You Need More Than Calcium To Overcome Osteoporosis
By Michael Sellar | July 29, 2008
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Fractures caused by thinning and brittle bones affects one in three women and one in twelve men. It is a leading cause of death.
At around the age of 35 bone mass peaks. From then on it declines, especially for females who have ten to fifteen percent less bone mass than men at skeletal maturity. There is an additional loss of bone mass for eight to ten years from a reduction in hormone levels at the menopause. Many choose to take Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), but this is not the answer. HRT increases the risk of blood clots, heart attacks, strokes and cancer.
Calcium Can Cause Problems
Calcium is known to be important. However osteoporosis is not a calcium deficiency disease. Taking a calcium supplement alone is not recommended. It won’t necessarily be absorbed into the bone. Instead it may remain in the blood and end up in the tissues causing its own health problems. While absorption is improved with vitamin D, it also has close relationships with other minerals.
Magnesium Is Also Important
Two-thirds of the magnesium in the body is found in the bones. It plays a vital role in the metabolism of calcium and bone. A deficiency of magnesium decreases the strength of bone, its volume and its development. It is positively associated with bone mineral density (BMD) as has been demonstrated in a number of population studies.
Strontium Can Stimulate Bone Formation
In the early part of the 20th century studies showed strontium to be effective in stimulating rapid formation of bone and that strontium and calcium were superior to calcium alone in mineralizing bone.
Boron Helps Bones To Heal
Boron is an important mineral for calcium retention. Dr Rex Newnham, a world authority on boron has stated that broken bones will heal in half the usual time with adequate supplies of this mineral.
Manganese Is Needed For Bone Growth
To mineralise bone, manganese is required. Women with osteoporosis were found to have blood manganese levels at only 25% of the level of those who didn’t have this condition. Deficiencies of manganese can give rise to abnormal growth of bone and cartilage as well as degeneration of the vertebral discs.
You Need Copper, Zinc & Silicon
Silicon is quite rigid and the body uses it at sites of calcification of the bones. If bones are to form normally they require zinc. Copper works in co-operation with zinc. Depletion of this mineral can lead to bone defects and a loss of calcium. Iron is also believed to play a role in the formation of bones.
Let’s Not Forget Those Important Vitamins
Vitamin D is required for calcium to be absorbed in the intestines. It also helps regulate bone turnover. Deficiencies are quite common in the elderly since its status declines with age.
Vitamin K is also important in the metabolism of bone. It is required for bone formation, remodelling and repair. Epidemiological studies have shown that those people who lack vitamin K in the diet or in the circulation have a lower BMD or an increase in fractures.
Vitamin C is needed to make collagen within the bone structure. It may also offer some skeletal protection against free radicals and oxidative stress. This is especially the case for cigaretter smokers. Smoking is associated with an increase in the risk of hip fracture.
Vitamin A has an important role to play in bone remodelling. Deficiencies of this vitamin have detrimental affects on bone health.
There is an increased requirement for folic acid at the menopause, studies suggest. This happens because the efficiency of converting homocysteine - a toxic byproduct of protein metabolism - to less toxic compounds becomes impaired. Other nutrients that protect against the damaging effects of homocysteine include vitamin B6 and B12, so these may be helpful too.
And Finally
In conclusion, bone health depends on a wide range of nutrients that goes well beyond just supplementing with calcium. This approach is likely to achieve more success than current orthodox treatments for osteoporosis.
Topics: Nutrition | No Comments »
Are You Endangering Your Health By Using Nutritional Supplements?
By Michael Sellar | July 29, 2008
Synergy is an important principle in the science of nutrition. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Nature provides us with food that contains a wide variety of different nutrients.
Nutritional supplements usually only contain a very small percentage of all the nutritional factors found in foods. Taking a supplement of this kind is not synergy and it’s not a food supplement. This is drug nutrition.
Something like a third of all drugs are derived from plants. The scientist extracts the most potent element from the plant, synthesises it, and turn it into a drug. The herbalist on the other hand uses the whole of the plant because it is much safer and contains synergistic factors.
