A Functional Medicine Expert's 6 Supplement Rules To Live By

After years of research, there are a few things I make sure everyone who wants to take supplements knows about them in order to make the most informed decision about their health:

Ultimately, supplements are about quality—not quantity. You can be taking handfuls of supplements every day, but unless you are taking the right ones for your body, you’re not going to notice much difference in your health. Make sure to work with your functional medicine practitioner, who can run diagnostic labs to determine which supplements are right for your specific health case. If you have previously taken one of the popular at-home genetic tests, your doctor can help you translate your results into personalized supplement recommendations, using PureGenomics.

How an ingredient is sourced plays a big role in how well the supplement made from that ingredient actually performs. For example, if certain herbs aren’t grown in a non-contaminated environment, they can be exposed to multiple kinds of chemicals, toxins, and pesticides. These end up directly inside your supplement and thus, in your body, where they can actually do more harm than good. Look for quality, health-care-practitioner-supported brands that are transparent about their sourcing.

Just because something says it’s natural or organic doesn’t mean that it is good for you. And since toxins are not visible to the naked eye, extra steps need to be taken to guarantee each ingredient is truly pure. That’s why it’s important to get your supplements from a reputable brand that goes the extra mile with their time and money to test every ingredient for factors like purity, potency, heavy metals, pesticides, allergens, and microbial contaminants.

Manufacturing is a factor that is just as important as ingredient quality but often gets overlooked. Supplements need to be produced in dust-, temperature-, and humidity-controlled facilities in order to avoid unwanted bacterial growth. And to eliminate the risk of cross-contamination, companies need to have proper procedures in place for every step of the process, including having quality assurance specialists who inspect supplement quality regularly.

For anyone with an obvious allergy, this is an automatic deal-breaker. A lot of companies use unnecessary fillers and preservatives as well as coatings and shellacs, which can severely irritate someone struggling with gut issues or less obvious food intolerances, too. This is just as important as the quality of the ingredients inside. Companies who value this will state on their label that they are gluten-free, non-GMO, and hypoallergenic.

When brands have high quality standards, they like to show that off right on the bottle! Do your research, and you’ll find that reputable companies like Pure Encapsulations are extremely transparent when it comes to manufacturing and sourcing. They go above and beyond to make sure you have no questions left unanswered; they meet every single one of these standards and more, which is why they are the No. 1 most trusted health care practitioner brand.