Hard Bodies Personal Training 15 William St New York, NY 10005 917-474-3334 Facts about Vitamins - Everybody knows that it's important to get enough vitamins. Unfortunately there is no exact science of the facts about vitamins for determining just how much of any given vitamin, mineral, or essential nutrient anybody needs at any given time.
Personal trainer NYC say your age, your genetics, the varying combinations of the foods you eat and the times you eat them all interact with disease conditions to determine how much of various nutrients you need. Your needs aren't exactly the same as anybody else"s. Your needs aren't even exactly the same each and every day. It's one of the basic facts about vitamins that a daily multivitamin is extremely important to ensure good health.
Personal trainers NYC lots of people have deficiencies of vitamins or minerals are relatively rare in healthy, young people. Slight deficiencies of certain ingredients, however, are fairly common. Vitamin B-12 is a common nutritional deficiency in people over 60 years of age. Calcium, chromium, folic acid (folate), magnesium, vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, and zinc are frequently deficient among people of all ages, (a little unknown facts about vitamins.)
Personal training NYC Just a little deficiency can create big problems in your health over the long run. Insufficient intake of vitamin D and calcium raise your risk of developing osteoporosis. Not getting enough folic acid and vitamin B6 increases your risk of heart disease.
Certain illnesses put a severe strain on the body's stores of vitamins. Antioxidant vitamins are depleted by diabetes. Ulcerative colitis, pancreatitis, and Crohn's disease can rob the body of vitamins D, E, and K.
NYC personal trainers One of the more somber facts about vitamins is that HIV depletes virtually every vitamin and mineral, as do smoking cigarettes and drinking excessive alcohol. And just because you don't have HIV doesn't mean you're safe. The much more common HPV, human papillomavirus, the cause of cervical cancer and genital warts, diverts vitamin A and beta-carotene from almost every tissue in the body.
(It's also worth noting, for
addition facts about vitamins, that taking that scientists at the University of
Washington have discovered that taking just a small, 5000 IU dose vitamin A
every day can make transmitting HPV to another person as much as 99% less
likely.)
NYC personal trainer
say if you're taking any kind of
prescription drug to stay healthy, you almost certainly need a nutritional
supplement. Statin drugs for lowering
cholesterol interfere with the production coenzyme Q10. The "water
pill" Lasix (furosemide) that's given to almost anyone who's ever had a
heart attack flushes away B vitamins, magnesium, and potassium. It's just one
of the fundamental facts about vitamins that hundreds of prescription drugs
interfere with the body's absorption, use, or storage of vitamins and deprive
the body of their benefits.
NYC personal training
said There is evidence that multivitamins
can help correct many specific conditions. The B vitamins enhance men's
fertility. Folic acid is important for expectant mothers. Multivitamins may
soothe the pain of arthritis, eliminate symptoms of premenstrual syndrome
(PMS), boost mental function, cut down on antisocial behavior in children, and
generally improve well being. Whether you're healthy or you're sick, chances
are you can benefit from a daily multivitamin.
Vitamin enthusiasts often promote
"megadose" therapies with common vitamins. A megadose is an intake of
a vitamin in an amount greatly above the amount the body needs for normal
function. Megadoses can be 5, 10, or even 20 or 30 times the recommended daily
allowance.
Sometimes a megadose of a
water-soluble vitamin just for a day or two actually helps prevent
disease, as is the case with taking up to 2,000 mg of vitamin C a day or two
can help keep you from catching cold. Sometimes a megadose of vitamins under
professional supervision can correct a chronic deficiency disease such as
pernicious anemia or certain conditions of the bone.
Most of us, however, only need
vitamins at the level of nutritional needs.
For generally healthy people, vitamins are a safe and effective "added
insurance" against developing chronic conditions.
Here are some important facts about
vitamins to keep in mind:
Your nutritional supplement
shouldn't contain more of a nutrient than your body can absorb. It's one of the incontrovertible facts about vitamins that
more isn't necessarily better. For instance, your digestive tract can't absorb
a day's worth of calcium from a single tablet. Two tablets a day with a smaller
dosage would be necessary.
Another of the key facts about
vitamins is that large doses of antioxidant vitamins, such as 10,000 mg
of vitamin C or 3,000 IU of vitamin E every day, can alter the way your body
responds to vitamins in general.
If you abruptly stop taking a
megadose of antioxidant vitamins, your body will act as if you were
nutritionally deficient. There is a famous case of a man from Sweden who drank
10 glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice every day for three months while he
was on vacation in Florida. When he got back to Sweden, he promptly developed
the vitamin C deficiency disease scurvy.
It is never a good idea to take
megadoses of antioxidant vitamins over a period of weeks or months unless you
are treating a specific health condition that requires them. And one
implication of the facts about vitamins is that it's also important not to
emphasize one antioxidant over another.
Now that you know that moderation can
be a good thing, what can you expect from taking a supplement?
It's not too much to expect your
supplement to:
- Assist your digestive function.
- Boost brain function.
- Give you added energy.
- Help with weight management and sugar control
- Increase your immune resistance, and
- Shift hormonal balances in ways that slow down the process of aging.
·
Should you take a multivitamin or a lot of
single vitamins?
·
The best way to get your "vitamin
insurance" is to take a multivitamin formula. Formulas balance individual
ingredients. Some additional facts about vitamins, is you won't be getting your
zinc without copper or your folic acid without vitamin B-6. There may be
advantages to taking certain nutrients at a higher dosage, but there can be
drawbacks, too. Taking a balanced formula takes the guesswork out of your
nutritional plan.
·
You aren't going to be able to get all that from
a single vitamin, mineral, herb, phytochemical, amino acid, or any other
specialty chemical. You need a balanced blend of about 70 nutrients. Don't run
to the health food store and buy one bottle of 70 supplements. Find the
single supplement that gives you all the nutrients you need in a convenient
daily dose.
·
But even if the label says the product contains
every nutrient you need, and even if the label is truthful, you need vitamins
made the right way. As a consultant to natural product manufacturers, this
contributing editor has seen just about every possible application and
misapplication of good manufacturing practices to the making of vitamin
capsules.
·
Here's what you need from your vitamin
maker:
·
Vitamin manufacturers who really know the facts
about vitamins know that blending vitamins isn't like blending cake mix. You
can't just stir the mixture from side to side. Your vitamins need to be made by
a process in which they are blended vertically as well as horizontally. If
your manufacturer can't tell you how they do this, you should try another
brand.
·
It is a basic fact about vitamins that it isn't
enough for a vitamin to get into your stomach. It has to make the trip all the
way to your bloodstream. Coating vitamins with a thin shell to keep them from
being broken down by the acid in the stomach allows them to last long enough to
reach your colon, where they can be absorbed. If your vitamins aren't
enteric-coated, you need to be very sure to take them with food (to dilute
the stomach acid they'll be exposed to), or you need to find another brand.
