Vitamins and Herbs For Life

Vitamins and why are they important?

Unlike protein, fat, and carbohydrates, vitamins provide no calories. If the intake of vitamin(s) is insufficient due to poor nutrition, restricted diets, or inadequate intestinal absorption of the vitamins, diseases can occur.

Examples of diseases caused by vitamin deficiencies (please see Table 1) include anemia (due to deficiencies of folic acid and vitamin B12), nerve and brain damage (due to deficiencies of thiamin and vitamin B12), easy and excessive bleeding (due to deficiency of vitamin K), impaired night vision and blindness (due to deficiency of vitamin A), bone diseases (due to deficiency of vitamin D or calcium), and scurvy (due to deficiency of vitamin C). The RDAs represent the amounts of daily vitamin intake necessary to prevent vitamin deficiency diseases. Patients taking orlistat, Xenical for weight reduction may not absorb fat and can develop vitamin deficiencies that normally dissolve in fat (the fat soluble vitamins A,D,E,K).

Furthermore, scientists have discovered that inadequate intake of certain vitamins can cause diseases NOT traditionally attributed to vitamin deficiency.

Vitamin E
Vitamin E represents a family of eight fat-soluble anti-oxidant vitamins. Alpha-tocopherol is the most important E vitamin in humans.

• What foods are rich in vitamin E? Meats, fruits, and milk have little vitamin E.

• What are the benefits of vitamin E supplements? Vitamin E is an antioxidant that may reduce heart attack risks. In observational studies involving large numbers of healthy men and women, subjects who consumed more vitamin E had lower rates of heart attacks than subjects who consumed less vitamin E.

• What is the toxicity of vitamin E? Vitamin E in high doses can impair blood clotting and increase the risks of hemorrhage.

• Who should consider using vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) supplements? (An average multivitamin tablet contains 30-40 IU of vitamin E). Consult your doctor regarding additional vitamin E supplements.

Vitamin A
Vitamin A represents a number of related compounds; retinol, retinal, retinoic acid, and a vitamin A precursor beta (b)-carotene.

• What are adverse consequences of inadequate vitamin A intake? Early vitamin A deficiency leads to impaired night vision, and advanced vitamin A deficiency can lead to corneal ulcers and scarring and blindness. Children with vitamin A deficiency are also more likely to develop diarrhea and respiratory infections than children who are not vitamin A deficient. Vitamin A deficiency is rare among healthy adults in the United States.

• What are the benefits of vitamin A supplements? There is NO evidence that taking vitamin A supplements can prevent cancer or heart attacks.

• What is the toxicity of vitamin A? Vitamin A can be toxic in high doses (Usually 10 times RDA). High doses of vitamin A can also cause liver toxicity.

• What are recommendations regarding vitamin A supplements? Additional vitamin A supplements are currently NOT recommended. Pregnant women should not take additional vitamin A supplements without doctor supervision.

Herbs For Life
by author Rowan Hamilton, Dip Phyt, MNIMH

Cancer is not a death sentence! Medical intervention in cancer has stretched to its limits.
At the time of diagnosis, many people look for natural remedies–especially herbs–to help them. Medical intervention however, is often swift and traumatic.

Chemotherapy, surgery, radiation therapy and hormonal treatments are rapidly mobilized. They do not address the dysfunctions of body regulation that have led to cancer. Even if the treatments are successful in the short term, cancer may return after the conclusion of the therapy.

Combined Approach
In Chinese hospitals, where herbs are part of main stream treatment, few patients experience side effects from chemotherapy or radiotherapy due to the herbs they receive at the same time.

Anti-Cancer Herbs
In terms of the medical research that confirms its role as an anti-cancer herb, the leader might be aged garlic extract. Aged garlic extract and its constituents SAC and SAMC have demonstrated anti-cancer action in bladder tumors, neuroblastomas (cancer of the nervous system), skin cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, esophageal cancer, stomach and lung cancer as well as toxin-induced mutations in cells and DNA. The report of aged garlic extracts inhibition of prostate cancer at the Memorial Slone-Kettering Cancer Center in 1997 was seen as an important medical discovery.

Further studies have shown that green tea has significant anti-cancer properties. Green tea, like so many herbs, contains natural biological modifiers and anti-cancer phytochemicals.

Each herb has a unique affinity for different systems and functions of the body. Few professionals will give a single herb to a patient.

Herbs can address the fundamental health processes of the body. Your immune system also depends on these regulation processes. A health professional can look at your individual needs and advise you on which herbs you need to restore these systems and with them your health.

There have been many successful uses of herbs to treat cancer. So far, pharmaceutical companies have screened more than 25,000 plants for anti-cancer drugs. Just as cancers are a product of disturbances in the body, so herbs can correct the disturbances as well as control many cancers.

However such is the seriousness of cancer that informed professional advice is always needed. Millions of lives depend on it.

Antioxidants
As cancer is often associated with high levels of free radicals produced by oxidation and toxic carcinogens, herbs which act as powerful free radical scavengers are always valuable.
These include :
Alfalfa, Comfrey, Asparagus, Dandelion leaves, Ginseng, Gotu kola, Goldenseal, Grape seed, extract, Irish moss, Parsley, Walnuts, Watercress, Wheat sprouts, Tumor-Fighting Herbs

Some herbs are specil'icalK anti-neoplastic. These include :
Bayberry, Cleavers, Comfrey, Condurango, Dandelion, Echinacea, Celandine, Mistletoe, Myrrh, Plantain, Poke root, Queen's delight, Red clover, Periwinkle, Thuja, Wild violet, Yellow dock

Rowan Hamilton is a lecturer in Botanical Medicine at the West Coast College of Naturopathic Medicine.
Source: alive #209, March 2000