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A product can have blinded trials, published papers, and strong safety data and still be treated like it’s dangerous simply because it works. That’s the knot we pull apart with Professor Julia Rucklidge as we look at how Medsafe regulates supplements and why therapeutic micronutrients keep getting squeezed into rules designed for pharmaceuticals, not prevention.

We talk about Daily Essential Nutrients and the broader evidence on micronutrients for mental health and wellbeing, including ADHD outcomes, stress resilience, postnatal depression support, and improvements families report beyond symptoms. Then we get into the regulatory reality in New Zealand: dose limits, the ban on prevention or treatment claims for foods and supplements, and how “public safety” can become a catch-all justification even when comparable or greater risks sit on supermarket shelves. Julia shares a firsthand story of trying to access the nutrients via a prescription pathway and why Section 29 creates a strange barrier for well people who want to stay well.

From there, we zoom out to Pharmac funding, affordability, and the equity problem when families can’t keep paying for something that helps. We also look at what prevention could actually mean: smarter natural health product regulation, clearer pathways for evidence-based supplements, and practical public health moves around ultra-processed food, marketing to kids, and nutrition education. Julia also touches on the “soil to brain” idea and why soil health, magnesium, stress, and diet all link back to mental wellbeing.

If you care about evidence-based healthcare in Aotearoa New Zealand, listen through and join the conversation. Subscribe, share this with a mate, and leave a review so more people can find it.

Tell your local MP: https://te-puna-toiora.github.io/micronutrient-access/

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