• Are you confident about the quality of supplements you recommend? Do you make specific brand recommendations?
• What if you determined your patient needed magnesium? Would you know which magnesium is best suited to them – oxide, glycinate, taurate, threonate, aspartate, citrate, chloride, malate, or sulfate? Dizzy yet?
• What about B vitamins? Are you up on when methylated versions are better or when they may actually be contraindicated? (PS – it’s not just about MTHFR).
• Do you think all women of childbearing years need iron in their multivitamin? And how do you feel about starting a prenatal vitamin when you’re trying to conceive – even before you’re pregnant?

• You stop guessing—and start making targeted, clinically sound recommendations
• You confidently explain why one form, dose, or protocol works—and another doesn’t
• You identify root nutrient imbalances others miss
• You reduce client trial-and-error, frustration, and wasted money
• You become the practitioner clients trust for answers they can’t get anywhere else

Our conventional nutrition education has prepared us well in key areas like general anatomy & physiology, lifecycle nutrition, macro and micronutrients, body systems; cardiovascular, blood sugar, liver, digestion, etc, and of course, specialty medical and overall healthy diets. The emphasis is on getting nutrition through a good varied diet; one that provides the RDAs for all the essential nutrients. But what about when diet and RDA standards aren’t enough?

A good segment of our clients is on some sort of specialty diet at any given time and sometimes long-term: low calories/low fat, restrictive diets often lacking variety, or even omitting an entire food group, and of course, there are some who simply prefer highly processed and/or convenience foods.

Nearly 90% of U.S. adults fail to meet recommended fruit and vegetable intake. That’s just the tip of the iceberg!

What’s deceiving is even when healthy foods are consumed, they may come with a depletion of nutrients, what with overcooking/over farming, and over processing.

• Approximately 40–45% of people carry BCMO1 variants that substantially reduce their ability to convert beta-carotene into retinol.
  • That doesn’t mean those patients are automatically deficient — but it does mean that beta-carotene is an unreliable sole source of vitamin A for a significant portion of your patient population. If you’re recommending a supplement with beta-carotene as the only source of vitamin A, you may be leaving nearly half your patients without adequate coverage, especially if they are vegan!

• Recommending folic acid and recommending folate are not the same thing?
  • Folic acid is the synthetic form. It requires conversion to be used — and a significant portion of the population carries MTHFR variants that impair that conversion. Unmetabolized folic acid has its own clinical implications. The distinction matters clinically, and it’s one most practitioners were never taught to make.

• Vitamin B6 participates in more than 150 enzymatic reactions — including the synthesis of serotonin, GABA, and dopamine?
  • B6 deficiency doesn’t just cause peripheral neuropathy. It can contribute to mood disorders, hormonal imbalance, and impaired detoxification through the transsulfuration pathway. And both deficiency AND excess B6 are linked to neuropathy — which makes clinical precision essential.

Well, according to the concepts of orthomolecular medicine, rationale for using supplements include:

• Dietary deficiencies
• Absorptions defects
• Enzyme defects
• Effects of disease
• Drug-induced deficiencies
• Genomic polymorphisms

There’s also microbiome imbalances we’re learning more about every day, increased needs based on stress effects, and even exercise demands.

It also doesn’t help that while these inadequacies can result in clinically overt symptoms, they may also present covertly making it difficult to detect clinically. For example, much literature confirms micronutrient inadequacies could elicit symptoms of general fatigue, reduced ability to fight infections, and impaired cognitive function (i.e., attention, memory, and mood).

Micronutrient inadequacies may also have important implications for long-term health and increase one’s risk for chronic diseases like cancer, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, osteoporosis, and age-related eye disease.

We’ll explore assessment modalities including laboratory biomarkers and clinical signs/symptoms that aid us to best determine our patients’ needs for supplementation and provide the basis for responsible recommendations. Likewise, the importance of follow-up to adjust recommendations over time.

Given the myriad of reasons for nutrient insufficiency, it becomes increasingly evident why assessing nutrient status though dietary intake alone is simply not enough anymore!

Furthermore, considering the physiologic action of nutrients occur at the cellular level, it’s often not even enough to assess general serum/plasma levels.

• Biomarkers that assess cellular sufficiency (did the nutrient get into the cell)
• Biomarkers of metabolic activity (did the nutrient do its job in the cell)
• And, in the case, where our body can produce the nutrient, reasons for physiologic blocks that impede a nutrients production

• You’ll know how to move beyond basic labs and intake forms to uncover what’s really driving symptoms
• You’ll make recommendations with confidence—not hesitation or second-guessing
• You’ll avoid common supplement mistakes that can slow progress—or even harm outcomes
• You’ll finally connect the dots between symptoms, labs, and targeted nutrient interventions

The one who:

• Knows exactly what to recommend—and why
• Can safely navigate complex supplement protocols
• Gets better results when others fall short
• Is seen as the go-to expert, not an afterthought

When you can deliver more precise, effective recommendations:

• Client outcomes improve
• Retention increases
• Referrals grow
• Your value—and confidence—go up