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ScienceDaily (May 12, 2009) - Taking folic acid supplements for at least a year before conception is associated with reduction in the risk of premature birth, according to a study by Radek Bukowski (from the University of Texas Medical Branch, United States of America) and colleagues. Although most pregnancies last about 40 weeks, many babies (for example around 12% in the United States) are born before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy. Babies born prematurely are less likely to survive than full-term babies and are more likely to have breathing difficulties and learning or developmental disabilities. Currently, there are no effective methods of prevention or treatment of premature (preterm) birth, but previous studies have suggested that lower concentrations of folate (folic acid) are associated with shorter duration of pregnancy. Bukowski and colleagues therefore tested this idea, by analyzing data collected from a cohort of nearly 35,000 pregnant women. The results of this study showed that taking folate supplements for at least one year before conception was associated with a 70% reduction in spontaneous premature birth between 20 and 28 weeks (a reduction from 0.27% to 0.04%), and a 50% reduction between 28 and 32 weeks (reduction from 0.38% to 0.18%), as compared to the rate of preterm birth when mothers did not take additional folate supplementation. Folate supplementation for less than a year before conception was not linked to a reduction in the risk of premature birth in this study, and folate supplementation was not associated with any other complications of pregnancy. In a related commentary also published in this week's PLoS Medicine, Nicholas Fisk from the University of Brisbane, Australia, and colleagues (who were not involved in the original study) say "Methodologically, the study has several strengths... It is based on a huge dataset, with prospective recording of dietary supplements and potential confounders, and gestational age determined accu

ScienceDaily (Mar. 24, 2009) - Individuals who took a dietary supplement called "factor D", which included selenium, vitamin E, and beta-carotene, continued to have lower gastric cancer and overall mortality 10 years after supplementation ceased compared with individuals who did not take the supplements, according to long-term follow-up data from the randomized, double-blind General Population Nutrition Intervention Trial in Linxian, China.

Authors of the study reported that carnitine deficiency is a risk factor and should be viewed as a mechanism in hepatic carcinogenesis, and that long-term L-carnitine supplementation prevents the development of liver cancer. Therefore, carnitine supplementation alone or in combination with other natural chemopreventive compounds could be used to prevent, slow or reverse the occurrence of liver cance

Dose response to vitamin D supplementation among postmenopausal African American women.\nTalwar SA, Aloia JF, Pollack S, Yeh JK.\nAm J Clin Nutr. 2007 Dec;86(6):1657-62.\nPMID: 18065583

Supplements of 20 microg/d cholecalciferol optimized serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations in 80% of premenopausal women in winter.\nNelson ML, Blum JM, Hollis BW, Rosen C, Sullivan SS.\nJ Nutr. 2009 Mar;139(3):540-6. Epub 2009 Jan 21.\nPMID: 19158226

Vitamin D supplementation to prevent infections: a sub-study of a randomised placebo-controlled trial in older people (RECORD trial, ISRCTN 51647438). Avenell A, Cook JA, Maclennan GS, Macpherson GC. Age Ageing. 2007 Sep;36(5):574-7. Epub 2007 Aug 15. No abstract available. PMID: 17702768 doi:10.1093/ageing/afm091

ScienceDaily (Mar. 10, 2009) - A study led by researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) found that men who took a daily folic acid supplement of 1 mg daily had more than twice the risk of prostate cancer compared with men who took a placebo.

Lappe JM, Travers-Gustafson D, Davies KM, Recker RR, Heaney RP. \nVitamin D and calcium supplementation reduces cancer risk: results of a randomized trial.\nAm J Clin Nutr. 2007 Jun;85(6):1586-91.\nPMID: 17556697 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

dbroadwa I had a case of macular degeneration 7 years ago. For about three months I couldn't make out any features on a person's face from across a room with my right eye. My eye doc told me there was no cure. I contacted a person who worked at a holistic health college and she told me it sounded like I was dangerously deficient in zinc and selenium. She also sent me a chinese herbal formula called Celosia 10, some died red berries and told me to pick up bilberry supplement. I started taking these five supplements and in a week to ten days my eyesight was back to normal. On the next visit to the eye doc he was reading my file as he came in and asked if there were any changes since my last visit. I said 'as a matter of fact, yes'. He wrote down all the supplements I'd taken and I later printed out all the info off the containers and dropped it off at his office. He called to tell me that I was taking too much zinc and it could do liver damage, but I'd stopped taking it by then. Three times since, I've started to get the symptoms back and took at least some of these things with the same results. There are two types of MD, and I think only one responds to this approach. bpfsa Spinach truly is a wonderful vegetable, full of healthy properties. There's a website at http://www.spinachwords.com that shows how spinach is a multi-vitamin, multi-mineral, multi-amino, multi-phytonutrient powerhouse. There's alot more to spinach than just lutein and zexanthin and it is beneficial for much more than just your vision. It is great for your heart, for cancer prevention, for maternal & fetal health & development, it boosts your natural SPF levels in your skin, it wards of memory loss, dementia and other signs of ageing, and it is good for strong bones, too. Popeye was right - except maybe about eating a highly processed, canned product instead of fresh spinach.

