Nature Health

Archive for the ‘Vitamins & Supplements’ Category

Honey is not just one of the most delicious substances known to mankind, it is also  incredibly valuable for nutrition and healing – and has been for thousands of years. Here  are 5 modern day health benefits of honey.

1. Honey as a Hay Fever Remedy

If you suffer from hay fever, locally produced honey may help ease your symptoms. All  honey will contain traces of pollen – and if it is locally produced honey, it will contain the  same pollen which causes your hay fever. So if you take small amounts of this honey every  day, the theory is that you will de-sensitize yourself to your pollen allergy.

As yet there is no scientific proof that this works, but many people do swear by it, so if you are a sufferer it is certainly worth a try. Of course, the most local honey you can get will be that produced by your own bees in your own backyard – great reason to start beekeeping now, if you haven’t already!

2. Increased Energy

Honey is also a great natural source of carbohydrates giving us strength and energy and is a stimulant, giving an instant boost in performance and endurance and reducing muscle fatigue – particularly in athletes.

Honey is known to keep blood sugar levels fairly constant compared to other types of sugar. This is because it is a natural source of fructose and glucose, which are very quickly absorbed into the bloodstream, and play a crucial role in preventing fatigue during exercise. Of course, it is not just when doing exercise that a boost can be useful, but also in everyday life.

3. Boosting the Immune System

Honey is an important source of vitamins and minerals, and honey’s antioxidant properties help remove free radicals from the body improving your digestive system, and enabling you to stay healthy and fight disease. This is a key health benefit of honey, as a powerful immune system booster

4. Treating Minor Injuries

Externally, honey has been used as a first aid treatment for cuts, burns and wounds. Its antiseptic properties help keep wounds free of infection, and it can help promote healing. It is also thought to be anti-inflammatory, so it will reduce swelling and pain from injuries.

Manuka honey is made by bees feeding on flowers from the Manuka bush, principally found in New Zealand. This bush has antibacterial and antifungal properties, making Manuka honey the most antibacterial of all the different types of honey and so is it particularly good for wound dressing.

5. Treating Sore Throats and Colds

Honey is a great natural treatment for sore throats. It not only soothes the pain of a sore throat, but also helps kill the harmful bacteria that cause the infection. Studies show it is often better than over the counter remedies for coughs, colds and sore throats. Particularly for children, when taken before bedtime honey can help stop coughing and allow a good night’s sleep.

There are many other uses of honey, but there is no doubt that honey benefits health – it truly is one of nature’s wonder products.

A balanced diet includes nutrient dense foods in the right amounts to help your body stay fit and healthy. Not sure how to get started? This nutrition guide will will show you the way.
1. Calorie Calculator

Calories are how we measure the energy produced from the foods you eat. Whether you want to lose, gain or maintain weight, you need to know how many calories your body needs every day. Calculate your calories.

2. Macronutrients

Your daily calories come from the protein, fat and carbohydrates (or macronutrients) that make up the foods you eat. All three of those macronutrients are important, however you need to have the right balance. Learn more about macronutrients.
3. Vitamins and Minerals

Your body also needs an assortment of vitamins and minerals (the micronutrients) to function properly. While you don’t need large amounts of these nutrients, they’re all crucial for good health. Learn about vitamins and minerals.
4. Food Diary

How do you keep track of all those calories and nutrients? Use a food diary to write down all the foods and beverages you consume every day. You can use your food diary to count your calories and watch your nutrient intake. Make a food diary.
5. Join Calorie Count

Calorie Count is an online community where you can set goals, track your calories by searching through and selecting foods from their large database and share your experience with others. Learn why I love Calorie Count.
6. Shopping Tips

A healthy diet begins in the grocery store when you buy food and ingredients to stock your kitchen. Use a shopping list and learn how to read Nutrient Facts labels on packaged foods. Tips for grocery shopping.
7. Nutrient Density

Choosing which foods to eat shouldn’t be difficult. While we want our foods to taste good, the amount of nutrition they offer is more important. Learn about nutrient density and how to choose nutrient dense foods. Learn more about superfoods and nutrient density.
8. Six Weeks To a Healthier Diet
If you still don’t think your diet is on the right track, this six-week email course will help you take the steps to turn your not-so-healthy diet around. You’ll take this slowly, one step at a time, so that each step becomes a way of life. Sign up for Six Weeks to a Healthier Diet.

There are six nutrients that are considered essential to life: proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water. These nutrients are needed for your body to function properly, and your diet is the source of them. Vitamins and minerals are considered micronutrients because they are needed in smaller quantities than the macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and fat). Micronutrients do not provide calories. When your body does not absorb an adequate amount of any of the micronutrients, diseases can occur. It’s important to understand what your nutritional needs are and how to reach them.

