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Why I Take Vitamin and Mineral Supplements

Aside from vitamins D and K, we humans can’t make any of the vitamins we need to stay healthy. - CarlZimmer , "Vitamins’ ld, ld !d e", #he $ew %ork #imes, Decem&er ', ()*+

otta tell you, ri ht at the to of my list would &e takin vitamins. know that over the years doctorshave said they re ridiculous and all that. /ut started takin my vitamins at an early a e. And take themevery day. !very &loody day0 1o think that s num&er one. 2or whatever reason, feel active and retty

ood at my a e.3e is 4hil&in , American media ersonality 5&. *'+*--that makes him a e 6( 7

3e is was active and full of life, even at a e 6) when he finished his last "8 V!0" show on television.9e holds the :uinness /ook of 3ecords title for ";ost 9ours on Camera."

I hadn't planned on becoming a single parent. Nobody does. More importantly,with two kids under age ten to support and care for by myself, I wasn't ready. I

wasn't prepared. How could I feed three people when I had little idea how toprepare meals? I could hardly make toast and prepare canned soup.

Local supermarkets were helpful as they pro ided suggestions for combinations offoods I could assemble to make something resembling a meal. !ut how could I becertain I was pro iding my kids with full and balanced nutrition as I knew thatgrowing children needed?

My solution was to find out what itamin and mineral supplements would ensurethat they and I had minimums of what we needed. "hat's how it began. If I atleast pro ided foods my kids would eat and that was healthy, I didn't need toworry about balancing nutrition if they got the nutrients they needed. #hich wasgood because my reading was suggesting this could be difficult as research at thetime conflicted about what was right, good and balanced. $nd I didn't ha e muchtime to spare as a classroom teacher with %& needy kids to manage.

ne part has not changed. (esearch results still show great conflicts. Now I knowto find out not )ust who conducted the research, but who paid for it. It made sensethen and has pro en so many times since that researchers tend to find resultsfa ourable to the companies that pro ided funding for the research. (esearchers,now and then, always wanted more funding for more research when their current

pro)ect ended. *ollow the money and you often find yourself where you hoped notto be.

+tudies funded by manufacturers of sugar or companies that make products thatdepend largely on sugar tend to conclude that sugar is not so bad for you. "heystress the benefits of other nutrients. Large suppliers of fresh produce stress intheir ad ertising that fresh is good, without noting that their products are often

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co ered in pesticides, fertili ers and other growth stimulants that come straightfrom a chemical factory.

Monsanto, -ow, !$+* and their like stress that the chemicals they make to putonto and into food products anish shortly thereafter. "hey often forget to note

research pro)ects that ha e shown their products to be dangerous to human healthand the en ironment.

$s for M s / enetically Modified rganisms, also known as 0s, enetically0ngineered products, a term more popular in 0urope1, none of the chemicalcompanies, none of the factory farms and none of the food suppliers point out thatsome && countries around the world ha e banned such products, deeming themrisky to human health. $nd threatening to foods grown organically nearby throughwind blows and other methods by which modified seeds are spread.

$ll of the abo e companies spend fortunes to see that laws forcing them toannounce these additions to natural foods on labels ne er get passed. #hy don'tthey want us to know? !ecause they ha e something they want to hide, somethingthey don't want you to find out about, of course.

2ackaged foods, whether in cans, bottles or other wrappings, tend to ha epreser ati e chemicals added to ensure they don't spoil on food market shel es."he trouble is that they don't 3spoil3 or break down in the human gut either, whichis what we all desperately want to happen for digestion to work. *ood that remainsundigested in the gut or blood essels is )ust plain dangerous.

+ometimes it's impossible to a oid products with ingredients we don't want,especially if the manufacturers ha e made sure the laws don't force them to putinformation important to consumers on their labels.

