What is the difference? It’s all in the name. A medication is designed t treat, cure or control a disease, a dietary supplement is a supplement to our diet. A dietary supplement provides vitamins, minerals and other food ingredients that we do not get naturally in our diet due to our choice of what we eat or what we want to eat.
It therefore seems a good idea, not to ingest dietary supplements that we would not find in a “normal” diet. No easy task. Who decides what a normal diet is? A good starting point is, believe it or not, a Government web site. The sites all end in “.gov”. Most also have toll free numbers, if you can get through the automatic phone menu. They are very helpful and give excellent input on dietary supplements. Try the following: The Administration on Aging, the Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, the National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the Office on Women’s Health, and the Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Information Center.
Adjusting your diet is an option, but some of us just do not want to eat the foods that provide the benefit. We cut down on red meat, it must have some benefit, we exclude certain types of fish from the menu, we hope, for their benefit, we do not want the calories that come with the benefit or we don’t like vegetables and see no need to suffer when we have an alternative.
Unfortunately advice on how much or a supplement to take is another matter. One study suggests more another less, for some supplements ingesting more just means that more is excreted. Reading the label may be the best advice, but make sure the supplement is made by a reputable supplier. Visiting the websites of more than one reputable manufacturer may also be helpful and you can always ask your doctor.
That Omega 3 fatty acids are an important ingredient in the food we eat seems to be well confirmed. Studies supporting the benefits of Omega 3 fatty acids appear at the rate of several each month. Two of the latest studies seem to indicate that Omega 3 fatty acids may prevent age related sight loss and may protect diabetics from heart failure. If we do not want to eat the foods that contain Omega 3fatty acids, for whatever reason, a supplement may be a good idea.
A summary: Fiber, make sure you get enough. A multivitamin may make up for a modern diet. Omega 3 fish oil seems like a good idea for those of us that do not eat fish in a great enough quantity. To those basics we can add calcium, for women, and vitamin D in the winter for those of us in the sun-starved regions. If constipated or lactose intolerant, return your system to balance, increase fiber intake or repopulate the gut with the necessary bacteria to break down lactose before it reaches the colon.
John Oram
www.OurFavoriteHealthProducts.com
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
The sun goes down; you may need a vitamin D supplement.
The precursor to make vitamin D is produced by the action of the sun on our skin. Staying out of the sun, therefore, reduces our production of vitamin D. That much we know. Should we sit in the sun for a period each day or to listen to our inner voice that says “stay out of the sun?” We can do both, exposing only those parts that are well accustomed to the sun’s rays, legs and arms, for example. If we do not get enough sun we can review our diet to ensure a good intake of D or take a supplement.
The young have great need of vitamin D and calcium, hence vitamin D fortified milk. Vitamin D deficiency, often combined with a poor diet, can result in Rickets, a softening of children’s bones. Whilst most notable in the young, the effect can also be seen in adults, in which case it is classified as Osteomalacia. Older women are often counseled to take vitamin D and calcium to help protect against osteoporosis.
Vitamin D’s other benefits include the reduction of inflammation. Inflammation is a good thing, apparently, in the healing process, but a damping down of inflammation can also be a benefit, a calming of our body’s overzealous efforts that can result in joint and other pain. We are also told, in technical language, difficult to understand, that the calming effect and benefit of vitamin D is seen at the cell level. We need it, let’s make sure we get enough.
The US Government, in the form of the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements, has much to say on the subject. If you would like to take a look, here is the link.
Classified vitamins are generally good, that’s the reason they have the classification. We need them. Normally, we get most of, if not all, our needs from our diet, not forgetting the sun, unless we have an aversion to certain types of food or load up on only certain dietary choices. However, unlike other vitamins, vitamin D is not found naturally in most foods. Fish, high in fatty acids, such as salmon, sardines and tuna, have a high level of D. Much vitamin D that we find in food has been added, such as in milk.
An area of concern is that of the correct dosage. Studies are constantly being completed with new ideal daily requirements suggested. In the case of vitamin D the suggested daily requirement seems to be increasing. The daily requirement also increases with age, with suggested daily requirements doubling and tripling as we advance into our latter years.
So, be aware of the need for vitamin D, but use your judgment, not too little and not too much, but more as you age.
John Oram
John@OurFavoriteHealthProducts.com
The young have great need of vitamin D and calcium, hence vitamin D fortified milk. Vitamin D deficiency, often combined with a poor diet, can result in Rickets, a softening of children’s bones. Whilst most notable in the young, the effect can also be seen in adults, in which case it is classified as Osteomalacia. Older women are often counseled to take vitamin D and calcium to help protect against osteoporosis.
Vitamin D’s other benefits include the reduction of inflammation. Inflammation is a good thing, apparently, in the healing process, but a damping down of inflammation can also be a benefit, a calming of our body’s overzealous efforts that can result in joint and other pain. We are also told, in technical language, difficult to understand, that the calming effect and benefit of vitamin D is seen at the cell level. We need it, let’s make sure we get enough.
The US Government, in the form of the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements, has much to say on the subject. If you would like to take a look, here is the link.
Classified vitamins are generally good, that’s the reason they have the classification. We need them. Normally, we get most of, if not all, our needs from our diet, not forgetting the sun, unless we have an aversion to certain types of food or load up on only certain dietary choices. However, unlike other vitamins, vitamin D is not found naturally in most foods. Fish, high in fatty acids, such as salmon, sardines and tuna, have a high level of D. Much vitamin D that we find in food has been added, such as in milk.
An area of concern is that of the correct dosage. Studies are constantly being completed with new ideal daily requirements suggested. In the case of vitamin D the suggested daily requirement seems to be increasing. The daily requirement also increases with age, with suggested daily requirements doubling and tripling as we advance into our latter years.
So, be aware of the need for vitamin D, but use your judgment, not too little and not too much, but more as you age.
John Oram
John@OurFavoriteHealthProducts.com
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