You may already know that Hardy Nutritionals Daily Essential Nutrients is the most research-backed—and most complete—micronutrient supplement in the world. But did you know that over 40 completely independent studies have demonstrated that it effectively treats a wide range of mood and mental health disorders?

Recommended by a rapidly growing number of psychiatrists as a first-line treatment, Daily Essential Nutrients reduces anxiety, mood swings, inattention, and brain fog in both children and adults.

One of the third-party researchers who has studied the effects of Daily Essential Nutrients in her lab at the University of Canterbury is Dr. Julia Rucklidge, professor of clinical psychology. She sat down with Dr. Marcus Ranney (also known as Doc M), founder of Human Edge, to discuss the role of nutrition in the treatment of mental health. Dr. Rucklidge is widely considered one of the world's experts in micronutrients and is a co-author of the best-selling book, The Better Brain: Overcome Anxiety, Combat Depression, and Reduce ADHD and Stress with Nutrition.

In this podcast episode, Dr. M and Dr. Rucklidge discuss what micronutrients do and why they matter. Dr. Rucklidge explains that micronutrients are absolutely essential for every process in the body. In addition,  the brain requires micronutrients in order to make neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, adrenaline, and GABA, to name a few. And we don’t just need certain vitamins and minerals, Dr. Rucklidge explains. We need them all in order for those chemical reactions to occur, and the body cannot make them; they must be consumed through food and supplements.

Unfortunately, the majority of diets do not contain all of the essential vitamins and minerals at sufficient levels to ward off deficiencies. If someone is deficient in one or several nutrients, the brain cannot function properly, often resulting in mood or mental health symptoms. Providing every single essential micronutrient to the brain in a highly absorbable format, such as Daily Essential Nutrients, allows the body to use what it needs and excrete the rest.

So what about the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) or minimum recommended amount of vitamins and minerals found on every nutrition label? Dr. Rucklidge teaches that those levels are the minimum amount to prevent acute health conditions “like scurvy or rickets” and average bone or cardiovascular health, but not enough to support the brain which is the “hungriest organ in the body [being] two percent of body weight but consumes between 20 to 40 percent of the nutrients we take in.”

Dr. Rucklidge believes that everyone should eat lots of healthy foods, including a wide array of fruits and vegetables, and many should still supplement with micronutrients. She says that many individuals who have been tested for vitamin deficiencies are shown to have “normal levels” and yet still benefit from the micronutrients during the studies carried out in her lab.

Even those who eat a well-balanced diet are shown to benefit in double-blind studies from taking the Daily Essential Nutrients micronutrient blend. Dr. Rucklidge says a lot of that comes down to the fact that our soil is lacking in nutrients from overproduction, and so many whole foods are lacking in nutrients as a result. In fact, an apple today has 40% fewer vitamins than an apple 60 years ago due to soil depletion, according to Scientific American.

One of the most ground-breaking studies carried out by Dr. Rucklidge was a double-blind, placebo-controlled study on children with ADHD. The children took the micronutrients (specifically Hardy Nutritionals Daily Essential Nutrients), and then their microbiome was tested to underscore the link between gut and brain health. “When we gave people more micronutrients, that seemed to have a positive effect on microbiome diversity…and some really interesting positive benefits for people’s mental health.”

Another interesting series of studies Dr. Rucklidge conducted focused on resilience following a devastating earthquake, massive flooding, and a mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand. Following each of these tragedies, Dr. Rucklidge and her team measured the stress, anxiety, and depression scores of individuals already taking the micronutrients and those who were not.

“What we found was that, yes, people get stressed after an earthquake; that is not surprising. But over time, the people who had been taking the micronutrients at that time were more likely to have a sharper decline and improvement in their stress and improvement in their anxiety and depression than people who happened not to be taking the micronutrients. To me, that says a lot about resilience; it says a lot about how nutrients provide the brain with the nutrients that it needs for the fight or flight response…If you're well-nourished before an event like an earthquake, and your fight or flight response needs nutrients, there are nutrients that are left over for the regulation of your mood, regulation of your sleep, and regulation of your anxiety. 

Dr. M asks Dr. Rucklidge about her TEDx talk, which now has over 4.9 million views. Dr. Rucklidge mentions that it has been ‘red-flagged’.  “It's tapping into an energy which people are very frustrated about. You're challenging the status quo. You go to a psychiatrist, and you say stop prescribing that Ritalin; instead, give this cocktail of micronutrients. I can kind of guess where the conversation is going to be in that office. I think I said in my TEDx talk that I learned about the nutrients from [Dr.] Bonnie [Kaplan] at a time when I had been taught that nutrients were irrelevant to the brain, and so my education was very similar to a medical practitioner’s education or a psychiatrist’s, which is, ‘Why would you care about nutrition as long as you eat a good diet?’, and no one ever defines what a good diet is. Presumably, that means it could be full of ultra-processed foods as long as you're getting your macronutrients right, and you don't need to worry about that. The number of times I've heard that over the years, that micronutrients can't possibly be necessary over a good diet…that is something that you can answer with a scientific study.”

You can watch the entire interview with Dr. M and Dr. Rucklidge here. You can order Hardy Nutritionals Daily Essential Nutrients here. 

About Hardy Nutritionals®

Hardy Nutritionals® multivitamin-mineral products are powered by our proprietary NutraTek™ mineral delivery technology, which combines each mineral with specialized organic molecules—just like nature—to optimize absorption and distribution to body cells. Our flagship supplement, Daily Essential Nutrients, is widely considered to be the most research-backed micronutrient treatment.