Evening Primrose Oil

Evening Primrose Oil - The oil from evening primrose seeds is high in an essential fatty acid called gamma-linolenic acid, or GLA. Canadian researchers have used evening primrose oil as a clinical treatment for Parkinson's and other tremor-causing disorders. Typical dosage: 2 tablespoons of evening primrose oil per day,- or 1,500 to 2,400 milligrams in capsules per day.
The Herbal Drugstore by Linda B White MD, page 453

Zinc trace element information page

Zinc is one of the minerals men should never be without and has such a wide application in human health that everybody should ensure that they obtain enough of this humble trace element.

Zinc is required for...

It is necessary for a healthy immune system, and is also of use in fighting skin problems such as acne, boils and sore throats. It is further needed for cell division, and is needed by the tissue of the hair, nails and skin to be in top form. Zinc is further used in the growth and maintenance of muscles.

Children, for normal growth and sexual development also require zinc.

It also seems as if zinc helps to control the oil glands, and is also required for the synthesis of protein and collagen - which is great for wound healing and a healthy skin.

Deficiency of Zinc...

There is a shortage of zinc in many people's diet, since zinc is destroyed in the milling process and is also lost in cooking. A deficiency will result in an under-performing immune system, open to infections, allergies, night blindness, loss of smell, falling hair, white spots under finger nails, skin problems, sleep disturbances etc.

Men with zinc shortage may have a problem with fertility, while women may experience irregular periods. Children with too little zinc may have stunted growth and slow sexual maturity.

With too little in the body, the sense of smell might suffer, as well as your sense of taste.

Dosage...

The dosage is the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA), but be aware that this dosage is the minimum that you require per day, to ward off serious deficiency of this particular nutrient. In the therapeutic use of this nutrient, the dosage is usually increased considerably, but the toxicity level must be kept in mind.

In the case of microelements, such as trace elements, the amounts are very small, yet they are still important.

Toxicity and symptoms of high intake...

Elevated intake of zinc (1- 2 gram per day) over an extended period can actually harm your immune system instead of assisting it. Intake of zinc should be kept to under 100 mg per day as larger amounts may result in nausea, diarrhea, dizziness, drowsiness and hallucinations.

It is best to take a zinc supplement separately from other minerals, especially iron, copper, manganese and calcium as they may interfere with zinc absorption. Some people take it at night, but some individuals may react by having an upset stomach if taken on an empty stomach. In a multi-vitamin situation, make sure that the zinc and iron is nearly in the same amounts.

Large intakes of zinc can cause nausea and diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration, fever and chills, electrolyte imbalances, dizziness, abdominal pain, lethargy and a disruption of coordination.

Best used with...

A good combination in nutrition would be adequate levels of copper, calcium, phosphorous, selenium, vitamin A, B6 and E.

When more may be required...

Men should always ensure enough zinc in their diets, since the health of their prostate gland is linked to zinc. Zinc is needed to manufacture testosterone and a shortage may induce a low sperm count, loss of libido and other emotional problems. Zinc may also be helpful in fighting infection and inflammation of the prostate gland in older men. It is lost on ejaculation, since sperm needs this mineral to swim towards the egg.

If a women is taking a birth control pill, or receiving hormone replacement therapy, extra zinc may be indicated, and all vegans and vegetarians should also consider their zinc intake, as well as people suffering from psoriasis and women while pregnant or lactating.

People consuming large amounts of alcohol may also be at risk of lowered zinc levels.

Enemy of Zinc

Meat is a better source of zinc as certain whole grains contain phytic acid, which binds to zinc, making it un-absorbable and zinc is also lost through excessive sweating.

Food Sources of Zinc

Great sources are found in muscle meat, poultry, fish and seafood, while grains, nuts, eggs, seeds and brewer's yeast also supply good quality zinc.

Magnesium is Vital for Good Health

by Tony Isaacs, citizen journalist
http://www.naturalnews.com/z025567_magnesium_calcium_health.html


(NaturalNews) Very few people are aware of how vital magnesium is for overall health. After oxygen, water, and basic food, magnesium may be the most important element needed by our bodies, activating over 300 different biochemical reactions necessary for your body to function properly. The U.S. minimum RDA for magnesium is about 320 mg per day for women and more than 400 mg per day for men, while optimum daily amounts are closer to 500 to 700 mg per day - yet studies show that most people regularly take in about half of that and that over 8 out of 10 people do not take enough daily magnesium for even the minimum daily amounts recommended. Recent research has revealed that this lack of magnesium may put your heart - and your health - at significant risk.

Magnesium protects against heart disease and heart attacks, high blood pressure and stroke, type II diabetes and much, much more. It is more important than calcium, potassium or sodium and regulates all three of them. Contrary to popular misconceptions, it is magnesium that is actually most important in building strong bones and preventing bone loss.

Magnesium is a muscle relaxant, while calcium is a muscle constrictor. Low magnesium intake is associated with muscle spasm, tremors and convulsions. Most Americans, particularly women, have been advised to consume 1200-1500 milligrams of calcium daily. Virtually none of these women have been told that calcium in single doses that exceed 500 milligrams are not absorbed and that they only need an additional 400-600 milligrams of supplemental calcium since their diet already provides about 800 milligrams of this mineral. Since 99 percent of magnesium resides inside living cells, blood serum levels are not a good indicator of magnesium deficiency. Blood tests for magnesium are notoriously inaccurate. Only 1 percent of the total body magnesium pool exists outside of living cells. So blood serum levels are notoriously inaccurate. [Clin Chem Lab Med 37: 1011-33, 1999]. In other words, your doctor can`t easily tell you by a blood test if your magnesium levels are low.

Most Americans, 8 in 10, do not consume enough magnesium. The countries that have the highest mortality rates in the world are the Scandinavian countries and New Zealand where more calcium is consumed from dairy products, while for comparison the lowest mortality rates in the world are in Portugal and Japan where calcium-rich dairy products are not consumed regularly. Americans consume about 800 milligrams of calcium daily (milk drinkers may get 1200-1500 mgs from their diet alone), but only consume about 275 milligrams of magnesium. Thus the dominance of calcium over magnesium produces symptoms of muscle spasm. Migraines, eyelid twitch, heart flutters, back aches, premenstrual tension, leg cramps and constipation are all linked to calcium overload. Excessive calcium may also result in kidney stones (1 in 11 Americans) and heart valve calcifications (mitral valve, 1 in 12 Americans). A significant percentage of American adults consume more than 2000 milligrams of daily calcium, the point where side effects of overdosage begin to be reported.

Magnesium has been called the "The Forgotten Mineral" and the "5-Cent Miracle Tablet" by medical researchers. Numerous researchers have reported that the provision of this mineral in the population at large would greatly diminish the incidence of kidney stones (1 in 11 Americans), calcified mitral heart valve (1 in 12 Americans), premenstrual tension, constipation, miscarriages, stillbirths, strokes, diabetes, thyroid failure, asthma, chronic eyelid twitch (blepharospasm), brittle bones, chronic migraines, muscle spasms and anxiety reactions. [Pediatric Asthma, Allergy Immunology 5: 273-79; Journal Bone Mineral Research 13: 749-58, 1998; Magnesium 5: 1-8, 1986; Medical Hypotheses 43: 187-92, 1994] That`s a lot of health benefits for a nickel. Sufficient provision of magnesium in the American population would likely reduce health care costs by billions of dollars.

When we get too low on oxygen, water or food, the consequences are serious. Yet, we often don`t realize the consequences of magnesium deficiency. The improper use of magnesium among health professionals and the population in general, is deeply responsible for many of the failures encountered daily in treating chronic health conditions nationwide. In addition to the ones listed above are:

Insomnia
Sleep-disorders
Fatigue
Body-tension
Headaches
Heart-disorders
Low energy
High Blood Pressure
PMS
Muscle tension
Backaches
Constipation
Kidney stones
Osteoporosis
Accelerated aging
Depression
Irregular-heartbeat
Anxiety
Muscle cramps
Spasms Irritability

and the list goes on.... It is reported that 90-95% of us are deficient in magnesium, including many of those who already supplement it. Why? Due to the misleading information presented in common magnesium texts. As a result, magnesium remains largely misunderstood, largely misused and the problem goes on undetected.

Magnesium and the Heart - One Mineral Can Make Or Break Your Heart`s Rhythm

Low blood levels of magnesium can significantly affect the way your heart pumps blood throughout your body. And even if you think you`re living a healthy lifestyle, you may not be getting enough of it.

Magnesium May Prevent Sudden Death Heart Attacks

More than 300,000 sudden-death heart attacks are reported annually in the US (more than 80 per day) which are believed to be related to excessive calcium and a shortage of magnesium. Modern medicine`s answer to the problem is to prescribe billions of dollars of calcium-blocker drugs. Magnesium is a natural calcium blocker, but this goes unrecognized by most physicians. Researchers warn that adults who consume excessive amounts of caffeine or alcohol, or who take water pills (diuretics), are prone to experience irregular heart beats and should consume more magnesium. The same is true for diabetics and people with low thyroid. Most Americans consume tap water that has been softened (sodium added) which worsens the problem. American adults need to supplement their diet with 200-400 milligrams of magnesium. The only side effect of too much magnesium is loose stool. Reducing dosage resolves this problem.

In the 1990s a preliminary report showed that intravenous magnesium reduced mortality rates following a heart attack. Unfortunately, this was apparently perceived as a threat to the sale of calcium-blocking drugs used for the same purpose. Medical researchers, financially backed by a pharmaceutical company that produces calcium-blocker drugs, deliberately chose to use an excessive dose of intravenous magnesium to prove it was of no value during the post-heart attack period. [Townsend Letter for Doctors, October 1998]

Magnesium is not limited to treating heart disease after a heart attack. A shortage of dietary magnesium has been repeatedly shown to be associated with an increased risk of sudden-death heart attack. Unequivocally, a shortage of magnesium from the American diet, in particular the absence or shortage of magnesium in drinking water, is directly related to sudden-death heart attack. [Epidemiology 10: 31-36, 1999; Heart 82: 455-60, 1999; American Journal Epidemiology 143: 456-62, 1996] Out of 750,000 heart attacks in the USA annually, an estimated 340,000 deaths occur within one hour of a heart attack. [Journal Nutrition Health Aging 5: 173-78, 2001]

One study showed the relative risk of sudden-death heart attack is more than 1.5 times higher among adults who consume on average 105 milligrams of magnesium a day compared to adults who consume 233 milligrams a day. [Magnesium Trace Element Research 9: 143-51, 1990]. In an animal experiment, no rodents experienced a sudden-death heart attack when magnesium levels were adequate, whereas 4 of 11 rodents with low magnesium levels experienced a sudden lethal heart muscle spasm. [Journal American Collage Cardiology 27: 1771-76, 1996]

Recently researchers reported on the effects of slowly withdrawing magnesium from the diet of postmenopausal women. Women began to exhibit abnormal heart rhythms as circulating magnesium levels declined. [American Journal Clinical Nutrition 75: 550-54, 2002] Of the minerals removed during water softening, magnesium is the only mineral found to be deficient in the heart muscle of sudden-death heart attack victims. [Science 208: 198-200, 1980]

Magnesium and High Blood Pressure

Magnesium helps signal muscles to contract and relax. And when the muscles that line the major blood vessels contract, your blood pressure rises.

