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Ralph's
Must-Have Nutritional • You know that LiverSupport.com offers fine, effective herbal supplements that have great value to you. These include Maximum Milk Thistle, Liv.52 and Liver Kampo (or Professional Sho-Saiko-To). • You should also know that I take additional supplements not currently sold by LiverSupport.com, as detailed in my interview, "A Hepatitis C Survival Story". I refer to this group of essential supplements as my "A-List".
Hi, Ralph Napolitano here. I’ve long had a relationship with Moss Nutrition in Hadley, MA and I've recently made arrangements so you, too, can now purchase the full range of "A-List" supplements from this known, respected and reliable source! Moss Nutrition provides only the highest quality nutritional supplements as prescribed and recommended by doctors and other healthcare professionals. You can learn more about this fine company at MossNutrition.com. Although I can’t make any recommendations specifically tailored for you, I can tell you which supplements I have chosen for myself and why. Before I go into detail about all them below, you should know that most are available exclusively through doctors or licensed healthcare practitioners. A few are also available at higher-quality health food stores. But we are making all the products available here so you have the convenience and efficiency of one-stop shopping. Plus, these particular brands are all chosen because they have been validated as being the highest quality formulations available anywhere. By obtaining your supplements through Moss, you are assured of the highest levels of freshness, bio-availability, and purity. Why should you gamble with the quality of your supplements? (Read the sidebar on back for an analysis of this important concept.) As I like to remind people, "You wouldn't choose a brain surgeon based on lowest price, would you?" On to the "A-List"! We'll start with those currently available directly from LiverSupport.com. First, there's Maximum Milk Thistle™, a patented liver aid, much more potent than standardized milk thistle, up to 10x more bioavailable, and clinically shown to support normal function of liver cells. Maximum Milk Thistle uses the most beneficial component of milk thistle extract (silybin) and binds it to phosphatidycholine on a molecular level. The resulting compound dramatically increases absorption, biological activity and delivery of silybin, making Siliphos the most beneficial milk thistle product available. To reinforce the protective and supportive action of Maximum Milk Thistle™ I have added Liv.52© and Liver Kampo™ (also known as sho-saiko-to) to my protocol. They are both herbal combinations, one ayurvedic (from India) and one Japanese, respectively. The reason I chose these is that there is a plethora of scientific validation of their effectiveness and safety. Liv.52© has been most successful with detoxifying certain substances like alcohol. For people who are in a more toxic environment or are concerned about what they ingest (such as alcohol -- which is certainly not recommended), then this product may be very helpful. Liver Kampo™ is produced using traditional eastern herbs that aid the liver. The manufacturer, Honso, then standardizes them and produces the product using pharmaceutical grade standards. In fact, this is considered a true medicine in Japan where it is prescribed by doctors for liver concerns because it, too, has been shown to protect and support liver cells. These two products are available directly at www.LiverSupport.com, and at better prices than you can get elsewhere! The following supplements on my "A-list" are not available at the LiverSupport site at this time. But through our special arrangement, you can order them from Moss Nutrition. These are not necessarily listed in order of importance. The first is NAC or N-acetyl-cysteine. This is readily turned into glutathione by your body. Glutathione is essential for normal phase-two detoxification in your liver. You can buy oral glutathione, but it is considerably more expensive than NAC and there is some controversy among biochemists and clinical nutritionists as to whether it passes through your digestive system intact. NAC is cheaper and it is known to be easily transformed into glutathione in your body. To give you an idea of its importance, let me give you this example; if you were rushed to the hospital with Tylenol (acetaminophen) poisoning they would give you intravenous NAC to detoxify the acetaminophen before it destroyed too many liver cells and killed you. Next there is selenium. I take 300mcgs per day. Retrospective studies in China showed that provinces with elevated levels of hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer) were brought to normal levels very quickly by the introduction of selenium to the inhabitants' otherwise selenium-deficient diets. As someone with a liver disease, liver cancer is definitely something I want to avoid (and selenium is very inexpensive). I also take a good multi-vitamin without iron. Studies have shown that people with liver issues that were not responding well to interferon therapy had high iron levels in their livers. So I avoid additional iron in my multivitamin supplement. The brand is Biogenesis™ and you can normally only get it through a healthcare professional, because it is not sold in health food stores or vitamin shops. I take 500mg to 1000mg of Vitamin C per day. There is some question about it helping to bind iron in the body but I have seen no solid evidence that this could be a problem. In fact, some sources claim it helps to chelate (remove) excess iron from the body. I take 400 i.u. of Vitamin E per day. It is a strong antioxidant. Zinc is a very strong anti-viral element. In my own experience, its effectiveness is unquestioned. As you may or may not know, warts are caused by a virus. My 8-year-old son had a problem with plantar warts on his feet, and went through all different treatments, cutting, freezing, and burning them off. These treatments were very painful and unpleasant, to the point the boy would refuse to go back to doctor. So we tried another doctor, an expert in nutritional medicine, who recommended zinc therapy. Within six weeks, the warts fell off. Alpha Lipoic Acid (a.k.a. Thiotic Acid) is also on my "A" list because it has a great reputation as an antioxidant and antiviral within the HIV community. 300mg of ALA per day is recommended. ProGreens: Leafy greens supply chlorophyll, enzymes and other essential micronutrients that are deficient in most modern diets. I use a powdered green drink ( ProGreens® from Nutricology). For ongoing information, you can sign up for our free update newsletter at the LiverSupport.com website. This way you can stay informed about new and relevant information. You may as well benefit from my legwork and research! Product and Ordering details: Here
are the products available through Moss Nutrition, together with
