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 »

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 »

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 »

Vitamin D is the joker in the pack. It masquerades as a vitamin but follows none of the rules. To begin with we don’t need it in the diet because we can make it ourselves, and secondly it doesn’t work as a coenzyme in the way that most of the other vitamins do. Vitamin D is formed from a group of chemicals which are known as sterols and react to sunlight and radiation to form the active vitamin. All animals including man possess these sterols and they are found close to the surface of the skin. When sunlight reaches the body it changes the structure of these sterols, and they are absorbed into the bloodstream as cholecalciferol and pass to the liver. Further changes occur here and the new products are transported to the kidney. Read the rest of this entry »

Choline is needed for many metabolic reactions in the body. It forms part of a substance called acetylcholine, which is one of the prime neurotransmitters (nerve messengers) and helps to conduct messages from our nerves to the muscles. Choline is also found in lecithin, a phospholipid. Lipids are similar to fats and there are many different types found in the body. A simple lipid contains three fatty acid chains composed of carbon and hydrogen atoms. One of these chains may contain a phosphate group, hence phospholipid, and when choline is also incorporated into the lipid it is called lecithin. All the phospholipids we need can be made in the liver from the raw material that the blood brings direct from the intestines, so neither lecithin nor choline can be classified as true vitamins. Read the rest of this entry »

Time Release and Sustained Release

A major step forward in vitamin manufacturing has been the introduction of time release supplements. Time release also known as sustained release is a process by which vitamins are enrobed in micropellets [tiny time pills] and then combined into a special base for their release in a pattern that assures eight- to twelve-hour absorption. Most vitamins are water soluble and cannot be stored in the body. Without time release, they are quickly absorbed into the bloodstream, and, no matter how large the dose, are excreted in the urine within two or three hours.

Time-release supplements can offer optimum effectiveness, minimal excretary loss, and stable blood levels all during the day and through the night. Read the rest of this entry »

Excipient: any inert substance used as a dilutant or vehicle for adrug.

Exogenous: being derived or developed from external causes. FDA: Food and Drug Administration.

Fibrin: an insoluble protein that forms the necessary fibrous network in the coagulation of blood.

Free-radicals: highly reactive chemical fragments that can produce an irritation of artery walls, start the arterio-sclerotic process if vitamin E is not present; generally harmful.

Fructose: a natural sugar occurring in fruits and honey; called fruit sugar; often used as a preservative for foodstuffs and an intravenous nutrient. Read the rest of this entry »

Absorption: the process by which nutrients are passed into the bloodstream.

Acetate: a derivative of acetic acid.

Acetic acid: used as a synthetic flavouring agent, one of the first food additives (vinegar is approximately 4 to 6 percent acetic acid); it is found naturally in cheese, coffee, grapes, peaches, raspberries, and strawberries; Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) when used only in packaging.

Acetone: a colourless solvent for fat, oils, and waxes, which is obtained by fermentation (inhalation can irritate lungs, and large amounts have a narcotic effect). Read the rest of this entry »