When researchers studied the diets of 40,000 nurses and 30,000 male health professionals, they found lower blood pressures in people who ate more magnesium.

Magnesium and Diabetes

Eating more magnesium-rich foods, like green leafy vegetables and nuts, may reduce the risk of type-2 diabetes, suggests a meta-analysis of observational studies.

The analysis of prospective cohort studies, by researchers at Stockholm`s Karolinska Institutet, reports that for every 100 milligram increase in magnesium intake, the risk of developing type-2 diabetes decreased by 15 per cent. Larsson and Wolk identified seven studies looking at the link between magnesium intake from food or food plus supplements and the risk of type-2 diabetes. This gave the researchers a total of 286,668 participants and 10,912 cases of type-2 diabetes. Six of the studies showed a statistically significant inverse association, with every 100 mg per day increase in magnesium intake linked to a 15 per cent decrease in type-2 diabetes risk.

"The potential protective role of magnesium intake against type-2 diabetes may be due to improvement of insulin sensitivity," said the reviewers. "Studies in animals have demonstrated an adverse effect of magnesium deficiency on glucose-induced insulin secretion and insulin-mediated glucose uptake. In contrast, magnesium supplementation was shown to prevent fructose-induced insulin resistance and reduce the development of diabetes in a rat model of spontaneous type-2 diabetes."

They concluded that while it is too early to recommend magnesium supplements for type-2 diabetes prevention, increased consumption of magnesium-rich food "seems prudent."

While refusing to label the results of their meta-analysis definitive, authors Susanna Larsson and Alicia Wolk wrote in the Journal of Internal Medicine that the evidence that increased intake of magnesium may reduce the incidence of type-2 diabetes was "compelling."

Widespread Dietary Deficiency

Since the turn of last century, our depleted soils, processed foods and fast food diet lifestyles have led to a steady increase in mineral deficiencies. Nowhere is this more true than in Magnesium:

Progressive decline of dietary magnesium consumption

Magnesium intake in mg/day
1900-08 475-500
1909-13 415-435
1925-29 385-398
1935-39 360-375
1947-49 358-370
1957-59 340-360
1965-76 300-340
1978-85 225-318
1990-2002 175-225

[Magnesium Trace Elements 10: 162-28, 1997]

Dietary Sources of Magnesium by Standard Serving Size - Including Calories

Pumpkin and squash seed kernels, roasted - 1 oz contains 151 mg of magnesium and 148 calories
Brazil nuts - 1 oz contains 107 mg of magnesium and 186 calories
Bran ready-to-eat cereal (100%), - ~1 oz contains 103 mg of magnesium and 74 calories Halibut, cooked - 3 oz contains 151 mg of magnesium and 148 calories
Quinoa, dry - 1/4 cup contains 89 mg of magnesium and 159 calories
Spinach, canned - 1/2 cup contains 81 mg of magnesium and 25 calories
Almonds - 1 oz contains 78 mg of magnesium and 164 calories
Spinach, cooked from fresh - 1/2 cup contains 78 mg of magnesium and 20 calories
Buckwheat flour - 1/4 cup contains 75 mg of magnesium and 101 calories
Cashews, dry roasted - 1 oz contains 74 mg of magnesium and 163 calories
Soybeans, mature, cooked - 1/2 cup contains 74 mg of magnesium and 149 calories
Pine nuts, dried - 1 oz contains 71 mg of magnesium and 191 calories
Mixed nuts, oil roasted, with peanuts - 1 oz contains 67 mg of magnesium and 175 calories
White beans, canned - 1/2 cup contains 67 mg of magnesium and 154 calories
Pollock, walleye, cooked - 3 oz contains 62 mg of magnesium and 96 calories Black beans, cooked - 1/2 cup contains 60 mg of magnesium and 114 calories
Bulgur, dry - 1/4 cup contains 57 mg of magnesium and 120 calories
Oat bran, raw - 1/4 cup contains 55 mg of magnesium and 58 calories
Soybeans, green, cooked - 1/2 cup contains 54 mg of magnesium and 127 calories
Tuna, yellowfin, cooked - 3 oz contains 54 mg of magnesium and 118 calories
Artichokes (hearts), cooked - 1/2 cup contains 50 mg of magnesium and 42 calories
Peanuts, dry roasted - 1 oz contains 50 mg of magnesium and 166 calories
Lima beans, baby, cooked from frozen - 1/2 cup contains 50 mg of magnesium and 95 calories
Beet greens, cooked - 1/2 cup contains 49 mg of magnesium and 19 calories
Navy beans, cooked - 1/2 cup contains 48 mg of magnesium and 127 calories
Tofu, firm, prepared with nigaria (a) - 1/2 cup contains 47 mg of magnesium and 88 calories
Okra, cooked from frozen - 1/2 cup contains 47 mg of magnesium and 26 calories
Soy beverage - 1 cup contains 47 mg of magnesium and 127 calories
Cowpeas, cooked - 1/2 cup contains 46 mg of magnesium and 100 calories
Hazelnuts - 1 oz contains 46 mg of magnesium and 178 calories
Oat bran muffin - 1 oz contains 45 mg of magnesium and 77 calories
Great northern beans, cooked - 1/2 cup contains 44 mg of magnesium and 104 calories
Oat bran, cooked - 1/2 cup contains 44 mg of magnesium and 44 calories
Buckwheat groats, roasted, cooked - 1/2 cup contains 43 mg of magnesium and 78 calories
Brown rice, cooked - 1/2 cup contains 42 mg of magnesium and 108 calories
Haddock, cooked - 3 oz contains 42 mg of magnesium and 95 calories
Spirulina - 10 grams contains 40 mg of magnesium and 39 calories

(a) Calcium sulfate and magnesium chloride.

Source (with the exception of Spirulina): http://www.hoptechno.com/bookfoodso...

Note: It is healthier to consume as many of the items on the list as possible in raw form. The soy products are not recommended due to the widespread use of GMO soy and other health concerns related to soy.

Supplementation Advised

Although you can see from the above chart that a person might be able to obtain enough minimum RDA of magnesium and perhaps even optimum amounts of magnesium through a very carefully planned and managed daily diet, it would be a difficult task since much of the above list are no longer staple parts of our Western diets. When processed food is added to the diet it can safely be assumed that, while anyone should be able to increase the magnesium they get from wise diet choices, it is exceedingly difficult for the general public to consume enough magnesium through dietary sources alone.

Only supplementation is likely to make up for such a widespread deficiency in magnesium. Foods cannot easily be fortified with magnesium because it is a bulky mineral that would alter the consistency and taste of flour and foods. Magnesium cannot be added to tap water because it would erode piping. Either magnesium pills or magnesium added to bottled water would make up for this mineral deficiency. Currently, only 5 major brands of bottled water provide a desirable measure of more than 75 milligrams of magnesium per liter and only one brand has a ratio of magnesium that exceeds that of calcium.

Since the same problems with soil depletion and diet causes deficiencies in many other vital minerals, it would be a good idea to supplement for magnesium and to also supplement with a wide range of minerals. The very best source of mineral supplements are plant derived minerals, because they are more readily absorbed than mined rock minerals. For maximum absorption, bromelain can be added. Bromelain is an all natural compound found in the stem of the pineapple plant and is a powerful binder that increases the absorption of many things.

Until now it was thought that the best forms of supplemental magnesium were the ones chelated to an amino acid (magnesium glycinate, magnesium taurate) or a krebs cycle intermediate (magnesium malate, magnesium citrate, magnesium fumarate). But now we have magnesium oil, a magnesium chloride, that can be applied directly to the skin, so dosage levels can be brought up safely to high levels without diarrhea and problems with absorption. Magnesium orotate is considered to be a superior form of oral magnesium supplementation. The only side effect of too much magnesium is loose stool. Reducing the dosage or dividing daily doses into smaller amounts resolves the problem.

Note: For optimum health, magnesium and calcium intake needs to be at about a 1 to 2 ratio. So, if you supplement with 500 mg of magnesium, you should supplement with 1000 mg of calcium (or less if you get plenty of dietary calcium and little dietary magnesium).

Get the Right Dose to Correct Vitamin B12 Deficiency

by Kerri Knox, RN, citizen journalist
http://www.naturalnews.com/z027095_vitamin_B12_vitamin_B_doctors.html


(NaturalNews) Vitamin B12 deficiency is a common problem that is often overlooked, but once a doctor FINDS vitamin B 12 deficiency in a patient, it's likely that the person will STILL suffer from their symptoms even AFTER treatment because most doctors, historically, give too low of a dose to correct the symptoms that occur in vitamin B12 deficiency.

There are many pitfalls along the road to getting a diagnosis of vitamin B12 deficiency and the vast majority of those suffering from this problem get overlooked by western medicine. But when someone actually GETS a diagnosis, the patient is STILL likely to not benefit from supplementation because the clinician will most often not give enough of the vitamin to make a difference in how the patient feels. When a patient has vitamin B12 deficiency, doctors most often give a 'standard' dose of 1000 micrograms per day for treatment. While some people will respond to this dose and feel better, researchers believe that this dose may be WAY too low in a large subset of patients who need much higher doses in order to feel better.

"The lowest dose of oral cyanocobalamin [a form of vitamin B12]
required to normalize mild vitamin B12 deficiency is more than
200 times greater than the recommended dietary allowance"
'Cyanocobalamin Supplementation in
Older People With Vitamin B12 Deficiency'

It's rare that studies on vitamin B12 actually look at the SUBJECTIVE feelings of a patient in order to determine need for therapy; most rely on OBJECTIVE markers such as blood levels, but it seems that the more reliable and effective determination of the need for vitamin B12 therapy is sense of well-being. One study took people complaining of fatigue who had NORMAL vitamin B12 levels and gave them increasingly higher doses of vitamin B12 until they simply felt better. They then repeated the vitamin B12 levels and found that the patients with the highest vitamin B12 levels scored the best on a mental and emotional questionnaire. There are Almost No doctors who continue to INCREASE the dose of a therapy based on a patient's feelings of well-being when blood tests show normal levels, but other studies also confirm that this may be EXACTLY the way vitamin B12 deficiency SHOULD be treated.

