All I can say is ‘Thank God’ for supplements. Without them, I don’t think I would have achieved the kind of results as quickly as I did getting myself healthy and well.
Don’t get me wrong — you can achieve a lot simply with the power of whole foods, raw foods, and superfoods. The selection of foods you eat is also the most cost-effective way to transform your health, because the supplements are relatively quite a lot more cost. But supplements are a way to accelerate your speed towards your health goals, achieve tremendous results quickly, and also help to transition yourself more easily to change what you are eating into a more clean, healthy consumption of foods.
I don’t know about you, but for me I went through a long period of time where I was very tied in and attached to the foods I was eating — unhealthy foods by the way, junk foods that I knew were bad for me. I was addicted if you will, and felt that I lacked the willpower to significantly change my diet. It was a physical craving but also very psychological where junk foods and beverages had become my crutch.
Supplements were the back-door into good health and well-being for me. It gave me to chance to step into the world of energy and life-force power that exists in this realm, without changing what I was eating at first. My approach was, ‘OK I’m willing to invest an extra $50 or $100 to improve my health. I’m at the end of my rope and have nothing to lose. I’m not going to change my eating habits right now and I’m going to keep eating what I’m eating, but I’m going to add in this supplement for the next two weeks.’ Essentially, it just took a bit of money but virtually no effort.
At the time, I was in a very desperate place. If you know my story by now, I was desolate and my health had been shot down in flames. I had all but given up hope that I could ever restore my previously-felt vibrance, energy and creativity I had before I got sick.
What was amazing is that the effects of the supplements — especially herbal products — were quite incredible to me. They were subtle at first, which is understandable. When the body, especially the gut, is backed up and toxic it doesn’t necessarily absorb supplements all that well. But, I felt a strong sensation that my systems were being stimulated in a good way.
At this point I will point out that there are purists in the natural health world that advocate against taking herbal supplements because they are supposedly too stimulating, which could result in ultimately a decline of systematic function later on, when the stimulation wears off. There may be some truth to this hypothesis. And I do understand that herbal supplements are sort of a shortcut in a way rather than holistically changing the diet and lifestyle of the individual. However, had it not been for herbs, I’m not sure I would have gone far enough down the road of health improvement to later on make significant changes to my food consumption and lifestyle. So I don’t consider myself a purist in this sense and I embrace the expedient power of herbs.
There are also those who object to adding vitamins, minerals, or other potentiated isolated nutrients into the body. I can understand the concern about creating unnatural imbalances in the body by means of isolated compounds and this is a legitimate concern. Ultimately, each situation is different and each individual has to figure out for himself or herself if this is worthwhile. I will cover more in depth in an upcoming segment devoted to the question of whether additional supplementation of other nutrients, especially vitamins and minerals, is warranted, and if so which ones and at what quantities.
I’m also personally careful about the types of supplements I will take (this is covered more extensively in the Vitamins and Minerals section). I don’t want to fall into the same trap that happens with toxic drugs from Big Pharma, when humans start to over-intellectualize everything and synthesize unnatural compounds and turn nature into something synthetic and unbalanced. I would prefer to trust the power of Mother Nature in whole plants and plant extract supplements, with some exceptions made for certain other supplemental nutrients in some specific cases. There are some amazing plants and herbs on this planet with extraordinary cleansing and regenerative power. The main point is to trust the power of Nature and the amazing natural qualities of these ingredients that Nature has provided us.
In my own healing journey, as I was adding in supplements (especially those of the herbal variety), I started to feel my systems getting stimulated, and getting a little spike of extra energy. This got me excited about the possibilities of restoring my own health and well-being. At that time of my first experience with high-quality supplements, I had all but given up hope that I could ever save myself. I was down to a belief that there was less than a 1% chance that my health problems could ever be solved. After my experience trying a few different supplements, my confidence went up, my optimism went up, and my mindset changed — everything turned around for me.
I continued to embrace supplements and continued to see results. I investigated more about how to get more results and then at a certain point I did a 5-day intestinal cleanse, followed a few weeks later by a 5-day liver cleanse — wow! At this point, I experienced results which were phenomenal (which I will describe in greater detail in the Intestinal Cleanse and Liver Cleanse sections). I was blown away that I could achieve such meaningful effects in only a few days. At this point, I was on Cloud Nine, and my outlook shot up to at least a 50% chance that I could heal myself. For the next several weeks I experienced more energy than I had felt in many years.
