Recommendations for How Much Vitamin C

There is a lot of controversy out there over the right amount of Vitamin C. If you're eating 8-10 servings of fruits and vegetables each day, then you can supplement with 500-1000mg and be getting a fairly good amount of Vitamin C.

If you're not eating the 8-10 servings every day, which most of the American public does not do, then you will need to supplement with more. Most sources agree that around 2000mg/day is about the right amount.

Vitamin C is water soluble and is not stored in the body, so it will go out in the urine if the body is unable to use it at that time. A word of caution here. Don't take all 2000mg at once. The body uses Vitamin C as it goes along. So if you take the entire dose at once, it cannot store it and it will go out in the urine. This is why some physicians refer to some vitamins as making the urine rich in vitamins. You need to split the doses in to at least 2 per day and you may want to consider 3-4/day.

Vitamin C Sources

Most of us are aware of the fact that most juices out there contain "added" vitamin C. But there are food sources that contain natural vitamin C. Some of the vegetables that contain high amounts of Vitamin C are green peppers, broccoli, dark leafy greens, and sweet and white potatoes. Fruit sources of Vitamin C include tomatoes, citrus fruits, cantaloupes, and strawberries.

Other sources of Vitamin C in the vegetable world are winter squash, red peppers, cabbage, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts.

Other sources of Vitamin C in the fruit world include blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, papaya, mango, watermelon, and pineapple.

Vitamin C

Since I was talking about Vitamin C yesterday, I thought I would add a few thoughts about Vitamin C. First, let's talk about some of the benefits of Vitamin C.

As I mentioned yesterday, surgeons often order vitamin C after a surgery to help with healing. One of its benefits. Many people take vitamin C to help their immune system be stronger to fight off colds, viruses and infections.

One of the things you may not know about Vitamin C is that it helps in the absorption of iron. In addition it helps maintain the connective tissue. Connective tissue is essential to help protect the body and to help heal the body through the immune system. Cartilage and bone are specialized forms of connective tissue, so you can see that vitamin C is essential here.

Vitamins

Did you see the news a few weeks ago that reported vitamins as being not beneficial in heart disease? I caught this on our local evening news report by a not so prominent physician. While he did not report the details of the study, he was quick to report that the study demonstrated that vitamins made no difference in the incidence of heart disease.

Some research of my own revealed that the study, most likely used synthetic vitamin E and it was only given every other day. We already know the flaw in this one. The vitamin C dose was 500mg every day which is at least something, it is not enough to make a difference. The interesting thing here is that surgeons who order vitamin C after a surgery to help with healing usually order 500mg twice daily. So the set up in this study was that the dose were inadequate to begin with. A study that was bound to show that vitamins did not make a difference.

The news made this sound like all vitamins were not helpful and played that aspect up.

My suggestion, if you hear something like this on the news, check it out. Some of the research out there, while it gets reported and press, there are often flaws in it.

Diet Tip

I'm not a big advocate of diets, but if you are trying to follow a diet during the holidays, here is something that may help you.

We both know that you're probably going to eat things that aren't on your diet. It's OK, go ahead and eat them. You know they aren't on your diet and that's OK. Don't let it overcome you with the thought that you have failed. Let it be OK. In fact, I suggest that you take at least 1 day out of 7 and eat whatever you want. You'll find by giving yourself this permission, it will be easier to follow the diet for the other 6 days during the week.

Fruits and Vegetables

Remember that the best fruits and vegetables are those that are labeled organic. Those labeled with natural may have been sprayed or synthetic fertilizers used.

Organic fruits and vegetables can only be labeled organic if the farm from which they come has been inspected and meets the criteria for organic growers.

Building the Immune System

Following on yesterday's tip, there are other things you can do to help protet yourself from cold and flus. Make sure that you are taking a good multiple vitamin. Well how do you know that you are getting a good multiple vitamin?

Great question. The cheapest brand at the store or discount store is likely not going to be your best choice. I know for years as a practitioner I recommended a certain brand only because it was the only one I knew. The problem was that that particular brand was not good because it more often than not did not even breakdown in the gut, so there was no benefit from it.

