Topic of the Month
What We Know About Alzheimer's Disease and Nutrition
15 June 2018
This Alzheimer’s and Brain Health Awareness month, think about how to nourish your brain by choosing a healthy lifestyle and diet.
25 April 2012
Supplementation with vitamin C may moderately reduce blood pressure, with even greater benefits for people with hypertension, says a new data analysis from the US.
The meta-analysis included 29 randomized controlled trials assessing a potential association between vitamin C intake and blood pressure, with a median trial duration of eight weeks (1). The analysis showed that taking an average of 500 milligrams of vitamin C daily (about five times the recommended daily requirement) reduced systolic and diastolic blood pressure by 3.84 and 1.48 millimeters of mercury in the short term. Among those diagnosed with hypertension, the drop was nearly 5 millimeters of mercury.
The researchers commented that although the findings show significant blood pressure-lowering effects with vitamin C supplementation, large long-term trials would have to confirm the results before vitamin C supplementation can be recommended for the prevention of hypertension or as adjuvant antihypertensive therapy. By comparison, patients who take blood pressure medication, such as ACE inhibitors or diuretics, can expect a roughly 10 millimeter of mercury reduction in blood pressure. Vitamin C may act as a diuretic, causing the kidneys to remove more sodium and water from the body, which helps to relax the blood vessel walls, thereby lowering blood pressure.
According to the most recent data from the American Heart Association, about 33.5% of adults in the US have hypertension, a leading cause of cardiovascular disease, which account for about 35% of deaths in the US annually.
15 June 2018
This Alzheimer’s and Brain Health Awareness month, think about how to nourish your brain by choosing a healthy lifestyle and diet.
12 May 2014
A new US study reports that low blood vitamin D concentrations seem to be related to an increased chance of developing prostate cancer.
1 November 2012
For almost a century, the biological role of vitamin E has been a scientific puzzle. Since its discovery, vitamin E has been extensively researched by many scientists in an attempt to fully understand its role in a variety of diseases. The vast majority of published work has focused on vitamin E’s antioxidant properties, which is why it is well known as antioxidant that protects membranes from oxidative damage caused by free radicals. Recent research has shown that vitamin E’s capacity to incorporate into plasma membrane and its ability to act there as antioxidant appears to be essential for the vitamin’s role in pro-moting membrane repair - the first evidence of one of vitamin E’s normal body functions.