Vitamins are broken down into two categories: water-soluble and fat-soluble. Water-soluble vitamins dissolve in water. Leftover amounts are not stored and will leave your body through your urine. For this reason, you must consume them on a continuous basis. The water-soluble vitamins are the B vitamins and vitamin C. Fat-soluble vitamins dissolve in fat, not water. These vitamins need dietary fat in order to be absorbed in the small intestines. They are then stored in the liver and fatty tissues (adipose tissues) and can accumulate to toxic levels when consumed in excess quantities. The fat-soluble vitamins are vitamins A, D, E, and K.

Recommendations for essential nutrients are provided in the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) developed by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Dietary Reference Intakes is the general term for a set of reference values used for planning and assessing nutrient intake for healthy people. There are three important types of DRI reference values; Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA), Adequate Intakes (AI), and Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (UL). The RDA is set to meet the nutrient requirements for the average daily intake of nearly all (97%-98%) healthy individuals in each age and gender group. When there is insufficient data to set an RDA for a nutrient, an AI is set. AIs meet or exceed the amount needed to maintain an adequate nutritional state in nearly everyone of a specific age and gender group. Some nutrients can cause health problems when consumed in excessive quantities. The UL was set to provide the maximum daily intake that is unlikely to result in adverse health effects. Numerous health conditions, however, can impact your nutritional needs. A registered dietitian or physician can help you determine your specific needs based upon your overall health and condition.

In a society full of chemical laden, high calorie, high fat, low nutritional value convenience foods, vitamins & nutrition supplements are becoming more than just a “health nut” trend. Healthy, nutritional vitamins have become an absolute necessity.

A deficiency of vitamins K, E, and C, along with essential fatty acids can cause premature aging and skin cancer. Vitamin C deficiency can cause easy bleeding and bruising, hair and tooth loss, joint pain and swelling. These symptoms appear to be related to the weakening of blood vessels, connective tissue, and bone, which contain collagen.

Too little vitamin D can lead to osteoporosis, or a weakening of the skeletal system, due to compromised calcium absorption. D vitamin deficiency can also cause muscle weakness and cancer.

Blindness is one result of a diet lacking vitamin A. This type of deficiency has also been linked to immune system disorders and birth mortalities.

B vitamins can cause a whole slew of health challenges when not present in our bodies. Mental and emotional challenges, including depression (to the point of suicide), anxiety, and paranoia are at the forefront of these challenges. Insomnia, heart palpitations, indigestion, and overall soreness can also result from a lack of B vitamin complex.

These are just a few examples of some potential consequences of neglecting our nutrition. These examples only really pertain to vitamins, which are merely the tip of a grand iceberg. Chelated Minerals, Phytonutrients, Probiotics, Proteins, Fatty Acids, Antioxidants, Amino Acids, and other nutritional MUSTS will wreak even more havoc on us if in short supply.

Our current diets are not enough.

Vitamins & Nutrition Supplements can restore and ensure great physical health, perfect mental & emotional balance, heaps of quality energy, superb immune system function, and a dramatic reduction in pain, stiffness, and fear. Our skin, hair, and nails will look youthful and vibrant. Our excess body fat will melt away. We will look fantastic! We will also experience an inner peace that can only come from a knowing that everything is going to be okay.

It really is a dramatic shift. Please do NOT overlook the importance of optimal nutrition.

The absolute best vitamins & nutrition supplements to buy are whole-food supplements which contain all of the “must-have” elements I mentioned above. Skip the synthetic, over-the-counter drugstore garbage. Go to your local health food store. They’ll have what you’re looking for. The drugstore won’t.

For many years, researchers have been puzzled by the statistical fact that people living at higher latitudes in the world, has a much higher risk of dying from cancer. Many people have also wondered why seasonal flu and colds, almost always occur more frequently during winter time.

An explanation to these two mysteries are now slowly beginning to emerge. The answer is very simple, but fascinating: lack of sunlight can have a detrimental effect on your health and well-being.

Men and women exposed to the most sunlight throughout their lives are less likely to die of cancer [2]. The explanation for this, comes from the newly discovered role that Vitamin D has on overall health. The major source of Vitamin D exposure for humans is sunlight, hence anything that interferes with the penetration of sunlight into the skin will have a negative effect on the body’s ability to create Vitamin D stores. This now turns a lot of public health recommendations upside down. Yes, extreme sunburn and overexposure to sunlight can be hazardous, but so can

overuse of sun blocking creams and avoidance of sunlight. The common recommendation for the avoidance of all sun exposure has now put the world’s population at a serious risk of developing Vitamin D deficiency. Now, what is so dangerous about Vitamin D deficiency one may ask?

This is where recent research literally is flooding us with new discoveries of the serious impact vitamin D deficiency can have, and how vitamin D supplementation can reduce mortality rates.

