Vitamins and Supplements

Vitamins, herbs, and supplements play an important role in our health. In this lecture, you are going to learn how to base your decision to take any natural product on good evidence and how to choose the best dietary supplements. There are supplements for the brain, heart, and gut. Most importantly, supplements are just supplements—they are not a replacement for proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle. Before you start a supplement program, consult a physician.


Not everyone needs the same supplement. In addition, people do not need the same supplement all the time.

Probiotics are found in yogurt, kefir, dairy products and many other food items. A probiotic is a living organism that, when ingested in the right amounts, can have a healthy benefit on the host—a human being, in this case. Lactobacillus acidophilus is a common example of a probiotic.

One of the most serious inflammatory diseases is ulcerative colitis, which can make someone’s life miserable by causing dehydration, nausea, gas, bloating, and diarrhoea. Probiotics improve flare-ups of ulcerative colitis.

People who have gastroenteritis,´-or-inflammation of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, often experience diarrhoea, which dehydrates them as a result of the loss of fluids. They lose potassium and magnesium, which is why they feel so terrible. If they take probiotics, there is a significant reduction in the risk and duration of diarrhoea.

Antibiotics, when taken on a routine basis, can change the entire bacteria of your bowel—the flora of your intestinal tract—so much that a pathogen begins to grow, causing profound diarrhoea. Probiotics can prevent antibiotic-induced diarrhoea and help with the symptoms.

In addition, studies have shown that giving probiotics to people along with any antibiotics that they are taking has the potential to decrease morbidity, health-care costs, and mortality. This effect has been proven in children as well as adults.

Selenium, another natural supplement, was studied in the 1990s. Participants in a study that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association were given 200 mcg of selenium per day in hopes that it could protect against skin cancer. Although the selenium did not seem to have any effect on skin cancer, the study showed that prostate cancer decreased by over 50 percent and colorectal cancer decreased by over 60 percent.

Vitamin D is needed for your bones and heart. It protects your muscles, and it helps with depression and symptoms of fibromyalgia, such as muscle aching. Low levels of vitamin D can lead to calcification on the valves of the heart.

A 2008 study showed that women with breast cancer who were deficient in vitamin D—with levels less than 50 ng/ml—had a 94 percent greater chance of metastatic disease and a 73 percent greater chance of death than patients with levels over 50 ng/ml.

Taking four grams of omega-3 fish oil will lower your triglycerides—which is the form of fat that comes from sugar and white foods—by 45 percent.

Niacin is a B vitamin that is used to correct a very important cholesterol abnormality. It raises the good cholesterol,´-or-HDL.

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