Vitamin D Benefits

Cod liver oil has been used in the treatment of rickets for more than 100 years but it was not till 1918. Sir Edward Mellanby made things clear by his studies that rickets is the nutritional disease responding to a fat soluble vitamin in cod liver oil. This vitamin D was finally prepared in a pure form in 1931.

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Vitamin D otherwise described as calciferol. It is further divided in to two compounds i.e. cholecalciferol (D3) and another one is ergocalciferol (D2). Both are essential to prevent rickets (anti –rachitic).

These are all sterols chemically related to cholesterol and to the hormones of the adrenal cortex and sex glands. Certain sterols on exposure to ultraviolet irradiation undergo a small structural change which makes them antirachitic.

Among all sterols only two activated sterols are of importance in nutrition and therapeutics.  These were first described as vitamin D2 and D3 and are still known by these labels. The material originally described as vitamin D1 was subsequently shown to be an impure mixture of sterols.

Vitamin D2 differs chemically in having a double bond and a methyl group in the side chain. It is manufactured by the action of ultra violet light on ergo sterol, a sterol found in fungi and yeast. Although used in therapeutics, it occurs very rarely in nature.

Vitamin E Deficiency

There are many symptoms through which one can note whether one has Vitamin E deficiency though

these are pretty rare cases. They could be happening if you have a malnutritious diet and if you are not really absorbing your nutrients properly due to any debilitating disease in your body. The list of symptoms can range to anything from irritability to edema. Anemia in adults can also occur not just due to low iron absorption but also due to Vitamin E deficiency. Vitamin E would be one of the primary health vitamins that one could get help from for overall bodily functions.

Anything from erectile dysfunction, bodily balance, brain health, skin and hair health, sexual health, etc. can be cured through Vitamin E. When our body is not getting enough of this Vitamin or showing any syndrome, it is time to check up with it. Vitamin E also works as a natural skin barrier against UV rays. If you want to have great skin and hair, it is must to note that. But you are unlikely to get the requisite amount if you are not taking it through natural food but depending on supplements. Synthetic Vitamin E supplements are never good to optimally serve the purpose.

Role of Vitamin D

There are a number of essential elements that are an important part of the human body. Vitamins, calcium,

minerals and carbohydrates are some of these elements. Each element is beneficial in its own way and Vitamin D is no exception. It is a chemical that aids in the transfer of calcium obtained from the digested food, into the blood, which in turn helps in keeping the bones strong. Vitamin D is also beneficial as it reduces inflammation and strengthens the immune system. Calcium and phosphate are very essential for the smooth and proper functioning of the nervous and muscular system, and Vitamin D is helpful in its absorption.

Before moving on to discuss the sources of Vitamin D, there is a need to understand the importance of Vitamin D, in a human body. The deficiency of this Vitamin in the body can pose a major health risk. In children, the deficiency of Vitamin D causes ‘Rickets’. This is a degenerative disease of the bones, causing them to be become deformed. In adults, Vitamin D deficiency leads to ‘Osteomalacia’. Due to this disease, the bones become weak with continuous pain, and frequent bone fractures. Hence, vitamin D is very important for both adults and children.

Vitamin D Sources

Consuming vitamin D enriched foods and supplements

Exposing one self to the sun

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The type of treatment focuses on the anti-cancer (cytotoxic) drugs, for destroying the cancerous cells

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including lymphoma and leukaemia, is called Chemotherapy. It can be used as an isolated treatment for some types of cancers or as a mixture with other cancer treatments like radiotherapy, surgery, hormonal therapy or biological therapies.

The Reasons of Giving Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is suggested widely to treat some kinds of cancer, especially which can metastasize in other parts, because it invades all the cancerous cells present in the whole body. While other treatments only focus on the cancer cells at specific areas.

• It may be given to shrink a cancer so that in the second step like surgery it can be removed easily.
• Likewise chemotherapy may be used to destroy the remaining cells after a surgery or radiotherapy to improve the results.
• This treatment can prolong life by shrinking the cancer and minimizing its development. This therapy is called Palliative Chemotherapy

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A combination of eight water-soluble vitamins which play vital roles in cell metabolism is called B vitamins. Vitamins B were taken as a single vitamin in the past. But with the passage of time, new research showed that these vitamins have distinctive chemistry which often found together in alike foods. The supplements which contain all eight vitamins are referred to Vitamin B Complex. However, there is a specific name of each B vitamin (e.g. B1, B2, B3 etc) in the case of using these as an individual vitamin supplements.

