Synergy is essential for effective supplements

The synergy of supplements

Because many ingredients interact really well with others – but some, not so much – it’s important to be aware of how each nutrient in a supplement interacts with the others before it’s included in the formula.

It’s sort of like creating the perfect group – the book club where everyone is on the same page, the wine aficionado group with no wine snob in sight. One bad apple, essentially, has the potential to spoil the whole thing, just by being there.

Providing the perfect balance of nutrients, enzymes and vitamins – all working in harmony – is essential to creating the perfect supplement, and it’s something we’ve researched extensively at Xtend-Life to ensure our product range is the best it can be.

Standard supplement standards aren't that high

When we consume a standard supplement, we are often taking a mix of ingredients that have been determined in separate studies to each have health benefits, all packed into a single tablet or capsule. 

What’s missing is raw knowledge about how those ingredients interact not only in our bodies, but also together.

Some may get along just fine, but others may hinder absorption of one another, essentially reducing the efficacy of each other out.

In the same way that a synthetic vitamin requires a missing micronutrient in order for our bodies to use it, some essential vitamins require a partner to do their best work.

That’s where synergy comes in.

Nutrients in perfect harmony

When barbershop quartets wax poetic, it’s often about the elusive “fifth note,” a single note that is heard only when the group’s four voices come together in perfect harmony. They couldn’t experience it without each voice at its most perfect, and it’s the goal of every group.

That’s what we’re looking for with our supplements, especially our Total Balance formulas.

“Studies have established that the correct combination of active ingredients can increase the efficacy of the individual components by as much as fifteen times,” wrote Phyllis Balch in the book “Prescription for Nutritional Healing." 

But in order to create these wonderful effects, it’s essential to combine these different ingredients carefully and specifically in order to maximize the benefits.

Some examples of synergy include:

• Many herbal sleep remedies include both valerian and hops. The addition of the hops amplifies the effects of the valerian, so less of the herb – which can cause stomach pain in large doses – is needed to garner the same sleep-benefiting effects. (Ref. 1)
• When many people begin experiencing joint pain, they often reach for glucosamine – a recommended supplement to help support pain relief during the early stages of arthritis. Studies, however, have shown that glucosamine loses its beneficial effects over time as the body becomes accustomed to the ingredient, even in high doses. Mixing three different members of the glucosamine family - Glucosamine sulphate, Poly-N-acetyl-Glucosamine, and D-Glucosamine hydrochloride – each with subtle molecular differences, enhances the benefits and creates a synergy so those benefits don’t lessen over time.

Essentially, when different nutrients are combined, the resulting effects can be more powerful than the results seen from taking an individual nutrient.

With a formula such as Total Balance, which is constructed with a sum of parts that becomes one harmonious whole, the results can be truly impressive – and very different to the results experienced when popping a poor quality supplement from the supermarket.

It’s the synergy that is a key element in making it happen.

Refferences:

1. http://www.xtend-life.com/Blog/10-11-09/Synergy_-_What_does_it_mean.aspx