Why Should You Take Nutritional Supplements?
A busy lifestyle leaves little time for planning meals and cooking. It’s far too easy to fill up the diet with empty calories in fast and convenience foods. Packaged and prepared mixes make life easy, but seldom provide all the nutrients your body needs to stay healthy. A good multi-nutrient supplement can help fill in the gaps in your diet when you’re too busy to eat balanced meals.
But, what if you eat a healthy diet? Do you still need to take vitamin and nutritional supplements? According to most experts on nutrition and the American diet, the answer is, quite honestly, yes.
Over the past ten years, scientists who study medical conditions like diabetes and coronary disease have all noted alarming rises in the incidence of those diseases.
It’s not just that there are more people being diagnosed with diabetes or heart disease. The profile of those being diagnosed has changed dramatically. For the first time ever, doctors are seeing significant number of children with adult onset diabetes and other conditions that were once thought to exclusively begin in middle age.
Nearly every one of those conditions has been linked to diet and nutritional deficiencies. Why is this happening in a society as wealthy and well-fed as ours? The reasons are all wrapped up in our way of life and the changes to society and the environment over the past 100 year some nutritionists argue.
One hundred years ago, most foods were grown and raised on small farms. Farmers rotated their crops regularly to get the best harvests because they knew that the soil needed replenishing in order for the food to grow healthy and strong. Their livestock was fed a varied diet because the animals were allowed to free range and graze at will. This meant that the meat derived from those animals contained the nutrients from the food that they ate.
The vegetables and fruits that appeared on the dinner table had been sliced and cooked in the kitchen, not canned months or even years earlier. There wasn’t as much of a need to add vitamins that processing robs from food simply because the foods weren’t processed.
Farming has changed in major ways since then. Crops are grown in soil that has been sterilized and robbed of its natural nutrients by overuse, insecticides, pesticides and chemicals meant to promote large, attractive fruits and vegetables–at the cost of vitamins and minerals. The natural fertilizers that kept soil healthy have been replaced with chemical fertilizers that contain only a few of the needed chemicals, and none of the enzymes that allow the body to process and absorb vitamins and minerals from food. Mass production and processing robs foods of still more nutrients.
Cooking and canning and sterilization methods can remove or destroy as much as 90% of the vitamins present in a fresh peach or carrot. Even many foods that appear fresh are likely to have been sprayed with gasses meant to preserve their colour and crispness as they travel across country. The end result is vegetables and fruits that contain a fraction of the vitamins and minerals that the same foods contained 100 years ago, much of it unusable by the body as it is.
When you add that to the fact that most Americans eat diets that are high on convenience and low on nutrition, the need to add vitamins and other nutritional supplements becomes very clear.
It’s important to remember that taking nutritional supplements is not a substitute for a healthy diet. They are meant to be exactly that–supplements–to fill in the gaps that our lifestyle leaves in our diets.
Most doctors recommend, at the very least, a high-quality multi-vitamin supplement daily, but nowadays sophisticated nutraceutical companies are producing products that go far above basic vitamins and minerals. These products may include speciality antioxidants that are much more powerful than vitamins, and other substances beneficial for health that won’t be found in any typical multivitamin supplement, such as enzymes for digestive health, herbal extracts, or other natural supplements.
Whatever kind of supplement you decide to take, it’s still important to consult with your doctor to let him know of your intent.
Reverse Diabetes Naturally With Dietary supplements
How are you going to reverse diabetes naturally? The exceptional thing is that you’ve got many various natural remedies that you can add to your total program to get your blood sugar again to normal. The most effective technique is normally a tailored bundle that fits along with your individual state of affairs and preferences.
These pure remedies for diabetes fall into a number of broad classes –
1. Life-style adjustments, with eating low carb, low glycemic index meals, avoiding addictive meals, and growing physical activity
2. Pure cures including particular vitamins, antioxidants, minerals, herbs, and omega-3 fatty acids
3. Different therapies for controlling appetite, addictive consuming, pain, and/or high blood pressure, such as acupuncture, meditation and guided imagery, and biofeedback
Let’s talk about each category in more detail.
