GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Vitamin supplements can prevent hearing loss in laboratory animals, according to two new studies, bringing investigators one step closer to the development of a pill that could stave off noise-induced and perhaps even age-related hearing loss in humans.

The findings will be reported Wednesday at the Association for Research in Otolaryngology’s annual conference in Baltimore by senior author Colleen Le Prell, a researcher at the University of Florida.

The supplements used in the research studies are composed of antioxidants — beta carotene and vitamins C and E — and the mineral magnesium. When administered prior to exposure to loud noise, the supplements prevented both temporary and permanent hearing loss in test animals.

“What is appealing about this vitamin ‘cocktail’ is that previous studies in humans, including those demonstrating successful use of these supplements in protecting eye health, have shown that (read more…)

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If you go to the grocery store, health food store, or pharmacy to buy vitamins and supplements for nutritional reasons, you may be surprised at how many different types and varieties there are on the shelves.  It used to be that every store where vitamins and supplements were available only had one aisle of these products; but now there are whole sections and even entire stores dedicated to selling vitamins and supplements.

If you read an article on vitamins and supplements and decide to purchase them for nutritional reasons, having this many different products available can be confusing.  Each vitamin and supplement may come in several different forms and also different dosages.  For example, Vitamin C can come in a liquid form, pill form, or can even be combined with other vitamins to produce a specific result.  It can be sold in different doses and even different measurements like milligrams and IU’s that you may not understand.   It can also be frustrating to make a choice if there are ten or twenty different brands available.

So if you want to buy vitamins and supplements to boost your health, where do you start?  If you are just looking for general health improvement, then you might (read more…)

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If you’ve decided to start purchasing vitamins and supplements, you will notice one distinct characteristic about them.  They are extremely expensive!  If you go to the health food store and only purchase three or four bottles of supplements, the total can easily be well over a hundred dollars.  Assuming that each bottle has only a month’s supply, if you are on a serious supplement regimen,  it could possibly cost you up to a couple of hundred dollars a month if you buy the premium brands of vitamins.  So here are a few tips on how to get your vitamins for the cheapest price and still enjoy the benefits associated with the most expensive name brands.

Tip #1:  Don’t pay more for the fancy label.  Many vitamins and supplements come in very ornate looking packaging.  However, once you start reading the fancy label, if you don’t see any difference between its ingredients and the cheaper brands’ – that’s probably because there is no difference.  A lot of times, you are paying more for the name on the bottle because you are paying for the advertising the company puts out.  In reality, vitamins from companies with a huge difference in price from other brands actually come from the same factory.

Tip #2:  Generic brands are just as good as name brands and cost about half as much.  Again, read the label.  If the generic has the same ingredients as its competitors; it is the same thing.  In fact, many companies put out a generic brand along with their name brand to capture price-conscious shoppers along with their more discerning customers.  On some generic labels, you can even see a “distributed by” in fine print on the back of the bottle.  Always buy (read more…)

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