After binging on junk foods and drinks over the course of this few weeks, due to my heightened energy levels and what seemed like an extra fast metabolism, my general feeling was that I could handle the abuse and my energy levels or waistline never seemed to suffer. It was incredible. However, I found myself in the midst of a classic Healing Crisis a few weeks later (covered in detail in a later chapter).
It was only after going through this healing crisis, which amounted to cold-like symptoms over several days, and researching some information on how to handle it, that I uncovered the strategy of adding into your day as much fruit as possible. I proceeded to give that a try and about a week later, not only had I recovered from the crisis, but I felt even better than before with even more momentum. I had now taken a significant step in terms of improving my food consumption, which I continued doing over the next period of time.
Had I not been on a roll (due to the supplements) in terms of momentum, with heightened energy, increased enthusiasm, and an reinvigorated outlook, then I don’t believe I would have had the gumption to take that leap of faith and the discipline required to start changing up what I was eating so audaciously. Certainly, the supplements helped. And thus, that is very much the role of supplements for me — kicking off my journey to get myself healthy, and it worked.
This initial transformation occurred in 2015. It is now the year 2023 as of the time of writing, and over the last 7 years, I have continued to add supplements in at various times, sometimes a lot, sometimes sparingly, sometimes not at all, sometimes in the form of a multi-day cleanse — but these magical tools created from nature have always there for me to some degree when I’ve needed a boost.
Different supplements are good for different things. There is a time for detoxifying and cleaning, and a time for building back up and strengthening. There could be a time for toning and refining certain systems of the body that need attention. The beauty of supplements is how they can really specifically target a certain area, much like a sniper rifle can pinpoint the target.
My goal in putting together the program of Rapid Regeneration is to help as many people as I can, who have become fed up and disappointed with conventional modalities and being told their health problems are not solvable. I believe there is a huge need out there on Planet Earth for human beings to figure out how to take their well-being into their own hands and figure out how to solve their problems.
I understand how difficult it is to change habits, and how attached people can get to food. To heal the body, you’re supposed to relax, but how can you relax when you’re stressed and not eating the things you want? So I would advise anybody who is motivated to make changes to their health to start with supplements, and don’t worry about the diet so much right away. Let that take care of itself later when you’ve got more momentum. Use the supplements to get your eliminative systems of the body functioning at a high level. Once these systems are tuned up and in a good rhythm, and your energy levels are up, then you should feel the natural desire to eat differently.
I will point out that the supplement industry is rife with poor quality and bad standards. Many supplements are marked up 5-10 times, meaning that for a $100 bottle of supplement, there is $10-20 of product in the bottle. In addition to that, low-quality ingredients are sourced, and in many cases are manufactured in foreign locations where they are contaminated in the manufacturing process due to notoriously low or non-existent quality control standards. Don’t even get me started on toxic fillers, from thickening agents to stabilizing chemicals to allergenic food materials to the pill capsule materials. There are so many times when companies cut corners which really defeats the purpose if you’re trying to clean out the body and yet you just are consuming more toxic materials.
With my background professionally having worked as an investigative writer, I know how to get to the bottom of an issue and figure out truth from lies. I feel I have done a quality job of discerning which products are the most helpful in the marketplace. I have found a small handful of companies creating high quality products, not compromising the quality, and only marking up their products modestly. These are the only products which I would reference on RapidRegeneration.com and I would never compromise my reputation in recommending anything of lower standard than the best quality and fair value.
It does take money to get started with supplements and get some momentum going. I’ve spent thousands of dollars over the years on investing in my own health via supplements, but you don’t necessarily need to do that. It’s one of those unfair life facts that the more money you can make available to invest in your health, then the more quickly and easily you can go through detox and regeneration, in my humble opinion. If you can invest $200 to $300 over several weeks to get the best and most powerful supplements out there, then I would reckon you’ll be way ahead of the another individual who isn’t in that position and can only change his or her diet.
If you don’t have money for supplements, don’t worry about it right now. Make it a goal to put together some extra money to invest in yourself at some point. Personally, I went all-in. In fact I was in debt early on, and before I paid off my debts I continued to invest in supplements, putting them on my credit card bill, because I was so desperate to get better. Even factoring in the high interest I was charged, it’s one of the best investments I’ve ever made and continues to pay me back.
If you can afford to do it, and are willing to give it a try, supplements can put you on the fast track and on the side of the angels. You are living in incredible times, where never before have so many exotic powerful plants and technologies to extract nutrients been accessible to you locally until now. Take the bull by the horns, and start tapping into the power of the hidden natural gems of this planet. Don’t delay, and soon you’ll be moving at top speed, closing the distance between you and your wellness goals.