Be Sure To Get Your Calcium

Be Sure To Get Your Calcium

We’ve heard it from the days of childhood – calcium is good for the teeth and bones. While it is true that calcium is absolutely necessary to the health and strength of bones and teeth, this essential mineral also serves several other important purposes in the body. Yet, many people routinely fail to consume enough calcium in their daily diets.

In addition to the benefits to teeth and bones, calcium plays a role in helping the blood to clot when it needs to, helping the nerves and muscles to perform their tasks, and the maintenance of cell membranes. It is also important to the prevention of debilitating bone diseases, such as osteoporosis.

Despite the importance of consuming adequate amounts of calcium daily, some studies have found that as much as 75% of people in the United States do not have a sufficient daily intake of calcium. Those following strict vegetarian diets, especially vegan, must be particularly careful concerning calcium intake levels.

Fortunately, there are several varieties of calcium supplements on the market. Adults need between 1000 mgs and 1300 mgs of calcium per day, and should not supplement beyond 2500 mgs, as that can cause other health problems. Your health care professional can help you to choose the amount that you need daily, as preexisting conditions, such as bone loss or damage due to previous deficiencies, can make a difference in how much you should be taking daily.

Some types of calcium supplements are absorbed more easily by the body than others. However, some may be preferable for other reasons. The most common calcium supplements include calcium citrate, calcium carbonate, oyster shell or bone meal based calcium supplements, coral calcium, and calcium gluconate and calcium lactate based supplements.

In choosing your supplement, you should be aware of how to read the label to ensure that you are getting the amount of calcium that you think you are. Elemental calcium is the term used for the calcium that your body will be able to absorb. Some supplements have this and other types of calcium, but it is only the elemental calcium that can count towards your daily intake. Calcium is absorbed best in acidic circumstances, which is why many supplements are recommended for use after meals, when the stomach acids are at higher levels.

Current research has found that calcium citrate is the most efficient of the supplements, meaning that the body absorbs it easily. However, although it is absorbed easier and can be taken at any time of day, whether or not there is food in the stomach, this type often contains less of the elemental calcium, and thus more pills daily will be needed. Calcium carbonate is the most common over the counter calcium supplement and should be taken after meals, because of the increased stomach acid. These, however, should be watched for sodium content.

Calcium is essential for good health and supplements are an excellent way to ensure that you are not among the many people who regularly do not consume the amount of calcium needed daily. There are a variety of factors to be taken into account when choosing a calcium supplement. A little research and consultation with a nutritional specialist can help you to choose the best calcium supplement for your individual needs.

Make Sure That Your Body Is Able To Support The Healing Process

Make Sure That Your Body Is Able To Support The Healing Process

Vitamins, minerals and other nutrients, aside from keeping the internal processes of the body healthy, strong and functioning well, also serve to promote the healing of wounds, both on the external and inner surfaces of the body. The rate at which wounds heal and the quality of the repair tissues depends upon adequate nutrition. There are several vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that affect the healing process.

Vitamin K is essential to the very first step of healing a wound – stopping the bleeding, via the clotting of the blood. Without Vitamin K, healing would not proceed, as the blood would not clot. Vitamin K partners with the mineral calcium in the production of the body’s primary clotting agent, thrombin.

One of the most important vitamins involved in the healing of wounds is Vitamin C. It is particularly helpful in the growth and development of new tissues, in part because it also supports the health and function of the body’s many tiny capillaries that are responsible for taking oxygen and nutrients to the far reaches of the body.

Another aspect of its importance in the growth and development of new tissues, thus in wound healing, as well as the maintenance of existing tissues, has to do with its role in collagen production. Collagen is what makes the scar that holds a wound together and makes up the connective tissue of the body. Collagen supports the structure of the skin. Vitamin C is essential to the production of collagen, meaning that Vitamin C has a great part in literally holding the body together.

Zinc is another mineral important to wound healing. There are more than 300 enzymes in the body that require zinc to perform their tasks. Many of these enzymes relate directly to the healing of wounds, such as the production of collagen. Zinc plays a role in the body being able to make use of certain proteins and in cell division.

