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Steve P Smith's Articles

  • Why Inositol Is Much More Than Just A Powerful Fat-Burner
    In common with choline, inositol is often regarded as a member of the B-complex of vitamins, although this is not strictly accurate. Both choline and inositol, however, work in similar fashion to the B vitamins. Inositol is vital for the health of cell membranes and for the transmission of energy and nutrients between cells. There is also evidence that abundant supplies of inositol may enhance the action of vitamin E, one of the body’s most important fat-soluble anti-oxidant...
  • The Health Benefits Of Flavonoids As Anti-oxidants
    Flavonoids are highly beneficial anti-oxidant compounds found in many fruits and vegetables, as well as tea, red wine and even beer, and it’s now well established that a plentiful intake of anti-oxidants through foods, drinks and supplements is vital for optimal human health.

    Anti-oxidants operate to neutralise the activity of so-called “free radicals”; compounds produced in the body as by-products of normal biochemical reactions, but which may nevertheless be highly damag...
  • Powerful Anti-oxidant Flavonoids Found In Red Wine And Chocolate
    There’s now good evidence that it’s not just in fruits and vegetables that health promoting anti-oxidant flavonoids are to be found. These powerful compounds have also been identified in tea, particularly green tea, red wine, beer and even chocolate. So if you’ve ever suspected that many of those who advocate healthy diets are motivated more by denying you your little pleasures than a genuine interest in your well being, now may be the time to take a little revenge.

    Fl...
  • Coenzyme Q10: The Anti-Oxidant In Every Cell
    In human beings, coenzyme Q10 is the most common occurring form of coenzyme Q, needed by and found in every cell in the body. Perhaps its primary function is to ensure the production of adequate energy within the cell mitochondria, but coenzyme Q10 is also a powerful anti-oxidant, and is particularly important because it is the only fat-soluble anti-oxidant which can be manufactured within the body. Like other fat-soluble anti-oxidants, such as vitamin E, coenxyme Q10 is vita...
  • Just What Are Your Optimal Levels Of Vitamin C Intake?
    Amongst the general public today, vitamin C is probably the most popular of all nutritional supplements, perhaps principally because it is widely believed to be effective as a cure for the common cold. But there is much more to the nutrient than this, as was demonstrated by the celebrated Dr Linus Pauling, whose pioneering work hailed optimal intakes of vitamin C as a powerful weapon against flu, heart disease and even cancer.

    Pauling’s books became extremely popular, but ...
  • Why Pyridoxine May Be The Most Vital Of All The B Complex Vitamins
    Vitamin B6, also known as pyridoxine, has been known to medical science since the 1930s, and like the other B complex vitamins performs numerous functions which are essential for human health. A regular supply must be ensured from the diet because the vitamin can be neither synthesised nor stored in the body.

    Vitamin B6 has probably attracted most attention from medical researchers and nutritional therapists as a means of reducing blood homocysteine levels, because an ...
  • How Minute Quantities Of Selenium May Have A Massive Impact On Your Health
    Selenium is one of those micro-nutrients which although required by the body in only tiny quantities are nevertheless vitally important for the health and well-being of the human organism.

    There’s now compelling evidence of selenium’s significance as an anti-oxidant, in fighting cancer and heart disease, and as a stimulant for the immune system.

    Selenium’s importance as an anti-oxidant lies principally in its necessity for the production of the key anti-oxidant enzyme, ...
  • Don’t Overlook Familiar Anti-Oxidants Like Riboflavin (Vitamin B2)
    Riboflavin, also known as vitamin B2, is an important member of the water soluble B complex of vitamins and has of course been well known as an essential nutrient for many years, hence its popularity as a fortifying agent in commercially produced breakfast cereals and breads etc. But in the current craze for tracking down new anti-oxidant “superfoods” it’s easy to overlook the more familiar, but nonetheless vital, nutrients such as the B complex vitamins.

    Riboflavin, for e...
  • Why Niacin Is A Small But Vital Part Of Your Anti-Oxidant Rich Diet
    Vitamin B3, commonly known as niacin or nicotinic acid, is one of the B complex of water soluble vitamins needed by the body every day.

    In its derivative form of nicotinamide, niacin is required by the body for the production of coenzymes known as, if you’ll forgive the jargon, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP).

