When recommending dietary supplements to persons with health deficiencies, one of the most common questions we'll hear is, "How fast will this stuff work?"

If we can help steer people away from the "quick fix" mentality and, instead, adapt realistic expectations for realizing improved health through nutrition, I believe we've performed a great service. That's because the restoration of genuine optimal health takes
time and patience the quick-fix mind set will
never allow.

True, there are exceptional cases, especially with exceptional supplements or unique circumstances. Some people begin a dietary supplement regime and realize amazing results. But they are exceptions. And although certain symptoms may have subsided, the body very often has a lot more healing to accomplish over the long term.

To assist consumers of dietary supplements to "stay the course" and not quit their program prematurely because they "weren't seeing anything" we need to educate them. Not only about the supplements in their regime, but about their own body and how nutrition supports the body to effect improvements in overall health.

To this end, I've found seven principles worth remembering and passing on to those people we wish to see benefit from nutritional supplements and programs.

1. With nutrition, we are not suppressing
or manipulating symptoms as with
pharmaceuticals. We are not treating issue
specific conditions as with herbology. We are
simply giving the body what it needs to
heal itself and rebuild itself anew and this
takes time.

When correcting nutritional deficiencies, while we won't see instant improvements in most cases, we will be promoting true and lasting healing. Pharmaceuticals may sometimes "work" instantly, yet never address underlying causes and possess unwanted side effects. Contrary to popular thinking, drugs don't heal anything: only the body can do that -- when it gets what it needs.

In Optimum Sports Nutrition, Dr. Michael Colgan explains why patience is the key:

"A principle of nutrition you need to know is physiological dynamics. Unlike drugs, nutrients do not have rapid effects. No quick fix. The business of nutrition is to build a better body. That has to wait on Nature to turn over body cells. A blood cell lasts 60-120 days. In 3- 4 months your whole blood supply is completely replaced. In 6 months almost all the proteins in your body die and are replaced, even the DNA of your genes. In a year all your bones and even the enamel of your teeth is replaced, constructed entirely out of the nutrients you eat."

This time course is well illustrated by the course of deficiency diseases. If I remove all the vitamin C from your diet within 4 weeks blood vitamin C will drop to zero. But, you will see no symptoms of disease at 4 weeks. You will have to wait until enough of the healthy cells have been replaced with unhealthy cells. It is another 12 weeks
before the symptoms of scurvy start to ravage your body.

"So when you implement an optimum nutrition program, don't expect to see rapid results. In one of our studies at the Colgan Institute, runners were supplemented to try to improve their hemoglobin, hematrocit, and red blood cell count. But after one month of supplementation, there was no improvement at all. After 6 months, however, all three indices were significantly increased."

"Think of it this way: If you take a neglected houseplant and start feeding and watering it, the leaves may perk up a bit from the improved nutrition. But you have to wait for the old leaves to die off and new leaves to grow before you get a really healthy plant. It is the same with a human body.

When you start feeding it better, you have to wait on physiological dynamics of the body to grow new, improved cells in the improved medium. After 18 years in sports nutrition, the shortest program we will give any athlete is six months". With patience, nature can do its work and produce its miracles.

Staying mindful of these seven principles of nutrition and healing will hopefully keep all of us out of the trap of quick fix thinking and help allow us to create the time and patience to achieve true healing and enjoy lasting optimal health.