Calcium Supplements

Calcium is usually associated with strong bones, but did you know that calcium is also vital for regulating your heartbeat, conducting nerve impulses, stimulating the secretion of hormones and blood clotting?

Even when you are already fully grown you will still need calcium in order to survive, and EVERYDAY the body is losing this precious mineral through the skin, nails, hair, sweat urine and feces

The U.S. recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for calcium is 1,000 to 1,200 mg (milligrams). Aside from milk and other dairy products, calcium can be taken from soybean products, sardines, blackstrap molasses, spinach, Chinese cabbage and clams. Most Americans, however, do not get enough calcium from their diets, thus making calcium supplements necessary.

If you do not replace your lost calcium, your body will take this nutrient from your bones, thus making them weaker over time.

Calcium Supplements 101

Calcium can only exist as a compound, or if it is combined with other substances. In calcium supplements, the calcium can come in different compounds including: calcium carbonate, calcium phosphate or calcium citrate.

Since each of these compounds contain different amounts of calcium, it is important to read the label and carefully determine how much elemental calcium is actually in the supplement, and how many pills to take. Taking in high doses of calcium can cause side effects.

In choosing a calcium supplement, there are some things to consider, including:

* Purity

Choose only familiar brands of calcium supplements, and look for labels that have the purified or USP symbol (with USP standing for U.S. Pharmacopeia). Avoid supplements without the USP level because they might contain high levels of lead and/or other toxic metals.

* Absorbability

Most brand names in calcium supplements are easily absorbed by the body. If you’re not sure your calcium supplement is easily absorbable, place a small amount of the supplement in warm water for thirty minutes, stirring occasionally. If the supplement is not dissolved within 30 minutes, then it probably won’t be dissolved in your body. Your best bet for absorbability is the chewable or liquid calcium supplements. Calcium is best absorbed by the body when taken several times in a day in dosages 500 mg or less. The calcium in calcium carbonate is absorbed best with meals.

Vitamin D is necessary for absorbing calcium. Not surprisingly, many calcium supplements are prepared with Vitamin D.

Comments:

Since calcium supplements interact with other supplements, you should talk to your doctor or pharmacist about taking calcium supplements. For example, you shouldn’t take calcium at the same time as iron, unless if the iron supplement is taken with Vitamin C.

Gain Weight For Health

Because obesity has had all the publicity, it is easy to forget that some people actually need to gain weight. Sickness can lead to weight loss. Eating disorders can lead to weight loss and death from nutritional deficiencies. On the other hand, the handicapped and the elderly may find it difficult to prepare food and thus miss out on vital nutrients.

The easiest way to gain weight is to consume more calories per day than what you are actually taking. Don’t do any guess work to find out how much calories you actually need daily, talk to your nutritionist or read a nutrition guide to find out.

Your best sources of carbohydrates are fruits, vegetables (with the starchy ones packing more carbs), and whole grains and cereals. If you’re trying to gain weight, eat more whole grains like rice, but do not neglect to eat nutritious fruits and vegetables. You can add more calories to low-calorie vegetables like asparagus by topping them with shredded cheese, olive oil and almonds. Here’s are other things you can do from your end to gain more weight:

* Weight Gaining Supplements

You can also supplement your diet with weight gaining supplements, which have a lot of protein and carbohydrates in them. However, speak to your doctor about it first before taking them.

* Bigger Meal Portions

You can add more calories to your diet by adding snacks in your daily eating routine, but you can also increase your food portions. However, if a large meal makes you feel stuffed and uncomfortable, eat small portions, but eat more often.

* Exercise

The right type of exercise can help you build muscle, which gives you more body mass. Muscle-building weight lift exercises can help you gain weight.

* Healthy Fats and Oils

Your need polyunsaturated omega-3 essential fatty acids and omega-6 fatty acids to keep your hair and skin healthy. They are also important for proper neurological function. Omega-3 can be found in seafood, fish, canola oil, flax and walnuts. Omega-6 six is found in sunflower oil, safflower oil and corn oil.

