Episode 37 Part One of the Living Life Well Show: How do you choose supplements with Jimmy Fitzpatrick
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Living Life Well Show, the intersection of God's Word, today's science, and healthy living with common sense application, all based on the truth of the Word of God. I'm your host, Dr. Jon Skelton. Now let's get straight to the truth.
Jon Skelton, MD: All right. Well, welcome back to the living life. We'll show today. I'm really excited to have a special guest with us. Jimmy Fitzpatrick and Jimmy is the owner of hub city organics here in Lubbock, and it's somewhat of a pretty unique concept in my opinion for what is a quote, vitamin store for people.
It's much more than a vitamin store. And he does a lot more to promote health and those things in his store than what you would typically see at like, say a GNC or, some big chain [00:01:00] as far as that goes. And I'm really excited to have Jimmy on today. Tell us a little bit about his concept, what he does, and then also he's going to walk us through really what to look for when we are selecting supplements.
I know a lot of the, the listeners obviously aren't in this Lubbock area and aren't going to necessarily make a drive to, to come see Jimmy. What can you look for at home at your home base? And, and what can you really identify as things that are going to be beneficial, things that are going to be things that you want to stay away from.
And then we're going to talk about kind of the most common deficiencies that I see and how to supplement to, to those deficiencies. So Jimmy, welcome to the Living Life Well show.
Jimmy Fizpatrick, Owner Hub City Organics: Thanks for having me, Dr. Skelton. Glad to be here.
Jon Skelton, MD: Yeah, me too. I'm glad you're on. So just tell us a little bit about, about you, kind of your background how you came to, to, to have Hub City [00:02:00] Organics and maybe kind of how that's changed and all over the years.
Jimmy Fizpatrick, Owner Hub City Organics: Sure. Well, I've been in the industry for 25 years and I've just, you know, I've worked in a few health food stores in Lubbock and just managed a few stores. And then in the midst of COVID in 2020, my wife was like, you know, we, she's prayed about it. It's was heavy on her heart. She's like, you know, our next journey is to open our own store.
And so we, there we are. We opened Hub City Organics in the middle of COVID. It was September, I believe September, October of 2020. And it's It's really it's funny because we've only been open for four years, but it's really starting to evolve a lot more of what I imagined in the beginning, and we're actually in the process of doing some new changes here pretty coming up pretty soon.
And so it's just been it's been a good, crazy, wild adventure. It's been really a lot of fun. And, you know, I just got to say thank you to my customers, because I've been doing it for [00:03:00] such a long time that I was able to build that relationship with a lot of customers that are in Lubbock and the surrounding areas.
And so whenever those people realized that, you know, I was opening my own store, then they just, you know, with passion and. You know, open hearts. They were like, here we come, Jimmy. And they just been supporting me from day one. And, you know, and with, you know, networking with people like yourself and some other physicians and chiropractors around town, and we've been able to grow it and have new customers and new followers.
And yeah, it's been a lot of fun. So we're just excited about our next chapter and yeah, we're just loving it.
Jon Skelton, MD: Yeah. Well, one of the things I really love about your store is that, , and you in general, obviously your heart for people, , but also that you realize that you're not going to get everything you need.
From a supplement and not everybody wants that either. And so talk about how you came to [00:04:00] realize you wanted to open up your product line and your offerings into even the food side of things that, that you provide , and where you see that need to sit in a very particular niche of types of foods.
So tell me a little bit about that.
Jimmy Fizpatrick, Owner Hub City Organics: Yeah. So basically, you know, just listening to my customers and listening to what people wanting and what they were looking for. And you know, it was, it was funny because with part of the food process and I'll, and I've got to, you know, talked about it was, is Jessica Ham with Canyon Valley provisions.
You know, we, it was in December of 21, shortly after we opened, she came in and she was looking around and she said, Hey, you know, would you be interested in selling some beef jerky? And I'm like, Sure. You know, beef jerky. What? What? Sure. We'll try. And then, you know, we just ended a few months. I'm buying a big freezer and I'm getting a half a cow and I'm just I was like, I was like, what?
