Friday, December 5, 2008

Vitamin Chart

Type Benefits Sources Quantity
Vitamin A Vitamin A prevents eye problems, promotes a healthy immune system, is essential for the growth and development of cells, and keeps skin healthy. Good sources of vitamin A are milk, eggs, liver, fortified cereals, darkly colored orange or green vegetables (such as carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and kale), and orange fruits such as cantaloupe, apricots, peaches, papayas, and mangos. Teen guys need 900 micrograms of vitamin A each day.
Teen girls need 700 micrograms each day. It is possible to get too much vitamin A, so be careful with supplements. Don't take vitamin A supplements If you're taking isotretinoin (such as Accutane) for acne or other skin problems.
Oral acne medicines are vitamin A supplements, and a continued excess of vitamin A can build up in the body, causing headaches, skin changes, or even liver damage.
Vitamin C (also called ascorbic acid) Vitamin C is needed to form collagen, a tissue that helps to hold cells together. It's essential for healthy bones, teeth, gums, and blood vessels. It helps the body absorb iron and calcium, aids in wound healing, and contributes to brain function. You'll find high levels of vitamin C in red berries, kiwi, red and green bell peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, spinach, and juices made from guava, grapefruit, and orange. Teen guys need 75 mg (milligrams; 1 milligram equals 1,000 micrograms) and girls need 65 mg of vitamin C a day.
Vitamin D Vitamin D strengthens bones because it helps the body absorb bone-building calcium. This vitamin is unique — your body manufactures it when you get sunlight on your skin! You can also get vitamin D from egg yolks, fish oils, and fortified foods like milk. Teens need 5 micrograms (200 IU) of vitamin D from food every day.
Vitamin
E
Vitamin E is an antioxidant and helps protect cells from damage. It is also important for the health of red blood cells. Vitamin E is found in many foods, such as vegetable oils, nuts, and green leafy vegetables. Avocados, wheat germ, and whole grains are also good sources. Teen guys and girls need 15 mg of vitamin E every day.
Vitamin B12 Vitamin B12 helps to make red blood cells, and is important for nerve cell function. Vitamin B12 is found naturally in fish, red meat, poultry, milk, cheese, and eggs. It's also added to some breakfast cereals. Teens should get 2.4 micrograms of vitamin B12 daily.
Vitamin B6 Vitamin B6 is important for normal brain and nerve function. It also helps the body break down proteins and make red blood cells. A wide variety of foods contain vitamin B6, including potatoes, bananas, beans, seeds, nuts, red meat, poultry, fish, eggs, spinach, and fortified cereals. Teen guys need 1.3 mg of vitamin B6 daily and teen girls need 1.2 mg.
Thiamin (also called vitamin B1) Thiamin helps the body convert carbohydrates into energy and is necessary for the heart, muscles, and nervous system to function properly. People get thiamin from many different foods, including fortified breads, cereals, and pasta; meat and fish; dried beans, soy foods, and peas; and whole grains like wheat germ. Teen guys need 1.2 mg of thiamin each day; teen girls need 1 mg.
Niacin (also called vitamin B3) Niacin helps the body turn food into energy. It helps maintain healthy skin and is important for nerve function. You'll find niacin in red meat, poultry, fish, fortified hot and cold cereals, and peanuts. Teen guys need 16 mg of niacin daily. Teen girls need 14 mg a day.
Riboflavin (also called vitamin B2) Riboflavin is essential for turning carbohydrates into energy and producing red blood cells. It is also important for vision. Some of the best sources of riboflavin are meat, eggs, legumes (like peas and lentils), nuts, dairy products, green leafy vegetables, broccoli, asparagus, and fortified cereals. Teen guys need 1.3 mg of riboflavin per day and teen girls need 1 mg.
Folate (also known as vitamin B9, folic acid, or folacin) Folate helps the body make red blood cells. It is also needed to make DNA. Dried beans and other legumes, green leafy vegetables, asparagus, oranges and other citrus fruits, and poultry are good sources of this vitamin. So are fortified or enriched bread, noodles, and cereals. Teen girls and guys need 400 micrograms of folate daily.

Minerals


A mineral can be defined as a naturally occurring inorganic solid that possesses an orderly internal structure and a definite chemical composition. Some people, like physicists, might be guilty of picking up a rock and calling it a mineral. The term "rock" is less specific, referring to any solid mass of mineral or mineral-like material. Common rocks are often made up of crystals of several kinds of minerals. There are some substances, like opal, which have the appearance of a mineral but lack any definite internal structure, are sometimes called "mineraloids". Lutgens and Tarbuck give the following list of essential characteristics of a "mineral":

  1. It must occur naturally.
  2. It must be inorganic
  3. It must be a solid
  4. It must possess an orderly internal structure, that is, its atoms must be arranged in a definite pattern.
  5. It must have a definite chemical composition that may vary within specified limits."

