Vitamin Supplements

Phytochemical

Plants are a rich source of nutrition, but everything that is found in plants is not necessarily a nutrient.

Nutrients are things that our bodies need to grow and function correctly. If you think of a person’s body as a chessboard, nutrients are the chess pieces that are needed to play the game. Sometimes, however, the plants also contain some substance_s that are not chess pieces, although they can influence the game.

Many plants contain chemicals that, just like prescription medicines, have a modifying effect on the body’s processes. About 25% of prescription medicines come from plants. Aspirin, for example, comes from the bark of a type of willow tree, but is a chemically purified and modified form of the original salicylate. Read the rest of this entry »

Who benefits from supplements?

The answer is simple: Everyone. Many of my colleagues will probably want to burn me at the stake for this but there is enough evidence to prove that most people today do not eat a balanced enough diet to get all the vitamins they need. In addition, the fast pace, stress and pollution of modern society result in a greater need for vitamins and other nutrients. Read the rest of this entry »

Food supplements are here to stay and can give you a kick-start when you need it, but the utter confusion they sometimes cause does more harm than good

One of the fastest growing sections of the health industry is that of vitamin preparations. However, there is still a great deal of ignorance among both the public and health workers as to their desirability and meaningful use. The budget that most people have for “luxuries” like vitamins and health literature is limited. Read the rest of this entry »

The discovery of leptin, a hormone produced by the most unlikely of endocrine organs, fat, prompted researchers to look again at our blubbery stuff, and in 2001 it was announced that another hormone had been found. Adiponectin has a role in regulating energy balance, seemingly raising metabolic rate. Its production is not distributed evenly across our fat, but concentrated in our love handles and other unsavoury bulgy bits that migrate to our middles. Read the rest of this entry »

The variation in hormones levels over the cycle causes far-reaching effects throughout the body. For instance, hormones can affect the way that women’s bodies process drugs. Sometimes women with epilepsy will have a seizure just before or during the first days of their period, something called catamenial epilepsy. This is not just variation in the condition across a cycle as used to be thought, but also a reflection of the fact that many anti-epileptic drugs are metabolized through an enzyme pathway called CYP 3A4. The activity of this system is accelerated by progesterone in the second half of the cycle, so that drugs are cleared more quickly from the body and may be temporarily less effective in preventing fits. Read the rest of this entry »

There is a male brain type and that this brain type is not about gender; rather, it is about the level of testosterone during fetal life. Baron Cohen, whose work on autism is highly respected, believes that one form of autism, Asperger’s syndrome, represents an extreme of the male brain type.

Asperger’s syndrome is often called high-functioning autism, because intelligence is not affected — in fact, it may be higher than normal. Indeed, some AS individuals may be supremely gifted, but they also have great difficulties with relationships and with empathy. Read the rest of this entry »

They keep hormones in check

These essential fats also help to control the sex hormones in both men and women. In adolescents, they help to alleviate the hormone fluctuations so common during puberty, and thus prevent against outbreaks of acne, mood swings, and even ‘growing pains’. In adults, they help to stimulate fertility, decrease the severity of pre-menstrual syndrome and regulate menstrual cycles. In menopausal women, they alleviate mood swings and depression, and make this rather rocky ride a little easier to cope with.

They indirectly help to improve insulin resistance

For this reason they are used in fat loss programmes. Read the rest of this entry »

A common protest of patients whom I advise to embark on a fat- free diet is, ‘But don’t our bodies need some fat?’ Yes, in order to achieve optimum health they do. Now I’m going to introduce you to what I call the golden drops: essential fatty acids. So powerful are these fatty acids in maintaining health that they have been nicknamed ‘Vitamin F’. I like to think of them also as the master vitamins, because they play such a crucial role in nutrition. Read the rest of this entry »