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 »

How Much Vitamin B3 Do You Need?

The body’s requirements for vitamin B3 can be met in part by the conversion of tryptophan to niacin. Even so, most people need to consume additional niacin to meet the RDA guidelines.

Optimal Daily Vitamin B3 Allowance

To select an optimal daily allowance (ODA) of niacin, we examined the energy needs of men and women and chose a level to meet the needs of the most active individuals. We believe that 20 NE (niacin equivalent) per day—the highest RDA—is an optimal amount. 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 »

Today we know that this vitamin exists naturally in foods in three closely related forms: pyridoxine, pyridoxal, and pyridoxamine. Nutrition supplements generally provide B6 in the form of pyridoxine.

Vitamin B6 Basic Functions

• Vitamin B6 is necessary to convert amino acids to proteins.
•  Vitamin B6 is important in forming tryptophan, an essential amino acid, and helps to convert tryptophan to niacin (vitamin B₃) in the body.
• Read the rest of this entry »

Thiamin, the first of the B vitamins to be discovered, was initially isolated in the mid-1920s. Today we know that thiamin plays an important part in changing energy stored in carbohydrates to a form that our bodies can use. Thiamin is also necessary for the nervous system to function properly, and it may be involved with producing nerve transmitters.

Signs of Thiamin Deficiency

The first symptoms of a thiamin deficiency can include constipation, fatigue, and loss of appetite. Probably the best-known thiamin deficiency disorder—a disease called beriberi—occurs in the most severe cases of deprivation. Read the rest of this entry »

Toward the end of the 19th century, a fluorescent pigment was detected in milk whey; subsequently, the pigment was found in other sources (liver and eggs) as well.

Riboflavin is important to the complex processes in your body that give you energy from the foods you consume. It is also needed to convert tryptophan to niacin.

Signs of Riboflavin Deficiency

Studies have shown that signs of deficiency can occur with a consumption of riboflavin at 0.55 mg per day or less. These signs won’t occur overnight, however, because your kidney and liver store small amounts of B2, thus postponing deficiency symptoms for some three to four months of deprivation. Read the rest of this entry »

At one time vitamin B was thought to be one single substance. Now we know there is a whole family of these vitamins, more than a dozen of them. We refer to them as the B complex vitamins. They are often found together in various foods. But they are all different in their effects upon the human body. Some are needed in the transfer of energy within the cells. Others are required for the formation of red blood cells. But they have other activities as well. 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 »

There is a popular belief that B vitamins are ‘good for the nerves‘. In fact this is rather an upside-down statement and it would be better to say that lack of vitamin B is bad for the nerves. In health our nerves function very efficiently. They take information from outside our body to the brain and we know if something is hot or cold, red or green, sweet or sour. This information travels along ingoing (afferent) nerves to the brain which sifts the evidence and decides on a plan of action, i.e. to take the hand away from the hot water. It sends messages back along outgoing (efferent) nerves to the muscles concerned, and the hand is pulled away from the heat. We take much of this basic behaviour for granted but the reactions involved are many and complicated. Read the rest of this entry »