#hat's more, medical and health research /the dependable and honest ariety1ha e shown in recent decades that our bodies need nutrients beyond what theywould likely get from foods from the a erage food market. #hy? If our ancestorsdidn't need these e4tra nutrients, why should we? !ecause most of us want to li emany years longer than our ancestors did. $nd the diet of the a erage person isnot prepared to accommodate or pro ide for those e4tra years.

$nd, sad to say, many of the foods we buy in stores is pre5treated before we get itthat it has already lost most of its nutriti e alue. Milk that is pasteuri ed and nowheated to high temperatures to help it last for weeks without spoiling is nothinglike the milk your grandma ser ed to her kids.

#e all know about how cancer /breast, prostate and colorectal get the most

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publicity1 is far more common now than e er before. -iabetes and obesity, almostrare in past decades, are so common now that doctors call them pandemics. #hyare so many diseases more common now than years ago? #hat we eat55our diet55has changed dramatically. ur diet conforms more to what manufacturers want tosell us than what is best for our bodies to sur i e and thri e for eight or nine

decades. $d ertising makes sure we belie e what we buy is good for us.

+o how do we get the nutrients if we know what our bodies need? ften the onlyway to get some of them is through what we now call supplements. !y the way,only a few decades ago people were told that we would all be eating pills or li6uidmeals in the 78st 9entury. Nobody was shocked by that news then, but many arealarmed by people taking pills and li6uids that are not prescribed by a doctor now.#hy? !ig corporations don't make much money when we buy supplements insteadof their drug products prescribed by their doctors.

:ou can see how my thinking on the sub)ect of itamin and mineral supplements/and now tablet supplements of other edible plant products1 has e ol ed o er theyears. I ha e left what is perhaps the most important point to the last.

#hy do we get old? #hat happens inside of us that makes us more ulnerable todisease, bone breakage and so on as we pass the formerly enforced age ofretirement, ;&? #hy are we weaker and more ulnerable to attack by bacteria and

iruses? #hile the answers may seem mysterious to those who ha e not kept upwith research, they are becoming public, albeit slowly.

ur -N$ is made up of chromosomes, each of which has many genes. 0ach cell of

our body has these genes. $s each cell dies off /most from daily to once a month1,they are replaced by newly minted genes that carry the same genetic information.$lmost. er time, many decades for most of us, the tail ends of some of thechromosomes fail to be reproduced when new cells are formed in our bodies.

"he tail ends of the chromosomes are called telomeres. "hese telomeres /theykeep chromosomes from getting tangled up with each other1 can get lost o ercountless reproductions. #hen that happens, parts of genes can be lost as well.#ith some genes and chromosomes not complete, our bodies are not as capableof defending themsel es as they were when we were younger. "hat makes ourbody ulnerable to all sorts of things, including aging.

$n en yme called telomerase can add telomeres to the ends of chromosomeswhen they di ide /reproduce1. ur -N$, the stuff of life, can actually be impro edby ha ing telomerase add telomeres to our chromosomes o er time. kay, enoughchemistry and biology.

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#e can actually impro e our own -N$ and pre ent oursel es from aging too6uickly /and dying too soon1 if we know how to ha e our bodies create thetelomerase that will fi4 up our -N$ chromosomes. !ut how?

It's all in what we eat. <ust as inade6uate nutrition will cause our chromosomes to

get shorter faster and younger, good nutrition can help us to boost our -N$ tohelp us li e longer and stronger and more acti e li es as we get older.

#hat foods or supplements can do that for you? Now that's when it gets hard toanswer. *irst of all, the threat of litigation pre ents me from pro iding easyanswers. More importantly, each person is different and re6uires a differentcombination of nutrients. "here is no one5si e5fits5all.

-id it seem to you as if I )ust hit you and ran away there? I didn't mean to. "heanswers are not simple or easy to find. #hat works for me will not necessarilywork for you. :ou will need to find your own answers, what works for you.

*ortunately, the internet has loads of resources that will help you if you want todig in and do the research yourself. <ust don't e4pect to find the solution in asingle pill. "here is no magic in ol ed. "his science is in its early stages, so nodefiniti e answers are possible. !ut you can read to learn more.