In the same way, to make a nutritional supplement, the chemist will take out the most active element in the nutrient complex. This is what is used to make the supplement. This is now not a food supplement but a weak drug.
Is Ascorbic Acid Vitamin C?
Does the vitamin label on your supplement state that vitamin C is provided as ascorbic acid only? This isn’t vitamin C. This is only a fraction, albeit the most potent fraction, of the vitamin C complex. To get the latter requires the flavonols, flavones and flavonones that are found in bioflavonoids and fruit extracts.
Is Alpha Tocopherol Vitamin E?
Supplements usually only contain vitamin E as alpha tocopherol. But this isn’t vitamin E. It is only one fraction of the vitamin E complex. What happened to beta, gamma and delta tocopherols? What happened to the tocotrienols? Taking such an unbalanced fraction of a nutrient can have potentially negative effects on the body.
Beta Carotene & Vitamin A
Many supplements provide pro vitamin A in the form of beta carotene. While this does convert into vitamin A, it is only one fraction of the carotenoid complex which comprises 600 or more other pigments.
One of the great early pioneers of nutritional healing was Royal Lee. In 1940 he pointed out that synthetic, chemically purified vitamins are not vitamins in the true meaning of the word. They are simply fragments of vitamins. Whole foods provided by nature contain these vitamin complexes. Supplements need to be derived from whole foods.
So look at your supplement label. Are you supplementing with foods or are you swallowing a drug?
Topics: Nutrition | No Comments »
The Truth Concerning Tricor Medicine
By Chris Campell | July 29, 2008
Tricor medicine is used to control people’s cholesterol levels. It should be used with an individual diet.
What is Tricor?
Tricor is prescribed to patients who have high cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the bloodstream. When your doctor prescribes Tricor medication to you, he will in addition recommend you on a individual diet.
Tricor is identified as a lipid lowering drug. It will diminish the triglyceride levels by eliminating more triglycerides out of the blood stream.
Who Should Not Make Use of Tricor Medication?
Not each person can take tricor prescription, if any of the following points are true then you most likely shouldn’t take tricor medication:
1. you are allergic to tricor medicine
2. you are breastfeeding
3. you are pregnant
4. you are suffering from gallbladder problems
5. you are suffering from liver problems for example cirrhosis
6. you are suffering from kidney problems
How to Apply Tricor?
You should use tricor precisely how your doctor told you to apply it. You should examine the label so you know what you need to do. If you don’t understand the instructions then you must ask your pharmacist or doctor.
To get the most from the treatment you should take it at meal times. You should not take tricor together with cholestramine, you should wait as a minimum an hour previous to taking tricor.
You should try not to let pass any doses of the medication, if you do forget then take it the moment you remember. If it’s just about the time for your next dose then you should omit it and then remain as normal. Never take two doses together as this could be hazardous.
Important Information about Tricor
Some people have dizziness and lightheadedness due to Tricor. You should not drive or do any actions that need your total attention until you know how tricor medication affects you. Aim to stay away from alcohol when taking the treatment as this can make the signs much poorer.
Tricor should not be used with children if not your doctor gives it to you. There have been no studies into the safety and effectiveness of using with children.
Your physician may want to perform several different blood tests and lab tests as you are using tricor medication. You should attend all of these appointments as they are vital to assess your development and as well check for any side effects.
Topics: Lose Weight | No Comments »
Breakthrough Weight Loss Method?
By Brock Elliott | July 29, 2008
Whilst every new method of losing weight gets a great deal of publicity, it seems that the excitement surrounding the Hoodia plant may be completely justified; for many people this plant has great potential. Of course it was only a matter of time until the diet industry added Hoodia weight loss products to their range; in a short space of time the use of this plant has grown immensely. However, the origins of this plant are still a mystery to most people, even to many who use it.
Hoodia Gordonii is a particular variety of plant which suppresses the appetite. It is only this type of Hoodia cactus that appears to possess this quality, despite there being twelve other varieties of the plant that can be found in the remote regions of South Africa. To date, nothing medical science has created or investigated has come anywhere near as close to this plant and as a consequence there is a great demand for products containing it as an ingredient.