In fact, some studies showed that it required up to 9000 micrograms per day (9mg) in order to achieve the 'maximum feeling of well-being' as reported by patients REGARDLESS of their vitamin B12 level! That's 9 times higher than the standard dose that doctors give in order to correct deficiency. But that seemingly 'megadose' of 9000 micrograms per day was used specifically for the treatment of fatigue; vitamin B12 has been used in doses up to 40 milligrams per day, that's 40,000 micrograms per day, in order to treat or to delay progression of nervous system disorders such as Alzheimer's Disease and Multiple Sclerosis. The vast majority of these studies ALSO showed that almost no one had any ill effects from such high doses, so it's undeniable that this vitamin is safe in doses much higher than the 'standard' 1000 micrograms per day.

Doctors, however, generally want to find the lowest dose that corrects the deficiency as determined by blood levels. In the case of vitamin B12 deficiency, since extremely high doses have been repeatedly shown to be safe, correcting DEFICIENCY should not be the ultimate goal, but correcting the SYMPTOMS that brought the patient into the doctor's office to begin with should be. Unfortunately, individualizing care and giving different doses to individual patients who may need more than the standard dose is not what occurs in actual practice the majority of time. This leaves tens of thousands across the nation still suffering from fatigue because the 'standard practice' in vitamin B12 deficiency is to look at laboratory testing and not the most important part of the equation- whether a patient actually feels better

Folic acid deficiencies are widespread; here's why nearly everyone needs more folate

http://www.naturalnews.com/z016208_folic_acid_folate_medicine.htmlby Alexis Black, citizen journalist

Pregnant women plagued by cravings for pickles and ice cream must remember to include plenty of folic acid in their diets. Shown to reduce the risk of miscarriage and birth defects, folic acid found primarily in leafy green vegetables is an absolute necessity for any woman who is pregnant or is considering becoming pregnant. In fact, "health officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommend that all women of childbearing age take folic acid (0.4 mg daily) to protect their future newborns from developing a neural tube defect, an anomaly of the spinal cord," writes Burton Goldberg in Alternative Medicine.

However, it's not just expectant moms who could stand to add more leafy greens to their plates. Because it is useful in combating everything from acne and canker sores to osteoporosis and cancer, we could all benefit from adding more folic acid to our diets. Along with pregnant women, elderly individuals and people suffering from depression or nervous system disorders especially stand to gain from the addition of this B vitamin.

Folic acid, the synthetic form of the B vitamin folate, works primarily in the brain and nervous system and is necessary for the synthesis of DNA, the production of red and white blood cells and of norepinephrine and serotonin in the nervous system. Folic acid also aids in the elimination of the amino acid homocysteine from the blood, a breakdown product of animal protein (methionine, actually) that contributes to heart attacks. A lack of folic acid can lead to anemia, insomnia, irritability and far more serious health problems.

Despite its range of health benefits, many Americans are deficient in the vitamin, coming nowhere near the government's recommended daily allowance of 200 micrograms daily. "The average American gets only 61 percent of the old Recommended Dietary Allowance, which is too low anyway," says James Duke, PhD in Anti-Aging Prescriptions. Part of the reason for the shortfall is that more Americans are choosing to eat more animal foods which are a poor source of folic acid rather than folic-acid rich plant foods, like dark green vegetables, legumes, root vegetables and whole grains.

Dr. Andrew Weil, in Ask Dr. Weil, recommends the use of supplements to make up for the deficiency. "As many as 90 percent of Americans don't get that protective 400 micrograms in their diet � for example, you'd have to eat two cups of steamed spinach, a cup of boiled lentils, or eight oranges every day. So it's important to take a supplement, especially if you're a woman and considering having children someday." As Dr. Weil suggests, for women who are deficient in this essential vitamin, the health costs can be especially high.

Folic acid is essential for pregnant women. Not only does it protect against cervical cancer, it also aids in healthy prenatal development and can significantly reduce the risk of serious neural tube birth defects and abnormalities that occur in very early fetal development, such as spina bifida. However, experts say most women aren't getting adequate levels of folic acid early enough to offer the best protection against birth defects.

"Very few women of child bearing years are taking folic acid. If a person waits until pregnant, the fetal abnormality is already established. All women of child-bearing age who might become pregnant should be taking 400 mg of folic acid," advises Dr. James Howenstine in A Physicians Guide To Natural Health Products That Work. To make matters even more difficult, women who take birth control pills are especially prone to deficiency in the B vitamin since birth control pills actually produce folic acid deficiency.

Men planning to become fathers need to monitor their folic acid intake as well, as low folic acid levels in males has been linked to low sperm count, and some studies suggest deficiency can also damage DNA carried by the sperm. Such damaged DNA could lead to chromosomal damage in a fetus, according to Bottom Line Yearbook 2004. In other words, both men and women who plan to have children should increase their folic acid intake for the sake of their baby-to-be.

Folic acid promotes good health for the mind and body, from the earliest stages of life to the latest. Men and women over 60 who feel fatigued and depressed may simply be suffering from a folic acid deficiency. In fact, folic acid deficiency has been linked to depression in patients of all ages, and according to Gary Null'sComplete Guide of Natural Healing, "the lower the level of folic acid in the blood, the higher the degree of depression."

Folic acid can also help ward off dementia, according to Patrick Quillin in Beating Cancer With Nutrition, who wrote that experts estimate up to 20 percent of senility in older adults is simply the result of a long-term deficiency of folic acid and vitamin B-12, which can be aided by taking supplements. However, when taking folic acid supplements, it is important to remember that folic acid and vitamin B-12 work most effectively together, so you should make sure you are getting enough vitamin B-12, as well. Vegans often struggle with this balance since their diets are very rich in folic acid but not in B-12.

The meager representation of folic acid in the American diet can be increased if we all just take a little more care in planning our meals. One way to up folic acid consumption is to make sure your diet includes raw foods, since heat from cooking easily destroys folic acid. And remember, sources of folic acid are plentiful soybeans, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, peanuts, asparagus, citrus fruits, brussels sprouts, avocado, sunflower seeds, orange juice and don't forget those leafy greens we just have to be willing to integrate these foods into our diets.

And who wouldn't be willing? After all, some added folic acid could go a long way in helping keep your nervous and circulatory systems in check, while also protecting your body from cancer and heart problems, as well as promoting healthy fetal development in babies. Folic acid is something we need at all stage of life, so we owe it to ourselves to get enough.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C Shown to be Vital for Optimum Health

by Sheryl Walters, citizen journalist
http://www.naturalnews.com/z026374_vitamin_C_health_blood.html


(NaturalNews) Vitamin C or ascorbic acid offers many health benefits including being a powerful antioxidant. Recent studies have shown the numerous benefits of including Vitamin C as part of a daily regimen. Vitamin C can decrease health risks.

The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of Vitamin C in order to prevent scurvy is 90 mg per day for men and 75 mg per day for women. However, higher doses may be required to gain the full benefits in certain instances. A woman can meet the RDA by simply drinking one 6 oz glass of orange juice a day.

Vitamin C is involved in the production of collagen and norepinephrin. It plays an important role in the transfer of fat to the mitochondria in cells for the production of energy. Vitamin C is also a very powerful antioxidant working to protect molecules in the body including DNA and RNA from free radicals and reactive oxygen species. Vitamin C even can regenerate other antioxidants such as Vitamin E.

Studies conducted by Linus Pauling and colleagues during the 1970's and 1980's have shown that very large intravenous doses of Vitamin C (10 grams per day) increases the survival and quality of life of terminal cancer patients. The key factor however appears to be that the doses be administered intravenously to get the most benefit by raising the level of Vitamin C available in the blood. Another study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that injections of Vitamin C directly into tumors of mice have shown a reduction in both the tumor size and growth. The researchers linked the anti-cancer effect of Vitamin C to the formation of hydrogen peroxide in the fluid surrounding the tumor. It should be noted that the normal cells surrounding the tumor were unaffected.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge recently released a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition which measured Vitamin C levels in the blood for over a decade in 20,000 people. The research showed that those with the highest levels of Vitamin C in the blood reduced the risk of stroke by over 40% in comparison to those with the lowest Vitamin C levels.

Vitamin C has many uses and benefits. The benefits range from scurvy prevention to cancer treatment to stroke prevention. As more studies are completed looking at the benefits of Vitamin C, more benefits will most likely be forthcoming.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D: How to Determine Your Optimal Dose

by David Rostollan, citizen journalist
http://www.naturalnews.com/027345_Vitamin_D_sun_exposure_blood.html


(NaturalNews) In the wide world of supplements, vitamin D is the superstar. For the last few years, this humble nutrient has been featured prominently in allopathic and alternative circles alike. It has basked in the rays of media publicity, and has survived an onslaught of scientific scrutiny. And while such widespread publicity is often good cause for skepticism in the realm of health and medicine, vitamin D appears to be the real deal. Whether we`re talking about heart disease, cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, or Alzheimer`s disease, the "sunshine vitamin" delivers benefits unseen before our time (1).

Given the remarkably powerful benefits of vitamin D, many find themselves wondering how to actually go about obtaining it. We know that vitamin D is good for us, but how much do we need, and where do we get it? Most people know that sunlight is somehow involved in vitamin D production, but is sunlight alone sufficient to produce the incredible results demonstrated by recent vitamin D research? What about supplements? There are so many different preparations - with doses ranging from 400 IU to 50,000 IU - that it can get a little confusing. Are such supplements necessary, and if so, how much should we be taking?

Everyone is Different

One might suppose that this question is as easily answered as saying, "Everyone needs to spend 15 minutes in the sun every day." Or, "Everyone needs to take x amount of vitamin D per day." But it`s not like that. Not at all. There are a multitude of variables unique to you that determine how much vitamin D is required on a daily basis (2). And because there are so many individual variables, it really is impossible to recommend a single amount for everyone. Fortunately, however, there are many circumstantial clues to look for that will suggest whether you need to be paying better attention to your vitamin D status. Furthermore, personally optimizing your vitamin D level is fairly easy and inexpensive.

Are you at risk for vitamin D deficiency?

-How much sun exposure do you get every day?
-Where do you live? Above or below the 35 N latitude line? (3)
-What is your age? Over 40?
-Is your skin light, dark, very dark?
-Are you overweight?
-Do you have a chronic illness?

How do each of these factors affect vitamin D status?

Sun Exposure: Catching some rays each day is definitely desirable, and healthy young people can usually get the vitamin D they need from around 10 to 30 minutes of sun exposure per day - depending on their location and the time of year. Most adults in today`s modern world, however, do not even attempt to get this much sun exposure - much less achieve it. But even if they did, would it matter, or are there other variables standing in the way?

Location: Vitamin D is produced in the skin from a cholesterol derivative when we are exposed to UVB radiation from the sun. However, because of the axial tilt of the earth, the further north one lives, the less the sun`s UVB rays will be able to activate vitamin D in the skin. So sun exposure does not necessarily equal optimal vitamin D status if you`re living in the wrong location. Living down south is better, of course (south of the 35 N latitude line seems to be the best), but there is still more to consider.

Age: Say you do live close to the equator, or are significantly below the 35 N latitude line. That`s a good thing, and it probably helps. If you`re around 35-40 years old or above, however, you`re likely losing the ability to activate sufficient levels of vitamin D in your skin, even in the unlikely event that you`re getting adequate UVB sun exposure (4).

