Vitamin Supplements

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 »

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 »

There are many different vitamins, all having their own particular function to carry out. Research workers in many lands are searching for the answers. Just when they think the final answer is at hand, a whole new vista opens before them. Vitamins are close to the secret of life itself.

Contrary to what many may think, a vitamin is not a food. If you ate vitamins and nothing else, you would starve to death. Nor do they provide energy to build up worn-out tissues. Then why are they so important? Because without them no life could exist in either plants or animals. They are the catalysts, or “go-betweens,” that bring about all the innumerable chemical reactions within the body. Read the rest of this entry »

Among the most exciting findings of modern times is the discovery of vitamins. Until a few years ago no one even dreamed of their existence. For centuries it had been observed that during long ocean voyages sailors often came down with a mysterious disease called scurvy, which affected the skin, the gums and teeth, and other parts of the body. This disease usually cleared soon after the sailors reached land and began to eat fresh fruits and vegetables. Read the rest of this entry »

Vitamin E Health Merits

Keeping up with all of the recent research into the potential health benefits of vitamin E is difficult. The impressive findings of the best of this research, however, are impossible to ignore.

Vitamin E against Cancer

A growing body of research indicates that vitamin E can provide protection against a variety of cancers, including oral, lung, cervical, and breast cancers. For example, an eight-year Finnish study of 36,265 adults concluded that individuals with low blood levels of alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) were 1.5 times more likely to develop cancer than people with higher amounts. Read the rest of this entry »

In the ‘thirties the idea of such a list was very novel but it soon had a chance of being put to the test. With the coming of World War II and the rationing of food this type of information was very valuable. Vitamins were made available to mothers and babies, and the basic rations for everyone in this country included sufficient food for good health. Vitamins were added to margarine, bread and flour, and although food was limited and the diet was often monotonous we had all the food we needed and were healthier at the end of six years of war than we had ever been before.

Vitamins had proved their point. We believed in them, and the way was open for a new and thriving business. Health food shops sprang up in the ‘fifties and chemists started to sell an increasingly large range of vitamin preparations. Read the rest of this entry »

The history of vitamins as solo performers is very recent. They were not named until 1912 and did not enter the English dictionary until 1934 but their role in disease dates back some thousands of years. Early Egyptian records show that ox liver was used in the treatment of eye complaints; Hippocrates, ‘the Father of Medicine’, prescribed sensible diets in the treatment of illness; and in the Middle Ages when scurvy was the plague of sailors on long sea voyages, the cure was found in fresh fruit and vegetables, particularly citrus fruits. Today, we know that liver is a rich source of vitamin A and oranges and lemons supply vitamin C, and it is these factors which produce the cure, but in those days sickness and health belonged to religion and folklore as much as to the art of the healer. If a remedy worked and restored the sufferer to good health that was enough, and thanks were given to God and the doctor. Only a few scientists wondered why something had ‘worked’ and were prepared to search further for an answer. Read the rest of this entry »

This is the second of the B vitamins. It was recognised as an important food factor soon after the discovery of thiamin, but it was not given its official name of riboflavin until 1937. The B vitamins presented problems for the scientists because many were found in similar foods, but they could not be isolated and separated. The first clue to their existence came when it was realised that thiamin was destroyed on heating but the extracts which had been used retained other curative properties. These heat resistant factors were not effective in curing the thiamin deficiency diseases but they did prevent other conditions. Riboflavin was particularly effective against types of dermatitis in laboratory animals. Read the rest of this entry »

There was a time, not so long ago, when people refused to believe in vitamins because they could not see them. We still cannot ’see’ them, in the strict sense of the word, but nowadays we treat them as one of the wonders of the twentieth century. The truth is that vitamins are not new. They have been in our food since the beginning of time. The only difference between then and now is that we have learned, it:^, the last seventy years, to isolate, analyse, extract and re-create them. We can put them back into our food, or manufacture them for use in medicines, cosmetics and cattle food. Finally, we can package and sell them without prescription as tablets, tonics and wonder foods. 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 »