The researchers find one new, good feature after another – and vitamin D is considered, among other things, to strengthen the immune system, prevent heart disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis and depression. The more studies done, the more benefits are found. By strengthening the immune system, vitamin D have also been shown to provide protection against influenza. Vitamin D is simply, the researchers’ new darling. A super vitamin that seems to help for almost anything. Here comes a brief summery of the latest findings.

1) Vitamin D protects against heart attacks.

Further evidence that vitamin-D deficiency may increase the risk of heart disease, has come from a new large case-control American study among middle-aged men [2]. The authors, led by Dr Edward Giovannucci (Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA), found that a doubling of the levels of vitamin D in the blood reduces the risk of heart attack. As the sun is the main source of vitamin D, it may explain why more suffer a heart attack during the dark winter months. It is known that many Swedes for example, are deficient in vitamin D during winter months.

Researchers followed 18,225 men for ten years who at baseline were aged 40 to 75 years. During the period 454 men suffered a heart attack. Analysis of blood samples showed that the risk was more than doubled for those with the least vitamin D in their blood, but also those with average levels had a 60 percent increased risk. The results are published in the prestigious medical journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

2) Vitamin D supplements reduces risk of dying prematurely.

Eating extra vitamin D supplements can prolong life. Supplementing with Vitamin D can reduce the risk of dying from any disease by eight percent, according to a major international study [3]. Leading scientists are now calling for an international debate on fortification of food and a careful reassessment of our restrictive approach to sunbathing.

Researchers at the World Health Organization (WHO) International Institute for Research on Cancer in Lyon, IARC, reviewed 18 large studies on vitamin D published until November 2006. A total of 57,311 persons were followed for almost six years. During this period 4777 of them died. When the researchers played together all the different causes of death, they found that the overall mortality rate was eight percent lower among those who regularly was taking additional vitamin D supplements. The daily supplement intake ranged between 300 and 2000 international units, IU, but was on average, at a level that is normally available in ordinary vitamin tablets, more specifically, 528IU. In the nine studies, blood samples of those who ate supplements, contained levels of vitamin D in their blood, which was between 1.5 and 5.2 times higher than those without the vitamin D supplements.

3) Increasing doses of vitamin D may reduce cancer risk.

High doses of vitamin D may reduce the risk of developing several common cancers such as breast, ovarian and colon cancer, U.S. researchers argue in a new study. Previous studies have shown that extra supplements with vitamin D ,may reduce the risk of various cancers such as prostate cancer and lymphoma.

In 2006 researchers at the University of California at San Diego, after having gone through 63 international studies conducted between 1996 and 2004, have discovered that an increased daily dose of vitamin D can prevent other cancers as well [4,5]. A daily dose of 25 micrograms (1000IU) of vitamin D may reduce the risk of colon cancer by 50 percent and cancer of the breast and ovary by 30 percent, the researchers claimed in their study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

We naturally make our own vitamin D from the sun’s ultraviolet rays, but also receive it through foods such as fish, meat and butter and vitamin supplements. Professor Cedric Garner, who led the meta-study, believes it is justified to increase the intake of vitamin D through diet and possibly supplements of vitamin D tablets.

A Swedish study showed, that the person who in his youth did a lot of sunbathing, and thus produced increased levels of vitamin D, ran a 30-40 percent lower risk of contracting the cancer form called non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma later on in adult life.

Now, how do we personally increase our vitamin D levels? In sun poor countries like Sweden, we rarely get enough of this super vitamin. Every other Scandinavian can be deficient. The symptoms are vague at first, but early signs may be depression and fatigue. Therefore, we must be out in the sun as much as possible, and let it shine on our bare skin during the summer months. However, walking around naked outside in the winter time is just not practical for most of us.

There are however, some simple steps that you can take to optimize your daily vitamin D intake.

Four ways to increase your vitamin D intake:

1.Sunbathing – 15-30 minutes of strong sun exposure daily – with plenty of bare skin (without sunscreen), but without burning yourself of course, is a very effective method. This provides five times the daily requirement. Works in Scandinavia only midday hours from May to August. So it’s not enough the whole year, if you do not regularly go on holiday to the south. Simple rule of thumb: the sun must be up at least 45 degrees above the horizon (so that your shadow is shorter than you) for efficient vitamin D formation. Otherwise the atmosphere filters away almost all the UVB radiation.

2.Eating oily fish – Such as salmon, sardines and mackerel. Provides good vitamin D contributions, but you need around 350 grams of fish a day to produce the recommended daily amount.

3. Eat more eggs – Eggs provide a rich sourch of Vitamin D, however you would need to eat 18 eggs a day to get 1000iu!

4. Daily Vitamin D Supplement Tablets - Effective way to get the correct vitamin D amount regularly throughout the year. Older supplements brands usually have very small doses, such as 400iu. Take Vitamin D3 if you think your daily meal didn’t supplies a sufficient amount of vitamin D.

So finally, in order to live long, enjoy the sun on bare skin, and eat as much oily fish as possible.