Did you know that most diseases are linked to nutrient deficiencies or imbalances? Your body is very resilient and can get by in a weakened state for quite some time but then the almost inevitable happens…ailments and disease set in.

Your organs require a broad range of nutrients in order to function properly and to keep the cells in your body supplied with all the chemicals and hormones they need. If any critical nutrients are missing or deficient, then breakdowns in cellular metabolism are sure to happen resulting in disease and accelerated aging.

This is where micro-nutriments come in. They consist of a whole range of necessary substances that your body requires to keep all systems operating at peak efficiency. These nutriments are often lacking due to a poor diet, a poor ability to extract nutrients from the food, and/or a food supply which is lacking in certain nutrients.

Diet - A poor diet is one which is based on processed foods (containing sugar, vegetable oils, additives, and preservatives), lacking in Omega-3 fish oils, low in high-quality proteins and fats, and lacking in sufficient fiber and water.

Nutrient Extraction - Many people suffer from a poor ability to extract nutrients out of the food they eat. This is often due to a lack of specific enzymes in the upper intestine which allows the digestive system to break down the nutrients in the food into molecules that are small enough to pass through the membrane of the small intestine. It is also vital to have a properly functioning large intestine. Sufficient fiber (at least 24 grams per day) will help keep your colon in good working order.

Food Supply - Due to modern farming practices, most staple foods today contain only a fraction of the nutrients the same foods used to have only fifty years ago.

What can be done about the above listed deficiencies? There is only one choice – dietary supplementation.

What does a micro-nutriment supplement consist of? These supplements include all the necessary vitamins and minerals, a broad spectrum of potent antioxidants, an array of important amino acids, bioflavanoids, herbal extracts and enzymes.

You could purchase many of these compounds separately, but this is risky business. How do you know it is safe to take the different products together, not to mention what dosage levels you might need? It makes far more sense to use a comprehensive supplement which combines all of these ingredients in their correct forms and in the correct ratios, taking into account the synergy of all the ingredients.

What do we mean by synergy. Well, that's a fancy word which means that everything must work together so that each ingredient enhances or supports the others. If ingredients are mismatched they will cancel each other out or worse, could even be harmful. More is often not better. For example, high doses of vitamin C as ascorbic acid, can do you more harm than good because additional free radicals are generated.

Micro-nutriments are also available at different potencies. Similar ingredients can be manufactured at 3% potency or 98% potency levels, for example. Which do you think is being used in a cheap supermarket supplement? The lesson – You can't cheap out on micro-nutriments if you want them to work!

We need to say more about ingredient blending. Low cost supplements often don't contain the amount of ingredients they claim possibly due to unsatisfactory blending methods. Typically the process might consist of adding all the ingredients at once into a mixer for 20 minutes and then forming into a tablet or capsule. A professional supplement made to pharmaceutical standards will mix the various ingredients in different combinations several times before the final product is produced. Special blenders are used to prevent any ingredients from settling so as to guarantee even distribution and exact quantities of ingredients.

The final thing to consider in choosing a micro-nutriment supplement is the delivery system. Once you ingest a nutrient, they are immediately attacked by stomach acids and enzymes. Some important nutrients cannot survive this digestive process. Therefore, a quality supplement will use a pharmaceutical-grade enteric coating on the tablets. This coating will allow safe passage through the stomach and will only breakdown and release the nutrients in the alkaline environment of the upper intestine. The nutrients can then be properly absorbed through the intestinal lining and go to work nourishing the cells and organs.

So, have you taken your micro-nutriments today? I certainly hope so! If not, then consider adding professionally manufactured supplements to enhance your overall health, ensure that your body won't age prematurely and is properly nourished to function optimally in a polluted world.