Vitamin Supplements

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 »

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 »

Vitamin B3 Basic Functions

In concert with a variety of enzymes, niacin participates in a variety of metabolic processes. It helps convert energy derived from carbohydrates, fats, and protein into a form that the body can use.

In large doses, niacin (specifically, nicotinic acid) positively affects fats in the blood: it can decrease total cholesterol, while increasing the HDL (”good”) component of cholesterol. Read the rest of this entry »

In order for your body to absorb the vitamin B12 that you consume, cells in the stomach lining must produce a protein called intrinsic factor. Without enough of this factor in the gastric juices, the intestines cannot absorb B12, and a deficiency may occur.

Vitamin B12 Basic Functions

•  Vitamin B12 is required for manufacturing and developing red blood cells in the marrow.
• Vitamin B12 is necessary for the body to use folic acid properly. Read the rest of this entry »

Pantothenic acid gets its name from the Greek word pantos, which means “everywhere.” That’s an indication of just how prevalent this B vitamin is in plants and animals. At least a small amount of pantothenic acid is present in most of the foods we eat.

Once you consume pantothenic acid, your body changes most of this B vitamin into a substance called coenzyme A, which is required to convert carbohydrates, fats, and some proteins into energy. Pantothenic acid is also necessary for the body to produce hormones and to form hemoglobin and a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. Read the rest of this entry »

Folic Acid Health Merits

Some of the most exciting news in vitamin research comes from studies of the connection between folic acid and the prevention of birth defects.

How Much Folic Acid Do You Need?

Your body’s need for folic acid can fluctuate widely, depending on factors such as age and circumstances. More than any other single group, pregnant women require an elevated consumption of folic acid. The RDAs call for more than doubling of folic acid intake during pregnancy. Read the rest of this entry »

But folic acid, also sometimes called folacin, is suddenly getting attention. Studies have found that it can protect against neural tube defects (NTDs), severe birth abnormalities involving the brain and spine. Based on this persuasive research, the U.S. Public Health Service and the American Academy of Pediatrics now advise all women in their child-bearing years to consume at least 0.4 mg of folic acid per day in order to reduce the risk of having a baby with an NTD.

Information from this research has fueled new interest in folic acid, a B vitamin that was identified, synthesized. It has also caused concern, since folic acid deficiency is common throughout the world, including in the United States, particularly among infants and pregnant women. This B vitamin is important to infants because it promotes cell replication and rapid growth. Pregnant women need extra folic acid not only to help their fetuses develop properly, but also because their bodies break down the vitamin at an increased rate. Read the rest of this entry »

Vitamin B12 and folate are two more vitamins which are associated with the prevention and cure of certain types of anaemia. Both vitamins have fairly complex structures. B12 is the name given to a group of cobalamins, and folate is formed from a pteroic acid. B12 is only found in animal tissues and cannot be supplied in a diet of fruit and vegetables but folate is abundant in green, leafy vegetables, and the name folate, folic acid or folacin refers to its source in foliage. (Folium = leaf in Latin.)

There are various types of anaemia, but all forms of the disease can be described as a lack of sufficient red cells capable of carrying oxygen from the lungs to the tissues. In the last section we saw how important pyridoxine can be in helping to form the protein structure of haemoglobin. Iron is also needed and must be supplied in the diet. Read the rest of this entry »

The emergence of niacin as a specific vitamin dates back to the 1930s, but it has been known to the chemists as a substance called nicotinic acid for well over a hundred years. The vitamin occurs both as nicotinic acid (the acid) or nicotinamide (the amide), and these are the two specific names which come under the generic, or family title, of niacin. Occasionally it is written, incorrectly, as B3 and in the U.S.A. the generic term niacin is sometimes used to describe the acid form of the vitamin.

Another name for niacin found in older books on nutrition is ‘vitamin PP‘. This refers to the deficiency disease, pellagra. Niacin was found to protect against pellagra and was accordingly described as the pellagra- prevention factor, hence PP. This term is no longer in use but it does help in remembering a little of the history of this B vitamin. Pellagra is a skin disease which affects communities which live on maize as their main source of food with little or no protein foods to supplement the diet. Typical symptoms are severe dermatitis and reddening of the skin. It is summed up in textbooks as the disease of the three D’s — dementia, diarrhoea and dermatitis, but this is rather a sweeping description and can cover effects in many other deficiency diseases and illnesses. Read the rest of this entry »

There are still more vitamins in the list which come under the heading of the B complex. The numbers cease to make sense after B2 and many have been changed or deleted since their discovery. Pantothenic acid is sometimes referred to as B5 and sometimes as B3 though neither term is strictly correct. Generally speaking the title B5 appears to be used when the vitamin is incorporated in animal feedstuffs and cosmetic preparations, but the proper designation of pantothenic acid should always be used in matters relating to human nutrition. Read the rest of this entry »