Archive for Vitamins

Vitamin water-help or hype?

Here is an interesting article on those expensive and often sugary drinks!

Help or Hype

Bottom line, save your wallet and waistline!

Vitamins & Supplements: Help or Hype? Part 2

Help and Hype-Soy supposedly helps heart health, but thus far no studies have supported this. However, it is a good source of calcium and also a good source of non-animal protein and ‘dairy’ such as in soy milk.

Help-Folacin (folic acid) is key  for the production and maintenance of new cells. You can get it leafy greens and many fortified foods.  It is especially important for pregnant women, or women that are thinking about getting pregnant. It helps to prevent birth defects and has also been found to help lower the risk of colon and breast cancers.

Help-Folate and vitamin B12 work together to protect cognitive function, but any supplements which claim to improve your memory, hype.

Help-Vitamin K is good for bone health, though not for people with blood clotting issues.

Hype-Vitamin O, an extra oxygen molecule in water, is a scam.

Hype and Help-Antioxidants-while they are supposed to have cancer-fighting properties, to date, studies have not proven any benefit in their regard, or in reference to heart health. In fact, people taking multivitamins have actually been shown to have worse health outcomes, particularly regarding prostate cancer.

However, A, C and E are found naturally in many foods and so if you are eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, you should be getting your full daily allowance.

So there it is, a quick round-up of some of the grand claims made on behalf of certain vitamin and nutraceuticals.

So the next time you hear claims about huge health benefits supposedly coming from vitamins and supplements, save your money on them, and spend it at the supermarket on eating nutritious fresh foods.

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Vitamins & Supplements: Help or Hype? Part 1

The selling of vitamins and supplements, also known as nutraceuticals, is a multibillion dollar industry that has grown by leaps and bounds in the past ten years.

It seems like almost every day, there is some health announcement or other on the six o’clock news saying that new research has come out on the benefits of a particular vitamin or supplement for some medical condition or other.

Our nutritional needs also change as we get older, and we need to be aware of these to adjust our eating strategy, and perhaps even take a vitamin or supplement if we are not getting enough of these essentials in the foods we eat.

But what is help, and what hype? This quick round up gives you the facts you need:

Help-The main sources of critical nutrients for women at reproductive age are calcium, iron, folic acid, vitamin C, vitamin B12, vitamin A and carotenes.

Hype-Black Cohosh has been touted to help control hot flashes during menopause, but the leading studies have failed to prove this.

Hype-Middle-aged women at risk for heart disease received little benefit from taking vitamins C, E or beta carotene, according to recent research.

Help-If you are a vegetarian you may need to take more Vitamin B12. The B group of vitamins is said to help ward off stress.

Help-Calcium intake can reduce your risk for osteoporosis. You should be consuming at least 1000 milligrams a day. When you take a calcium supplement, make sure that it contains vitamin D also, and magnesium, which is needed to absorb calcium properly. Try to avoid foods high in phosphorous, which can interfere with absorption.

Help-Vitamin D is also a potent immune system modulator, but it is also produced naturally in the body as a result of exposure to sun. Wear sun block, but do make sure you get out in the fresh air. Vitamin D is most commonly found in dairy.

Help-Magnesium can protect against heart disease, diabetes and colon cancer.

The many benefits of Vitamin D

Here is a great article from Johns Hopkins on the many benefits of Vitamin D for helping ward off osteopenia and osteoporosis, and for overall health.
http://www.johnshopkinshealthalerts.com/reports/back_pain_osteoporosis/466-1.html

Vitamin E and Brain Power?

Most diets recommend vitamin E for daily use. It has been touted for everything from preventing memory loss, to prostate health, to reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and heart attack.

Vitamin E has become of great interest because studies show that it delays the onset and may slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. It may also lower the risk of other degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease.

It is not clear whether vitamin E will actually prevent these memory problems or disorders or can reduce memory problems in normal people, but new studies recently completed have not proven effectiveness.

The recommended does is 1,000 IU of vitamin E daily, because such a dose almost never has side effects. But the verdict is still out on this one. In most cases it will be included in a good multivitamin, so there should be no need for additional supplementation. Save your money.

Vitamin C and Brain Power

Although vitamin C is also an antioxidant, the case for it as a brain protector is not as strong as the case for vitamin E, which in the end has not proven to be especially strong. A large study is currently evaluating the role of vitamin C in preserving brain function. We should know some time in the next few years if this vitamin is of benefit, but thus far, the claims for C have not been proven.

Vitamin C is water soluble, so it needs to be replenished every day, but good natural sources include fruits, vegetables, and fortified juices.

But the verdict is still out on C for brain health. In most cases Vitamin C will be included in a good multivitamin, so there should be no need for additional supplementation. Save your money.

Vitamin B12 and Your Memory

Your brain needs vitamins, but cannot make its own: Most of the vitamins in your blood (and brain) come from your diet. And, as we all know from reading the labels of the foods we buy in the supermarket, you need a certain minimum daily intake of vitamins for normal function of your brain and your body.

If you are eating a well-balanced diet, and especially if you add to it a good-quality multi-vitamin, you should not become vitamin deficient. The one exception is Vitamin B12, a water soluble which plays an important role in brain health.

In order for your body to use vitamin B12, no matter what the source,  you need to have a special substance produced by your stomach to promote the absorption of the vitamin.

As we age, sometimes our stomachs no longer produce this substance. Without it, whether you take vitamin B12 pills or eat food enriched with vitamin B12, the vitamin will pass right out of your system. If your stomach can’Äôt absorb vitamin B12, then you must take it by injection.

Deficiency in B12 causes problems in both thinking and motor skills and in addition to its effects upon your memory, it also prevents the normal formation of red blood cells, a condition known as pernicious anemia.

Fortunately, B12 deficiency will show up in a simple blood test, and treatment is also easy: an injection of B12 once a month.

Apart from a vitamin B12 deficiency problem, most vitamin deficiencies occur primarily when eating habits are abnormal. This is most common in heavy drinkers, who tend to fill up on alcohol, and don’t maintain a normal diet, and thus become vitamin deficient.

The calories in the alcohol are called “empty” calories because they lack proteins, vitamins, and other nutritional substances people need for overall health and wellness.

The resulting vitamin deficiency, which is usually a thiamine deficiency, is not always easy to detect.  Its symptoms–confusion, memory problems, and difficulties walking–may come on very gradually, and mimic old age. And because family members and friends are often not aware of how much someone is drinking, they may not even think of a vitamin deficiency as the explanation.

If caught in time, this condition is readily treatable by eliminating alcohol and adding supplemental thiamine (vitamin B1) and making sure the person maintains a proper diet.