Vitamin "B"

Before delving into the problems of vitamin B complex deficiency and its symptoms, it is first important to understand the difference between vitamins that are in pill form versus vitamins that are contained within nature’s foods. There is a world of difference — a difference between sickness and health. Vitamins just do not work like foods, and foods are what our bodies were designed to use for healing, prevention and energy. There is no substitute, and no matter how you look at it, vitamin pills are an invention of scientists, so they are prone to cause side effects, be incomplete and lack what we need to overcome our health problems.

Vitamins have been sold and marketed as the “magic bullet” for all health problems, yet food science researchers are bringing out the truth about vitamins, minerals, multivitamins and antioxidants— and it’s not an easy pill to swallow. The problem is that vitamins, when not still contained in their original food (oranges, bananas, spinach, broccoli, etc.) are merely chemicals. Our bodies do not recognize vitamins as nutrients, because they don’t work the same way as whole foods for these simple reasons:

  • Foods contain not just vitamins, but the co-workers (synergists) and helper nutrients that allow vitamins to work

  • Foods are never found in high potency, so you won’t suffer any toxic side effects that have been proven to exist with ALL vitamin pills. As one expert stated, “Foods never deliver toxic doses [of vitamins]. (Hamilton, p.205)

  • Vitamins are just a small part of what our bodies require for health and healing. It is very often that it is the other food properties that help us while the vitamins are secondary.

  • Vitamin pills need other nutrients in order to work.

For these reasons, and more, vitamin pills, despite their use and overuse, are not turning people’s health around. They are lacking the properties of real nutrition which can only come from eating nature’s real, whole, raw foods. The only supplement that someone should take, therefore, is a whole food formula WITHOUT any isolated (singular vitamin). This is an important point, because most supplements called “whole food” are combinations of real foods and isolated vitamins. You have to carefully read the labels to see. Look for these words to identify vitamin chemicals on a label:

  • Pyridoxine
  • Thiamine or thiamin
  • Niacin or niacinamide
  • Palmitate
  • ascorbic acid
  • Riboflavin
  • Mixed tocopherols
  • B12
  • cyanocobalamin
  • more

Vitamins are not foods, so instead of vitamins and minerals on a label, you should be looking for the names of foods and herbs on the label. Don’t be fooled by high milligrams, high potency, standardization or any other such terms that just do not apply to real foods from nature.

Vitamin "C"

Description

What is vitamin C?

Because of its widespread use as a dietary supplement, vitamin C may be more familiar to the general public than any other nutrient. Studies indicate that more than 40% of older individuals in the U.S. take vitamin C supplements; and in some regions of the country, almost 25% of all adults, regardless of age, take vitamin C. Outside of a multivitamin, vitamin C is also the most popular supplement among some groups of registered dietitians, and 80% of the dietitians who take vitamin C take more than 250 milligrams. Why is this nutrient so popular?

Vitamin C, also called ascorbic acid, is a water-soluble nutrient that is easily excreted from the body when not needed. It's so critical to living creatures that almost all mammals can use their own cells to make it. Humans, gorillas, chimps, bats, guinea pigs and birds are some of the few animals that cannot make vitamin C inside of their own bodies.

Humans vary greatly in their vitamin C requirement. It's natural for one person to need 10 times as much vitamin C as another person; and a person's age and health status can dramatically change his or her need for vitamin C. The amount of vitamin C found in food varies as dramatically as our human requirement. In general, an unripe food is much lower in vitamin C than a ripe one, but provided that the food is ripe, the vitamin C content is higher when the food is younger at the time of harvest.

How it Functions

What is the function of vitamin C?

Vitamin C serves a predominantly protective role in the body. As early as the 1700's, vitamin C was referred to as the "antiscorbutic factor," since it helped prevent the disease called scurvy. This disease was first discovered in British sailors, whose sea voyages left them far away from natural surroundings for long periods of time. Their body stores of vitamin C fell below 300 milligrams, and their gums and skin lost the protective effects of vitamin C. Recognizing limes as a good shipboard source of vitamin C, the British sailors became known as "limeys" for carrying large stores of limes aboard ship.