Dark Skin: What if you have dark skin? If you have a lot of pigment in your skin, this is going to shield you from the UVB radiation you need, and you`re probably deficient in vitamin D.

Weight: Vitamin D requirements are also relative to body weight. If you`re overweight, your body requires more vitamin D than if you are not overweight. If you get a lot of sun, but are on the heavy side, you`re probably still not getting enough vitamin D.

Chronic Illness: Chronically ill? Have cancer? The body demands more vitamin D when you`re sick, and is probably using it up faster than you can get it from the sun.

When one considers that many Americans are victims of not just one but many of the above drawbacks, it becomes readily obvious as to why there is such a widespread vitamin D deficiency epidemic. Not getting enough sun is bad enough, but lack of sun exposure combined with being middle-aged, overweight, and chronically ill is an absolute disaster - and it is the devastating situation that many (most?) Americans find themselves in today.

Is Sun Exposure Really Not Enough?

Yes, sun exposure is a good thing, but too often, it`s simply not sufficient to achieve the kind of levels necessary for disease prevention and treatment. This applies even in places like Hawaii, where individuals get plenty of sun exposure, and the latitude is around 21 (5, 6). The role of sunlight should not be downplayed too much, however. If you`re healthy, young, and live in a subtropical region, then you might have sufficient vitamin D levels. In fact, some young people in the subtropics who get sun exposure all day long have levels between 80-100 ng/ml. This is incredible, and it means that sun exposure really does work provided the conditions are right.*

The point being made in this article is simply that not everyone is young, not everyone is healthy, not everyone lives in Houston, and not everyone gets enough sun exposure every day. It is those people who need to supplement with vitamin D. This also happens to be most people.

Blood Testing is Crucial

How do you know if you`re getting enough vitamin D, and how much is enough? The only way to know is by testing your blood. Fortunately, testing vitamin D, as far as blood testing goes, is pretty cheap. You can set this up with your doctor, order tests online and get blood drawn at a local lab, or order a vitamin D home test kit, whereby you simply order the test, prick your finger, send in the blood, and wait for the results to come back to you.

Here are some basic guidelines:

-Make sure you are getting the right test. You must test for 25(OH)D, not 1,25(OH)D. They look similar, but 1,25(OH)D is a measure of kidney function, and is not the test you want for measuring vitamin D levels.

-Ideally, your blood level should be around 60-80 ng/ml, as this allows the body to have some vitamin D in reserve, and it duplicates the higher levels found in young, healthy individuals who spend a decent amount of time in a sun-rich environment.

-Begin taking vitamin D at least eight weeks prior to being tested. This will help you customize your dose once you receive your test results. To determine a basic, starting dose, it has been suggested, as per Dr. John Cannell of the Vitamin D Council (7), that you take 1,000 IU per 25 pounds of body weight. A person who weighs 150 pounds, for instance, would take 6,000 IU per day as a starting dose (150/25 = 6. 1,000 x 6 = 6,000). Do this for at least eight weeks, and then test. Perhaps this dose will put you in the ideal range, but there`s no guarantee since we are all so different, and have unique vitamin D receptor genotypes. The idea is to hopefully get somewhere in the ballpark with this method and then tweak your daily dose once the test results come back. If your results are still suboptimal, Dr. Cannell has estimated that each 1,000 IU increase in supplemental vitamin D will generally produce a 10 ng/ml increase in the vitamin D blood level (8). For example, if you have been taking 5,000 IU per day for 8+ weeks, and your results come back at 40 ng/ml, you would want to increase your dose to at least 7,000 IU (2,000 IU = ~20 ng/ml rise in blood level) to achieve a minimum of 60 ng/ml. Again, keep in mind that this is necessarily generalized, and additional blood testing every several months is recommended to further customize the dose appropriate to you.

What Kind of Supplements Should I Use?

In order to achieve consistent and predictable results, it is important to use the proper carrier form of vitamin D supplements. The absolute best form is an oil-based vitamin D preparation. Dry preparations, like tablets and capsules, should be avoided. Vitamin D is fat soluble, and needs to be taken with fat in order to be properly absorbed - hence the oil-based recommendation.

Oil-based versus dry preparations aside, there are two common types of vitamin D: Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) and Vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol). You will need to avoid supplementing with vitamin D2 (9), which is a synthetic product made by exposing certain plants to ultraviolet radiation. D2 is not what the human body naturally uses, and compared to D3 it falls far short in terms of efficacy (of course, D2 happens to be what many vitamin D prescriptions are made of). D3 is what your body uses and prefers. No prescription necessary.

You can buy D3 in oil-based softgels, or, if you don`t like taking pills or have trouble doing so, you can get it in liquid drops.**

Summary

Vitamin D status is important year around, but whenever fall and winter are upon us, the importance of evaluating this vital nutrient is even more urgent. In summary, here are the steps you should take if you are wanting to optimize your vitamin D level:

1) Start taking oil-based vitamin D3 according to your body weight, as explained above.

2) After at least 8 weeks, have your blood tested by a good lab. There are home finger-prick test kits that are also very good.

3) Remembering that the goal should be blood levels of 60-80 ng/ml of 25(OH)D, adjust your vitamin D3 dose to achieve this level. Each 1,000 IU increase will generally lead to a 10 ng/ml increase in blood levels.

4) Recheck blood levels every several months to make sure you are still in the optimal range and taking the proper dose.

*It is beyond ironic that for quite some time now, everyone has been encouraged by the "authorities" to avoid the sun in order to keep from getting cancer, yet it is that very sun exposure that would help in avoiding cancer in the first place! "Avoid midday sun, or you`ll get melanoma!" we`re told. But melanoma is mostly triggered by UVA rays from the sun - not UVB. When is cancer-causing UVA exposure the lowest? Right around midday. When is UVB exposure the highest? Also right around midday. A high UVB:UVA ratio (high UVB and low UVA) is the best for creating vitamin D in the body, and this occurs when the sun is highest in the sky - exactly the time (ironically) that is often suggested to be avoided.

**Supplementation is not recommended for everyone. Certain conditions, such as sarcoidosis and some lymphomas, can produce excessive amounts of vitamin D, and in these instances, one should move forward cautiously under the supervision of a healthcare professional.

The Health Ranger Answers Common Questions About Nutritional Supplements

What is the biggest myth about nutritional supplements? You've often wondered about that haven't you? There is a lot of hype about supplements out there. There's also a lot of effort to discredit certain supplements like vitamin E. We will talk about vitamin E in a future show. This natural vitamin can be found in nuts and seeds. Unfortunately, the conventional medical industry is trying to discredit it scaring people into not taking vitamin E.

The fact is the tests that they are running are using a synthetic form of vitamin E, not the natural form that exists in nature. That is why they are getting bad results. We will talk about that in more detail later.

In my opinion the biggest myth about nutritional supplements is in thinking that you can still live a lousy lifestyle a poor health lifestyle smoking and avoiding exercise and eating junk foods, fried foods, and many animal products and so on, and yet you can somehow counteract that with a few nutritional supplements per day. This is the biggest myth in my opinion.

People think they can go out and eat fast food all day long. They can abuse their bodies and then if they take one multi-vitamin a day somehow it is going to counteract all that. That is just nonsense, folks. That is the biggest myth nutritional supplements do not make up for all the other behavior. If you are smoking cigarettes, for example, the single best thing that you can do for your health is to quit smoking not take vitamins.

Now, of course, if you smoke and you take vitamins the vitamins are going to offer some protection, but not nearly as much as if you were to just stop smoking. If you were to do both that is if you were to stop smoking and start taking the right nutritional supplements then you would have really good health happening at that point. You would have a lot of protection for the organs and the cells and tissues in your body. That is what you want to do.

I have seen people who think well I am going to go out and eat all this junk food. I'm going to avoid exercise and avoid sunlight so they are not getting the vitamin D and then they are taking pharmaceuticals. They are getting all the negative side effects of those pharmaceuticals the anti-depressants, the statin drugs, the cholesterol drugs, the blood pressure drugs and so on, and then they think "Oh, well I will drink some green tea today and I will take a cheap multi-vitamin that I bought at Costco or Wal-Mart."

They think that is going to counteract all that. It just does not work that way, folks. A vitamin does not excuse you from the responsibility of acting with integrity with your own health. If you want to be healthy, you have to engage in regular exercise. You have to eat right that means you should make food the foundation of your health.

I mean unprocessed food. Healthy, fresh produce, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds and nutritional supplements that is the way you are going to get the maximum health benefits and actually prevent disease. That is the number one biggest myth about nutritional supplements in my opinion.

Not all supplements are created equal

All right, let's go onto the next question. People ask me this one all the time. Where is the best place to buy nutritional supplements? That is a good question. People see vitamins on sale at Walgreens or pharmacies or Wal-Mart or other retail outlets and they wonder what is really in these supplements.

Well, the answer is really quite simple. If you are buying vitamins at retail, and you are not buying them at a health food store or a health food section in a grocery store for example, most of what you are buying is probably garbage.

It is probably useless garbage, and I say that as an advocate of nutrition. I take many vitamins every single day. I eat many superfoods every day. I would not dare touch those products sold at Wal-Mart or Walgreens or Costco or Sam's Club any of those. I would not touch those. You know why? Because I read the ingredients on them. In my opinion, they are garbage just garbage.

I will give you an example. I was at Costco one time. I saw a big bottle of fish oil supplements, and we all know that fish oils can enhance health. They help prevent heart disease. They are rich in Omega-3 oils and a very healthy supplement if it is a quality supplement, but I looked at this particular product and I read the ingredients.

It said this "each capsule contained only 4 mg. of actual fish oil extract and the rest of the capsule was filled with soybean oil and one bottle I saw was actually made with partially hydrogenated soybean oil, which means it contains trans fatty acids that actually damage your heart health.

Here was a supplement being sold as a benefit for cardiovascular health that said it contained fish oil, but if you look inside what it really contained was trans fatty acids, which are poison for the heart. It is just crazy to think that people are going in there and buying those pills, taking them home, eating them, and thinking that they are helping their heart when in reality they are poisoning themselves in my opinion.

I saw that at Costco. I think they have since changed the formula because of all the bad publicity about trans fatty acids and hydrogenated oils but just the fact that they used to carry that is a good clue that tells you that you probably should not buy your vitamins at Costco. You probably should not get vitamins from a general store.

Good quality comes from good sources

Now, if you go into a health food store that is a completely different picture. There you are going to find the quality vitamins, the quality supplements, and the ones that I would openly recommend. You are going to find many companies there making good quality supplements. New Chapter is one company that does a good job but you know where the best values are for vitamins? They are actually found online.

That is because the online companies can sell direct to consumers, and they don't have to have the huge markups of the retail establishments because health food stores, of course, have to mark-up their products to stay in business. That is perfectly acceptable and I really do support local health food stores. I hope you go there and support them as well because we need those. Sometimes, when you want a great deal on the right supplement, the best place to go is online.