I have done a great deal of research now into various brands and if you would like more information, respond to this post and I will provide some for you.

More importantly, be sure to eat foods - organic if possible - that have high levels of vitamins (antioxidants). Fruits and vegetables are the best food sources.

Build Your Immune System to Stay Healthy

Most of us would really not like to be sick during this holiday season, but how do we prevent it. The best way is to build your immune system up, because it is your line of defense against illness.

The easiest and best thing you can do for yourself to prevent getting sick with a cold or flu is to wash your hands. Hands spread cold and flu very quickly. If you area grandparent and you wonder why every time you get around your grandchildren you get sick think about it. You love these little ones and they love you, so they touch you on the face and bingo, you get the virus. The little one is likely not very sick, but you can get a nasty cold or flu. I'm not saying to not love your grandchildren, but teach them to wash their hands as well as you washing yours. Make a game of it for them and it will help protect you.

Slow Down and Enjoy You Food

For the holiday, slow down your eating. In other words take more time to eat and really enjoy what you're eating. By eating slowly, you are likely to eat less. This also gives your brain time to turn off the "hunger" button and you are less likely to feel too full or like you've eaten too much.

If you have a fast eater, you are likely to consume more food because your brain doesn't tell you you're full until after you've eaten way too much. So just take it easy and really enjoy what you are eating.

The side benefit here is that you get to eat some of those favorite foods and you may actually consume less and not gain weight through the holiday!

Some last thoughts on Yogurt

Just a couple of last thoughts on yogurt. I know I mentioned that you should buy active live culture yogurt. Be sure to read the label to see that it is "Live and Active Cultures."

If you are concerned about calories, the buy plain non-fat yogurt. You can add your own fresh fruit for flavor. This will give you better nutrition than buying the already flavored yogurts.

More On Yogurt

There are some other things that yogurt is believed to help. Again, be sure you are eating active live culture yogurt. There are a couple of studies that indicate that eating yogurt daily may decrease allergies, especially in children.

Specifically, there were fewer episodes of allergic rhinitis (hay fever). In a study of pregnant women, who ate the live culture late in the pregnancy, they had babies who were less prone to allergies.

There is controversy in the arena of cancer. Studies have indicated that live active culture yogurt may actually decrease bladder cancer risk and colon cancer risk. But there is evidence that it may increase prostate and kidney cancer.

Yogurt - should you eat it?

Yogurt has some wonderful properties which can be helpful to you. The first thing to look for when buying yogurt is to get yogurt that contains active live cultures. This means that it actually contains the type of bacteria normally found in the intestine.

These live bacteria can help in regulating the function of the bowel. Hence, if you have a problem with constipation, it can help the gut motility to move things through. On the other hand, if you have diarrhea, often times the normal bacteria in the gut has been killed off or is gone. One of the biggest causes of this is antibiotic treatment. So eating active live culture yogurt can restore the normal bacteria in the gut and stop the diarrhea. It's not a bad idea to eat yogurt if you are on antibiotics to help the gut.

Question on Reducing Inflammation

Thank you Laurie for your question about reducing inflammation and what to use. The very best thing to reduce inflammation is Omega 3 and you can find more about this from my previous blog entry in October.

I also mentioned a couple of other herbs that are helpful in reducing inflammation. These are not as commonly found in supplement form, but you can certainly incorporate them into your daily diet. One is ginger and the other one is curry

In early October I mentioned a product that I have been using for almost a year called MMS. You can learn more about this product at my site, or you can email me for more information.

Nutritional Supplements with Red Yeast Rice

You may still see supplements out there with Red Yeast Rice, however they are not the same as they were before 1999. These supplements do contain Red Yeast Rice, but the rice has been fermented and the processing is different. The difference is that the active component has been removed. This is what is believed at this point.

That means that the red yeast rice loses its potency to lower cholesterol. Remember that while statins lower cholesterol, they also have an affect on inflammation. Inflammation being the bigger issue, may not be affected by the new supplements unless they have something in them that help inflammation.

