Magnesium deficiency is very common because it
has been removed from our grains and water supply.
A deficiency in this mineral is the leading cause of
many health concerns, including:
- High blood pressure
- Irregular heart beat/heart palpitations
- Muscle pain or cramping
- Restless legs
- Twitching eyelids
- Sleep disturbances
- Depression
- ADHD
- Headaches/or migraines
- Premenstrual syndrome
- Osteoporosis
Supplements That Make You Smile
Written by Flora Stay, DDS
Vitamins and minerals are essential for your body, which of
course, includes your teeth and gums. Oral health disease may
be prevented when vital nutrients are not deficient in your body.
That being said, it’s not unusual to find consumers who misuse
supplements, believing that just by taking a supplement or
herb, they can cure tooth decay or even systemic disease. However,
there are benefits to taking supplements for oral health.
There is a vitamin revolution brewing, and it is important to the health of young and old alike as researchers respond to what has been called the “vitamin D deficiency epidemic.” More than a dozen scientists at leading universities both in the United States and abroad have minced no words about it: many of us need more vitamin D. (See “Cod liver oil, vitamin A toxicity, frequent respiratory infections, and the vitamin D deficiency epidemic.”)1 The issue of deficiency may be especially true of children, yet it is also applicable to adults. Quite surprisingly as far as vitamin D is concerned, the suggested intakes in recent decades have fallen rather wide of the mark. Not only are the recommendations of 400 IU/day as an adequate intake (100 percent of U.S. Daily Value) and 2,000 IU/day as an upper limit too low, but also recommendations may have been more realistic 70 years ago. As detailed below, in a tale of two vitamins, A and D, scientists initially bet on the wrong one.
Anyone who recently has been reading the major newspapers, surfing for news on the Internet or just watching the news on television likely has been surprised by the claim that “vitamins are deadly.” The Wall Street Journal (October 25, 2011) asks, “Is This the End of Popping Vitamins?” And the Archives of Internal Medicine just published “Dietary Supplements and Mortality Rate in Older Women,” an article that comes to the conclusion that “in older women, several commonly used dietary vitamin and mineral supplements may be associated with increased total mortality risk.” A second study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, (JAMA) claims that men who take vitamin E are at higher risk of developing prostate cancer. What is to be made of such claims? Are they true, false, or something in between? How can the non-expert decide?
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| Wild Bitter Melon Extract (Glycostat®) A full spectrum extract that is stable with a light color and mild aroma. Most bitter melon extracts darken with age and develop harsh aromas. (Image courtesy of Glykon Technologies Group, LLC.) |
Bitter melon grows in the tropical and subtropical areas of the East Africa, Asia, India, South America and the Caribbean. It is used traditionally as both food and medicine in all of these areas. Momordica charantia goes by many names and is known as bitter melon, bitter gourd, balsam pear, karela, and pare. Most Westerners will identify bitter melon as looking like a pale green or green cucumber with warts. Indian varieties may be whitish to gray-green, as well. Commercial cultivars can range up to a foot or more in length, whereas wild bitter melon varieties may measure only an inch or so, more than making up for their small size with greater bitterness and intense flavor. The gourd becomes more bitter as it ripens. As a food, unripe bitter melon is used fresh in salads, cooked into soups and curries, employed as a flavoring for eggs, meat and so forth.
Hope for Stiff Joints
Written by Judi Quilici-Timmcke, MS
Chicken eggs are healthy, but did you know that eggshells have health benefits also? Through the years I have frequently given my four Weimereiners and Bassador (half Bassett hound and half Labrador—quite a specimen) hard boiled eggs including their shell. I never realized the true value of the shell and shell membrane.
Several years ago the National Cancer Institute introduced its “5 A Day for Better Health” program to encourage all
of us to eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables every
day. Many other scientific bodies similarly have encouraged
this practice as a way for us to protect against not just cancer,
but also cardiovascular disease, declining mental functioning,
reduced memory and other forms of deterioration associated
with aging. Initially, it was thought that these benefits come
mostly from antioxidant mechanisms and thus vitamins C and
E were primarily responsible. However, more recent studies
have shown that important aspects of the protection afforded
by fruits and vegetables derive from the quantity and the
variety of polyphenols, carotenoids and other phytonutrients
found in them. These nutrients may be providing benefits that
are unrelated to classic antioxidant mechanisms.
DHA stands for DocosaHexaenoic Acid, the most important
omega-3 nutrient. DHA is a fatty acid that is naturally built
into our biochemistry. Two-time Nobel prizewinner Linus Pauling
dubbed these “ortho” molecules, “right” nutrients for the
body. Ortho nutrients typically are extremely effective and extremely
safe, and DHA fits this pattern.
Taking Supplementation Seriously Part V
Choosing a quality dietary supplement can be an exercise
in abstraction. As a class of product nestled somewhere in
between food and drug, they lack many of the obvious quality
measurements inherent to these two other categories (such as
the sensory properties one uses to select quality produce, or
the strict quality control procedures inherent to the manufacture
of a government-regulated pharmaceutical). Until recently,
the only way to assess the quality of a supplement (short of
spending a personal fortune on lab testing), was from the synthesis
of subjective data (brand reputation, marketing claims,
and personal experience).
IN 2009, the centers for disease control reported that fewer
than 10 percent of U.S. high school students are eating
the combined recommended daily amounts of fruits and
vegetables. Also in 2009, a study was released that found that
supplementation with multivitamins during the first years of
life may reduce the risk of allergic disease at school age. Two
years earlier, an international study lasting 12 months reported
that even in well-nourished school-aged children, fortification
with multiple micronutrients can result in improvements in
verbal learning and memory.
Vitamins & Supplements