Buying them directly from those companies, I know many of these companies. I have interviewed over a hundred so some that I recommend are www.WellnessResources.com that is a good one. Jon Barron has a company called www.BaselineNutritionals.com.

There are superfoods available at a company called www.GoodCauseWellness.com. There is a great company making drinkable vitamins. You just mix their powder with water and it is high quality stuff very high end. They are called Ola Loa, and you can find them at www.DrinkYourVitamins.com.

By the way, I haven't been paid to promote any of these companies. You know I don't do that. I do not take money from these companies. I do not earn any money on the sales of these products.

I am just recommending them because I know them. I know that they are good quality supplements. These are the same things that I take myself, and these are what I recommend. In many cases the best place to get your supplements is online.

By the way, you can see many of my reviews of which supplements I recommend right here on www.NaturalNews.com. We have recommendations from time to time. None of them are paid recommendations.

It is all just honest independent unbiased information about what I think is best for supporting your health, for preventing disease and so on. Where is the best place to buy supplements? The answer is that some places sell garbage and I would not recommend it even to an animal. Other places sell very high-end supplements. You have to be able to tell the difference.

Keep reading and I will teach you how to look for some of the key ingredients. In fact, we are going to cover that in the next segment coming up here. We are also going to answer the question, "What are the best nutritional products for kids?"

It is tough to get kids to have a lot of great nutrition sometimes, is it not? They don't want to eat the things that you want them to eat. I know how that works but before we get to that, I want to give you a tip here on how to check a vitamin supplement for the right ingredients and there is a trick there is a secret that I will share with you right now.

How to determine quality of supplements

If you have a piece of paper be ready to write this down. Every multi-vitamin on the market contains a vitamin called "B-12." You have heard of B-12, right? It is a very important vitamin.

Well, there are several different forms of B-12 and the form of B-12 that appears on the vitamin label tells you a lot about whether that company is using quality ingredients or cheap ingredients. If you pick up any vitamin bottle anywhere in retail, at a health food store or anywhere just look at their form of vitamin B-12.

Here is the form you don't want to see. It is called cyanocobalamin. The way to remember this is that it begins with cyano, which is like cyanide. Cyanide is a poison, right?

This cyanocobalamin is a cyanide molecule joined with cobalamin. This becomes a form of B-12 that is used by all the cheap vitamin companies out there. This is the cheap form. You don't want this in your body not in my opinion.

Look for it, if you see cyanocobalamin as the B-12 then you know that is not really a high-grade nutritional supplement. It is probably a cheap supplement. They probably have cheap forms of all the other ingredients too.

I would not personally recommend it. I would not take it. However, there are other forms. The two forms you want to look for are methylcobalamin and hydroxocobalamin.

Now these two forms methyl and hydroxo are far more expensive because they are more advanced forms of this vitamin B-12. They are more readily available to your body. Your body can use them without having to donate energy to the chemical reaction that is necessary to free them from their current chemical bonds.

I don't want to get too technical but the bottom line is that these forms of cobalamin or vitamin B-12 actually donate energy to your cells instead of stealing energy from your cells. Have you ever taken a cheap vitamin supplement and then you felt tired afterwards? That's because many of the forms of the B-vitamins actually steal energy from your body in order to be processed by your body. You don't want that, and you certainly don't want cyanide molecules in your body.

You want the B-12 that is called pre-methylated or methylated. That is where you get the methylcobalamin or the hydroxocobalamin. Those are the things to look for. Again, you can go to any store a health food store, a grocery store any place that you might buy vitamins.

You can pick up that bottle, look for the vitamin B-12 on the label, and find out what form of B-12 it really is. If it is cyano, you don't want it. Leave it on the shelf. If it is hydroxo or methyl then you do want it. That means it is a very high quality nutritional supplement.

Now, of course, this does not tell you everything about the supplement. This is just one aspect of it, but it is a good clue. It tells you whether the manufacturer of that supplement is actually putting money into it because the methylated form of B-12 costs, I think $5,000 or $7,000 a kilogram more than the cyano form of B-12.

I mean some of these costs $12,000 a kilo just for the raw material. That is very, very expensive. Twelve thousand a kilo that is a lot of money. You have to look for the quality ingredients and they are going to cost money but if you are spending your money on vitamins then, of course, you do want those quality ingredients.

How to turn your kid into a nutritional powerhouse

All right, now let's move onto the question of what are the best nutritional products for kids as this is always a challenge. I hear it all the time. People say, "Well, Mike, the stuff you recommend my kid won't eat it or they won't drink it. What can I get my kids to eat or drink that is actually good for them?"

Well, fortunately there are some wonderful products on the market now just for kids. One out there I will recommend called "Amazing Grass" funny name but it is based on a mineral-rich grass complex with chocolate flavoring.

It is available as a powder and it is a superfood powder with lots of vitamins and minerals in it. You can find that at www.AmazingGrass.com. Again, I am not paid to recommend these companies. These are just companies that I know about because I have done the research.

Another product that I really recommend is called "X-Balance." It is just the letter "X" with the word "balance" after it and it is made by a company called "SGN Nutrition" and you can find it on a website called www.EmeraldBalance.com. I actually did an interview with the president of that company the founder a woman named Jan Lovejoy. She will be on my radio show later. Our exclusive live interview will be running on The Health Ranger Show.

Her product is one that I have actually used for a long time but it is delicious. It is a great formula for kids. It's like chocolate milk. It's a powder in a canister and you just mix it in with whatever milk you are drinking.

It is called "X-Balance," and it is delicious. I actually gave some to a neighbor where I live who had some children, and they loved it. It was just the perfect product.

There is another company out there called www.SimplyHealthyKids.com. They make a brand new product. You are going to be the first to hear about this. No one has ever reported on this yet because I just tasted the samples about five days ago.

They are not even on the market yet. In fact, when you go to their website, you might not find these yet but they are chocolate treats for kids that are rich in Omega-3 oils. Now how rare is that?

You see Omega-3 oils are very difficult to get kids to eat because many times they are in the form of fish oils and kids don't want to drink cod liver oil. They aren't going to buy that especially not today's kids. They want something that tastes good. They want something that to them seems like candy.

Health food your kids will beg for

Well, this company, www.SimplyHealthKids.com, has created this candy. It is like a chocolate morsel but it is rich in Omega-3's because it has Chia seeds inside. It has this healthy chocolate, this cacao powder and then it has Chia seeds and it is sweetened with Agave nectar. It is low glycemic. It is great for kids. I am, in fact, going to be recommending that product down the road with a feature article and all that.

Actually, I am giving that company an award a www.NaturalNews.com award for the best kids' superfood product. It is that good. Check it out. I hope that they have it in stock by now. I cannot guarantee it. It is not my company and it is somewhat early but you can check them out at www.SimplyHealthyKids.com and see if they have that ready or not.

Overall, the big news about this question in particular is what can I give my kids that is good for them? There are many, many products on the market now that really taste delicious. You don't have to settle for the junk out there.

There are many junk vitamins, children's vitamins that are made with artificial coloring chemicals derived from petrochemicals. Are you kidding me? You want to feed your kids petrochemicals made from oil? Give me a break. That is what the artificial colors are made from, by the way.

You don't have to settle for that anymore. There are great products on the market. Go to a health food store and ask them. What is great for kids? What do kids like?

There are food bars. There are these chocolate morsels. There are superfoods for kids that are outstanding they exist now. All you have to do is go out and ask for them and then try them and see what your kids will drink.

The kind of information that I love to share with you and in this article we have been talking about myths about nutritional supplements. We have been talking about what supplements to buy, which ones to avoid and what supplements are best for children.

Almost all disease is preventable

Someone asked me, "Why are some of these supplement companies using these cheap ingredients these days?" Well, the answer is and you will not believe this the drug companies are getting into the vitamin business. Yes, they are because the drug companies see that people are turning to nutrition to prevent disease.

They know that if people get enough good nutrition then they don't need pharmaceuticals because they don't develop cancer. They don't develop heart disease. They don't develop diabetes. Those diseases are not genetic, friends. They are not.

Medicine tries to scare people into thinking that they can't do anything to control their own health or their own diseases. That is just a scare tactic. That is an enslavement tactic, you might say, but it is not true.

Out of all the cancers, perhaps only 2% have any real genetic component. The other 98% of all the cancers that afflict people are completely preventable and in nearly all cases in my opinion curable. That is right, curable. We could eliminate 98% of the cancer in this country and in this world right now if we turned to nutrition.

Why Big Pharma wants to make your vitamins

Well, the drug companies have figured this out too and they realize that as more people take vitamins good quality vitamins and as more people eat superfoods and get sunlight and vitamin D and fish oils and all these things that their revenues are going to fall because fewer people will need pharmaceuticals, fewer people will be sick. These companies, they are not stupid. They want to make money one way or another so they are getting into the vitamin business, but they are not doing it in an ethical way, by the way.

They are getting into the vitamin business and they are creating cheap, low-grade vitamins that in my opinion do almost nothing to help keep people healthy. Now there are the conspiracy theorists out there who say this is on purpose that the drug companies are actually trying to keep people sick.

Frankly, that is not hard to believe. It really isn't if you understand how evil those corporations are and the complete lack of ethics that they operate under. It is not hard to believe that they would actually go out of their way and do something to poison the population or keep people sick.
That is not the position I am taking right here right now. We will leave that for another time. I am just saying matter of fact that those supplements, those vitamins made by pharmaceutical companies are low-grade supplements that really have virtually no health benefits.

High-quality supplements exist for those who seek them

If you want health benefits, you have to get supplements made by high quality companies, and they exist. You are going to hear about many of them right here on Natural News. In fact, we are going to be interviewing many of them. I have already mentioned half a dozen in this article that I trust.

These are companies that I use and recommend to my family and friends. Companies like www.WellnessResources.com, www.BaselineNutritionals.com, www.DrinkYourVitamins.com, and www.AmazingGrass.com, and there are many, many companies out there that you can trust. They actually have good quality supplements.

It is always funny when I hear people saying bad things about the supplement industry. I always think well they don't have the whole picture. Yes, there are frauds, hoaxes in this industry but at the same time there are real answers, and there are cures for cancer in this industry that exist right now. There are cures for heart disease and we will talk about them in detail in a moment.

Active people need natural salt

Let's move onto the next question here, which is what kind of nutritional support is best for people who work out.

Do you go to the gym? Do you walk? Do you cycle or jog? If you do anything like that you have special nutritional needs. We could actually dedicate a whole article to this but I will try to give you the answer here. Most people who exercise are malnourished period because they don't understand the need to replenish their body with the things that are lost through exercise.