First, research has shown that a comprehensive life-style change program can produce good blood sugar control that may be similar to the extent achieved utilizing oral medication like metformin. But, life-style changes profit you in many different methods, and, unlike medication, they do not have aspect effects. They can enhance yourself worth and sense of self efficacy you can handle your health challenges day by day.
Second, there is an unimaginable long and growing listing of pure cures and supplements that may cut back insulin resistance, decrease blood sugar levels and blood lipid ranges towards regular, and protect cells from the harm that higher blood sugars can cause.
As an example, alpha lipoic acid can shield nerve cells from injury that leads to the horrible peripheral neuropathy with numbness and pain in your feet and hands from diabetes. Coenzyme Q10 can protect your heart and other muscle tissues from the weakening uncomfortable side effects of the statin medication that many diabetics take to deliver down their excessive cholesterol levels.
Third, many drug-free different therapies like acupuncture may help rebalance your system in delicate ways that help you in making healthier food choices and modifying your stress response. In turn, these varieties of changes may help lower your blood stress and make it simpler to lose weight.
It’s also vital to comprehend that if one particular pure remedy does not give you the results you want, either due to preferences (afraid of even the thin needles of acupuncture?) or intolerance (simply cannot “stomach” a sure antioxidant), there will likely be a number of other options so that you can try instead.
What’s the best way to put together an individualized program on your diabetic wants? Talk together with your present well being care providers. When you’ve got a diabetes educator, see what they will do that can assist you with the lifestyle changes. Then, branch out. Chances are you’ll want to add a naturopathic physician or integrative drugs doctor to your team. They may know how to help you choose one of the best dietary supplements and alternative practitioners in your area to assist you.
The Best Supplements for Diabetes
Diabetes affects millions of Americans. Unless they keep their blood sugar levels in the non-toxic zone, victims can experience a host of problems. These include:
- Stroke
- Nerve damage
- Heart disease
- Kidney failure
- Blindness
- Gangrene
The best supplements for diabetes can help you reduce your risk and take back control of your life. But which ones work? It is easy to waste money on worthless, overpriced formulas.
Supported by a healthy lifestyle and good nutrition, each of the three examined below can help some of you manage diabetes better and help restore some of the damages that diabetes can cause. To help you choose the best for your needs, look at the ratings of the four tested and respected supplements below.
Brainiac Supplements – Diaberine
Diaberine helps optimize blood sugar levels, meaning it help to stop spikes and keep them in the safe area. In the Kumamoto study, researchers followed a group for six years. The patients consistently kept their levels from spiking after meals. The great news is that in six years they saw no deterioration in health. The people that kept very tight control of their levels after meals actually recorded an improvement in the function of their nerve cells.
All of this was due to the fact that they made sure to avoid blood sugar spikes after meals. This is wonderful news for diabetics. It means it is actually possible to improve your health and reverse the damage from diabetes. In fact, this works for people who have never been diagnosed with diabetes. It can even reduce the chance of a heart attack, according to a study at the University of Cambridge.
You can start this process by taking a supplement with:
Berberine to reduce blood sugar levels
Curcumin to help insulin sensitivity and reduce inflammation
Piperine to leverage the power of curcumin
The only supplement that has this is Brainiac brand Diaberine. It has no side effects and contains the ideal dose of each of the three critical ingredients. This is simply one of the best supplements for diabetes and rates 4.5 out of 5. It is all natural and addresses the major problem associated with diabetes, blood sugar spikes.
Native Remedies – Insulate Plus
Native Remedies offers Insulate Plus, an herbal supplement that helps maintain blood sugar levels that are already in the range of normal. One thing many people like is that it’s 100% natural and non-addictive. It’s made to keep the pancreas healthy and your endocrine and circulatory systems balanced.
