Vitamins Supplements for a Healthy Life

Ever since we were kids, adults have preached the importance of vitamins for strong and healthy bodies. From school lessons to television programs most children know the basic vitamins: A, B, C, D and E. However, as adults the role vitamins play in our lives takes on a whole new meaning. The skincare and anti aging industry learned long ago the impact that certain vitamins can have on the complexion and even the aging process. Out of the vitamins we need, you’ll want to get to know the vitamin B family, which has a huge laundry list of responsibilities.

Most people that are not very skincare or health savvy might be very surprised to know that there is not just one vitamin B. There is, in fact, an entire family of B vitamins - all of which play their own roles in keeping the human body functioning properly. Once you become familiar with what the vitamin B family does, you’ll want to make sure they’re in your life on a daily basis.

The vitamin B family is made up of the following: B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7, B8, B9 and B12. This fairly large group of vitamins has responsibilities ranging from keeping the immune system intact, promoting healthy nerves, providing energy, improving memory, focus and proper circulation, to name a few. However, some of the B vitamins also have the ability to make a positive impact on your complexion. These days it is not uncommon to see B vitamins listed somewhere on a majority of skincare and anti aging products on store shelves. While not all of the B vitamins listed work to benefit a person’s complexion, there is a few that stand out and are the darlings of the skincare and anti aging industry.


Vitamin C improves the physical and mental health by assisting the functioning from the immune system. B complex vitamins like niacin, folate, thiamine, riboflavin and pantothenic acid may help in the production of Neuro transmitters. Magnesium can assist in the muscle relaxation and so provide greater relief from anxiety. Tryptophan helps in the enhancement from the nervous system while Coenzyme Q10 adds to the oxygen transport in the tissues. Omega 3 is a vital item that helps to reduce the anxiety. , Alpha Linolenic acid is really a vitamin that provides Omega 3. The retina needs vitamin A for color and low light vision. This vitamin will be the appropriate hormone functions. We could reduce the risk of oral and carcinoma of the lung by consuming vitamin A.

For the processing of fats, protein and carbohydrates vitamin B1 is crucial. It will also help- in the proper functioning in the nerve cells. It is going to stabilize appetite and generates energy. Vitamin B2 works well for the formation of antibodies and red blood cells and therefore prevents anemia. Vitamin C and E reduces the aging of the skin. It assists to to heal fractures, wounds and scar tissues. Vitamin E will raise the oxygen content within the blood and thus keeps your skin young. Vitamin K is essential for the clotting of the blood.

Vitamins can be purchased in the natural for and synthetic form. The organic substances perfectly located at the plants, animals and other living beings are termed as natural vitamin. We get plenty of vitamins in the food items like corn breads, wheat, nuts, cereal, oatmeal etc. Fruits and green vegetables are the other sources of vitamins. Different vitamins are contained in different food items. One item won't provide all the essential vitamins supplements. And we all must take care to consume number of vitamin rich food. Vitamin cannot produce energy however they can help in different energy producing processes.

Vitamin A - should be used for healthy skin and tissue and helps in the excretion of mucus, it can also help to prevent infection which is needed to maintain a healthy immune system. It could be found in liver, cheese, green vegetables and carrots.

Vitamin C - it will help heal wounds and infections and protects the immune system it may be found in fresh fruit and vegetables.

Vitamin D - is crucial for the maintenance of healthy bones and teeth as well as helps to regulate calcium in your body, it can be found in eggs, milk, breakfast cereals and margarine.

Vitamin E - really helps to protect our cell membranes and the nervous and natural defenses it can be found in vegetable oils, whole grains, nuts and green vegetables.

Vitamin K - this helps to maintain our energy so helping with blood clotting and may be found in liver, meat, potato and cereals.

Vitamin B1 - helps regulate our energy metabolic process and can be found in bread, potatoes, meat and wholegrain cereals.

Vitamin B2 - this utilises energy from fats and protein and can be found in meat, milk and eggs.

Vitamin B6 - this is necessary for protein metabolism and can be found in potatoes, meat, vegetables, milk and fish.

Vitamin B12 - this can be essential for our red blood cells and our nervous system and can be located in liver, milk, fish and eggs.

Folate - this helps with creation of red blood cells and our nervous system and can be found in raw vegetables.

HEALTHY LIFE STYLE MAY BUFFER AGAINST STRESS RELATED CELL AGING

A new study from UC San Francisco is the first to show that while the impact of life's stressors accumulate overtime and accelerate cellular aging, these negative effects may be reduced by maintaining a healthy diet, exercising and sleeping well.

The study participants who exercised, slept well and ate well had less telomere shortening than the ones who didn't maintain healthy lifestyles, even when they had similar levels of stress," said lead author Eli Puterman, PhD, assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at UCSF. "It's very important that we promote healthy living, especially under circumstances of typical experiences of life stressors like death, caregiving and job loss."

