Re: Sodium Ring

 It's taken me years to see through all the various one-element
approaches to fixing this or that symptom

The problem does not lie with the "one element" approach. As you pointed out you were megadosing, which is the problem. Megadosing on specific compounds can cause imbalances in other compounds. If taken properly then supplements such as zinc or B vitamins are not really an issue. They are called supplemental because they are supplemental to the other nutrition you get in your diet. They are not substitutes for diet. They just fill in for certain deficiencies in a diet. For example a person with type 2 diabetes is going to be deficient in chromium as it has been refined out of the food most people eat. Asthmatics tend to be deficient in magnesium, again not that common in most people's diets. Supplements can help fill in these blanks, but again they must be used properly. If you drank 5 gallons of water in a day and died from your brain swelling would we blame the water and say water should be avoided because it caused an imbalance? No, you would be blamed for not using something beneficial properly. Supplements are no different.

Herbs like nettles and alfalfa, horsetail... 

I love nettles and alfalfa, but horsetail grass (shavegrass) is a different story. Horsetail contains nicotine and is a vasoconstrictor. This makes it a really bad idea for anyone with circulatory issues such as diabetics, those with congestive heart failure or arteriosclerosis, those with Raynaud's disease or Raynaud's phenomena, etc. This is why I never recommend it.