Thiamine-Vitamin B1

Riboflavin- Vitamin B2

Niacin includes nicotinamide and nicotinic acid- Vitamin B3

Pantothenic acid- Vitamin B5

Pyridoxine, pyridoxamine and pyridoxal- Vitamin B6

Biotin- Vitamin B7 also known as Vitamin H

Folic acid- Vitamin B9 also called Vitamin M

Cibalamins Commonly cyanobalamin in vitamin supplements- Vitamin B12

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Another study has broadsided the food supplement industry, as it didn’t find any evidence that use of vitamin supplement helps elderly women to avoid cancer and cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular diseases and cancer are known as the two top women killers.

Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, one of the authors of the study, says: “We can at least encourage women that these vitamin supplements appear to do no harm, but at the same they don’t seem to do any good. Different kinds of vitamins that we get from foods are quite different, as the foods we consume are in complex form and consist of lot of such chemicals as we don’t know about their interaction with each other.”

Previously some results of some other studies have shown that different supplements of vitamin B, C, D, beta carotene and folic acid don’t have the abilities to fight against cancer particularly in women.

Similarly, another study, which was reported last week, found that a large number of healthy kids and teens in the US are consuming vitamins and other dietary supplements needlessly.

The results of a new study reveal that a large number of kids and teens in the US are taking vitamins and other supplements that they don’t require, contrarily, many poor kids who need such supplements are not getting them.

According to some experts when someone takes different kinds of diets, one doesn’t need these vitamin or mineral supplements.

The study, which has been published in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, also says that many poor children who need such supplements are not getting them. Most of such kids belong to low-income families, have poor nutrition and are not physically active.

These vitamin supplements are not recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics to the most of kids over one year of age. However, kids, those suffer from some chronic disease and have other eating disorders or problems, are given such supplements.

Children with cystic fibrosis (CF) usually lack vitamin D and present recommended dose of vitamin D is inadequate to overcome this deficiency, clinicians from The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions concluded.

In analysis of 262 pediatric CF patients, the investigator come to know that vitamin D deficiency has declined but is still high. The deficiency was 86% in 2003 which has declined to 46% in 2006. Patients older than 12 years were more vitamin D deficient than patients younger than 5 years.

Many vitamin D deficient children do not exhibit desired result, although receiving recommended doses of Ergocalciferol, the researchers reported.

The standard treatment dose for vitamin D deficiency is 50,000 IU Ergocalciferol, once in a week for 8 weeks for children 5 years of age or older and 12,000 IU once per week for 8 weeks for children younger than age 5 years.

Uses of Vitamin A:

Vitamin A is Retinol. Retinol is involved in the bone growth and tooth development. Vitamin A is needed for reproduction, cell division and gene expression. Vitamin A is essential to moisture the skin, eyes, nose, throat and lungs.

Sources:

Eat variety of foods then you will get vitamin A. Vitamin A is present in dairy products, fishes and liver. You get Beta-carotene or Pro-vitamin A from fruits and vegetables like carrot, winter squash, dark green leafy vegetables etc.

Deficiency:

1. Night blindness and dry skin is due to the deficiency of vitamin A.
2. Faulty tooth development and slower bone growth is due to the deficiency of retinol.

Toxicity:

Dry, itchy skin, loss of appetite, headache are due to toxicity of retinol.

Diet & Weight Equilibrium

1. There are no fixed patterns of quick weight loss, but you can take some of the diet pills (enormously defective for your health) as they have contained a lot of side effects such as abdominal pain, fatigue, dizziness, dehydration, lack of hunger, irritation, sleep disturbances, bleeding, high blood pressure, constipation, heavy amount of urination, kidney impact, liver contraction, mood swings, etc.
2. The medications like diet pills are somehow better to use in extreme conditions of obesity, but surely recommended by a well-known medical physicians.
3. The most recommended and widely accepted diet pills are Proactol, Proshape RX and Hoodia Gordonii Plus as these medications that don’t have any of the side effects.
4. The best pills are the food supplements which emphatically reduce the obesity and don’t cause any influence in the human body. This prescription is to eat fruit, vegetables, 3 ½ ounces of protein at daily meal for woman, 6-8 ½ ounces of protein for man, Grains, garlic, onion, white boil fish, and salads, etc.
5. Butter is much influential for you instead of Margarine as butter is purified and has less fatness than the margarine.
6. Gatta avoid of red meat as much as you can as this is extremely fatty and dangerous to your health.
7. Doing regular exercise at early in the morning daily would be the best ploy for you in reducing all sorts of fats around your body. These exercises should be consisted of 30 minutes brisk walking, jogging, stretching, sprinting, weight lifting, swimming, etc.