The protective role of vitamin C goes far beyond our skin and gums. Cardiovascular diseases, cancers, joint diseases and cataracts are all associated with vitamin C deficiency and can be partly prevented by optimal intake of vitamin C. Vitamin C achieves much of its protective effect by functioning as an antioxidant and preventing oxygen-based damage to our cells. Structures that contain fat (like the lipoprotein molecules that carry fat around our body) are particularly dependent on vitamin C for protection.

Deficiency Symptoms

What are deficiency symptoms for vitamin C?

Full-blown symptoms of the vitamin C deficiency disease called scurvy - including bleeding gums and skin discoloration due to ruptured blood vessels - are rare in the U.S. Poor wound healing, however, is not rare, and can be a symptom of vitamin C deficiency. Weak immune function, including susceptibility to colds and other infections, can also be a telltale sign of vitamin C deficiency. Since the lining of our respiratory tract also depend heavily on vitamin C for protection, respiratory infection and other lung-related conditions can also be symptomatic of vitamin C deficiency.

Toxicity Symptoms

What are toxicity symptoms for vitamin C?

There are very few research studies that document vitamin C toxicity at any level of supplementation, and there are no documented toxicity effects whatsoever for vitamin C in relation to food and diet. At high supplemental doses involving 5 or more grams of vitamin C, diarrhea can result from the fluid in the intestine becoming too concentrated ("osmotic diarrhea").

Large supplemental doses of vitamin C can also increase levels of uric acid in the urine, because vitamin C can be broken down into uric acid. However, it is not clear that increased uric acid in the urine can increase a person's risk of forming uric acid kidney stones.

Finally, vitamin C can increase a person's absorption of iron from plant foods; and persons who have health problems related to excess free iron in their cells may want to consider avoiding high supplemental doses of vitamin C. It is important to remember that all of the above toxicity-related issues involve vitamin C in supplemental form, not as it naturally occurs in food.

Nutritional Vitamin Supplements

Trust in only the best vitamin supplements, with a company that has been developing superior nutritional vitamin supplements since 1956. These supplements are quality-controlled product formulations that ensure product safety, purity, reliability, and product performance.

With these quality vitamin supplements we provide unparalleled customer support, security and reliability. Not all vitamin companies are the same. The ingredients that go into our vitamins make them superior. What you put into your body is very important. You should trust in only the best.

Are you particular in the type or brand of products you buy? Then you owe it to yourself to at least give your body the best vitamins. It is your body treat it well. Please take time at the very least to read about what makes these vitamins different. With our guarantee you have nothing to lose. You will notice the difference in quality.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Vitamin C functions, uses, and health benefits

The antioxidant properties of vitamin C - Vitamin C is one of many antioxidants. Antioxidants are nutrients that block some of the damage caused by free radicals, which are by-products that result when our bodies transform food into energy. Vitamin C neutralizes potentially harmful reactions in the watery parts of the body, such as the blood and the fluid inside and surrounding cells. Vitamin C may help decrease total and LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, as well as increase HDL levels. Vitamin C's antioxidant activity may be helpful in the prevention of some cancers and cardiovascular disease. The antioxidant properties of vitamin C are thought to protect smokers, as well as people exposed to secondhand smoke, from the harmful effects of free radicals. Vitamin C strengthens the collagen structure of arteries, lowers total cholesterol, and blood pressure, an inhibits platelet aggregation.

Vitamin C and heart disease - Vitamin C may protect against heart disease by reducing the stiffness of arteries and the tendency of platelets to clump together. Long-term administration of vitamin C reverses endothelial vasomotor dysfunction in patients with coronary artery disease. Under most circumstances, dietary vitamin C is adequate for protecting against the development of or consequences from cardiovascular disease. When taken with vitamin E, vitamin C helps protect LDL ("bad") cholesterol from oxidation, thus preventing plaque buildup in coronary arteries. Individuals with high blood levels of vitamin C have significantly reduced risk of stroke. The risk of stroke was inversely related to vitamin C in the bloodstream. Vitamin C improves nitric oxide activity. Nitric oxide is needed for the dilation of blood vessels, potentially important in lowering blood pressure and preventing spasms of arteries in the heart that might otherwise lead to heart attacks. Vitamin C has reversed dysfunction of cells lining blood vessels. The normalization of the functioning of these cells may be linked to prevention of heart disease.