Bottom line is if you are using a supplement with red yeast rice, check to see what how the product is being processed and whether the active ingredients have been removed. If they have, then think about going after inflammation instead.

Red Yeast Rice and Cholesterol

I've had some questions about red yeast rice and cholesterol. Some of you may be aware of the controversy regarding red yeast rice and lovastatin in 1999-2000. This is when the FDA said that red yeast rice contained lovastatin (a prescription drug to reduce cholesterol). Any supplement company that had products containing red yeast rice were told they had to take them off the market because the FDA had to regulate them because they contained a pharmaceutical drug.

My take on this is that Big Pharma did not want the nutritional supplement industry to cut their profits by providing a nutritional supplement that would compete with their choleterol lowering drugs.

Beyond that fact, is the fact that cholesterol is really not the issue. The issue is inflammation. See my post on November 20, 08.

Determining Type II Diabetes

I've had several questions in the past week as to how you might know if you are diabetic. The problem with diabetes is that it has a slow insidious onset. Type II diabetics may have had the disease for as long as 5-7 years before it is diagnosed. Unfortunately a lot of damage can be done to many organs in that time frame when you think you are OK.

Who should be concerned? If you have a family member who has diabetes either type and the more you have the more concerned you should be. If you have a sedentary life style where you are not doing active physical exercise at lease 1 hour three times a week, be concerned. If you are overweight, the more overweight you are the more your concern should be. The diagnosis of diabetes has increased 300% since 1980.

How to find out. Simple, get a fasting blood sugar test. You should be fasting for at least 8 hours. Your blood sugar level should be less than 100. If it is over 100, 100-110, it is time to start doing something now before damage is done. If it is over 110, you really need to do something to get yourself back in control. My rule of thumb is that if you are at 120 or higher, you are a diabetic. This does not mean shots, insulin or even oral medications. It means you need to take control of the disease before the disease takes control of you.

More on Vitamin E

I ran across another use of Vitamin E, and while I haven't tried it personally, I believe it couldn't hurt and it may just help. This new use (to me anyway) is to apply it topically on hemorrhoids. You can just puncture the capsule and put the contents on a gloved finger and rub into the hemorrhoids. This makes sense to me because I know how it effects the blood vessels which is essentially what hemorrhoids are.

You can also use this on burns. However, the first treatment is to cool the burn with cold water and or ice. The problem most of us have is that we think 30 seconds of cold is enough. It is not. The skin continues to burn, so you need to really cool it for at least an hour. Then you can take the vitamin E and gently rub it into the burned area. This is painless and will help the burn to heal quicker with less scarring.

Vitamin E Deficiency

Anything that decreases of absorption in the gut can lead to Vitamin E deficiency. These would include diseases like alcoholism, cirrhosis of the liver, gastric or intestinal surgery, crohn's disease and pancreatic disease. Any disorder which results in decreased fat metabolism can result in Vitamin E deficiency.

Some of the symptoms of being unable to absorb fat are chronic diarrhea, greasy stools, poor transmission of nerve impulses, muscle weakness and blindness. Other more common symptoms which are not so easy to point just at Vitamin E deficiency are apathy, chest pain, lethargy, inability to concentrate, premature aging, indigestion, heart palpitations with increased blood pressure, muscle weakness, and irritability. As you can see these are not specific and may point to many other problems.

A piece of good news here is that most adults have fairly large stores of vitamin E in adipose (fat) tissue. Now if you have one of the chronic illnesses, these storage units may be empty.

Can you get too much Vitamin E

The symptoms of too much Vitamin E can be somewhat vague. But here they are: fatigue, muscle weakness, nausea, diarhhea, altered immune function, altered metabolism of specific hormones like thyroid, pituitary, and adrenal hormones and excessive bleeding. Caution should be used if you are taking warfarin or coumadin. Bleeding usually does not occur unless the dose is greater than 1000 units/day.