What's what's happening? You know? And And that [00:05:00] just grew. That just kept continuing to grow and it still grows. It still continues to grow and people come in to the store specifically for, you know, her grass fed and grass finished meat and it's crazy because I'm when we had the concept and when we had the desire to open our own business, I didn't think that I would be selling, you know, You know, grass fed and grass finished meat at all.
That was not on my radar. That was not something that I was going to even cross my mind. And, you know, and, and I sell about a cow a month. And when I tell people that they're like, do what? And I'm like, yeah, we, you know, we sell anywhere from 40 to 50 pounds of ground beef a month. And it's just crazy. And it's just continuing to snowball and grow.
And it's, and it's just making sure that we take the time to recognize what customers are asking for. But also to make sure that we do our own investigations and we make sure that what products that we do get behind and we do promote are [00:06:00] clean and good quality things and, and things that, you know, we can, I can say, yes, this is a good product for any of my consumers to have so that that's the other thing to, you know, I have to do my homework.
I can't just, you know, bring whatever in and just throw it on the shelf and say, yeah, that's good. No, you know, it takes me several weeks before I'm like, okay, this is something that I have a passion about and something I believe in. This is a good product. Yeah, let's put this on the shelf and offer, you know, to our customers.
You know, there's a lot of process that goes into that that most people don't realize, but it's been, you know, it's been good, you know, and and The wheat berries out, you know, I've never thought that I would be selling wheat berries and nutrient meals and mixers and, you know, and, and it's just listening to those people that come in and, and, you know, having a following of mamas and, and, and young families that are wanting to.
Provide better foods for their family and wanting to do that [00:07:00] for their family. And they're like, Hey, Jimmy, you know, this is what we need. I'm like, you got it, you know? And so finding, you know, sources for that stuff and making sure that we have that available, you know, and I didn't think that was going to happen either, but here we are, you know, and so it's been a lot of, it's been a lot of fun, very rewarding.
Jon Skelton, MD: Absolutely. Well, what's interesting is, you started with , the beef, but now you've even expanded and, , raw milk and wheat berries, you mentioned alternative , to grains in general, but some of the packaged products and things like that.
Jimmy Fizpatrick, Owner Hub City Organics: And a few months ago, back in, I think it was in May, I started in, in May, end of May, first part of June, probably our sourdough bread, met a local guy here in Lubbock, that's a, that's a chef, and he has a commercial kitchen, and he freshly mills his, his bread, and it's, you know, he makes sure that he's got the right ingredients in there, and he's got a passion for what he does, and I was like, sure, [00:08:00] let's start with some, a few loaves of bread, and Here we are selling a hundred loaves of bread a month.
I didn't think that I'm selling bread, meat and milk, you know, four years ago that none of those things were on my radar, you know, but it's been, it's been a lot of fun and connecting with those people and making it and helping them. That's the other thing too. And I have a couple of cosmetic lines that I've done this.
And so like year number two, kind of, I was like, how can I, as a small business and a local business, support other local businesses? And so I was like, okay, find the ones that we have that common thread of health and all the, the small businesses that I promote and I carry their products. That's our common thread.
We all have a passion for people's health, whether that be through food, Rather that be through cosmetic things and so and I was like, okay, and so there's I have, you know, the bread guy, the meat lady and I have to cosmetic [00:09:00] people that are all local. They're all in our area and so I'm just supporting their business and they're supporting my business.
And, you know, that's that's I think. What separates us far apart from other places in town is that kind of, you know, relationships too, because you're just not going to find that at other places in town.
Jon Skelton, MD: Well, and that's true. And you're, really looking at the person that's coming into the store.
You, you want them to succeed and comes across and your supplement offerings, your particular supplement offerings. It's not necessarily the ones that. Have the highest margin for you because they may not be the best for, , the consumer. And same thing , with all your other product offerings.
You realize that, hey, not everybody wants to take, 12 different supplements a day. How can we, heal their gut, help them , by offering, , things like this, pasture raised [00:10:00] grass fed, grass finished beef offering the ability to be able to obtain products, to make your own bread.
And if you don't want to. Hey, here you go. Here's something that's going to be good for you. So I really love that. And I think that really , comes through. And so that kind of brings me to, to my next point is, , when people are looking at supplements, I mean, You see all the time, Oh, this is good for that.