Before being released for general use it was tested on people just to see how effective it was and whether there would be any side-effects. One particular experiment included a team of people from the BBC who were only given a single Hoodia leaf to eat. The entire team wanted nothing else to eat or drink for the rest of the day.
The best part about using Hoodia weight loss products is there is little or no chance of any side effect and so far none have been found. On the other hand, regular weight loss products have been shown to cause irregular heartbeats and digestive conditions. The great advantage of this plant is that not only does it suppress appetite and food craving, but it also gives you the right amount of energy necessary to continue daily tasks without feeling tired.
Anyone using it should still eat healthily during the day and also maintain their fluid levels. Hoodia weight loss pills or extracts are just a way of reducing the amount of food you usually eat; this will not benefit a person however, if they eat so little they make themselves ill. If you experience problems controlling your hunger then using Hoodia weight loss pills are probably the only way to help your problem.
Be prepared to pay a premium for any weight loss products that use real extracts as the production costs involved are high. With a simple search performed on the Internet you will find dozens of Hoodia weight loss treatments that come in a variety of promotional offers. Be aware that many of them are forged, containing little or no real extract at all. For something as good as Hoodia, it is worth paying extra as it is the best natural form of suppressing the appetite known to man and should not be confused with cheap imitations.
Topics: Lose Weight | No Comments »
Starting A Diabetes Diet Plan
By Max Peykar | July 29, 2008
Diabetes can cripple you for life if you let it, but one way of taking control and not letting it do that is by following a diabetes diet plan. This is not really an option - unless you do so, your health will worsen and every facet of your life will be affected by diabetes. So what you should do is, consult a nutritionist who will design a healthy eating plan for you, which has enough variation to satiate your taste buds, while ensuring that your nutritional needs are met at the same time.
A healthy diet plan for diabetics has very strict composition - it must have 50% starch, 20% fat and 30% protein. Since the composition should be so exact, diabetic food must be prepared very precisely, with a great deal of attention given to exact measurements.
You really have to be dedicated to following your diabetic eating plan. Fatty and high calorie foods like fried foods and snacks between meals must all be strictly avoided. You also have to be careful not to miss any meals - this can mess up your metabolism. Eating out can be a problem, but you have to be careful.
Fruits and vegetables are ideal for your diabetes diet plan, but you have to ensure that they are fresh. Frozen foods have preservatives that include sugary and fatty chemicals. You will need dairy intake, but you have to stick to skimmed milk - whole milk products and confectionery items, as well as sweet desserts, are things you will have to learn to do without.
There are plenty of other things you will have to try your very best to avoid - alcohol tops the list. Other high-fat foods like red meat, potato chips, eggs, mayonnaise etc must also be avoided, if you can, as should bottled fruit juice, cooking sauces and carbonated drinks. When you are on a strict diabetic eating plan, the daily calorie intake you must aim at is 1800 calories. So you have to make sure that your daily diet is carefully planned well in advance.
Let us look at what one day on a diabetic eating plan can be like - breakfast can be quite filling and nutritious, if you have half a cup of oatmeal, about two thirds of a cup of apple juice, a slice of bread (but make sure it is wholemeal bread), a cup of skimmed milk, as long as it’s not sweetened, and a soft-cooked egg. For lunch, you could have half a cup of tuna, two slices of wholemeal bread, half a cup of diced tomatoes, a teaspoon of margarine for the bread, a cup of mixed fruit for a healthy dessert and a glass of lemon tea to wash it all down with. Dinner, again, can be tasty and filling, with a slice of wholemeal bread, half a cup of mashed potatoes, either a tossed salad or a cup of broccoli and three ounces of baked chicken. You have to be careful about salad dressing, though - don’t pick one off the shelf, make a low-fat, no-sugar one with olive oil and seasoning.
As you can see, preparing a nutritious and energy-generating diet needs good knowledge about basic nutrients required to keep your body healthy and a good understanding of how your metabolic system works. You can easily get your doctor to help with creating an easy-to-follow, enjoyable and wholesome diabetes diet plan.
Topics: Nutrition | No Comments »