    The importance of NAD and NADP may be shown by the fact that over 200 of the body’s other enzymes a...
  • Moderate Drinkers Beware – You Too Could Be Flushing Vital Vitamin B1 Out Of Your Body
    Back in the 1930s, thiamine, also known as vitamin B1, was one of the first compounds to be isolated and recognised as a vitamin, that’s to say a compound essential to health which the body cannot manufacture for itself, and which must therefore be obtained from the diet.

    The functions of thiamine within the body are highly complex biochemically, but what’s important to know is that thiamine and its associated enzymes are essential for the body’s production of energy from ...
  • Could Vitamin B12 Be The Secret Weapon In The Battle Against Depression?
    Vitamin B12, occasionally also known as cobalamin, is one of the most important and most intensively studied of the B complex vitamins. This group of vitamins is known as the B complex because of their biochemical similarity and because of their close interaction and interdependence in the performance of their numerous vital functions. So the B complex vitamins are commonly found together in various common food sources and, each being water soluble, will also be excreted toge...
  • Lutein And Zeaxanthin For Healthy Eyes
    “Carotenoids” is the term which describes the large range of more than 600 phytochemical pigments from which many plants derive their characteristic red, orange or yellow colourings. Those most commonly found in modern Western diets are alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin, and lycopene.

    Alpha and beta-carotene have traditionally attracted most attention as they can be synthesised by the body to form vitamin A, one of the body’s most powerful anti-oxidants, im...
  • Vitamin C: Why You Can’t Assume You’re Getting Enough
    Many benefits of vitamin C have been identified since the consumption of citrus fruit was first recognised as the immediately effective cure and preventative for the scurvy which so dreadfully afflicted the long distance sailors of a few centuries ago.

    Numerous studies have recognised the vitamin as a possible protector against coronary heart disease, stroke, atherosclerosis, hypertension and cancer, to name but a few, and it is possible that all of these effects stem ulti...
  • Why Is This Natural Compound The World’s #1 Best-selling Muscle Building Supplement
    If you’ve been working long and hard in the gym but find that it’s weeks or months since you saw any appreciable gains in strength or muscularity, you may well get used to hearing that these sticking points are entirely normal and that there’s no alternative to working ever harder until your body somehow miraculously trains its way through the problem.

    But unfortunately when it comes to activities such as lifting weights, body-building, field athletics, sprinting or contac...
  • Don’t Neglect The Anti-oxidant Micro-nutrients When Taking Vitamin E
    Since its discovery in 1922 Vitamin E has become generally regarded as one of the body’s most powerful, versatile and useful anti-oxidants. And as such its importance should not be underestimated, because anti-oxidants are the principal defence against the free radicals which are responsible for much of the degeneration and consequent disease which afflicts the human body as it ages.

    Numerous studies have demonstrated the benefits of vitamin E in protecting against and r...
  • The 200 Essential Enzymes That Prove Zinc Is Vital For Health
    Zinc is one of the many trace minerals required by the body, but the fact that it’s required in relatively small amounts should not be allowed to obscure its significance. It’s required by the body for the production of more than 200 essential enzymes, one of the most crucial of these being superoxide dismutase, a vital anti-oxidant.

    The particular importance of superoxide dismutase lies in its role in mopping up the superoxide free radicals which are released upon the met...
  • Why Ginkgo Biloba Is The Best-Selling Booster For Brain Function
    The preparations of ginkgo biloba commonly sold as herbal supplements are derived from the leaves of the ginkgo trees, which are probably the longest living in the world Individual trees are believed to live for up to 1,000 years and are found most commonly in southern and eastern areas of the US, southern France, China, and Korea.