We have compiled an Herb and Supplement Encyclopedia that you can search through to learn more about natural remedies. This herbal and supplement encyclopedia was written in an effort to provide accurate and up to date information on herbs that are commonly used in herbal preparations within Canada and the United States. Covering both their traditional usage and the latest scientific findings, each herbal monograph lists the 'traditional' usages in point form and also outlines the most well founded indications and relevant research in a short overview paragraph. The information on indications and suggested amount for each herb is largely based on the German Pharmacopoeia and other authoritative sources. We have also listed the traditional use of these herbs by First Nations healers wherever possible, out of respect and great appreciation for their healing wisdom and insight, often born out by science.

March 27, 2009 - A significant decrease in serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) levels has led to an increase in vitamin D insufficiency in the US population, especially in racial and ethnic groups, according to results of a population-based study reported in the March 23 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. "Vitamin D insufficiency has been associated with increases in cardiovascular disease, cancer, and infection," write Adit A. Ginde, MD, from the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado, and colleagues. "Vitamin D supplementation appears to mitigate the incidence and adverse outcomes of these diseases and may reduce all-cause mortality." [...] "These findings have important implications for health disparities and public health," the study authors conclude. "Our data provide additional evidence that current recommendations for vitamin D supplementation (200-600 IU/d) are inadequate to achieve optimal serum 25(OH)D levels in most of the US population." They add that large, randomized controlled trials of higher doses of vitamin D supplementation are needed to evaluate their effect on general health and mortality.

A popular vitamin supplement is being advertised with claims that are demonstrably untrue, as revealed by research published in the open access journal BMC Pharmacology. Benfotiamine is a synthetic derivative of thiamine (vitamin B1). It is marketed heavily as a dietary supplement using a selection of unsubstantiated, 'not-quite-medical' claims that tend to characterize this field. A large part of this campaign has been built around the belief that benfotiamine is lipid-soluble and, therefore, more physiologically active. Scientific research led by Dr Lucien Bettendorff of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology at the University of Liège, Belgium, has entirely disproved these claims.

Vitamin K-containing dietary supplements: comparison of synthetic vitamin K1 and natto-derived menaquinone-7.\nSchurgers LJ, Teunissen KJ, Hamulyák K, Knapen MH, Vik H, Vermeer C.\nBlood. 2007 Apr 15;109(8):3279-83. Epub 2006 Dec 7.\nPMID: 17158229 \nDOI 10.1182/blood-2006-08-040709\n

Do you have any common concerns when buying . Also have you ever wondered whether the herbal nutrition supplement you buy contain the right ingredients

Vitamin D supplementation during Antarctic winter. Smith SM, Gardner KK, Locke J, Zwart SR. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Apr;89(4):1092-8. Epub 2009 Feb 18. PMID: 19225122 doi:10.3945/ajcn.2008.27189

The results of a year long clinical trial examining the effects of mushroom supplementation in patients with Human Papillomavirus (HPV) have recently been presented at congress. Dr. Jose Silva Couto and Dr. Daniel Pereira da Silva of the Cervical Pathology Unit of the Portuguese Institute of Oncology in Coimbra, Portugal presented their findings at the 20th European Congress of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, in Lisbon Portugal. This study provides a promising set of results and demonstrates proof-of concept for the question as to whether immunonutrition supplements can be successfully used to improve HPV status in patients.

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) - Osteoporosis affects many women and can cause painful, disabling and even life-threatening fractures. Researchers from the UC Davis Department of Internal Medicine are seeking a simple, inexpensive way to prevent the disease. Strontium citrate is a widely available, over-the-counter dietary supplement promoted to "improve bone health." Strontium is a natural element found in bone in all people. Strontium citrate is another form of strontium ranelate, a proven medication prescribed across Europe and Australia to treat and prevent osteoporosis and related fractures. Unlike pharmaceuticals, strontium citrate is not a prescribed medication and is inexpensive.

This web site is dedicated to vitamin D and cancer. This is because exciting new research indicates that vitamin D-whether produced in the skin as a result of exposure to ultraviolet radiation (from sunlight or sun lamps) or obtained from supplementation with cholecalciferol (vitamin D3)-may help cancer patients. However, the research is far from complete.

Loren DJ, Seeram NP, Schulman RN, Holtzman DM. \nMaternal dietary supplementation with pomegranate juice is neuroprotective in an animal model of neonatal hypoxic-ischemic brain injury.\nPediatr Res. 2005 Jun;57(6):858-64. Epub 2005 Mar 17.\nPMID: 1577483

(NaturalNews) 30 years ago the famous Nobel laureate Linus Pauling said that vitamin C supplements can prevent cancer, a highly controversial statement at the time. Now a team of Johns Hopkins scientists have shown that vitamin C stops the growth of some tumors in mice. The Study The study was lead by Chi Dang, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine and oncology and Johns Hopkins Family Professor in Oncology Research. Their work is detailed in Cancer Cell, Volume 12, Issue 3, 230-238, 11 September, 2007. They found that the antioxidants' actual role may be to destabilize a tumor's ability to grow under conditions where there isn't enough oxygen to feed it. The conventional belief is that vitamin C helps prevent cancer growth by grabbing up volatile oxygen free radical molecules and preventing the damage they do to our DNA. "The potential anticancer benefits of antioxidants have been the driving force for many clinical and preclinical studies," Says Dang. "By uncovering the mechanism behind antioxidants, we are now better suited to maximize their therapeutic use."