That's good for this. And, at the end of the day, , they're looking, , at, Oh my gosh, I need to be on 40 different supplements. This is going to cost me, you know, 700 a month
Jimmy Fizpatrick, Owner Hub City Organics: just
Jon Skelton, MD: in supplements. So how does somebody go about really looking at a supplement, regardless of what it is, whether it's vitamin C, whether it's, , magnesium, whether it is a protein powder what, whatever it is that they're looking for, how do you really suggest, how do you really evaluate that?
Evaluate those different companies [00:11:00] and what do you look for when you're looking on the back of a bottle to, to determine if this is a good supplement or not?
Jimmy Fizpatrick, Owner Hub City Organics: Yeah, that's great questions. And, you know, that's the other thing I want to, before I jump on that is, you know, that's what separates us apart from other places that sell supplements is we really, you know, try to make sure that we take the time to educate the consumer and make sure that they understand what's going on.
While they're taking a certain supplement, what it's for, how it's going to help them, how to take it. Because, you know, if we don't take things the correct way, we're not going to get the results we're looking for. And if we don't get the results we're looking for, what value do we have in the person that sold us that to begin with, you know?
So there's, there's a lot of factors there. But yeah, definitely looking at labels are very important. A few things that come straight to mind or whole food based, you know, because a lot of vitamins and supplements even the ones that are sold in, you know, higher end health food stores, some of [00:12:00] those ingredients are still synthetic.
At the end of the day, that still is made in a lab. That's one factor is, is is it a whole food or is it not a whole food? And then if it's not a whole food, you know, are, are the B vitamins, for example, are they methylated? You know, are, are, is the, is the B12 a methylated form of B12 versus just the cyanocobalamin form?
You know, because the form of that ingredient is gonna determine on how our body absorbs it and how we get the nutrient from it. And so if we just grab something from. A big box store , and we look at that ingredient, you know, the vitamin C is just going to be ascorbic acid or sodium ascorbate or, you know, something like that.
That may not be well absorbed by the body to get the benefit of that vitamin C. So we want to look at that. We also want to look at, is it Is it lapisomal or fat soluble, for example, because, you know, we take, we see a lot now that we've taken, you know, D3 [00:13:00] with K2 or there's ADK combined together, or, you know, things like that, and we want to make sure if it's in a fat soluble form or not, because if it is, then that's going to help us absorb it.
It's going to stand our system longer. We're going to get the benefit from that longer versus ones that are not fat soluble. Yeah, there's a lot of, and then. Also, the other thing, too, is if the, the bottom of the supplement fact where it reads other ingredients, you know, if that ingredient list is, you know, 10 or 12 other ingredients, then more than likely, it's not a good product, you know, the fewer the other ingredients, the better we are, I'll just, you know, a lot of products always people say, well, I can't do magnesium stearate.
And I try to explain to people that's, that's one of the most common other ingredients in every supplement for product on the market, regardless of where you get that product at. The reason it's there is because that magnesium stearate is used as a lubricant [00:14:00] for the machinery and because it touches the pill, they have to put it on the label.
So I'm like, it's not inside the pill, it's just touches the pill because they have to use a lubricant for that pill to come out of that machine. So that's why it's on there. Yeah, does that answer most of your questions you had?
Jon Skelton, MD: Yeah, yeah, and so , you talked about, getting it from Whole Foods.
How can somebody determine if it's from Whole Foods? How can somebody determine what it is they're getting when they see those comments on the back, like, Proprietary blend things like that. Is that a always stay away from, or is that sometimes okay? So talk about how to figure out about whole foods and those proprietary blend
Jimmy Fizpatrick, Owner Hub City Organics: aspects.
So I guess it depends on what you're trying to get from a product. It would be determined on if a proprietary blend is okay or not. I'm not a fan of a proprietary blend just because you know, we don't when they do a [00:15:00] proprietary blend, we don't know how much of each one of those ingredients are in there.
It's just on the bottle, you know, so if we want a blended product, I say, look for specific amounts of each ingredient and. And that's where it's different to go to a good, reliable store because those companies that are in those stores versus a big box store, the cup, a lot, the majority of the companies do the homework for you.
They will use clinically tested amounts of each ingredient in their, in their product to verify, Hey, this is going to help with this because we use the tested amounts of each ingredient. In that product for whether that be for sleep or for stress or for, you know, prostate support or urinary tract support or whatever, those companies are used clinically tested amounts of each of those ingredients.
