Vitamin Supplements

Although the trend in recent years has been toward low-fat diets, the truth is that fats are essential for health. Eating the wrong types of fat damages cells, causes cancer and heart disease, and speeds up the aging process. But eating healthy fats provides protection against cancer, heart disease, and other degenerative diseases, and helps to keep you young.

Unhealthy fats include polyunsaturated oils, saturated fats, and hydrogenated oils. Polyunsaturated oils such as safflower, corn, sesame, soybean, and sunflower oils are extremely detrimental to your health. They quickly oxidize when exposed to oxygen and create free radicals, mutant molecules that destroy healthy cells. 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 »

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 »

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 »

Recommended Daily Allowances for vitamin D are given here in both micrograms and international units. The IU is a common unit of measurement among many vitamin supplement manufacturers. Remember that people who get enough sunlight do not need additional vitamin D.

Vitamin D Optimal Daily Allowance

We recommend an optimal daily allowance of 400 IU of vitamin D per day. Fewer foods are rich in vitamin D than in other vitamins and minerals, so you may need to take a vitamin D tablet to supplement your diet. Read the rest of this entry »

Salt

Sodium and chlorine are both very powerful substances when they are alone. When combined they form a useful combination called sodium chloride. This is ordinary table salt. Without sodium chloride in our bodies, we could not live. This salt is necessary in maintaining the normal acid-base balance of the body. This is good news, for most of us like a little salt with our food. Read the rest of this entry »

Copper

This metal is particularly important because of its relationship to iron. Only a very small amount of copper is ever needed by the body. It helps in the formation of hemoglobin, acting like a catalyst in this respect. All foods contain some copper, sufficient to meet the normal needs of the body. Anyone who uses a wide variety of foods will not be deficient in this mineral. Read the rest of this entry »

Iron Overdose Toxicity

If your health is generally good, you run little risk of experiencing side effects from high doses of iron (up to 75 mg per day), either in your diet or in supplements. People with an inherited disease called hemochromatosis are at risk, however. The intestines of people with this condition fail to regulate iron absorption properly, so the body tends to accumulate and store too much of the mineral. The extra iron can damage the body’s most critical organs (including the liver, heart, and spleen) and bone marrow, causing serious problems like cirrhosis and irregular heart rhythms. Hemochromatosis tends to affect men more than women. Although this disease is rare, it can be deadly. Read the rest of this entry »

Except for iron, no other trace mineral is as prevalent in the body as zinc. And few have been as highly promoted. You may have heard a lot of claims about zinc, in fact; many myths have flourished around this mineral. Zinc has been touted as a treatment for angina, acne, liver disease, and lack of energy— despite scarce evidence to support any of these claims. Some proponents have even insisted that zinc stimulates sexual potency.

Setting aside the spurious claims, zinc is an essential nutrient that plays important roles in the body. It is present in all of the body’s cells, with large amounts in the eyes, liver, bone, skin, hair, and nails. 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 »