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 »

Food supplements are here to stay and can give you a kick-start when you need it, but the utter confusion they sometimes cause does more harm than good

One of the fastest growing sections of the health industry is that of vitamin preparations. However, there is still a great deal of ignorance among both the public and health workers as to their desirability and meaningful use. The budget that most people have for “luxuries” like vitamins and health literature is limited. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

There is a male brain type and that this brain type is not about gender; rather, it is about the level of testosterone during fetal life. Baron Cohen, whose work on autism is highly respected, believes that one form of autism, Asperger’s syndrome, represents an extreme of the male brain type.

Asperger’s syndrome is often called high-functioning autism, because intelligence is not affected — in fact, it may be higher than normal. Indeed, some AS individuals may be supremely gifted, but they also have great difficulties with relationships and with empathy. Read the rest of this entry »

They keep hormones in check

These essential fats also help to control the sex hormones in both men and women. In adolescents, they help to alleviate the hormone fluctuations so common during puberty, and thus prevent against outbreaks of acne, mood swings, and even ‘growing pains’. In adults, they help to stimulate fertility, decrease the severity of pre-menstrual syndrome and regulate menstrual cycles. In menopausal women, they alleviate mood swings and depression, and make this rather rocky ride a little easier to cope with.

They indirectly help to improve insulin resistance

For this reason they are used in fat loss programmes. 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 »

Before you decide that you need to take vitamin supplements or change the way you eat, you should know where you stand and how much improvement you really need. To help you analyze your current diet, we’ve developed a system you can use to calculate your approximate vitamin C intake. Following is a list of vitamin C food sources, arranged according to the percentage of our Optimal Daily Allowance of vitamin C contained in them. 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 »

Vitamin E has grabbed its share of headlines in recent years. In fact, few nutrients have been the subject of as much discussion as this one. According to the most zealous vitamin proponents, vitamin E is nothing short of a magic pill capable of everything from enhancing one’s sex life to stopping the aging process in its tracks.

You shouldn’t be surprised to learn that many of these claims have little if any scientific support behind them. Still, a growing body of evidence shows that vitamin E does have significant health benefits. This will help you sort scientific fact from fiction regarding this much-discussed vitamin. Read the rest of this entry »