Vitamin C and cancer - Vitamin C may have cancer-preventive activity, at least for certain types of cancer. As a powerful antioxidant, vitamin C may help to fight cancer by protecting healthy cells from free-radical damage and inhibiting the proliferation of cancerous cells. Vitamin C to improve the antineoplastic activity of doxorubicin, cisplatin and paclitaxel. The mechanism of the effect may be pro-oxidant, not antioxidant, activity of the vitamin in potentiating the effects of these chemotherapeutic agents. High concentratins of ascorbic acid in gastric juice may reduce the risk of gastric cancer by inhibiting the formation of carcinogenic N-nitroso compounds. Ascorbic acid is toxic to viruses and bacteria and other such harmful cells. It is also toxic to cancerous cells and a little less toxic to non-cancerous cells and so it is used therapeutically in cancer therapy. Many of the pollutants which now pervade our environment can cause carcinogenic, toxic or mutagenic effects. Vitamin C may be able to combat these harmful effects, in part by stimulating detoxifying enzymes in the liver.

Vitamin C and cllagen, connective tissue - As a participant in hydroxylation, vitamin C is needed for the production of collagen in the connective tissue. These fibres are ubiquitous throughout the body; providing firm but flexible structure. Vitamin C is involved in the hydroxylation of proline to from hydroxyproline in the synthesis of collagen, a protein substance on which the integrity of cellular structure in all fibrous tissues depends. Collagen is the "glue" that strengthens many parts of the body, such as muscles and blood vessels. Collagen is a protein needed to develop and maintain healthy teeth, bones, gums, cartilage, vertebrae discs, joint linings, skin and blood vessels. Vitamin C is essential for the healing of wounds, and for the repair and maintenance of cartilage, bones, and teeth.

Vitamin C and immune system - Vitamin C may be useful as an immune stimulator and modulator in some circumstances. Vitamin C promotes resistance to infection through the immunologic activity of leukocytes, the production of interferon, and the process of inflammatory reaction, or the integrity of the mucous membranes. Vitamin C stimulates the immune system. Through this function, along with its antioxidant function, it may help in the prevention and treatment of infections and other diseases. There is some evidence that vitamin C inhibits the replication of human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1).

Other functions of vitamin C - Vitamin C has been reported to reduce activity of the enzyme, aldose reductase, in people. Aldose reductase is the enzyme responsible for accumulation of sorbitol in eyes, nerves, and kidneys of people with diabetes. Vitamin C levels in the eye decrease with age and that supplementing with vitamin C prevents this decrease, possibly leading to a lower risk of developing cataracts. Vitamin C may be helpful in protecting against some of the lipid oxidation caused by smoking. Vitamin C may be helpful in chronic diseases characterized by oxidative damage to biological molecules. People with recurrent boils (furunculosis) may have defects in white blood cell function that are correctable with vitamin C supplementation.

Vitamin's



Vitamin A
- Vitamin A is the collective name for a group of fat-soluble vitamins. The most useable form of the vitamin is retinol. Vitamin A palmitate (retinyl palmitate) and vitamin A acetate (retinyl acetate) are the principal forms used as nutritional supplements. The precursors of vitamin A (retinol) are the carotenoids (most commonly beta-carotene). Vitamin A is one of the most versatile vitamins, with roles in such diverse functions as vision, immune defenses, maintenance of body linings and skin, bone and body growth, normal cell development, and reproduction.

Vitamin D - Vitamin D actually refers to a group of steroid molecules. Vitamin D is called the sunlight vitamin because the body produces it when the sun's ultraviolet B (UVB) rays strike the skin. Vitamin D is important for the proper absorption of calcium from food. It is vital for the control of the levels of calcium in the blood and also controls the rate at which the body excretes calcium in the urine. Low levels of vitamin D and insufficient sunlight exposure are associated with osteoporosis. Maintaining sufficient vitamin D levels may help decrease the risk of several autoimmune diseases.

Vitamin E - Vitamin E is actually an umbrella term for a group of compounds called tocopherols and tocotrienols. Alpha-tocopherol is the name of the most active form of vitamin E in humans. Vitamin E is one of the many nutrients that have protective properties. The main function of vitamin E is to maintain the integrity of the body's intracellular membrane by protecting its physical stability and providing a defense line against tissue damage caused by oxidation. Vitamin E is an antioxidant that prevents free radical damage in biological membranes.

Vitamin K - Vitamin K is a group of 2-methilo-naphthoquinone derivatives. Vitamin K is involved in the carboxylation of certain glutamate residues in proteins to form gamma-carboxyglutamate residues. Vitamin K plays an important role in blood clotting and bone metabolism (carboxylation of osteocalcin). Vitamin K supplements may improve bone mass in postmenopausal women. itamin K is used to reduce risk of bleeding in liver disease, jaundice, malabsorption, or in association with long-term use of aspirin or antibiotics.