However, it should be noted, too much zinc can interfere with the healing of wounds. That is because the body operates on a chemical system that has a delicate balance, and too much zinc interferes with how the body uses copper and other substances, thus throwing off the balance that is necessary for the best wound healing.

Copper, a mineral, is also significant to the process of healing wounds. Copper has many roles in the body, including being a component of numerous enzymes. In terms of healing, one of its most important roles is in the formation of collagen, which is essential to the wound healing process.

The vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that we consume daily are what support all of the processes of the body and the mind. The healing of wounds is essential to the body, and proper nutrition is what allows the process of wound healing to operate at peak performance, meaning that wounds heal as well and as quickly as they should. Dietary supplements are an affordable, safe and convenient way to make sure that your body is able to support the healing process.

Vitamin E Has An Important Role

Vitamin E has long been known to have an important role in the all over health of the body. Some studies have associated sufficient intake levels with the prevention of many serious health problems, and research still continues to delve into the many effects of this important nutrient.

One thing that researchers do know for sure, according to recent studies published by the United States Department of Agriculture, most people do not consume the daily requirement of this important vitamin.

Vitamin E protects Vitamin A in the body, allowing it to perform its essential functions. Furthermore, Vitamin E is also one of the anti-oxidants that serve to protect the cells of the body from the damaging free radicals, which are waste products from the making of energy.

Uncontrolled free radicals are thought to contribute to a variety of serious diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and some cancers. Vitamin E is also thought to have a role in DNA repair and in the body’s natural immune system.

It is important to note here that vitamins, minerals and other nutrients play important roles in the body at the correct levels of intake, meaning that more is not always better. Mega-dosing is something that should always be discussed with a physician, not a salesperson.

Supplements can play a vital role in making sure that the body receives the nutrients it needs to be healthy and strong, as well as in the protection of the body from the numerous diseases and health problems associated with the failure to consume the proper daily intake levels of important vitamins and minerals. But, like any other medicine, using supplements inappropriately can be dangerous.

As many people pay attention to reducing fats in their diets, they may unwittingly be reducing their daily intake of Vitamin E, as Vitamin E is found in vegetable oils and nuts, as it is in dark, leafy green vegetables. Maintaining optimum levels of health means that we must be honest with ourselves.

We know that there are certain foods we should eat – such as fresh vegetables and fruits. But, often we do not, pressed by time or simple through a lack of desire, many of us simply do not consume near enough of these important foods. In these circumstances, supplements may be the best choice to ensure that the body gets what it needs to be strong and healthy.

There are many types of supplements on the market. Understanding what you are looking for will help you to make the best decision about which supplement is best for your individual dietary needs.

Vitamin E supplements primarily come in two general types, natural and pharmaceutical. The natural is usually listed on the label as alpha-tocopheryl acetate D-form, while the man-made type is listed as D,L. The man-made version is half as effective as the natural compound.

Dietary supplements are powerful agents, valuable tools in guarding the health of the body and can offer significant protection against illness and disease. These powerful tools should be used with care and attention. Supplementing the diet with Vitamin E can play an important role in your daily health routine, when used correctly, at the levels most suited to your individual dietary and health needs.

The Antioxidant Minerals

Because the antioxidant vitamins tend to get most of the press and publicity, many people are unaware that there are also important antioxidant minerals that are essential to the body’s continuous battle against free radicals and the damage they do. Making sure that the proper nutrients are consumed daily is a necessary part of helping the body to be able to keep free radical damage as low as possible.

A mineral, vitamin or other nutrient is deemed antioxidant if it, on its own or as an essential part of a group of substances, it serves to bring free radicals under control. Free radicals are unstable molecules that generally come from both environmental contaminants and some of the body’s natural processes. There are certain minerals that are an integral part of managing the free radical population within the body.

Selenium has come to be recognized as one of the most important of these minerals, though each does play an important role in free radical management. Selenium is an essential component of the antioxidant enzyme glutathione peroxidase, and this substance is one that is able to stabilize the free radical.

Since the universal acceptance of the mineral selenium, a trace element, as an essential nutrient during the 1950’s, researchers have been studying the ways that it affects health. In 1973, researchers confirmed the antioxidant properties of the mineral selenium, and since then, numerous studies have demonstrated that it may play a significant role in the prevention of certain types of cancers.