    Traditional Chinese medicine has made use of the nuts of the ginkgo tree for around 5,000 years, but the use of the leaves is a relatively rece...
  • How Resveratrol Packs Red Wine With Health
    Resveratrol has recently attracted great interest in connection with the the so-called “French Paradox” which has long puzzled medical science. As a polyphenol type flavonoid it is in any case a very useful anti-oxidant, but many now believe it also to be the explanation of the relatively low rates of cardiovascular disease enjoyed in France despite a national diet traditionally rich in cholesterol and saturated fat. The French, of course, are also known as high per capit...
  • Discover The Magical Powers Of The Siberian Ginseng “Ugly Plant”
    In Russia, herb extract of Eleutherococcus, also known as eleuthero or Siberian Ginseng, was approved for human use as early as 1962 and many subsequent scientific studies have examined its effects upon thousands of people. Siberian ginseng is consequently known to be a powerful adaptogen, a term believed to have been first used in Russia in the late 1940s which describes substances found to help optimise physical and mental performance, and to normalise the body’s functionin...
  • Significant Deficiencies Of Dietary Magnesium Are Surprisingly Common
    Magnesium is one of the most important minerals for human health and is required throughout the body; but by far the largest quantities are found in the bones and muscles.

    Almost all the body’s enzymes are dependent to some degree on adequate supplies of magnesium, and these enzymes are essential for several hundred vital metabolic reactions; amongst the most important being the production of energy within cells through the metabolism of dietary proteins, carbohydrates and...
  • Boost Your Body’s Health And Performance With Adaptogens
    The term adaptogen was first used in Russia in the late 1940s to describe a number of herbal compounds which research suggests can act as powerful tonics and stimulants for the body’s systems; may help normalize the body’s functions in response to stress; and provide a powerful boost to the immune system. Adaptogens such as siberian ginseng have also been shown to help regulate the levels of blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol and important hormones.

    Adaptogen compoun...
  • You Don’t Have To Believe In Miracles To Benefit From Aloe Vera
    If you take any kind of interest in the world of alternative health you’ve no doubt heard of aloe vera. The plant is native to Africa, but there are now hundreds of species growing around the world. Authorities differ on the question of for how long the large, fleshy leaves of the plant have been used medicinally, but none suggest that it’s less than several thousand years.

    And you’re probably very familiar with its traditional gel form, in which it is used externally on t...
  • Is This Simple Drink Nature’s Most Powerful Anti-oxidant?
    The news today is all about the extraordinary growth of the Chinese economy, but is there a danger that in importing Western affluence the Chinese may also import our levels of the characteristic diseases of affluence – obesity, diabetes, heart attack, stroke and even cancer?

    Perhaps, but probably not, so long as traditional Chinese medicine retains its focus on promoting the balance and harmony of the entire human organism; on unleashing and then harnessing the body’s ow...
  • Coenzyme Q10: Here’s The Least You Need To Know About This Vital Anti-oxidant
    Coenzyme Q10 is found within every cell in the body for the very good reason that it’s absolutely essential for the production of energy within the cell mitochondria. But the value of coenzyme Q10 goes far beyond its role in the production of energy, vital though this is.

    To give just one example: coenzyme Q10 has been widely used in Japan since 1974 as a drug for the treatment of the congestive heart failure which is a characteristic degenerative disease of old age, and ...
  • Beating The Free Radicals: Why Your Diet Alone May Not Be Enough
    Fail to ensure that your diet is adequate in anti-oxidants and you’re asking for your body to be attacked by free radicals. And the potential severity of this attack should not be underestimated, because free radicals are strongly implicated in the aging and degeneration of our cells and therefore of our bodies as a whole.

    If you’re at all interested in diet and nutrition you’ve probably heard of free radicals and gathered that they’re regarded as highly damaging. You may ...
  • Devotees Of Liquid Nutrition Hail The End Of The Horse Pill
    It’s perhaps one of the sadder ironies of our time that the astonishing affluence we enjoy in inessential luxuries should be accompanied by increasing poverty in the most basic necessity of all – the very food we eat.

    The one thing in which our modern Western diet is not deficient, of course, is calories, as a glance at our surging rates of obesity and diabetes will quickly confirm. But these calories are largely provided in the form of refined carbohydrates, sugar and fat...
  • Try Bilberries In Your Diet For Long Term Eye Protection
    Like other anti-oxidants, plant flavonoids (or bioflavonoids) are important protectors against the cellular damage and associated degenerative diseases caused by free radicals. Flavonoids are also the compounds which give fruits and vegetables their colour, and the juice and skin of the bilberry, like that of cranberries and elderberries, is particularly rich in a type known as anthocyanidins, which impart their distinctive blue pigment.

    Recently hailed by nutritionists as...

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