Life Extension Vitamins brings life extension vitamin articles, videos, and conversation about using vitamins and supplements for longer health.
The best hair vitamin to grow your natural hair long.
Video Rating: 4 / 5
Vitamins – the Basics
Vitamins are micro-nutrients. They were discovered by Eijkman (1897) in Indonesia, Java, while studying a disease called beriberi common among natives whose main diet was rice. He noticed that fowl fed on polished rice, developed beri beri, but not when fed on crudely milled rice.
In 1911 Funk obtained an alcoholic extract of the outer husk of rice which cured beri beri. This was thought to be a vital amine introducing the name vitamine. The “e” was later dropped to read “vitamin”.
Vitamins Functions And Sources:
As micro nutrients, vitamins are required in small quantities. Generally your body cannot manufacture or synthesize vitamins from scratch. So you need to get them from the food you eat or from supplement pills. Though, vitamins can be synthesized by some bacteria, yeast, mould, algae and some plant species. Some vitamins like vitamin B5 have been found to be synthesized by bacteria in the human large intestines. However it is not clear if the vitamins are available for absorption and use by the body.
Vitamins are required by the body for a variety of biological processes. These include growth e.g Vitamin B6; mental alertness e.g Choline, Niacin; resistance to infection e.g. Vitamin C and Vitamin E. They also act as catalysts in the body chemistry as well as precursors to vital body factors. This enables the body to use carbohydrates, fats and proteins.
Vitamins in themselves do not have calories and therefore do not give energy to the body. Natural vitamins are found in living things that is plants and animals and are organic food substances. There are many artificially synthesized vitamins.
Vitamins exist in varying quantities in an array of food sources from yeasts, wheat bran, cooked egg that provides Biotin, citrus fruits and milk that provide Vitamin C, green leafy vegetables and legumes that supply Folic acid .
Vitamin Classification:
There are mainly two types of vitamins classified based on their solubility. These are water soluble and fat soluble vitamins.
i) Water soluble vitamins include : Vitamin C also called citric acid, Vitamin B1 (thiamine), Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin), Vitamin B3 (niacin), Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid), Vitamin B9 (folic acid), Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), Vitamin B12 (cobalamin), Cholin, Biotin.
Water soluble vitamins are not stored in the body in any appreciable amounts. The surplus is washed out mainly through urine. They requires consistent replenishing using the diet we consume. This makes them safe because they do not collect in the body toxic levels, making large doses of vitamin supplementary safe. But caution should still be practiced because mega doses have side effects and even can be fatal.
For example, there is a low risk of vitamin toxicity from nicotinic acid with mega doses. Nicotinic acid a derivative of vitamin niacin, one may experience flushing, itching, nausea and vomiting, liver cell damage. So supplement with daily value doses. Do not use megadoses unless under ongoing expert advice.
ii)Fat soluble vitamins includes: Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin E and Vitamin K. Being fat soluble these vitamins are stored in the fat in our bodies. They can easily accumulate to toxic levels so if you choose to supplement be cautious.
Vitamin Deficiency:
The lack of these food factors i.e vitamins results to deficiency diseases. Vitamin defiency diseases are a manifestation of malfunctioning bio-chemical processes due to lack of the vital vitamins. Since the same vitamin may be used in a number of processes, deficiency in some vitamins can be quite serious and even fatal. For example over two hundred enzymes require the niacin vitamin coenzyme. So a lack of niacin makes this two hundred enzymes malfunction.
Vitamin deficiencies have been associated with long term latent deficiency diseases. These diseases occur after a long time of deficiency of some
12 Sources of Natural Vitamin Supplements
Taking vitamins has long been considered as a prerequisite to good health. In fact, health experts are in agreement, that these organic molecules are needed to be taken by the human body in minute quantities, to ensure proper health. According to these experts, a person deprived of a particular vitamin would eventually exhibit disease symptoms particular to the said vitamin.
The importance of vitamins for good health is a fact well known to everybody. Even children at the primary school level are well aware of this because they are being educated on the importance of vitamins for their body. But while everybody knows how important vitamins are, not everybody knows where to get them. In fact, many believe that the only source of vitamins is the medicine bottle.
