How Vitamin B12 Deficiency Harms Health
In the body, vitamin B12 also known as cobalamin is especially vital to making red blood cells, and maintaining proper function of nerve cells. When vitamin B12 levels are low, a person can develop health problems related to red blood cells and nerve cells malfunctioning.
The most common problems related to low vitamin B12 levels include:
- Anemia. This means the red blood cell count is low. Red blood cells carry oxygen in the blood, so anemia can cause fatigue or shortness of breath. The breakdown of faulty red blood cells can also cause jaundice.
- Neuropathy. This means that nerves in the body are not working well. This can cause a variety of symptoms, including tingling, numbness, burning, poor balance, and walking difficulties.
- Cognitive impairment. This means that nerve cells in the brain are not working well. This can cause memory problems, irritability, and even dementia.
You may have heard that vitamin B12 deficiency can cause pernicious anemia. But in fact, the term pernicious anemia means a specific vitamin B12 deficiency caused by the loss of a bodys ability to make intrinsic factor. The body needs intrinsic factor to absorb vitamin B12 without it, vitamin B12 levels eventually drop. This often causes anemia, but sometimes symptoms of nerve and brain problems occur first.
Recommended Sodium Intake For Older Adults
Sodium is another important mineral. In most Americans diets, sodium primarily comes from salt . Whenever you add salt to your food, you’re adding sodium. But the Dietary Guidelines shows that most of the sodium we eat doesnt come from our saltshakers its added to many foods during processing or preparation. We all need some sodium, but too much over time can lead to high blood pressure, which can raise your risk of having a heart attack or stroke.
How much sodium is okay? People 51 and older should reduce their sodium intake to 2,300 mg each day. That is about one teaspoon of salt and includes sodium added during manufacturing or cooking as well as at the table when eating. If you have high blood pressure or prehypertension, limiting sodium intake to 1,500 mg per day, about 2/3 teaspoon of salt, may be helpful. Preparing your own meals at home without using a lot of processed foods or salt will allow you to control how much sodium you get. Try using less salt when cooking, and dont add salt before you take the first bite. If you make this change slowly, you will get used to the difference in taste. Also look for grocery products marked low sodium, unsalted, no salt added, sodium free, or salt free. Also check the Nutrition Facts Label to see how much sodium is in a serving.
Vitamins And Minerals For Older Adults
Vitamins help your body grow and work the way it should. There are 13 essential vitamins vitamins A, C, D, E, K, and the B vitamins .
Vitamins have different jobs to help keep the body working properly. Some vitamins help you resist infections and keep your nerves healthy, while others may help your body get energy from food or help your blood clot properly. By following the Dietary Guidelines, you will get enough of most of these vitamins from food.
Like vitamins, minerals also help your body function. Minerals are elements that our bodies need to function that can be found on the earth and in foods. Some minerals, like iodine and fluoride, are only needed in very small quantities. Others, such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium, are needed in larger amounts. As with vitamins, if you eat a varied diet, you will probably get enough of most minerals.
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What Vitamins And Supplements Should Men Take Daily
The human body requires 13 vitamins and at least 16 minerals essential to your health.However, while all adults need a variety of key vitamins and minerals every day, men and women have different requirements. For instance, women of reproductive age require more iron than men of the same age, so womens supplements typically include iron and mens supplements dont. If youre asking yourself, What vitamins should I take daily for a man? keep in mind that it varies depending on your age and lifestyle.
The best way to get these vitamins and other nutrients is by eating a healthy, balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, beans, legumes, lean meats, healthy fats, and low-fat dairy. But if youre not, you may not be getting adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals to keep you feeling your best. A specially formulated multivitamin for your age and gender, like Nature Made Multi for Him or Multi for Him 50+, provides nutritional support to fill in nutrient gaps missing from your diet.
Can Adults Take Children’s Vitamins
There is no reason why an adult cannot take a childs multivitamin however, they may be insufficient in certain vitamins and minerals as the product was designed for a younger population. For example, a pediatric multivitamin may only have 400 IU of Vitamin D whereas an adult requires 600 IU per day.
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Garden Of Life Multivitamin
The Garden of life multivitamin is another great option for men in their 20s. This one has another focus than the previous multivitamin options. It has probiotics, which is perfect for your digestive system and immune system as well. You will notice that you wont get sick anymore due to the probiotic.
Another great thing about this multivitamin is that it focuses on prostate health. It has properties that are good for the prostate and improve its health. This is important for men at any age, so it should be no different even if you are still in your 20s.
It has all the vitamins that men need. You get the complex A, B, C, D, iron, zinc, calcium, and everything that you need to have balanced health. You need to take it daily to see actual results, and it is worth having the discipline with this one. It works.
This vitamin, like all the ones on this list, has organic ingredients. It cannot be emphasized enough how important this is. Having organic ingredients ensures that you wont get exposed to synthetic products that may cause your body harm after taking the vitamin for a long time.