For it to work best, you need to exercise regularly and eat right, as well as doing all the other things that make up a healthy lifestyle. That means cut back on sugar, fats, preservatives and artificial colours and stimulants in your diet. Another good thing is that it doesn’t have side effects and can be safely used consistently without causing problems. Overall, it gets 4 stars for being natural and without side effects.
Dr. Whitaker – Glucose Essentials
Dr. Whitaker brand Glucose Essentials is made with Portusana
Purslane Extract, a Swiss innovation that helps with insulin sensitivity, promoting more normal levels in your blood sugar. Your energy level evens out because you reduce the number of ups and downs with you blood sugar. It also helps you fight your cravings for sugar.
It gets high marks for making your insulin more efficient. The vanadyl sulphate, a safe mineral that is naturally occurring, makes this formula move the right amount of glucose from your bloodstream into your cells. It also contains Silbinol® from the kino tree, which removes sugar from the blood and sends it to the cells. These ingredients are making it one of the more effective supplements for diabetes.
Diabetes Diet Supplements
Diabetes is a chronic condition in which body does not produce or produce less insulin compared to healthy individual or body develops resistance to insulin (body does not respond to insulin).
Most foods that we consume finally enter into the blood in form of carbohydrate, fat & protein. From blood, these nutrients enter into cells. Insulin is required for this entry of glucose into cells. Body cells utilize carbohydrate & fat for energy & growth.
Because of less insulin or resistance to insulin in diabetes, blood sugar cannot enter into cells & remain in blood resulting in high blood sugar.
Studies have shown that supplements like chromium, alpha lipoic acid & vanadium plays an important role in the management of diabetes.
Chromium supplements in diabetes:
Diabetes is associated with low concentrations of chromium in blood, so, an early, long-term addition of chromium to the standard therapy has been recommended in several studies. Some latest clinical reports also support the safety and therapeutic value of chromium supplementation for the management of high cholesterol and sugar in subjects with diabetes.
Chromium increases insulin receptor numbers & insulin binding to cells. Since chromium acts by increasing insulin efficiency, lower amount of insulin is required in presence of chromium.
A clinical study published in ‘Diabetes Care. (2006, August)’ has shown that chromium supplementation in subjects with type 2 diabetes significantly improves insulin sensitivity and glucose control. (Glycemic control is a medical term used for blood sugar levels in a person with diabetes). Beneficial effects of chromium supplementation included reduced blood glucose, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels and reduced requirements for drugs for diabetes.
Reduction in blood sugar & improvement in insulin sensitivity with chromium results in decrease risk for diabetes complications.
Alpha lipoic acid in Diabetes:
Alpha lipoic acid is a powerful antioxidant, which is produced in the body & also present in food. High blood sugar in diabetes increases free radical formation in body, which leads to additional complications of diabetes like atherosclerosis, heart problems, nerve damage & cataract. Antioxidant decreases free radicals in body & decreases risk of complications.
There are number of publications confirming beneficial effect of lipoic acid in therapy of many diseases, including diabetes, atherosclerosis, degenerative processes in neurons, diseases of joints, Improvement in insulin sensitivity could improve both blood sugar control and cardiovascular risk factors in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Peripheral insulin sensitivity gives an idea about how body cells respond to insulin. In diabetes, because of decrease response to insulin by body cells, blood sugar cannot enter into cells causing high blood glucose. Alpha lipoic acid enhances glucose uptake by cells in type 2 diabetes.
Diabetic neuropathy or nerve damage is a complication of diabetes. It is a progressive disease, which can cause pain, loss of sensation and weakness, in the feet and sometimes in the hands. Studies have shown that alpha lipoic acid is effective in management of diabetic nerve damage called neuropathy and it reduces pain associated with neuropathy.
Vanadium supplement in diabetes:
Vanadium is a trace mineral required by the body in small quantities. Numerous studies have shown that vanadium has insulin-like effects in liver, skeletal muscle, and adipose tissue. It may improve glucose control in people with type 2 diabetes.
Along with chromium & alpha lipoic acid, some other supplement like evening primrose oil, fenugreek & some herbs also help in management of diabetes.