And so I always say [00:16:00] don't get something that's a proprietary blend because it's probably not going to be beneficial for you. You're not, well, not necessarily is it not going to be beneficial. You're not going to get the results you're looking for. I'll say it that way. Yeah.
Jon Skelton, MD: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I, I will occasionally recommend a proprietary blend, but for the most part, it's because there's been, , studies backing up with clinical results based on that particular product, that particular blend, because quite honestly, when it says proprietary blend, it may have a sprinkling of the one thing that you're looking for, and it may have a ton of something else that you're not really wanting.
We're needing. And so I think that's, that's very important. And so for the whole foods aspect, how are you able to really tell about, , whether it says whole foods, does it clearly say whole foods on there, or is there. Is there something , like we see in the food industry certified organic or USDA recommended?
Is there [00:17:00] something like that that would lead us to a whole foods product within the supplement industry?
Jimmy Fizpatrick, Owner Hub City Organics: There are a lot of companies will have that certified organic or they'll have not necessarily the USDA, but they'll have GMP, good manufacturing practices. But also the other thing is reading that supplement fact, like there's only a few, like two or three whole food vitamin C's that I even have on my shelf.
And one of them they list every single Fruit or berry that contains that vitamin C and how much of that each one of those are in that product So to me even though it you know a company may say well Yes It's it's a whole food vitamin C and we get it from oranges or wherever and it may be a blend of all those ingredients Mashed together to get the vitamin C.
That's, you know, yes, it's okay. You can call it whole food, but it's truly not whole [00:18:00] food because we're not telling us how much of each one we're getting, you know, so it goes back to reading that label on the back of it and, and really making sure. That that is truly what it says it is and a lot of times the companies have to follow FD There are FDA guidelines that even supplement companies have to follow Before they can list on their supplement fact on the back of the model So usually if it's a good company, you can have faith that hey what they're telling you is what's in there
Jon Skelton, MD: Yeah, yeah.
Okay. Okay, good. So one of the things I wanted to talk to you about is a lot of the underdiagnosed conditions within the traditional medical community. , and , really looking at different levels. And there's been a little bit of controversy with regards to what is the appropriate level of vitamin D within the medical community recently.
There's been more studies coming out. [00:19:00] Saying that, ah, we don't really know what to recommend. We really know that health is going to be promoted and immunity is going to be promoted specifically with vitamin D once you're at levels above 50. And so you already talked a little bit about, , how to look for a product that is going to be more fat soluble, that's going to get in.
But what I also want to talk to you about is the form of it, right? Because we always want to take , the active form that is going to be most viable to our body. , and you talked about one of the others, you talked about B12 already. But then. Also magnesium because magnesium vitamin D and then B vitamin supplementation are the three most common supplements outside of our probiotic, which we can talk about as well if we have time that I prescribe, that I see that there are deficiencies in, and we know that up to, , 40 percent of [00:20:00] us aren't getting at least enough magnesium and even a much higher percentage with regards to vitamin D.
And there's a large percentage of us that potentially have genetic mutations that cause difficulty metabolizing vitamin B in any form. So speak to what you're , really looking for when you're looking for. Magnesium, vitamin D and vitamin B complex. And then if you don't mind sharing, what are some of your, , favorite lines for those?
Well, I hope you've enjoyed this episode with Jimmy Fitzpatrick and myself discussing really what to look for when you're looking for supplements for yourself. Next time we are going to continue the conversation. And we're going to look at specific supplements that I see deficiencies in most commonly in my practice.
That's it for this episode of the Living Life Well Show. [00:21:00] If you like what you've heard and want to learn more, or want to know how to put this into practice for yourself, go to livelifewellclinic.com. Until next time, this is Dr. Jon Skelton saying, go out and live the truth so you can live life well. The preceding is for entertainment and educational purposes only. It is not meant to be used to prevent, diagnose, treat, or cure any condition. The information contained in this show does not substitute the need for a qualified medical professional, nor is it meant to provide medical advice or services.
If you feel information presented in this show may apply to you, we recommend you seek out the help of a qualified medical professional who can evaluate and treat your specific concerns.