However, it should be noted that excessively high levels of selenium can cause serious health problems – as can deficiencies of selenium – and some studies have found excessively high levels of selenium to be associated with other types of cancer. The body is a delicate balance of a variety of chemicals and substances, and optimum performance requires thought and planning.

The minerals zinc and copper form part of another of the body’s important antioxidant enzymes. This enzyme, called superoxide dismutase, is present in the body in two forms. The first form is found almost everywhere in the body, and it needs zinc and copper to function.

The second form of this important antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase is found specifically in the mitochondria, which is the part of the cell responsible for changing the energy that comes from the various nutrients into a form that can be used by the cells. In this second form of the enzyme superoxide dismutase, it is the mineral zinc and the mineral manganese that are essential to the antioxidant enzyme’s ability to function properly.

Making sure that the body has all of the minerals, vitamins and other nutrients it needs each day is very important for both day-to-day and long-term health and well-being. Dietary supplements are a safe and effective means of seeing that the body does have all of the nutrients it needs for all of its systems to work at peak performance levels, especially those that maintain daily health and those that protect health over the long-term. However, nutritional supplements are powerful agents, and must be used within the established dosage guidelines to be beneficial to the health. Used in this fashion, dietary supplements can serve as a valuable part of any health routine.

The Antioxidant Vitamins

The Antioxidant Vitamins

The antioxidant vitamins perform many essential tasks within the body. In recent years, a great deal of research has been done concerning the abilities of the antioxidant vitamins to prevent certain diseases, ranging from cancer to heart ailments. Many studies have shown promising results, and researchers continue their efforts at determining all of the ways that these powerful antioxidant vitamins protect our health and well being.

One of the many important tasks that antioxidant vitamins perform is that of bringing free radicals under control. A free radical is an unstable molecule, operating within the much larger context of a cell. What makes it unstable is that it is lacking an electron. Electrons are a part of the system that enables chemical reactions within the body. Chemical and electrical actions and reactions are the base of all operations of the body.

The free radical lacks an electron because it is the result of the splitting of a structure weakened by either one of the body’s natural metabolizing processes or by some external contaminant, such as pollution or cigarette smoke. The free radical attacks other molecules, seeking its missing part, which leads to its molecule victim becoming a free radical as well. When enough free radicals accumulate with a cell, the cell can be damaged, or worse.

Antioxidant vitamins have the power to bring these free radicals under control. They do this by meeting the free radicals’ most basic needs, by giving them the electrons they need to be stable. Thus, the antioxidant vitamins remove the free radicals’ motive for aggression and crime -- their motive to attack other molecules to steal their electrons, thereby creating still more free radicals -- and bring an end to the free radical crime wave that threatened the very existence of their world and restore social order and peace to their world, the cell, and perhaps even to their universe, the body.

The primary antioxidant vitamins are Vitamin E, Vitamin C, and Vitamin A. They do not become free radical themselves when they give an electron to the unstable molecule, because they have the special capacity to remain stable with or without the electron. It is through this interaction with the free radicals that the antioxidant vitamins are able to assist in the prevention of damage to tissues and cells that could lead to disease.

Numerous studies have found that the antioxidant vitamins may offer protection against a variety of cancers. Other studies have associated antioxidant vitamins with helping to lower blood pressure. Controlling free radicals, as the antioxidant vitamins do, is thought to be an important part of defending the body and the mind against the effects of aging.

In addition to continuous studies concerning antioxidant vitamins potential in preventing cancers, heart disease, and diabetes related conditions, researchers are also paying close attention to the possibilities antioxidant vitamins may hold for Alzheimer's disease.

Dietary supplements offer a safe and convenient means of meeting the suggested daily intake requirements of these powerful antioxidant vitamins, provided that the standard dosage recommendations are followed.

The chemical balance that allows the body to operate at peak performance can be seriously disrupted by taking too much of any supplement. A licensed nutritionist or your health care provider can best advise you on the dosage most suitable to your individual dietary needs and health goals.