$t the end of this article are some resources to get you started with your readingabout supplements.

*inally, a few notes about supplements=

/81 $lmost all supplements contain fillers to gi e them si e and colour. #hilemaking the tablets or capsules larger, thus seemingly more impressi e /worthmore1 to the customer, they add nothing of benefit. +ome claim the fillers could beharmful, though any decent researcher could find that e en water can be harmful./71 $ small number of studies ha e found that supplements are a waste of money,that they do nothing. 9areful scrutiny of each study re eals that in e ery case theconditions or amounts of each supplement were arranged so that the results wereine itable. 04ample, if four of a tablet are necessary to accomplish some healthbenefit and only one tablet is gi en to test sub)ects, the results will ine itablyshow the supplement is ineffecti e, it doesn't work./%1 pponents of supplements, who often share a warm and friendly relationshipwith pharmaceutical companies, claim that all the necessary itamins and mineralswe need to be healthy are a ailable in food. "hat is true. If a person eats the dietrecommended by health authorities. !ut nobody does. In fact, 3the typical$merican diet3 that students of the sub)ect read so much about is downrightunhealthy. +upplements ensure that you don't miss anything you need, includingtrace minerals that are not in e ery egetable and without which you could be

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unhealthy or die. +upplements lower your risk of dying younger and li ing a sadand dependent life in the final decades of your life./>1 +upplements can do you harm of taken indiscriminately or to e4cess. $s withanything else you put into your mouth, moderation is the key. Moderation, notelimination.

/&1 egetarians and egans may suffer problems with heart disease and with otherbody organs if they sustain a chronic shortage of itamin !87 in their diet. "he riskof these problems anishes when they take !87 supplements./;1 +ome itamin manufacturers will suggest doses far higher than you need/usually because they belie e their itamin is water soluble, thus you can'to erdose1. (emember, it's a supplement, not a main course./@1 Most itamin and mineral containers will recommend that you ask your doctorbefore beginning a new series of supplements. "his is wise in case they mightconflict with something you are already taking or with something in your system.If your doctor says you should not take any itamin supplements, you may want toconsider finding another doctor who is more interested in your health than in hisor her income.

"his short ideo is about e4tending life=

http=AAnutritionfacts.orgA ideoAmethionine5restriction5as5a5life5e4tension5strategyA?utmBsourceCrssDutmBmediumCrssDutmBcampaignCmethionine5restriction5as5a5life5e4tension5strategyDutmBsourceCNutrition*acts.orgDutmBcampaignC>;&;d7E8;E5(++B I-0 B-$IL:DutmBmediumCemailDutmBtermCFB>FfGe>G@d85>;&;d7E8;E5

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or use this shorter ersion of the (L= http=AAtinyurl.comAlfb>w7

$ doctor speciali ing in nutrition deli ers the goodshttp=AAdrhyman.comAblogA7F8%A88A8EAsetting5record5straight5supplementsA close

:ou can e en heal tooth ca ities or pre ent them with proper nutritionhttp=AAwww.healthy5holistic5li ing.comAhow5to5heal5ca ities5naturally.html

itamins and minerals to prepare the body to protect against Multiple+clerosis, $l heimer's and many other diseases.http=AAwww.healthy5holistic5li ing.comAterry5wahls.html

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Human nutrition, the gut microbiome, and immune system= en isioning the futurehttp=AAwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.go ApmcAarticlesA2M9%7GEFE7A/"his summari es the relationship between dietAgut bacteria and health.1

*inally science writer 9arl Jimmer with a bit of history of humans and itaminshttp=AAwww.nytimes.comA7F8%A87A8FAscienceA itamins5old5old5edge.html?BrCF

!ill $llin is the author of Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today'sEpidemic Social Problems as well as hundreds of articles, all a ailable on theinternet.Learn more at http=AAbillallin.com