So, as you can see, the Garden of Life multivitamin is one of the best vitamins for men in their 20s. It has all the vitamins that you need at this stage in your life and more. Click to see pricing on Amazon here!
Should Older Adults Take Iron Supplements Revisiting A Controversy
One of the discomfiting contradictions of living in the Information Age is the realization that a surplus of information doesnt necessarily lead you closer to the truth. Were constantly bombarded by contradictory sets of facts from every corner of the internet, making it almost impossible to know what is right. Except for maybe politics, this is probably most true in personal health.
Do you have a glass of red wine every night? Thats very goodunless, of course, it is bad. What about dark chocolate? Eating that is very bad for you, unless, of course, it is good. Heres a supplement that doctors Dont Want You To Know About, which, in the amped-up carnival barker argot of internet scams, is a good thing.
One of the areas of contention is iron supplements for older adults. Iron is an important mineral, and iron deficiencies can lead to serious health issues. For that reason, iron supplements are a huge seller and are often pushed toward older adults with the idea that they can prevent anemia and help boost energy.
The problem is that having a surplus of iron is also dangerous, and most older adults get the iron they need from diet alone. So there are many cases where taking iron supplements can actually be bad for your health. In fact, most older adults probably shouldnt be taking iron supplements at all.
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Men In Their Adolescent Years
The adolescent years are a critical time for bone development. Therefore, adequate dietary intake of certain nutrients, such as calcium and vitamin D, is necessary. For individuals struggling to obtain enough of these essential nutrients through diet alone, adding a supplement, as advised by an integrative healthcare practitioner, may be beneficial.
Best Supplements For Men Who Work Out
Most men associate supplements with improved health. But supplements are just thata means to supplement your diet. They arent going to make a significant impact on your health and fitness unless there are known deficiencies or youre not meeting your needs through your diet. So before adding a slew of supplements to your regimen, think about if youre consuming a balanced and varied diet first, then consider where supplements might be able to help. When deciding what to take, note what your goals are, or what youre trying to achieve. Here, we outline the best supplements for men who work out to bolster their overall health and fitness.
Before we get started, note that most companies provide lofty claims that arent backed by science or research. And therein lies the real danger with the supplement industry: Its not tightly regulated by the FDA and there are a lot of dangerous supplements out there that can have detrimental effects on your health versus actually helping you.
I categorize supplements into two main categories: foundational and ergogenic supplements. Foundational supplements are ones that can be beneficial from a maintenance and preventative health perspective. Ergogenic supplements are substances or supplements that may enhance energy production, use, or recovery and provide athletes or active individuals with a claimed competitive advantage.
Jordan Mazur, MS, RD, is the director of nutrition and team dietitian for the San Francisco 49ers
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Tl dr: What Is The Best Multivitamin For Women In Their 20s
- NutriGenesis® Multi for Women by Performance Lab is the best multivitamin for women in their 20s. It provides women with 100%+ DV of over 17 essential nutrients and also contains whole-food cofactors for optimal absorption.
- Persona offers the best custom womens multivitamin through the use of its online lifestyle questionnaire. Women may also include their own add-in options for further customization.
- Hair Growth Support + by Nuzena is the best womens multivitamin with biotin. In addition to being a multivitamin, this product also contains major supplements along with an herbal blend to help women naturally grow and strengthen their hair.
- ImmunityMD® Plus by 1MD is the best multivitamin for a womans immune system. It contains essential nutrients, herbs, and supplements that support respiratory health and provide protection against oxidative stress.
- Essential For Vegans by Future Kind is the best vegan multivitamin for women. It contains the three major nutrients that most vegans and vegetarians are deficient in- Vitamin B12, Vitamin D, and Omega-3.
The Common Cold And Vitamin C
Many people think that vitamin C helps prevent the common cold. Despite exhaustive research across the world, there is still no strong evidence to prove this. Some studies have shown that taking large doses of vitamin C continuously or when you first develop cold symptoms, may ease some of the symptoms and the duration on average, making it about half a day shorter. It does not prevent you catching a cold.
You also need to consider the health risks associated with taking large doses of vitamin C. Large doses may cause nausea, abdominal cramps, headaches, fatigue, kidney stones and diarrhoea. It may also interfere with your bodys ability to process other nutrients, for example, it could lead to dangerously raised levels of iron.
Excessive amounts of vitamin C in the body can also interfere with medical tests, such as diabetes tests, giving a false result.
Adults need about 45 mg of vitamin C per day and any excess amount is excreted.
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The One To Watch Out For
One supplement that’s tricky, Gladd points out, is iron. “The problem with iron is that while you definitely do not want to be low, you also do not want to have excess amounts of iron, as it can be oxidizing or damaging. Men in this age group rarely need to consider iron supplementation, but women should have their iron levels checked. Having a period monthly means blood loss, and if the diet and/or digestive absorption are not supporting this loss with replacement, then you can start to feel the effects of iron deficiency: fatigue, brain fog, muscle cramps, or restless leg syndrome at night.”
