavonoids)
  3. Essential omega-3 and 6 fats (ideally providing GLA, DHA, DPA and EPA)
  4. Phospholipid complex (ideally providing phosphatidyl choline, serine, MG and glutamine)

www.HOLFORDirect.com offers high quality supplements such as these.

Multivitamin–mineral

The starting point of any supplement programme is a high-potency multivitamin and multimineral. This should provide the following nutrients:

Multivitamin

A good multivitamin should contain at least 7,500iu of vitamin A, 15mcg (600iu) of vitamin D, 100iu of mixed natural vitamin E, 250mg of vitamin C, and 25mg each of vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5 and B6, 10mcg of vitamin B12, 200mcg of folic acid and 50mcg of biotin.

Multimineral

This should provide at least 200mg of calcium, 150mg of magnesium,10mg of zinc, 2.5mg of manganese, 20mcg of chromium and 25mcg of selenium, and ideally 30mcg of molybdenum and 1mg of boron. You should not take an iron supplement unless you are iron deficient. A routine blood test will determine if you are, and your doctor will let you know.

Multivitamin and mineral

You simply can’t fit all of the above vitamins and minerals into one tablet. So we recommend two or more tablets a day of a good, combined multivitamin and mineral formula to meet these levels. The bulkiest nutrients are vitamin C, calcium and magnesium. These are often insufficiently supplied in multivitamin and mineral formulas. Vitamin C, in particular, is best taken separately simply because you’ll never get at least 1,000mg into a multi tablet.

Vitamin C supplement

The ideal vitamin C supplement should provide around 1,000–2,000mg, as a daily amount. It is often taken in two tablets. Some vitamin C formulas also provide other key immune-boosting nutrients such as zinc, bioflavonoids or anthocyanidins in the form of black elderberry and bilberry.

Essential fats

The ideal essential-fat supplement should provide the most potent omega-6 fat, GLA, and the most potent omega-3 fats, EPA, DPA and DHA. The easiest way to calculate how much omega-3 to take is to add together the EPA, DPA and DHA quantities shown on your supplement packaging. You will need to take 1,000mg a day, usually in two doses. You then need 100mg omega-6 GLA: this can be from evening primrose, borage or blackcurrant oil.

Phospholipids

The ideal phospholipid supplement should provide phosphatidyl choline, phosphatidyl serine, phosphatidyl inositol and DMAE. There are other nutrients and nutrient derivatives that help support brain function, which include glutamine, SAM, NADH and pyroglutamate, plus the methylating nutrients, especially TMG, B6, B12 and folic acid.

A cheap source of phospholipids is lecithin, with comes in 1,200mg capsules and in granules (a heaped teaspoon being equivalent to a 1,200mg capsule). This provides almost as much phosphatidyl choline as found in an egg, which provides 2,000mg of lecithin, containing about 200mg of phosphatidyl choline.