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Mark your calendar with these opportunities to increase your knowledge...and your health!

Our patients take proactive steps toward health. Remember . . .a healthy body is capable of healing itself. The following are conditions improved or overcome by patients who followed their treatment plan-optimizing their body's healing potential at St. Louis Spine & Health: ADD-ADHD, Low back pain, migraines, hormone imbalance, infant croup, knee pain, work injuries, auto accident injuries, emotional health, allergies, sport injuries, immune deficiencies, health maintenance.

Healthy Bodies Heal Themselves.

Here are some of the conditions treated and improved by our patients who follow through on their personalized treatment plans at St. Louis Spine & Health: Neck Pain, Migraine Headaches, Depression, Acne, Osteoporosis, Seasonal Affective Disorder, Hormone Balancing, Relief from Colds and Flu, Bursitis, Back Pain. GREAT WORK!

Office Hours:

Monday 9-6. Tuesday 2-6, Wednesday 9-6, Thursday 9-6, Friday 9-Noon

Share the Knowledge

Dr. Neifert is being given many opportunities to share his knowledge about many aspects of ALTERNATIVE HEALTH CARE. In settings that range from public school - elementary through highschool, corporate health fairs and lunch lectures, small business classes to service club meetings, Dr. Neifert continues to facilitate the desire for others to know more. Feel free to contact us regarding Dr. Neiferts availability to teach in your club or class.

PHONE 314-576-1495

St. Louis Spine & Health Center Newsletter

Vitamins - All or Parts

By K. Shane Neifert, D.C.

As I counsel patients nutritionally, questions about vitamins are common. There are a confusing number of vitamins available to choose from. In my experience the most important criterion to check when selecting your vitamins is its origin. Chemically produced vitamins are often manufactured with a single focus in mind. For instance, the chemical ascorbic acid is much the same as that found in an orange. But what is sadly different is that the supplement of ascorbic acid does not deliver the complete complex of vitamin C that is found in the citrus fruit. There are other pieces of the complex such as rutin, bioflavinoids, and tyrosinase (elemental copper) that are found in foods where vitamin C is acquired.

The analogy of a car and all of its components is remarkably similar to vitamin complexes. The car has four tires and may be classified as a four-wheeled vehicle. Should we then say that anything with four tires is a car? Could we roll up a set of four tires and justify calling them a car? No. You wouldn't buy four tires as a substitute for a vehicle. You desire to have the entire car. The chassis, steering wheel, motor, transmission, and seats are essential items for you when considering the purchase of a vehicle. Vitamins are the same. You deserve to have the full complex of vitamin ingredients not just the ones the government uses to measure the amount of a vitamin.

Malcom Lawrence writes of a medical doctor who was a prisoner of war held in Korea during the conflict there. While in captivity he had charge over the other American prisoners' health. He observed that the men were beginning to show signs of beriberi, a thiamin or vitamin B1 deficiency. At the doctor's request the Red Cross shipped him some thiamin hydrochloride HCL USP-the recommended resolution for beriberi. The prisoners received their dose of synthetic thiamin, but continued to worsen in their symptoms. This was disconcerting to the doctor and left him unaware of another solution. He overheard his North Korean guards mention that rice polishings were the cure for what the men were suffering from. He negotiated to get a supply of rice polishings and distributed a teaspoon or two to the prisoners per day mixed in a small amount of water. Hopeful but skeptical of the difference such a little substance could offer, the doctor was amazed as the soldiers began to improve quickly and all signs of beriberi disappeared. Rice polishings contain B1, but they also provide other B complex factors as well as trace elements, enzymes, and other synergists. Synthetic B1 contained nothing but thiamin. The amount needed to reverse the disease process was incredibly small. This is one of many examples of whole food complexes being of great benefit vs. synthetic parts being of little use. (Philadelphia Inquirer 12 Feb 1956 pg. B - 1)

There is another side of the incomplete vitamin to consider. Think of it this way. You have a supply of rutin and bioflavinoids that are essential in utilizing ascorbic acid. Should you only consume the ascorbic acid, where will your body come up with the bioflavinoids and rutin? They withdraw them from your own body's supplies. You will soon become deficient in the elements your body requires as synergists. Believing that you are doing yourself a favor by consuming chemical vitamins may actually be causing shortages in the other elements not consumed with the supplement. Buyer beware.

You will want to read labels and discover if the supplements are made from whole foods. This alone will not ensure that the food your supplement was made with is still there. Heat and time will reduce the enzymes and vitamins found in the original crop. Products with minimal processing more readily supply the needed building blocks for health. Vitamins with whole food supplements deliver the nutrients effectively to your system in complexes instead of chemical fractions.

Dr. Neifert is a holistic practitioner who uses natural means to help improve the health of his patients. New patients are welcome at St. Louis Spine & Health Center, 12401 Olive, Suite 202, Creve Coeur, MO 63141 Ph. (314) 576-1495.