Vitamins, however, are not limited to those that are sold on drug stores as food supplements. In fact, vitamins do exist naturally. To give more light on this topic, it may be better if we give you first a background on the basic types of vitamins available today.
The Basic Types of Vitamins Available in the Market
There are three general types of vitamins being sold in the market today. These three types are the natural vitamins, crystalline vitamins, and synthetic vitamins.
• Natural Vitamins
Natural vitamins are those vitamins that can readily be found in natural foods. If processed into a commercial food supplement, the vitamin must have all of its components intact, including its enzymes, co-enzymes, minerals, mineral activators, and co-vitamin helpers.
• Crystalline Vitamins
Crystalline vitamins are those vitamins that are extracted from natural food sources but were already treated with various high-powered chemicals, solvents, heat and distillations to separate the specific vitamin from all other synergistic components attached to it. As such, these vitamins have a very simple structure compared to the complex structure of natural vitamins.
• Synthetic Vitamins
Synthetic vitamins are those vitamins that were chemically formed in laboratories by scientists. While they are not derived from any natural source, the structure of these vitamins would usually resemble that of their crystalline counterparts.
As you can see, vitamins are not limited to those found on drug stores and medicine bottles. In this article, we’ll concentrate on those vitamins that can be found on natural food sources—the natural vitamin supplements.
Natural Vitamin Supplements
According to studies, our body needs 13 vitamins for proper bodily functions. These vitamins are composed of the vitamins A, C, D, E, K and the B vitamins. The B vitamins, on the other hand, are composed of thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, biotin, vitamin B6, vitamin B12 and folate.
Now, all these vitamins are available in drug stores in various concentrations. However, all of these 13 vitamins can also be found on natural food sources. In fact, a person having a variety of foods in his diet must already be taking minute amounts of these vitamins everyday. And as have previously been said, only a minute amount of all these vitamins are needed by the body to function properly.
So if you are interested on keeping your health at its prime, then you can bank on the natural vitamins that nature has to offer. Here is a list of the food sources from which you can extract natural vitamin supplements:
1. Vitamin A
Vitamin A can be found from meat sources and dairy products like milk, cheese, cream, liver, kidney, and cod liver. But since all of these are high cholesterol products, you may want to try getting vitamin A from its precursor, beta-carotene. Common sources of beta carotene are raw carrots, sweet potatoes, winter squash, cantaloupe, spinach, mango, broccoli and other red- or yellow-skinned fruits and vegetables.
2. Vitamin B1 (thiamine)
Common sources
Be My Friend – www.myspace.com Truth about Vitamins & Minerals Supplements Austin Nutrition Joseph explains what the best types of vitamin and mineral supplements are. He explains the differences between synthetic vitamins, natural vitamins, whole food vitamins and whole foods. Natural Vitamin Source Table www.nutritionaustin.com Visits Joseph’s Website at www.nutritionaustin.com This video was produced by Psychetruth http www.youtube.com psychetruth.blogspot.com Psychetruth is empowered by TubeMogul www.tubemogul.com © Copyright 2008 Zoe Sofia. All Rights Reserved.
Video Rating: 4 / 5
Another influenza season is beginning, and the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will strongly urge Americans to get a flu shot. In fact, the CDC mounts a well-orchestrated campaign each season to generate interest and demand for flu shots. But a recent study published in the October issue of the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine found that vaccinating young children against the flu appeared to have no impact on flu-related hospitalizations or doctor visits during two recent flu seasons. At first glance, the data did suggest that children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years derived some protection from vaccination in these years. But after adjusting for potentially relevant variables, the researchers concluded that “significant influenza vaccine effectiveness could not be demonstrated for any season, age, or setting” examined. Additionally, a Group Health study found that flu shots do not protect elderly people against developing pneumonia — the primary cause of death resulting as a complication of the flu. Others have questioned whether there is any mortality benefit with influenza vaccination. Vaccination coverage among the elderly increased from 15 percent in 1980 to 65 percent now, but there has been no decrease in deaths from influenza or pneumonia. There is some evidence that flu shots cause Alzheimers disease, most likely as a result of combining mercury with aluminum and formaldehyde. Mercury in vaccines has also been implicated as …
Video Rating: 4 / 5
Powered by Yahoo! Answers