Avoid eating foods with large amounts of saturated fat and trans-fats like red meat, processed meat, and fried food.

* Proteins

Eat healthy sources of protein like poultry, fish, legumes, nuts and seeds. These are rich in calories but pose no cancer risks. Eat red meat only twice a week.

Vitamin Supplements Can Waste Your Money

Vitamin and mineral supplements can be difficult to absorb by the body. The problem with today’s supplements is that they may contain synthetic vitamins, which do not easily cross from the body’s intestines into the bloodstream. Instead, these are eliminated by the body in the form of very yellow urine. Needless to say, the money you spent on supplements has just been flushed down the drain.

Your best sources of vitamins and minerals are fruits and vegetables. However, with the modern habit of eating processed foods, overcooking vegetables and feasting on fatty foods, it has become more necessary for people to take vitamin and mineral supplements.

The best form of supplements is the chelated ones. The traditional forms of vitamin supplements have a chemical structure that’s different from the vitamins in raw, unprocessed foods, and this is primary reason why most of the nutrients in one tablet just pass through the intestines and into the waste bin. On the other hand, it is easier for chelated nutritional supplements to pass through the intestinal walls and be absorbed into the blood stream.

Chelated supplements have minerals that are bound to amino acids, the building block of proteins. The process of chelation helps the minerals move more easily across the intestinal wall and into the body’s blood stream, where they are later absorbed by the body’s cells from the blood.

Once they are inside the body’s cells, vitamins and minerals then promote chemical reactions in the body that are needed for good health.

So, if you are about to buy supplement, check if the word “chelated” is on the label.

Vitamins May Be Bad For You

With so many mineral supplements on the market today, it’s not surprising to find that some people make it an excuse to neglect their diets on the misconception that the supplements are going to make up for any deficiency.

But here are some facts that you should know about vitamin supplements:

* The vitamins in supplements are NEVER well-absorbed by a malnourished body. Always eat a low-fat, high-fiber diet consisting mostly of fruits and vegetables. Do not drink so much coffee or alcohol. Neither should you take in to eating too much red meat, processed foods, or high-fat or high-sugar foods.

* Your nutritionist may recommend extra doses of a supplement for treating a mineral deficiency in the short-term. However, continuing with this treatment for too long may upset the balance of minerals in your body and cause other mineral deficiencies. It is always best to take in multiple vitamin and miner supplements.

* You should inform your doctor about the supplements or medications you are taking since different minerals, like iron and calcium, have different potential interactions with different medicines and supplements.

* You should pay attention to the tolerable upper intake level per day of a vitamin, since it indicates the maximum amount you can take of a nutrient per day without the risk of toxicity. In general, food sources are not a problem, it’s the supplements that you should be wary of.

* Large amounts of supplemental vitamin can be harmful to the bones.
* Smokers should avoid beta carotene supplements to avoid increasing the risk of lung cancer.

How Much Vitamins Do You Need?

Vitamins are grouped into the water soluble and fat-soluble group, with vitamin C and the B vitamin group belonging to water soluble group and A, D, E and K belonging to the fat-soluble group.

A vitamin is something that should be included in our diets – if we lack one from our diet or it is not properly absorbed by the body, a deficiency disease is likely to occur. But how much of each vitamins do we really need?

Recommended daily allowances or (RDA) are useful guides to knowing how much vitamins you need. However, other factors can affect how much we actually need at a particular time. These factors include:

* Gender
* Age
* Presence of disease
* Food additives and contaminants
* Environmental stress, and
* Your growth rate (teenagers generally need more vitamins)

Although vitamins are necessary for your health and well-being, taking in vitamins in dosages higher than your RDA can be harmful to your health. Below is the RDA of different vitamins for people who are 19 years and older. Tolerable Upper Limit (TLU) is the maximum that you can take for a vitamin without the risk of side effect. “M” on the table stands for Men while “W” stands for Women.