Some words of caution, there is some interaction with other things. Antacids decrease Vitamin E absorption. Blood thinners like coumadin may increase spontaneous bleeding. Alcoholism and smoking both decrease the absorption of Vitamin E. Some of the anti-cholesterol medications that work specifically in the gut to decrease absorption of cholesterol, also decrease the absorption of Vitamin E.

What else Vitamin E does

In addition to what I have spoken about, there are other things that Vitamin E does. It has a major effect on red blood cells and hemoglobin. Vitamin E is part of the formation process of red blood cells as well as the synthesis and maintenance of red blood cells and their constituents. They also affect the synthesis of hemoglobin a major constituent of red blood cells.

Vitamin E is essential for reproduction and fertility. It is also thought to block the formation of carcinogens formed from nitrites that we consume in our diet. Carcinogens promote cancer cell formation and growth.

Because of it's antioxidant properties, Vitamin E is thought to also protect against cancer formation because of how it enhances the immune system.

Other Uses of Vitamin E

I already mentioned the fact that Vitamin E can be helpful to prevent a heart attack or a stroke. There are other things that Vitamin E is thought to help as well.

Vitamin E is believed to help with pain, particularly menstrual pain and post menstrual pain. It can also be helpful with muscle and joint pain. There is some evidence that it may be helpful in dementia. My advice would be to take it and hopefully prevent the dementia, but there is no evidence to support that at this time. It would stand to reason however, if Vitamin E is an antioxidant, it may prevent damage from free radicals in the brain which may be the cause of dementia.

Because it is an antioxidant, you should be taking it especially if you have the flu to hlep the immne system combat the flu virus. Vitamin E is thought to enhance antibody production in the immune system.

In addition, Vitamin E is thought to help individuals with eczema and asthma. Both of which have an immune component.

You may have seen hand creams over the counter which are fortified with Vitamin E. It is believed that Vitamin E on the skin assists with healing and deceasing scar tissue formation.

Vitamin E is also essential to protect Vitamin A and C.

Sources of Vitamin E

Vitamin E is found in varying amounts in multiple foods. Some of these foods are soy beans, nuts, seeds, egg yolk, avocado, green leafy vegetables, vegetable oils, and whole grains. Wheat germ is one of the foods that has the highest amount of Vitamin E.

The most active form of Vitamin E is in the foods mentioned above. The synthetic or Vitamin E supplements is less potent than what we get in our food. So eating the right foods will help you get this all important vitamin.

Tomorrow I will get into more of the details about what Vitamin E does.

Vitamin E

Many of you may be taking Vitamin E because you know it is supposed to be good for your heart. Vitamin E is an antioxidant which intercepts free radicals and prevents them from creating inflammation in the blood vessels where lipids have formed plagues. Free radicals will cause inflammation around these plaques which causes them to begin to go into a chain reaction which will end up in small pieces of the plaque breaking off and begin floating free in the blood stream.

The danger here is that piece of free floating plaque may become lodged in a small blood vessel in the heart or in the brain. If it is the heart, you end up with a hear attack. If it is the brain, you end up with a stroke.

So Vitamin E is good for your heart but also for your brain.

I'll talk more tomorrow on sources.

Why is Vitamin D so Important?

Some of you may know about the disease called rickets. This is a disease we see in children and it is a result of not enough Vitamin D. In adults what occurs is osteoporosis.

Our bodies breakdown and build bone every day of our lives. If we don't have the right things present for this process like Vitamin D which assists with calcium which helps makes our bones strong, the bones become soft as in rickets, or spongy with a weak bone matrix as in osteoporosis. For adults, osteoporosis is a huge concern as it predisposes us to injuries such as hip fractures. While tend to think this is not as horrible as a heart attack, the fact of the matter is that a hip fracture in someone over 65 leads to complications in about 75% of cases. Of these 75% with complications, 50% will actually die of the complication. So hip fractures in someone over 65 are really not benign.

Sources of Vitamin D

So where do you get supplemental vitamin D. Most dairy products in the US, like milk, chesse, butter and cream are fortified with vitamin D, so that you can get it there. But it is naturally found in fish and oysters.

