Health Canada issued an adviorsy earlier this week advising expectant mothers and breastfeeding women not to take the vitamin-mineral supplements Maxum Matragen or Maxum Multi-Vite by Seroyal International Inc.
The concerns lie in the lack of proper labeling, certain ingredients, and lack of others. Both Maxum Matragen and Maxum Multi-Vite contain ginkgo biloba, green tea extracts and vanadium. At this point, the safety of these ingredients for pregnant women or nursing women isn’t known and there is no such labeling to that effect.
As well, the supplements don’t have enough iron or folic acid for pregnant or nursing women. These are essential …read more

Do you take a multivitamin? And if so, is it especially formulated for women?

I used to, and then stopped. I’ve listened to the argument go back and forth on vitamins. Now, I take a calcium pill and am still not convinced that it does anything for me. One article I just read said that “that there aren’t any studies showing that gender-specific vitamins have any particular health benefits” but added that the studies “would be very difficult and costly to run.”
This tells me that people really don’t know if vitamins work or not. I guess …read more

There are some items in health news that continually flip flop. Eggs are good for you. Then they are bad. Carbs are the enemy. Then… not so much.

Another flip flopping subject is vitamins. My doctors over the years have suggested that I take them, and after breaking my ankle one year I finally did. I drink milk, and try and eat healthy foods, but still, I take vitamins for that “extra protection.”
However, a new study by the Women’s Health Initiative “tracked multivitamin use by 161,000 older women over an eight-year period to see if …read more

Vitamin D deficiency in the United States is being called a national epidemic, according to registered dietitian and Food Network host Ellie Krieger.

Even though we have the ability to make our own vitamin D when the ultraviolet rays of the sun hit our skin, many Americans fail to get enough vitamin D. In fact, vitamin D deficiency in this country is being called a silent epidemic. The prudent use of sunscreen, sun-blocking pollution and long, cold winters indoors are partially to blame.
Says Krieger, “It’s alarming to see so many people fail to get enough vitamin D, especially when milk is …read more

Blogging about cancer has taught me lots of things. In my honest opinion, cancer is the ultimate (bad) karma to mankind for being so harsh to the body and the environment.
Cancer I believe is the proliferation of the worst permutations of G x E: Genetics and Environment.
That been said, I came up with the top ten cancer beaters in the order of things most controllable to man to the least controllable:

Go natural. Eat more fruits and vegetables. Avoid junk foods, microwable and instant foods, canned goods and cured meat products. Eat more fish. Think antioxidants, flavonoids and the likes. Furthermore, …read more