Vitamin Supplements

Vitamin D is the joker in the pack. It masquerades as a vitamin but follows none of the rules. To begin with we don’t need it in the diet because we can make it ourselves, and secondly it doesn’t work as a coenzyme in the way that most of the other vitamins do. Vitamin D is formed from a group of chemicals which are known as sterols and react to sunlight and radiation to form the active vitamin. All animals including man possess these sterols and they are found close to the surface of the skin. When sunlight reaches the body it changes the structure of these sterols, and they are absorbed into the bloodstream as cholecalciferol and pass to the liver. Further changes occur here and the new products are transported to the kidney. Read the rest of this entry »

There are two distinct schools of thought about vitamin E and they can be divided between those who are concerned with the known facts and findings about the vitamin, and the others who prefer to promote its more attractive, but as yet unproven, qualities. If you study an academic text on the subject you will find that vitamin E is a true vitamin and is essential in our diet. Few of us are likely to go short of it or suffer any form of deficiency disease and the only exceptions are premature babies, and people who cannot digest and absorb any fat. Compare these facts with those presented in praise of vitamin E and you will find a very different story. It seems that vitamin E is a magic ingredient which will ensure health and happiness, improved sex life and eternal youth. It is hard to believe we are discussing the same substance, and inevitably we are faced with the problem of who to believe, and we need to know why there is such a discrepancy between the scientist’s evidence and the layman’s approach. Read the rest of this entry »

When the skin is cut the blood flows freely for a few moments and then a clot is formed and the healing process can begin. This change from a liquid to a solid state involves a number of complicated chemical reactions, which are often referred to as the cascade sequence and one of these is controlled by vitamin K. In simple terms we can condense this cascade of events into two important changes; pro- thrombin, present in the blood, changes to thrombin, and the clot is formed. If vitamin K is missing then thrombin cannot be formed and the bleeding will not stop. Read the rest of this entry »

A number of substances are sometimes mistaken for vitamins because they are described as accessory food factors and essential nutrients. They are listed as vitamins in some of the older books but modern texts refer to them as vitaminoids. This term is a better one because it describes the vitamin-like properties they do possess — although they cannot answer to the true definition of a vitamin. A real vitamin is essential in the diet because the body cannot make its own supply. Many of the borderline substances fail this acid test because they can be made in the body, therefore it is impossible to suffer from a deficiency. Others are so widespread in all plant and animal tissues that provided some food is being eaten, there will be an adequate amount in the diet. Choline, lecithin and inositol are typical examples of this group. Read the rest of this entry »