The paper will be published in Molecular Psychiatry, a peer-reviewed science journal by Nature Publishing Group.

Telomeres are the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes that affect how quickly cells age. They are combinations of DNA and proteins that protect the ends of chromosomes and help them remain stable. As they become shorter, and as their structural integrity weakens, the cells age and die quicker. Telomeres also get shorter with age.

In the study, researchers examined three healthy behaviors -physical activity, dietary intake and sleep quality -- over the course of one year in 239 post-menopausal, non-smoking women. The women provided blood samples at the beginning and end of the year for telomere measurement and reported on stressful events that occurred during those 12 months. In women who engaged in lower levels of healthy behaviors, there was a significantly greater decline in telomere length in their immune cells for every major life stressor that occurred during the year. Yet women who maintained active lifestyles, healthy diets, and good quality sleep appeared protected when exposed to stress -- accumulated life stressors did not appear to lead to greater shortening.

"This is the first study that supports the idea, at least observationally, that stressful events can accelerate immune cell aging in adults, even in the short period of one year. Exciting, though, is that these results further suggest that keeping active, and eating and sleeping well during periods of high stress are particularly important to attenuate the accelerated aging of our immune cells," said Puterman.

In recent years, shorter telomeres have become associated with a broad range of aging-related diseases, including stroke, vascular dementia, cardiovascular disease, obesity, osteoporosis diabetes, and many forms of cancer.

Research on telomeres, and the enzyme that makes them, telomerase, was pioneered by three Americans, including UCSF molecular biologist and co-author Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD. Blackburn co-discovered the telomerase enzyme in 1985. The scientists received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009 for their work.

"These new results are exciting yet observational at this point. They do provide the impetus to move forward with interventions to modify lifestyle in those experiencing a lot of stress, to test whether telomere attrition can truly be slowed," said Blackburn.

Co-authors include senior author Elissa Epel, PhD, department of psychiatry, Jue Lin, PhD, department of biochemistry and biophysics, both of UCSF and Jeffrey Krauss, MD, division of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Stanford University. Lin, Epel and Blackburn are the co-founders of Telome Health Inc., a diagnostic company measuring telomere biology.

The study was supported by the Baumann Foundation and the Barney & Barbro Foundation. Puterman is supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

BOWEL CANCER RISK REDUCED BY ADOPTING MULTIPLE HEALTHY BEHAVIORS

Adoption of a combination of five key healthy behaviors is associated with a reduction in the risk of developing bowel cancer. Researchers from the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke quantified the impact of combined multiple healthy lifestyle behaviors on the risk of developing bowel cancer, and found that this impact is stronger in men than in women.

Lead author, Krasimira Aleksandrova, says: "These data provide additional incentive to individuals, medical professionals and public health authorities to invest in healthy lifestyle initiatives. Each person can contribute a lot to avoid cancer, the more healthy lifestyle changes, the better."

Bowel cancer, also called colorectal cancer, is the second most common cancer in men and the third most common cancer in women worldwide, with 55% cases occurring in developed regions such as North America and Western Europe. Previous studies have identified links between the cancer frequency rates and western lifestyles. However, most research has focused on isolated lifestyle behaviors, such as eating red meat, while little is known about the combined impact of lifestyle factors beyond their individual effects.

The research published in the open access journal BMC Medicine analyzed the data of 347,237 men and women from 10 countries from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort study using a healthy lifestyle index. Over the 12-year study period, 3,759 cases of bowel cancer were recorded.

The healthy lifestyle index was composed by the following lifestyle factors: a healthy weight; low abdominal fat; participating in regular physical activity; not smoking and limiting alcohol; and a diet high in fruits, vegetables, fish, yoghurt, nuts and seeds, and foods rich in fiber, and low amounts of red and processed meat. For each of the five behaviors, study subjects were assigned one point for having the healthy factor and zero for not having the healthy factor. These points were then summed to generate a cumulative score for each participant.

Krasimira Aleksandrova, says: "Our data confirmed that with an increasing number of healthy lifestyle behaviors the risk that a person will have of developing bowel cancer decreases."

The researchers found that the more healthy lifestyle factors the cohort adopted, the lower their risk of bowel cancer. Compared to people who had followed up to one healthy lifestyle behavior, those who practiced a combination of two, three, four and all the five healthy behaviors had a 13%, 21%, 34% and 37% lower risk of developing bowel cancer, respectively. The authors noted a difference between men and women.

Krasimira Aleksandrova, says: "Estimates based on our study populations suggest that up to 22% of the cases in men and 11% of the cases in women would have been prevented if all five of the healthy lifestyle behaviors had been followed. Our results particularly demonstrate the potential for prevention in men who are at a higher risk of bowel cancer than women."