Vitamin Trader - Healthy Discounts on Quality Vitamins

Michael Schwartz founded Michael’s Naturopathics in 1976, and has created many of the formulas used in the Michael’s product line, combining nutrients and herbs according to naturopathic principles. This is the first of a two-part discussion, Part 2 will be published in the "The Vitamin Trader - November 2005 Newsletter."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, age-adjusted deaths from heart disease have been declining since the 1950s, and cancer deaths began declining in 1990¹. This is encouraging! It affirms Americans are beginning to understand and act on the message that making changes in one’s diet and lifestyle can have a powerfully positive impact on health. But because these two diseases combined still accounted for 1.2 million—or 51 percent—of the total, age-adjusted deaths reported in the U.S. for 2003, and because the incidence of essential hypertension (elevated blood pressure that is not the result of another, primary medical condition) is on the rise, there remains room for improvement².

In the midst of America’s car-bound, commuter culture, the importance of exercise can never be too strongly emphasized. Aerobic exercise boosts the metabolic rate, burning up excess calories—including the saturated fats and “bad” cholesterol that clog blood vessels. Clogged blood vessels can lead to hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis), a cause of hypertension. And while the calories are burning, the entire body is also receiving more oxygen. That’s important for the heart, but also for the brain, which uses one-quarter of all the oxygen taken into the body³. Interestingly, some studies show that elevated blood pressure alone can effect short-term memory, so regular exercise can keep more than our gluts and abs healthy!⁴

Not to understate the importance of getting ample aerobic exercise and avoiding tobacco use, perhaps the single most proactive choice one can make to reduce the odds for developing cardiovascular disease or cancer is to give the body the water and nutrition it needs to achieve and maintain homeostasis, or a healthy balance. This task is made more difficult because the American diet is filled with saturated fats and over-processed foods that have been stripped of nutrients but which are laden with added sodium, chemicals and manipulated sweeteners.

So, sometimes even when we believe we are eating well—choosing predominantly natural foods with an emphasis on fruits and vegetables—we still may not be getting all the basic nutrition we need, especially considering the amount of stress we encounter in our daily life. Nutritional supplements help to fill these voids. But it’s important to select supplements that provide the right nutrients in the right combinations and amounts to work properly. Choose formulas, particularly with multi-vitamins and multi-minerals, that are calibrated for both age and gender, when available.

Choose foods and supplements that support key areas: normal blood pressure function, the metabolism of both cholesterol and fats, and proper water balance:

Nutrients to Support Normal Blood Pressure

• Calcium and Magnesium — for neuromuscular excitability & relaxation, transmission of nerve impulses.
  
• Potassium — vital in the transmission of nerve impulses in the operation of normal blood pressure.
  
• Vitamin D — helps the body utilize calcium efficiently.
  
• Vitamin B-6 — necessary for proper functioning of the pressure-sensitive nerve cells and cardiac muscles involved in maintaining normal blood pressure.
  
• L-Taurine — free-form amino acid affects several biological functions, including cardiac contractility.

While we hear about the bad things certain types of fats and cholesterol can do in the body, some of both substances is required for good health. Polyunsaturated fat, particularly, provides essential fatty acids required for the efficient absorption of fat-soluble vitamins from the intestine. Consequently, the healthy metabolism of fats, carbohydrates and proteins is a key component of good health. Because it serves different functions in the body, cholesterol must be metabolized on a continual basis. It is a component of cell membranes. The adrenals use cholesterol as a precursor for steroid hormone production. In fact, all steroid hormones in the human body are derived from cholesterol. Cholesterol is also a precursor of vitamin D. Cholesterol is vitally important for the body. Statin drugs or “nutrients” that act like statins should never be used to halt its production in the liver. Statins block the liver from manufacturing cholesterol.

Nutrients for Cholesterol Metabolism

• Choline — Important to the metabolism and transport of fats and cholesterol, and the formation of lecithin.
  
• Inositol — Used in the metabolism of fats and cholesterol, and in the formation of lecithin.
  
• Vitamin B-6 — Necessary for metabolism of fats, carbohydrates and proteins. Also required for healthy skin, the nerves and muscles, and aids in antibody formation and digestion.
  
• Unsaturated fatty acids — Essential for growth.
  
• Niacin — Necessary for the metabolism of fats, carbohydrates and proteins. It is a vasodilator.
  
• Iodine — Essential part of the hormones thyroxine and triiodothyronine. Increases metabolic rate.
  
• Pantothenic acid — Necessary for growth and contributes to energy functions.
  
• Magnesium — Essential for normal metabolism of potassium and calcium.
  
• Chromium — Increases the action of insulin, used by the body to regulate cholesterol production.
  
• Zinc — Involved in insulin production.

• Choline (choline bitartrate) — B-complex factor involved in the transport of fats and cholesterol, the formation of lecithin, and is used in fat metabolism by the liver.
  
• Inositol — Like choline, a compound used in metabolism of fats and cholesterol, and formation of lecithin.
  
• Vitamin B-6 (pyridoxine) — Necessary for metabolism of fats, carbohydrates and proteins.
  
• Potassium (amino acid complex) — Stored almost entirely within the body’s lean tissues, where it serves as the dominant intracellular cation, or positive ion, a conductor of nerve impulses in the body.
  
• Iodine — An essential part of the thyroid-produced hormones thyroxine and triiodothyronine, required for normal growth and development, and for maintenance of a normal metabolic rate.
  
• Chromium — A mineral generally accepted as an essential nutrient. It increases insulin action and thus influences carbohydrate, lipid and protein metabolism⁷ .

Water is the largest single component of the body, comprising about 60% of a young, adult male’s weight and 50% of a young, adult female’s. Because distribution of total body water is based on concentration levels of sodium and potassium, maintaining proper balance between the two is crucial: excess sodium creates lowered potassium and vice versa. Too much of either mineral will lead to an imbalance in fluid distribution.