A couple of drops of Lugol’s solution on a patient’s wrist can tell you a lot about how “hungry” someone is for iodine. If the Lugol’s stain disappears within a few hours, the patient probably needs iodine supplements.
Say the word “iodine” and most physicians automatically think, “thyroid.” But iodine is also essential for maintenance of healthy breast and ovarian tissue in women, and fostering optimal neurocognitive development in babies. It may even have a role in preventing or treating breast cancer. The problem is, many women are iodine deficient.
In it’s new position paper on treatment of IBS, the American College of Gastroenterology has formally recognized the value of certain probiotics. Natural medicine has much else to offer patients struggling with this difficult chronic condition.
As we’ve learned more about the importance of vitamin D in preventing heart disease, colon cancer, diabetes and depression, some people have begun to challenge skin cancer reduction efforts focused on sun avoidance. But careful review of the science shows that oral vitamin D supplements can more than compensate for any vitamin D lost through sun-avoidance. For light skinned people, sun protection makes most sense—just make sure to use eco-friendly products.
“From diabetes to hypertension, cancer to drug addiction, stroke to intestinal motility, memory and learning disorders to septic shock, sunburn to anorexia, male impotence to tuberculosis, there is probably no pathological condition where nitric oxide does not play an important role.”
Of all the nutrients, herbs and drugs used to treat patients with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, D-ribose is the singlemost effective because it corrects the core metabolic problem underlying these syndromes. D-ribose supplementation can have a profoundly positive effect in CFS/FM patients, especially women.
Immune system function tends to diminish with advancing age, leaving many elderly people more susceptible to influenza, common colds, and pneumonia, as well as various cancers. A new study shows Active Hexose Correlated Compound (AHCC), a mushroom-derived compound used in Japan as an adjunct in treatment of cancer and hepatitis, can boost T-cell mediated immune function in otherwise healthy elders.
It can be difficult for physicians and patients alike to design a dietary supplementation program that truly meets an individual’s metabolic needs. Enter NutriScan, a computerized system for assessing nutritional status and dispensing corrective supplements.
Despite consuming greater quantities of food than any other population on Earth, many Americans are suffering multiple nutrient deficiencies. In this second part of his lecture Steven C. Masley, MD, a family physician and nutritionist, offers guidelines for supplementation with B vitamins, calcium, magnesium and other key nutrients.
Vitamin D deficiency has been linked with everything from psoriasis and osteoporosis to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and autoimmune diseases. But the relationships may not be as simple as we’d like to believe. Neither is the relationship between sun exposure and vitamin D production in the skin.
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