The number one thing that people lose through exercise, and this is going to shock you because I know it goes against everything that you have heard out there in the mainstream media, but most people who exercise and try to eat healthy actually have a salt deficiency. Now hear me out on this. When I say a salt deficiency, I mean a natural, unprocessed salt deficiency. Yes, people are getting too much processed salt. That is just sodium. That is in all the processed foods. They get too much of that. I agree!

People are not getting enough full spectrum salt, the unprocessed salt that is enriched naturally with as many as 92 different elements, different minerals and trace minerals. You will find those in products like Celtic sea salt or there is a company called "Royal Himalayan Crystal Salt."

There are many unprocessed salts out there and that is what you are lacking when you are exercising. Do you know why? Because you are sweating out your salts, when you sweat it is salty, right? Have you ever sweated and it ran into your lips and you tasted it and it is salty? Right, because you are losing salt. Well, your body does not need Gatorade. You don't need cheap processed foods and beverages to replenish that salt. What you need is salt, unprocessed salt like Celtic sea salt. That is what your body really needs.

That is why a lot of athletes after they exercise they start craving salty junk foods. They start craving chips or pizza because cheese is really, salty. They start craving something that is salty. That is their body telling them that they need more salt.

After you exercise, you can actually replenish your body by simply putting some salt in some water and drinking slightly salted water preferably with some superfood powder in it. Some greens powder or a www.DrinkYourVitamins.com type of powder or some of these others that we will be talking about.

Then you are going to replenish the salts that you need and you are going to end those cravings for junk food. Athletes need to be especially aware and not just athletes. I mean anybody who works out, even if you are just walking up and down the stairs, and you are working up a sweat. Then you need some extra salt.

Now you might say "Wait a minute, wait a minute. My doctor said I have too much salt. I need to cut down salt in my diet." Well, if that is true you are eating too much processed food.

If you are getting too much salt in your diet then you are making the wrong choices on your food in the first place because the natural foods, the produce that you know you are supposed to be eating the fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, superfoods, natural beverages and so on, they don't have very much salt.

In fact, in my diet I actually have to add salt to my diet because if I don't I get into a state of salt deficiency very quickly because I am not eating processed junk foods. I would not even touch canned soup, which is very high in sodium.

I don't go to McDonald's and order French fries. You have to think about the big picture here. What does your diet consist of right now, and if it is too salty then you need to cut those processed foods out of your diet. You need to start doing exercise and supplementing with quality unprocessed salt. That is the way to find balance with your body and athletes need to know that more than anybody else does.

Nutrition helps your body cope with stress

Well, here is the other thing that you need to know if you are exercising. The fact that you are pushing weights or doing cardio or whatever you are doing for exercise, it means that you are putting extra stress on your body.

Now that stress becomes a chemical or biological stress. It means that you have greater nutritional needs than someone who does not exercise. I have seen many cases where people exercise a lot but they don't supplement with the right nutrition and their body begins to break down and it rapidly age. Have you ever seen that?

Have you ever seen somebody in the gym who looks a lot older than they should because they over-exercise and they under-supplement? Think about this. If you exercise your body, you need to supplement your chemistry. Exercise and supplements need to go hand-in-hand because you have these extra stresses placed on your biochemistry so you need to supplement with superfoods, B-vitamins, minerals and trace minerals. You need more calcium and magnesium than someone who does not exercise.

You need more food than someone who does not exercise but you can't just give yourself raw calories. You have to have food with the nutrition present. This is my number one advice to anyone who is exercising out there that you need to be on superfoods.

Just every morning blend up a superfood breakfast, use some of the superfood products that I recommend as I mention on this website. Emerald Balance is one of them. I recommend Jay Robb's protein powders. He has the best tasting natural whey protein and egg protein on the market.

By the way, I am interviewing Jay Robb on The Health Ranger Show later on so you will hear that in a future episode. There are many great products on the market. You just have to go out there and get them and make them part of your habit because your exercise does not end when you leave the gym. That is just the beginning of your body's adaptive response. Does that make sense?

You can't respond. You can't build more muscle. You can't build a stronger immune system unless you have the raw materials that your body needs. You get that through superfood supplementation. You get that through quality vitamins, not junk vitamins. Not through the junk that you find out there in retail full of binders and excipients that you cannot even digest. I am not talking about that.

I am talking about the quality supplements that I recommend. The ones that I review, the ones you will hear about on this show. That is what you need. Hey, look I am 38 years old and I exercise sometimes two or three hours a day. I am in great shape.

Doing what healthy people do

When I was 30, I was in lousy shape. I was overweight. I was borderline diabetic. I was depressed. I was in chronic pain. I ate at McDonald's and I did not take vitamins.

Life sucked eight years ago for me. I turned that around using the same information I am sharing with you right here on this show. This is what works, folks! You know what they say, if you want to be healthy do what the healthy people do. It makes sense. If you want to be unhealthy, go do what all the unhealthy doctors do.

Many doctors out there are not very healthy. There are many people working at pharmacies who are not very healthy. There are many patients standing in line at the pharmacy that are not very healthy. If you want to have health like those people, go do what they do.

Do you know what they do? They take many pharmaceuticals. They avoid exercise. They eat like garbage. They don't take care of their bodies. If you want those results, go do what they do. It is a very easy recipe.

If you want outstanding results, if you want to have a mind and body that works for you, if you want to feel great, energetic, and optimistic about your future then do what the healthy people do, and I guarantee you the healthy people are all eating superfoods. They are taking high quality nutritional supplements, they are choosing their food very carefully, they are exercising, they are getting sunshine, and they are drinking clean water. They are not drinking tap water no way.

Do what the healthy people do if you want to get the results that the healthy people are getting. It only makes sense. By the way, there is no judgment in any of this. I don't care if you are in the worst shape of your life. There is no judgment on you whatsoever.

I used to be in that position. I used to be right there overweight, depressed, hopeless, following a terrible diet. It does not matter where you are now because you can always get to the next higher step tomorrow.

Taking health one step at a time

You can always improve your life one thing at a time. Even if you are the sickest you have ever been, even if you are on 12 different meds you can find a new level of health in your life by turning to nutrition and superfoods and exercise and sunshine and even things like positive thinking or prayer all of these things can work in your favor. You can turn your life around. People do it all the time.

It is just a process. You put one foot in front of the other. You make a new decision each day that you get up. You say today I am no longer going to drink sodas or today I am no longer going to have artificial sweeteners in my diet or I am going to give up eating red meat and steak and beef and hamburgers because I know how terrible those are for my health. You could say anything like that along those lines.

You could say today I am going to start drinking superfoods for breakfast every day or today I am going to start doing the nutritional supplementation that I know is good for me. Today I am going to make a change for the better and when you do that friends, you take control of your health journey from that point forward.

Instead of leaving your health results up to someone else outside of you who does not have your best interests at heart like a doctor or a corporation or an insurance company or a drug company. Instead of leaving your fate to these organizations, you take control of your fate. You make that journey your journey, and you control the outcome. That is what this show is all about it is showing you how to control your outcome, putting you back in the driver's seat, putting you back in control so that you can create the health results that you want.

You don't have to live in fear

Do you want to be free from chronic pain for the rest of your life? There is a way to do that. Do you want to reduce your cancer risk to near zero because the industry has you afraid that you are going to be diagnosed with breast cancer or prostate cancer someday? Do you want to be rid of that fear for the rest of your life?

There is a way to do that. I can show you how to do that. I can show you how to eliminate virtually eliminate all risk of cancer. Do you want to be free of diabetes? Do you want to have a healthy body weight? Do you want to look good and feel good?

You could do all that. It is all within your grasp. It just comes down to your decision of what you wish to do.

I am happy to share this kind of information with you. That is the potential that we have just through nutrition. Nutrition is amazing. It is Mother Nature's medicine. This is the medicine that God and Mother Nature intended for us to consume. These are the medicines that we are naturally compatible with.

We lived for thousands and thousands of years around these plants. Our ancestors lived around these plants and these medicines and that is why they are compatible with our bodies.

This whole system of western medicine conventional pharmaceutical medicine has not been around very long. It will not be around very long because it is a disaster. It is killing people. Do you realize that conventional medicine has killed more people in this country than terrorists by a huge factor?

Conventional medicine is killing 100,000 Americans a year. That is over twice as many Americans that died in the entire Vietnam War twice as many every year right here in this country killed by pharmaceuticals.

Those are pharmaceuticals that are approved by the FDA, but we can save that many lives through nutrition. Nutrition can turn that around and that is why I do what I do right here on Natural News. That is why I am glad to have you as a listener. I really hope you enjoyed the information we covered here today.

Common Questions About Nutritional Supplements

The Health Ranger Answers Common Questions About Nutritional Supplements (transcript)

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews) The following is a transcript of a broadcast of The Health Ranger Show. You can find the downloadable audio of this program here: http://www.naturalnews.com/Index-Po...

What is the biggest myth about nutritional supplements? You've often wondered about that haven't you? There is a lot of hype about supplements out there. There's also a lot of effort to discredit certain supplements like vitamin E. We will talk about vitamin E in a future show. This natural vitamin can be found in nuts and seeds. Unfortunately, the conventional medical industry is trying to discredit it scaring people into not taking vitamin E.

The fact is the tests that they are running are using a synthetic form of vitamin E – not the natural form that exists in nature. That is why they are getting bad results. We will talk about that in more detail later.

In my opinion the biggest myth about nutritional supplements is in thinking that you can still live a lousy lifestyle – a poor health lifestyle smoking and avoiding exercise and eating junk foods, fried foods, and many animal products and so on, and yet you can somehow counteract that with a few nutritional supplements per day. This is the biggest myth in my opinion.

People think they can go out and eat fast food all day long. They can abuse their bodies and then if they take one multi-vitamin a day somehow it is going to counteract all that. That is just nonsense, folks. That is the biggest myth – nutritional supplements do not make up for all the other behavior. If you are smoking cigarettes, for example, the single best thing that you can do for your health is to quit smoking – not take vitamins.

Now, of course, if you smoke and you take vitamins the vitamins are going to offer some protection, but not nearly as much as if you were to just stop smoking. If you were to do both – that is if you were to stop smoking and start taking the right nutritional supplements – then you would have really good health happening at that point. You would have a lot of protection for the organs and the cells and tissues in your body. That is what you want to do.

I have seen people who think well I am going to go out and eat all this junk food. I'm going to avoid exercise and avoid sunlight so they are not getting the vitamin D and then they are taking pharmaceuticals. They are getting all the negative side effects of those pharmaceuticals – the anti-depressants, the statin drugs, the cholesterol drugs, the blood pressure drugs and so on, and then they think "Oh, well I will drink some green tea today and I will take a cheap multi-vitamin that I bought at Costco or Wal-Mart."

They think that is going to counteract all that. It just does not work that way, folks. A vitamin does not excuse you from the responsibility of acting with integrity with your own health. If you want to be healthy, you have to engage in regular exercise. You have to eat right – that means you should make food the foundation of your health.