Vitamin A
RDA: ??? M: 900 mcg (3,000 IU), W: 700 mcg (2,333 IU)
TLU: ?3,000 mcg (about 10,000 IU)

Vitamin B1
RDA: M: 1.2 mg, W: 1.1 mg

Vitamin B
RDA: M: 1.3 mg, W: 1.1 mg

Vitamin B3
RDA: M: 16 mg, W: 14 mg
TLU: 35 mg

Vitamin B5
RDA: 5 mg

Vitamin B6
RDA:
19-50 years old: M: 1.3 mg, W: 1.3 mg
51 and older: M: 1.7 mg, W: 1.5 mg
TLU: ?100 mg

Vitamin B7
RDA: 30 mcg

Vitamin B6
RDA: 400 mcg
TLU: 1,000 mcg

Vitamin B12
RDA: 2.4 mcg

Vitamin C
RDA: M: 90 mg, W: 75 mg (add 35 mg for smokers)

Choline
RDA: M:550 mg, W: 425 mg
TLU: 3,500 mg

Vitamin D
RDA:
19-50 years old: 5 mcg (200 IU)
51-70 years old: 10 mcg (400 IU)
71+ years old: 15 mcg (600 IU)
TLU: 50 mcg (2,000 IU)

Vitamin E
RDA: 15 mg
TLU: 1,000 mg

Vitamin K
RDA: M: 120 mcg, W: 90 mcg

The Essential Vitamins

In order to be healthy, the body needs a whole set of diverse vitamins, minerals, bioflavonoids, and other nutrients. Although we can get them from our diets, it is virtually impossible to get them all at optimal doses through diet alone.

Nutritional experts all agree that for the body’s cells to properly function, they need 13 organic compounds and 19 inorganic elements. The most well-known vitamin group composed of the following

* Vitamin A

Vitamin A helps form and maintain healthy teeth, bones, soft tissue, mucous membranes, and skin.

* Vitamin C (ascorbic acid)

An antioxidant, vitamin C promotes healthy teeth and gums, and promotes wound healing. It also helps the body absorb iron and maintain healthy tissue.

* Vitamin D

Also known as “sunshine vitamin”, Vitamin D is made by the body after soaking in the sun. Exposure to the sun from ten to 15 minutes three times a week is enough to produce the body’s requirement. Vitamin D promotes the body’s absorption of calcium, which is essential for healthy teeth and bones. It also helps maintain proper blood levels of calcium and phosphorus.

* Vitamin E

Aso known as tocopherol, Vitamin E is an antioxidant that has a role in red blood cell formation. It also helps the body use vitamin K.

* Vitamin K

Vitamin K is essential for red blood cells to coagulate or stick together.

* Vitamin B1 (Thiamine)

Thiamine (B1) enables the body to convert carbohydrates into energy. It’s also essential for the heart to function properly and for nerve cells to be healthy.

* Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)

Riboflavin (B2) works with the other B vitamins for the body’s growth and its production of red blood cells.

* Vitamin B3 (Niacin)

Niacin helps maintain healthy skin and nerves and also helps lower bad cholesterol levels.

* Folate (Folic acid)

Folate works with vitamin B12 to form red blood cells and is essential for DNA production. It controls tissue growth and cell function. Low levels of folate during pregnancy have been linked to birth defects such as spina bifida.

* Pantothenic acid

Pantothenic acid is essential for the metabolism of food and also plays a role in hormones and cholesterol production.

* Biotin

Biotin is essential for metabolizing proteins and carbohydrates, and producing hormones and cholesterol.

* Vitamin B6

Also known as pyridoxine, Vitamin B6 is essential for the body to utilize the protein it consumes. It also helps form red blood cells and in maintaining brain function.

* Vitamin B12

Like the other vitamins in the B family, Vitamin B12 is important for metabolism and helps form red blood cells and maintain the body’s central nervous system.