Thursday, May 30, 2013

Scientific paper backs up my book

Nice to see my book being confirmed by an independent source. Maybe I should submit some of my book for publication. I like the bit
The most popular term “vitamine” was introduced by Casimer Funk in 1912 and was changed to “vitamin” by Cecil Drummond in 1920.
 Could have lifted that from my book! Goes on to say
These networks of dissemination still exert an influence on how scientific information about vitamins is communicated to the public today
Which is one of the central themes of my book!

Lastest American J of Clinical Nurtition

Unfortunately the full studies are behind a paywall. But they become free in time. But in the mean time the summaries are interesting.

Magnesium may lower HD risk. To summarize
Circulating and dietary magnesium are inversely associated with CVD risk
So if you have more magnesium then low risk of cardiovascular disease. Can say that supplementing with magnesium lows your risk, but I am very pleased that supplement with 75 mg of highly bioavailable Mg a day! However I do need to get it to 250 mg a day (after which decrease in CVD becomes non-linear). So was thinking about getting some Mg for the trees in the orchard. Now will definitely be sourcing some.

Vitamin K1 maybe good for your heart. Turns out:
Animal studies have shown that vitamin K treatment reduced vascular calcification... A significant interaction between low vitamin K1 and antihypertension medication use was detected... Hypertension medication users with low serum vitamin K1 were more likely to have extreme CAC progression than were medication users without extreme CAC progression... lthough the point estimate of our primary analysis suggests low serum vitamin K1 is associated with greater CAC progression, the difference was NS.
NS = not significant.
CAC = coronary artery calcium

Vitamin K is hard to get in your food. It is thought to be produced in your gut by bacteria. But knowing what we should eat, and what we do. I suspect our gut flora has been changed, and not likely for the better! 

Continue to supplement with folic acid throughout pregnancy. I didn't realize that the recommendation to supplement with folic acid was only in the first trimester. I know Tiffany took supplement before, during and after pregnancy (it helped her multi had the right level of  folic acid in it).  In summary:

Continued supplementation with 400 μg FA/d in trimesters 2 and 3 of pregnancy can increase maternal and cord blood folate status and prevent the increase in homocysteine concentration that otherwise occurs in late pregnancy. Whether these effects have benefits for pregnancy outcomes or early childhood requires additional study.
We know high homocysteine levels are bad and indicate increasing risk of CVD. So odds are that high levels in late pregnancy are not good for mum! 

Vitamin D and calcium supplements can help young mothers retain bone mass in pregnancy.
Some describe a growing baby in mum's tum as a parasite or leech. Hardly endearing terms, but to some degree they are accurate. Mum will sacrifice her bodies nutrients to make sure baby has what it needs. So when it comes to calcium / bone health mums can often lose significant bone density over a pregnancy/lactation. This study found with adolescent mothers:
Calcium plus vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy of adolescents with low calcium intake results in higher lumbar spine bone mass and a reduced rate of femoral neck bone loss during lactation.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

First post in a very long time

Have decided to start to post again. Thanks to the wonderful people at USANA who I am doing some training for, found my blog posts really helpful in tracking down the data I knew I had read someplace. So will be posting a bit more :)