I mean unprocessed food. Healthy, fresh produce, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds and nutritional supplements – that is the way you are going to get the maximum health benefits and actually prevent disease. That is the number one biggest myth about nutritional supplements in my opinion.

Not all supplements are created equal

All right, let's go onto the next question. People ask me this one all the time. Where is the best place to buy nutritional supplements? That is a good question. People see vitamins on sale at Walgreens or pharmacies or Wal-Mart or other retail outlets and they wonder what is really in these supplements.

Well, the answer is really quite simple. If you are buying vitamins at retail, and you are not buying them at a health food store or a health food section in a grocery store for example, most of what you are buying is probably garbage.

It is probably useless garbage, and I say that as an advocate of nutrition. I take many vitamins every single day. I eat many superfoods every day. I would not dare touch those products sold at Wal-Mart or Walgreens or Costco or Sam's Club – any of those. I would not touch those. You know why? Because I read the ingredients on them. In my opinion, they are garbage – just garbage.

I will give you an example. I was at Costco one time. I saw a big bottle of fish oil supplements, and we all know that fish oils can enhance health. They help prevent heart disease. They are rich in Omega-3 oils and a very healthy supplement if it is a quality supplement, but I looked at this particular product and I read the ingredients.

It said this "each capsule contained only 4 mg. of actual fish oil extract and the rest of the capsule was filled with soybean oil and one bottle I saw was actually made with partially hydrogenated soybean oil, which means it contains trans fatty acids that actually damage your heart health.

Here was a supplement being sold as a benefit for cardiovascular health that said it contained fish oil, but if you look inside what it really contained was trans fatty acids, which are poison for the heart. It is just crazy to think that people are going in there and buying those pills, taking them home, eating them, and thinking that they are helping their heart when in reality they are poisoning themselves in my opinion.

I saw that at Costco. I think they have since changed the formula because of all the bad publicity about trans fatty acids and hydrogenated oils but just the fact that they used to carry that is a good clue that tells you that you probably should not buy your vitamins at Costco. You probably should not get vitamins from a general store.

Good quality comes from good sources

Now, if you go into a health food store that is a completely different picture. There you are going to find the quality vitamins, the quality supplements, and the ones that I would openly recommend. You are going to find many companies there making good quality supplements. New Chapter is one company that does a good job but you know where the best values are for vitamins? They are actually found online.

That is because the online companies can sell direct to consumers, and they don't have to have the huge markups of the retail establishments because health food stores, of course, have to mark-up their products to stay in business. That is perfectly acceptable and I really do support local health food stores. I hope you go there and support them as well because we need those. Sometimes, when you want a great deal on the right supplement, the best place to go is online.

Buying them directly from those companies, I know many of these companies. I have interviewed over a hundred so some that I recommend are www.WellnessResources.com – that is a good one. Jon Barron has a company called www.BaselineNutritionals.com.

There are superfoods available at a company called www.GoodCauseWellness.com. There is a great company making drinkable vitamins. You just mix their powder with water and it is high quality stuff – very high end. They are called Ola Loa, and you can find them at www.DrinkYourVitamins.com.

By the way, I haven't been paid to promote any of these companies. You know I don't do that. I do not take money from these companies. I do not earn any money on the sales of these products.

I am just recommending them because I know them. I know that they are good quality supplements. These are the same things that I take myself, and these are what I recommend. In many cases the best place to get your supplements is online.

By the way, you can see many of my reviews of which supplements I recommend right here on www.NaturalNews.com. We have recommendations from time to time. None of them are paid recommendations.

It is all just honest independent unbiased information about what I think is best for supporting your health, for preventing disease and so on. Where is the best place to buy supplements? The answer is that some places sell garbage and I would not recommend it even to an animal. Other places sell very high-end supplements. You have to be able to tell the difference.

Keep reading and I will teach you how to look for some of the key ingredients. In fact, we are going to cover that in the next segment coming up here. We are also going to answer the question, "What are the best nutritional products for kids?"

It is tough to get kids to have a lot of great nutrition sometimes, is it not? They don't want to eat the things that you want them to eat. I know how that works but before we get to that, I want to give you a tip here on how to check a vitamin supplement for the right ingredients and there is a trick – there is a secret that I will share with you right now.

How to determine quality of supplements

If you have a piece of paper be ready to write this down. Every multi-vitamin on the market contains a vitamin called "B-12." You have heard of B-12, right? It is a very important vitamin.

Well, there are several different forms of B-12 and the form of B-12 that appears on the vitamin label tells you a lot about whether that company is using quality ingredients or cheap ingredients. If you pick up any vitamin bottle anywhere – in retail, at a health food store or anywhere just look at their form of vitamin B-12.

Here is the form you don't want to see. It is called cyanocobalamin. The way to remember this is that it begins with cyano, which is like cyanide. Cyanide is a poison, right?

This cyanocobalamin is a cyanide molecule joined with cobalamin. This becomes a form of B-12 that is used by all the cheap vitamin companies out there. This is the cheap form. You don't want this in your body – not in my opinion.

Look for it, if you see cyanocobalamin as the B-12 then you know that is not really a high-grade nutritional supplement. It is probably a cheap supplement. They probably have cheap forms of all the other ingredients too.

I would not personally recommend it. I would not take it. However, there are other forms. The two forms you want to look for are methylcobalamin and hydroxocobalamin.

Now these two forms – methyl and hydroxo – are far more expensive because they are more advanced forms of this vitamin B-12. They are more readily available to your body. Your body can use them without having to donate energy to the chemical reaction that is necessary to free them from their current chemical bonds.

I don't want to get too technical but the bottom line is that these forms of cobalamin or vitamin B-12 actually donate energy to your cells instead of stealing energy from your cells. Have you ever taken a cheap vitamin supplement and then you felt tired afterwards? That's because many of the forms of the B-vitamins actually steal energy from your body in order to be processed by your body. You don't want that, and you certainly don't want cyanide molecules in your body.

You want the B-12 that is called pre-methylated or methylated. That is where you get the methylcobalamin or the hydroxocobalamin. Those are the things to look for. Again, you can go to any store – a health food store, a grocery store – any place that you might buy vitamins.

You can pick up that bottle, look for the vitamin B-12 on the label, and find out what form of B-12 it really is. If it is cyano, you don't want it. Leave it on the shelf. If it is hydroxo or methyl then you do want it. That means it is a very high quality nutritional supplement.

Now, of course, this does not tell you everything about the supplement. This is just one aspect of it, but it is a good clue. It tells you whether the manufacturer of that supplement is actually putting money into it because the methylated form of B-12 costs, I think $5,000 or $7,000 a kilogram more than the cyano form of B-12.

I mean some of these costs $12,000 a kilo just for the raw material. That is very, very expensive. Twelve thousand a kilo – that is a lot of money. You have to look for the quality ingredients and they are going to cost money but if you are spending your money on vitamins then, of course, you do want those quality ingredients.

How to turn your kid into a nutritional powerhouse

All right, now let's move onto the question of what are the best nutritional products for kids as this is always a challenge. I hear it all the time. People say, "Well, Mike, the stuff you recommend – my kid won't eat it or they won't drink it. What can I get my kids to eat or drink that is actually good for them?"

Well, fortunately there are some wonderful products on the market now just for kids. One out there I will recommend called "Amazing Grass" – funny name but it is based on a mineral-rich grass complex with chocolate flavoring.

It is available as a powder and it is a superfood powder with lots of vitamins and minerals in it. You can find that at www.AmazingGrass.com. Again, I am not paid to recommend these companies. These are just companies that I know about because I have done the research.

Another product that I really recommend is called "X-Balance." It is just the letter "X" with the word "balance" after it and it is made by a company called "SGN Nutrition" and you can find it on a website called www.EmeraldBalance.com. I actually did an interview with the president of that company – the founder – a woman named Jan Lovejoy. She will be on my radio show later. Our exclusive live interview will be running on The Health Ranger Show.

Her product is one that I have actually used for a long time but it is delicious. It is a great formula for kids. It's like chocolate milk. It's a powder in a canister and you just mix it in with whatever milk you are drinking.

It is called "X-Balance," and it is delicious. I actually gave some to a neighbor where I live who had some children, and they loved it. It was just the perfect product.

There is another company out there called www.SimplyHealthyKids.com. They make a brand new product. You are going to be the first to hear about this. No one has ever reported on this yet because I just tasted the samples about five days ago.

They are not even on the market yet. In fact, when you go to their website, you might not find these yet but they are chocolate treats for kids that are rich in Omega-3 oils. Now how rare is that?

You see Omega-3 oils are very difficult to get kids to eat because many times they are in the form of fish oils and kids don't want to drink cod liver oil. They aren't going to buy that – especially not today's kids. They want something that tastes good. They want something that to them seems like candy.

Health food your kids will beg for

Well, this company, www.SimplyHealthKids.com, has created this candy. It is like a chocolate morsel but it is rich in Omega-3's because it has Chia seeds inside. It has this healthy chocolate, this cacao powder and then it has Chia seeds and it is sweetened with Agave nectar. It is low glycemic. It is great for kids. I am, in fact, going to be recommending that product down the road with a feature article and all that.

Actually, I am giving that company an award – a www.NaturalNews.com award for the best kids' superfood product. It is that good. Check it out. I hope that they have it in stock by now. I cannot guarantee it. It is not my company and it is somewhat early but you can check them out at www.SimplyHealthyKids.com and see if they have that ready or not.

Overall, the big news about this question in particular is what can I give my kids that is good for them? There are many, many products on the market now that really taste delicious. You don't have to settle for the junk out there.

There are many junk vitamins, children's vitamins that are made with artificial coloring chemicals derived from petrochemicals. Are you kidding me? You want to feed your kids petrochemicals made from oil? Give me a break. That is what the artificial colors are made from, by the way.

You don't have to settle for that anymore. There are great products on the market. Go to a health food store and ask them. What is great for kids? What do kids like?

There are food bars. There are these chocolate morsels. There are superfoods for kids that are outstanding – they exist now. All you have to do is go out and ask for them and then try them and see what your kids will drink.

The kind of information that I love to share with you and in this article we have been talking about myths about nutritional supplements. We have been talking about what supplements to buy, which ones to avoid and what supplements are best for children.

Almost all disease is preventable

Someone asked me, "Why are some of these supplement companies using these cheap ingredients these days?" Well, the answer is – and you will not believe this – the drug companies are getting into the vitamin business. Yes, they are because the drug companies see that people are turning to nutrition to prevent disease.

They know that if people get enough good nutrition then they don't need pharmaceuticals because they don't develop cancer. They don't develop heart disease. They don't develop diabetes. Those diseases are not genetic, friends. They are not.

Medicine tries to scare people into thinking that they can't do anything to control their own health or their own diseases. That is just a scare tactic. That is an enslavement tactic, you might say, but it is not true.

Out of all the cancers, perhaps only 2% have any real genetic component. The other 98% of all the cancers that afflict people are completely preventable and in nearly all cases – in my opinion – curable. That is right – curable. We could eliminate 98% of the cancer in this country and in this world right now if we turned to nutrition.