It can also be found in most vitamin supplements, just be sure that you have a good supplement and not just the cheapest thing at the store.

So how much sun light do you need? About 10-15 minutes 3 times a week. Keep in mind though, it depends upon where you live and the color of your skin.

Vitamin D and Sunshine

As I mentioned yesterday, there are times when we can't get vitamin D from sunshine. Of course, the most obvious is if there is cloud cover. While there is light, it is not at the wave length that it will produce Vitamin D in the skin. So if you live in a mostly cloudy area, you will need to supplement with Vitamin D.

Along those same lines, the use of sunscreen with SPF of 8 or higher will block the UV rays that produce vitamin D. I am not advocating that you not use sunscreen. What I am saying is that you may want to give yourself 10 minutes of sun before you apply the sunscreen. Just know that the sunscreen does block the production of vitamin D.

Also if you have darker skin, you will need more sun light to produce the right amount of vitamin D. Darker skin still requires sunscreen because sun burn is still an issue.

Also keep in mind that during the winter months, the only part of us that is usually exposed is our face. I use a sunscreen on my face year around, so I have to consciously get some sun exposure on the warm days to my arms, but I know it is not enough, so I supplement my vitamin D.

Sunshine Vitamin

Someone was asking how much sun exposure do they need to produce vitamin D in the skin. Usually it takes about 30 minutes. However, there are some exceptions to this rule and most people will need to supplement with vitamin D or eat foods enriched with Vitamin D.

Here are some of the exceptions. Depending upon where you live, the availability of the proper UV light exposure may not be there. In latitudes above 42 degrees north between November and February is insufficient to produce cutaneous vitamin D. The line is approximately from northern California to Boston in the US. Anywhere north of this line does not have the capacity to produce cutaneous vitamin D. The further north you go, the time of decreased capacity may extend up to 6 months of the year. So supplementation with foods and supplements to get vitamin D is essential.

I'll talk more about exceptions tomorrow.

Vitamin A Continued

In addition to vision, Vitamin A has other effects on our bodies. The role of this vitamin in tissue repair and growth is very important. This is particularly true of the skin and we are all aware of the use of Vitamin A on the skin in the form of retinol which is used to resurface and rejuvenate the skin. It is often referred to as anti-aging in skin care products.

Vitamin A also assists in the formation of strong bones and teeth.

A word of caution, the retinal form of Vitamin A can become toxic if you get too much. The animal form is the one to be concerned with as it can lead to osteoporosis and bone degeneration when taken in excessive amounts. The Beta carotene form is not so harmful, but when taken in excessive amounts leads to the skin turning an orange-yellow color.

Vitamin A

Did you ever wonder why milk is fortified with Vitamin A? The reason is to control vitamin A deficiency. In third world countries, vitamin A deficiency is still very prevalent. The reason is that many children and adults in these countries do not consume adequate amounts of Vitamin A in their diets. Secondarily, individuals may become Vitamin A deficient by not absorbing Vitamin A.

Vitamin A is a fat soluble vitamin that is found in dark green and yellow vegetables, orange and yellow fruits, egg yolks, and liver. Some of the better sources are yams, sweet potatoes, spinach, carrots, cantaloupe and dried apricots.

So why is vitamin A important. Vitamin A is retinol or retinal, this form is found in animal sources such as liver. The plant form of Vitamin A is Beta carotene. You might guess from the animal form that this particular vitamin is important for the retina or vision. Deficiency can lead to blindness, specifically night blindness. So remember when you were told or you heard that carrots were good for you because they helped you see better. Well they don't necessarily help you see better, but they do help prevent night blindness.

More tomorrow on Vitamin A

Pluot

A new fruit out there. Over the past couple of months I have received Pluots with my fruit and vegetables that get delivered to my home. I wasn't sure what a Pluot was. What it is, is a hybrid cross between a plum and an apricot.

There isn't much information about the nutritional value of these fruits. Because apricots and plum have Vitamins C and A in them, one would think these fruits would be a good source of these vitamins. They should also be a good source of fiber.

They are actually quite tasty.