My views on nutrition changed one day a few years ago when a patient came in and told me that she was having her septic tank repaired. She told me what was causing the blockage – hundreds of undigested vitamin pills, some of them with the brand names still readable. After hearing this disturbing news, I did some research of my own. I found in Tacoma Washington, 250,000 pounds of undigested vitamin and mineral pills are pulled out of the sewers every six weeks. In Salt Lake City, over 150 gallons of vitamin and mineral pills show up in their filters every month.

The reason is due to high metallic content of these pills. Metallic minerals like oyster shells, carbonates, oxides and dolomites have the consistency of crushed up rocks, which our bodies were not designed to digest. Even those pills listed as "all natural" often have added fillers and coatings that inhibit absorption.

The Physician’s Desk Reference (page 1542) shows that vitamins and minerals in a pill form are only 10 to 20% absorbed by the body. That means for every $100 you are spending on nutrients, you are literally flushing about $90 of it down the toilet. Because of this lack of absorption, companies must use mega doses of nutrients and this can cause a taxation on the kidneys. According to the National Advisory Board, 100 mg consumed in a tablet form translates to a minute stabilized 8.3-mg concentration in the blood.

Upon realizing nutrients in pill form leave much to be desired, I started to eliminate them from my inventory and started exclusively selling a liquid nutrient. I admit figuring out just which supplements to carry in your office can often be a task. For example, if you recommend calcium to your patients they must also take magnesium. Then for magnesium and calcium to properly absorb they also need boron. In order for all of these to properly assimilate, amino acids are required. Studies show vitamin E is very helpful in preventing heart disease, but current research shows to maintain normal blood concentrations of vitamin E, your patients must take zinc. However, if they take zinc, a proper balance of copper and vitamin C is essential. After taking over 20 different nutrients myself and recommending a giant handful per day to my patients, I knew there had to be a better way.

Nutritional drinks and oral sprays offer a 98% absorption rate because they bypass the digestive process and go directly into the blood stream and into the cell within a matter of minutes. In fact, tests from Massachusetts General Hospital have shown higher blood concentrations of insulin by oral liquid application. Even injections will take the insulin 30 minutes longer to reach the same blood levels. Not only are liquid nutrients more convenient, they also allow those with irritable bowel syndrome, hiatal hernias and diverticulitis to take nutrients that may have irritated them in a pill or capsule form.

I was impressed with oral sprays, but I find them very hard to sell with a price ranging from $19 to $36 for just one vitamin, and each is sold separately. I researched virtually every liquid nutrient on the market and only recommend liquid drinks that derive their nutrients from organic sea vegetation. Sea vegetables have tremendous nutritional value for human consumption and are quickly finding their way into the market place.

Our bodies consist of approximately 70% water. Not ordinary water, but salt water. The human body contains the same salts that exist in the ocean in almost the exact proportions. Both the ocean water and the water within us contains 80% sodium, 4% calcium, 4% potassium and 12% sulfur. Unlike minerals from the ground, nutrients from the sea are recognized by our cell receptors and are allowed access into our cells. Sea vegetation offers ionic minerals, which experts consider to be assimilated better than any other form. Because sea vegetables are from the ocean, they form a great matrix when suspended in a liquid product and they don’t settle to the bottom.