Why Big Pharma wants to make your vitamins

Well, the drug companies have figured this out too and they realize that as more people take vitamins – good quality vitamins and as more people eat superfoods and get sunlight and vitamin D and fish oils and all these things that their revenues are going to fall because fewer people will need pharmaceuticals – fewer people will be sick. These companies – they are not stupid. They want to make money one way or another so they are getting into the vitamin business, but they are not doing it in an ethical way, by the way.

They are getting into the vitamin business and they are creating cheap, low-grade vitamins that in my opinion do almost nothing to help keep people healthy. Now there are the conspiracy theorists out there who say this is on purpose that the drug companies are actually trying to keep people sick.

Frankly, that is not hard to believe. It really isn't if you understand how evil those corporations are and the complete lack of ethics that they operate under. It is not hard to believe that they would actually go out of their way and do something to poison the population or keep people sick.
That is not the position I am taking right here right now. We will leave that for another time. I am just saying matter of fact that those supplements – those vitamins made by pharmaceutical companies are low-grade supplements that really have virtually no health benefits.

High-quality supplements exist for those who seek them

If you want health benefits, you have to get supplements made by high quality companies, and they exist. You are going to hear about many of them right here on Natural News. In fact, we are going to be interviewing many of them. I have already mentioned half a dozen in this article that I trust.

These are companies that I use and recommend to my family and friends. Companies like www.WellnessResources.com, www.BaselineNutritionals.com, www.DrinkYourVitamins.com, and www.AmazingGrass.com, and there are many, many companies out there that you can trust. They actually have good quality supplements.

It is always funny when I hear people saying bad things about the supplement industry. I always think well they don't have the whole picture. Yes, there are frauds, hoaxes in this industry but at the same time there are real answers, and there are cures for cancer in this industry that exist right now. There are cures for heart disease and we will talk about them in detail in a moment.

Active people need natural salt

Let's move onto the next question here, which is what kind of nutritional support is best for people who work out.

Do you go to the gym? Do you walk? Do you cycle or jog? If you do anything like that you have special nutritional needs. We could actually dedicate a whole article to this but I will try to give you the answer here. Most people who exercise are malnourished period because they don't understand the need to replenish their body with the things that are lost through exercise.

The number one thing that people lose through exercise – and this is going to shock you because I know it goes against everything that you have heard out there in the mainstream media – but most people who exercise and try to eat healthy actually have a salt deficiency. Now hear me out on this. When I say a salt deficiency, I mean a natural, unprocessed salt deficiency. Yes, people are getting too much processed salt. That is just sodium. That is in all the processed foods. They get too much of that. I agree!

People are not getting enough full spectrum salt – the unprocessed salt that is enriched naturally with as many as 92 different elements – different minerals and trace minerals. You will find those in products like Celtic sea salt or there is a company called "Royal Himalayan Crystal Salt."

There are many unprocessed salts out there and that is what you are lacking when you are exercising. Do you know why? Because you are sweating out your salts – when you sweat it is salty, right? Have you ever sweated and it ran into your lips and you tasted it and it is salty? Right, because you are losing salt. Well, your body does not need Gatorade. You don't need cheap processed foods and beverages to replenish that salt. What you need is salt – unprocessed salt like Celtic sea salt. That is what your body really needs.

That is why a lot of athletes after they exercise they start craving salty junk foods. They start craving chips or pizza because cheese is really, salty. They start craving something that is salty. That is their body telling them that they need more salt.

After you exercise, you can actually replenish your body by simply putting some salt in some water and drinking slightly salted water preferably with some superfood powder in it. Some greens powder or a www.DrinkYourVitamins.com type of powder or some of these others that we will be talking about.

Then you are going to replenish the salts that you need and you are going to end those cravings for junk food. Athletes need to be especially aware – and not just athletes. I mean anybody who works out, even if you are just walking up and down the stairs, and you are working up a sweat. Then you need some extra salt.

Now you might say "Wait a minute, wait a minute. My doctor said I have too much salt. I need to cut down salt in my diet." Well, if that is true you are eating too much processed food.

If you are getting too much salt in your diet then you are making the wrong choices on your food in the first place because the natural foods, the produce that you know you are supposed to be eating – the fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, superfoods, natural beverages and so on – they don't have very much salt.

In fact, in my diet I actually have to add salt to my diet because if I don't I get into a state of salt deficiency very quickly because I am not eating processed junk foods. I would not even touch canned soup, which is very high in sodium.

I don't go to McDonald's and order French fries. You have to think about the big picture here. What does your diet consist of right now, and if it is too salty then you need to cut those processed foods out of your diet. You need to start doing exercise and supplementing with quality unprocessed salt. That is the way to find balance with your body and athletes need to know that more than anybody else does.

Nutrition helps your body cope with stress

Well, here is the other thing that you need to know if you are exercising. The fact that you are pushing weights or doing cardio or whatever you are doing for exercise, it means that you are putting extra stress on your body.

Now that stress becomes a chemical or biological stress. It means that you have greater nutritional needs than someone who does not exercise. I have seen many cases where people exercise a lot but they don't supplement with the right nutrition and their body begins to break down and it rapidly age. Have you ever seen that?

Have you ever seen somebody in the gym who looks a lot older than they should because they over-exercise and they under-supplement? Think about this. If you exercise your body, you need to supplement your chemistry. Exercise and supplements need to go hand-in-hand because you have these extra stresses placed on your biochemistry so you need to supplement with superfoods, B-vitamins, minerals and trace minerals. You need more calcium and magnesium than someone who does not exercise.

You need more food than someone who does not exercise but you can't just give yourself raw calories. You have to have food with the nutrition present. This is my number one advice to anyone who is exercising out there that you need to be on superfoods.

Just every morning blend up a superfood breakfast, use some of the superfood products that I recommend as I mention on this website – Emerald Balance is one of them. I recommend Jay Robb's protein powders. He has the best tasting natural whey protein and egg protein on the market.

By the way, I am interviewing Jay Robb on The Health Ranger Show later on so you will hear that in a future episode. There are many great products on the market. You just have to go out there and get them and make them part of your habit because your exercise does not end when you leave the gym. That is just the beginning of your body's adaptive response. Does that make sense?

You can't respond. You can't build more muscle. You can't build a stronger immune system unless you have the raw materials that your body needs. You get that through superfood supplementation. You get that through quality vitamins, not junk vitamins. Not through the junk that you find out there in retail full of binders and excipients that you cannot even digest – I am not talking about that.

I am talking about the quality supplements that I recommend. The ones that I review, the ones you will hear about on this show. That is what you need. Hey, look I am 38 years old and I exercise sometimes two or three hours a day. I am in great shape.

Doing what healthy people do

When I was 30, I was in lousy shape. I was overweight. I was borderline diabetic. I was depressed. I was in chronic pain. I ate at McDonald's and I did not take vitamins.

Life sucked eight years ago for me. I turned that around using the same information I am sharing with you right here on this show. This is what works, folks! You know what they say, if you want to be healthy do what the healthy people do. It makes sense. If you want to be unhealthy, go do what all the unhealthy doctors do.

Many doctors out there are not very healthy. There are many people working at pharmacies who are not very healthy. There are many patients standing in line at the pharmacy that are not very healthy. If you want to have health like those people, go do what they do.

Do you know what they do? They take many pharmaceuticals. They avoid exercise. They eat like garbage. They don't take care of their bodies. If you want those results, go do what they do. It is a very easy recipe.

If you want outstanding results, if you want to have a mind and body that works for you, if you want to feel great, energetic, and optimistic about your future then do what the healthy people do, and I guarantee you the healthy people are all eating superfoods. They are taking high quality nutritional supplements, they are choosing their food very carefully, they are exercising, they are getting sunshine, and they are drinking clean water. They are not drinking tap water – no way.

Do what the healthy people do if you want to get the results that the healthy people are getting. It only makes sense. By the way, there is no judgment in any of this. I don't care if you are in the worst shape of your life. There is no judgment on you whatsoever.

I used to be in that position. I used to be right there – overweight, depressed, hopeless, following a terrible diet. It does not matter where you are now because you can always get to the next higher step tomorrow.

Taking health one step at a time

You can always improve your life one thing at a time. Even if you are the sickest you have ever been, even if you are on 12 different meds you can find a new level of health in your life by turning to nutrition and superfoods and exercise and sunshine and even things like positive thinking or prayer – all of these things can work in your favor. You can turn your life around. People do it all the time.

It is just a process. You put one foot in front of the other. You make a new decision each day that you get up. You say today I am no longer going to drink sodas or today I am no longer going to have artificial sweeteners in my diet or I am going to give up eating red meat and steak and beef and hamburgers because I know how terrible those are for my health. You could say anything like that – along those lines.

You could say today I am going to start drinking superfoods for breakfast every day or today I am going to start doing the nutritional supplementation that I know is good for me. Today I am going to make a change for the better and when you do that friends, you take control of your health journey from that point forward.

Instead of leaving your health results up to someone else outside of you who does not have your best interests at heart like a doctor or a corporation or an insurance company or a drug company. Instead of leaving your fate to these organizations, you take control of your fate. You make that journey your journey, and you control the outcome. That is what this show is all about – it is showing you how to control your outcome, putting you back in the driver's seat, putting you back in control so that you can create the health results that you want.

You don't have to live in fear

Do you want to be free from chronic pain for the rest of your life? There is a way to do that. Do you want to reduce your cancer risk to near zero because the industry has you afraid that you are going to be diagnosed with breast cancer or prostate cancer someday? Do you want to be rid of that fear for the rest of your life? There is a way to do that. I can show you how to do that. I can show you how to eliminate – virtually eliminate all risk of cancer. Do you want to be free of diabetes? Do you want to have a healthy body weight? Do you want to look good and feel good? You could do all that. It is all within your grasp. It just comes down to your decision of what you wish to do. I am happy to share this kind of information with you. That is the potential that we have – just through nutrition. Nutrition is amazing. It is Mother Nature's medicine. This is the medicine that God and Mother Nature intended for us to consume. These are the medicines that we are naturally compatible with. We lived for thousands and thousands of years around these plants. Our ancestors lived around these plants and these medicines and that is why they are compatible with our bodies. This whole system of western medicine – conventional pharmaceutical medicine – has not been around very long. It will not be around very long because it is a disaster. It is killing people. Do you realize that conventional medicine has killed more people in this country than terrorists by a huge factor? Conventional medicine is killing 100,000 Americans a year. That is over twice as many Americans that died in the entire Vietnam War – twice as many every year right here in this country killed by pharmaceuticals. Those are pharmaceuticals that are approved by the FDA, but we can save that many lives through nutrition. Nutrition can turn that around and that is why I do what I do right here on Natural News. That is why I am glad to have you as a listener. I really hope you enjoyed the information we covered here today.