Vitron-CHigh Potency Iron Supplement With Vitamin C
Sound like things you’ve experienced? Head to your doctor and have your blood checked. If you’re low on iron, Gladd recommends taking iron supplements recommended by your doctor onwait for itan empty stomach with a small amount of orange juice. Gladd explains: “The vitamin C helps with absorption into the bloodstream.”
Lastly, Gladd points out that above all, you should focus on eating right and having a healthy lifestylethat will help with your overall wellness and is the best investment, obviously. Once that’s addressed, you can use vitamins to help with the gaps.
This article was originally published at an earlier date and has since been updated.
This article originally appeared on The Thirty
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Finding The Right Balance
All this being said, we dont want to give the impression that everyone has enough iron. Indeed, a growing body of research indicates that older adults might be more at risk anemia than previously thought. A 2014 study in the journal Mechanisms of Aging and Development, for example, showed that 10% of adults over 65 were anemic, a number that jumps to 20% for those over 85. Both of these numbers are even higher for those in assisted living homes.
The researchers pointed out that older adults with anemia were more likely to suffer from mechanical performance issues and were at an increased risk of falling. It is a real problem.
They blamed two major culprits: inflammation and poor diet. Inflammation can be reduced through a number of mechanisms, including anti-inflammatory drugs, supplements, and even drinking a cup of coffee. Simultaneously, a more iron-rich diet can be introduced, especially if you are living at home and can control your own diet.
What you want the most are foods that are high in iron that is easy to absorb. This includes:
- Meat
- Salmon
- Shrimp
There are also foods that contain a lot of iron but arent as easy to absorb. These include:
- Tofu
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Will Vitamin D Prevent Dementia Cancer And/or Premature Death
Several studies have identified an association between vitamin D deficiency and diagnoses such as Alzheimers disease and cancer. In other words, people with these conditions tend to have low vitamin D blood levels.
But an association isnt the same thing as causation, so its not yet known whether vitamin D deficiency causes these diseases. Its also not yet known whether taking vitamin D supplements will reduce ones chance of developing these diseases.
To date, most randomized studies of vitamin D to improve health outcomes have been negative.
Although its possible that low vitamin D levels might be a factor in developing certain diseases, its probably a small effect. Cancer and Alzheimers, after all, generally seem to be the result of lots of little factors genetics, epigenetics, stress, immune function, nutrition, inflammation, toxins interacting over time.
In 2010, the Institute of Medicine concluded: This thorough review found that information about the health benefits of vitamin D supplementation beyond bone healthbenefits often reported in the mediawere from studies that provided often mixed and inconclusive results and could not be considered reliable.
To Keep Your Liver In Check Take Milk Thistle
Gaia HerbsMilk Thistle Seed
“It’s been used to support healthy liver functions in Europe for a long time. While scientific research has vacillated on the plants impact on the liver, the studies generally show benefit. I have regularly seen improvement in those with mild liver enzyme elevations.”
Jarrow FormulasMilk Thistle
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These Are The Vitamins You Should Be Taking In Your 20s And 30s
When you’re young, having the time of your life eating all the things, drinking, and staying up late, it’s no surprise that your body, skin, and overall health might suffer. But because just taking a multivitamin isnt good enough , we got the true details from Jeffrey Gladd, MD, a member of the Care/Of Scientific Advisory Board, who talked us through which vitamins and supplements you actually need at this stage of your lifeplus which ones can give you some problems.
“In my practice, most of the 20- to 30-somethings generally have a poor diet,” says Gladd. He gets it: Because of budgets and crazy schedules, processed and fast foods are a mainstay in our diets. But while various supplements rolled into one multivitamin are great in theory, many over-the-counter multivitamins “lack in quality and are often sourced synthetically and at marginal levels for good support.”
Keep reading to find out which vitamins you should prioritize instead according to your needs.
What Happens If I Get Too Much Iron
We all know that anemia is bad, of course. But what is the issue with getting too much iron? Why would that be a bad thing?
It has to do with how iron is processed in the body. It is absorbed as necessary as the body cycles through its oxygen-rich red blood cells. While this is a perpetual process, it involves only a finite number of cells. So when there is more iron than actually required, it has to be stored elsewhere, and it generally goes toward the organs.
This isnt good. Too much iron can be toxic and may damage the liver, the heart, and the pancreas. An excess of iron can also be bad for your joints, leading to arthritis and chronic pain.
Older adults who have unusually high levels of iron are also at increased risk for diseases such as Type 2 diabetes and various types of cancer. There have also been correlations found between excess iron and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinsons and Alzheimers. It is important to note that while there is a correlation, there has not been any direct causation.
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