As vitamins and supplements go, folic acid is a B vitamin that is known mainly for its ability to fight cardiovascular disease.  Folic acid is found naturally in green leafy vegetables and legumes, but if you don’t eat enough of these, it’s a good idea to take folic acid as a supplement.  If you don’t get enough folic acid in your diet, you may be unnecessarily risking the possibility of heart problems and other serious illnesses.  Studies have proven that the right amount of folic acid in your blood stream can go a long way towards fighting cardiovascular disease, specifically the blocked arteries caused by having high levels of homocysteine in your blood stream.

If you never heard of homocysteine, you are not alone.  This is a fairly newly discovered danger to the arteries in the head and neck, and is partially responsible for the blockage of these arteries.  Homocysteine is a type of amino acid in the blood, which becomes oxidized and releases an excess of the vicious free radical called superoxide.  Homocysteine is similar to cholesterol in the way that it begins to block blood vessels, which can trigger a heart attack or stroke.  This danger can affect some 30 to 40% of older adults in the United States.  

The good news is that deficiencies in folic acid are easy to fix.  Just taking a folic acid supplement of 400 to 1,000 micrograms a day can help save someone with low folic acid levels form a heart attack.  The right amount of folic acid can be found in an over-the-counter multivitamin.  Along with vitamins B12 and B6, you have the perfect formula to help prevent heart attacks.

Folic acid supplements can also help block and reverse cancer, even after premalignant cells are found.  This is because (read more…)

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By VANESSA RAYMOND
HowToDoThings.com

There’s a freight train running through the middle of your head and you’re not listening to Bruce Springsteen … sounds like a hangover.

Symptoms of a hangover include a throbbing head, queasy stomach, dry mouth, sensitivity to light and sound, inability to concentrate and, often, a bit of existential angst thrown in for good measure. Before you run out and buy sauerkraut juice, persimmons or another home remedy, first discern fact from fiction.

First, fluids

Alcohol is a diuretic, which means that it increases urine production, thus decreasing the amount of water available to your body. Sip water or sports drinks, suck on ice cubes and eat food with high water content (i.e. watermelon) to replace the water you eliminated.

Sports drinks provide the added benefit of replacing electrolytes. Along with the electrolytes excreted by your kidneys when you drink too much, you eliminate B vitamins, too. Replenish them with a B-complex vitamin that contains vitamin B1 (thiamin), vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B3 (niacin), vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid), vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) and vitamin B12. (read more…)

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here is no question that people who eat more than eight ounces of fish per week live longer and healthier lives than those who don’t.  Study after study shows that fish eaters are more likely to avoid illnesses like heart disease, cancer, arthritis, diabetes, and psoriasis much more than people who only eat one serving of fish per week or less.  It has been noted that the Japanese, who hold the world’s record for longevity, eat three times more fish than people in many other countries.

So what about those of us who don’t get enough fish in our diets?  The prognosis isn’t great.  Non-fish eaters run a thirty percent higher risk of contracting serious illnesses like heart disease and cancer.    This is not good news for people who don’t like fish or want to eat it.  However, you don’t have to like to eat fish to enjoy its benefits.  As far as vitamins and supplements go, people who take regular doses of fish oil capsules get similar benefits to those people who eat fish 3 times a week.  

Most of the benefits derived from fish oil supplements are from their high content of omega 3 fatty acids.  Omega 3 fatty acids discourage the formation of hormone-like agents called prostaglandins.  Prostaglandins are the perpetrators that (read more…)

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