the dosages, strengths and prices: To order, call our associates at Moss Nutrition in Hadley, MA. Their phone number is 800-851-5444. You must mention that you were informed of these products by Ralph Napolitano. Be well, Ralph P.S. Some people have asked me to break down the A-list even further. The top 3, top 6, top 10, etc. Here is my best shot. Even if I did not have HCV I would take a high quality multi vitamin, vitamin C, vitamin E and a green drink. I took these before I found out I had Hep C 12+ years ago and still take them today. There is adequate research out there to support the theory that almost anyone could benefit from adding these supplements to their diet. To specifically protect and support my liver I include: Maximum
Milk Thistle For still more support and protection I add: Zinc Other products are also helpful for the liver and/or immune system. In fact, I often tell people that if they wanted to take all the supplements that might help them they would go broke popping pills and drinking potions all day. I try to choose on a cost/benefit basis. The cost must be commensurate with the possible benefit. There are some others that I take intermittently and I will give you more information on them in the future. For now, the above list should be enough for anyone looking to do the most good for the least cost. |
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Did you know that manufacturers of nutritional and herbal supplements are not regulated by the FDA? (The New York Times February 9, 1999) While the FDA has established manufacturing guidelines, they are only mandatory for drug companies. For vitamin and herbal companies, they are voluntary! But I choose to recommend specific supplements because of the assurance that they have the stated nutrients, in the exact quantities, and are contaminant-free. Why should you buy your supplements through Moss Nutrition instead of a health food store? Most people expect all nutritional supplements, such as vitamins, minerals and herbs to be exactly the same from company to company. Therefore, with this assumption in mind it makes perfect sense to buy the cheapest possible products. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Unbeknownst to many, supplement quality can vary tremendously from company to company. This can not only determine how well a supplement works, but whether it creates side effects that can range from minor annoyances to major inconveniences. How can quality be determined in a supplement? In answering this question, it's important to know nutritional supplements are processed food, just like a bag of potato chips or a can of beans that you might buy in a supermarket. In the case of supplements, nutrients (or, in the case of herbs, phytochemicals) have been packaged for purchase several days, weeks, or months after manufacture. What concerns would you have when purchasing of a bag of potato chips or a can of beans? Most likely, they would be these: 1. How fresh is the product? No matter how carefully a processed food is packaged, eventually oxygen and age will take their toll, causing food to oxidize, or, in simpler terms, rot. Therefore, most people would like to get processed food that has only spent a short time on the shelf or in a warehouse. 2. Can my body use the nutrients? Has the food been processed to the point where the body regards it as a foreign substance and can no longer absorb the nutrients it contains? 3. Do the contents of the bag or can match what is on the label? Has the processing company, knowingly or unknowingly, added substances to the product that are not indicated on the label, or are indicated in the wrong amount? Or even worse, are the food substances on the label not even in the product? 4. Has the product been analyzed for microbial contamination? Given the recent concerns about E.coli contamination, this point is particularly important. 5. If there is a problem, can I talk to a manufacturer's representative? If problems arise, we all want to talk to someone "in the know" who can resolve issues. This point is particularly important since it is very difficult for the consumer to determine any of the above points before the food is ingested. It is also nice to know that a trusted, highly reliable person stands behind the product. And how do the above points relate to nutritional supplements? 1. Freshness. Most nutrients (especially B and C vitamins) and herbs oxidize very readily over time, no matter how carefully they are processed and packaged. Therefore, it is important that nutrient and herbal manufacturers buy small lots that are quickly processed and made available to the consumer as soon as possible. Unfortunately, because it is more cost effective to buy large lots that are stored in warehouses for several months at a time, most manufacturers do not do this. Because the companies with which we deal make freshness a top priority, it costs more to make the product and, therefore, they must charge more to stay in business. 2. Nutrient availability. Because it is more cost effective, many nutrient or herbal companies highly compress the constituents into small, very hard tablets; or cram them tightly into capsules. Moreover, because the companies very often lack the equipment, they do not check and see how readily these tablets or capsules break down in the digestive tract. As a result, the saying, "Americans have the world's healthiest toilets," is, more often than not, sadly true. The companies with which we deal manufacture their supplements with digestibility in mind, which is constantly determined by on-site testing. Of course, this also adds to the cost of the product. 3. Contents of the supplements. Because the nutrient and herbal industries are poorly regulated from a manufacturing standpoint, far too many instances exist where an unknown substance was added, something important was never included, or a combination of the two happens. The companies supplying our products provide 100% assurance that what is on the label is exactly what is in the bottle. They back up this claim with on-site testing of each batch. Again, this adds to the cost of the production. 4. Microbial contamination. The companies with which we deal analyze both the raw materials and the finished products for microbial contamination. 5. Reaching a manufacturer's representative. Sadly, it is a known fact that many supplements available in the health food stores are manufactured by different companies at different times, depending on which company offers the lowest price. Therefore, even though the labels may look the same, the quality of the product may vary greatly from batch to batch. While this manufacturing method assures the cheapest price, it makes it very difficult to track down the manufacturers for any particular batch. Furthermore, as you might expect, manufacturers know this and may relax their standards on the above-mentioned points. The companies we deal with maintain a staff of highly trained professionals, both locally and at the point of manufacture, that can quickly and expertly answer any concerns that may arise. As you might expect, this also adds to the cost of the product. In light of this analysis, is it better to spend a little less on products that give questionable, unpredictable results, or a bit more on those that are backed by reliable, trustworthy professionals with much more consistent, satisfying results? If your answer is the latter, you have come to the right place. |