Category Archives: Nutrition and Health

Which Form of Vitamin D Is Best?

Vitamin D3 is more potent than D2, according to a meta-analysis.

By now you may have learned what vitamin D can do for your bones, muscle, your heart, and even your telomeres (those protective caps on chromosomes), but are you getting the right amount in the right form to boost levels optimally? 

Vitamin D is perhaps the most unique and certainly the most broadly influential “vitamin” in our diet. Given the scope of its action it may be no surprise this vitamin is not a vitamin at all, but works more like a hormone. Supplement users are acquainted with vitamin D in two forms: vitamin D2, available in plants and fortified foods, and vitamin D3, the natural form produced in the partnership between skin and sunshine and also found in some animal foods like egg yolks and oily fish.

Which one are you getting? Does it matter? Because of mixed data on potency, the scientific community has long been at odds regarding which form is best to bring levels in the blood stream up to optimal status; and finally an answer has been unveiled. For the first time, a systematic review and meta-analysis including 17 studies comparing the use of vitamin D2 to D3 suggest that D3 is the one most effective at raising blood levels of the vital-for-health vitamin. Continue reading →

Are You Getting Enough of the “Gymnast” Vitamin?

Vitamin B12 goes through acrobat-like moves for crucial reactions in the body, new research finds.

Vitamin B12 bends over backwards for your health and now, for the first time, scientists have produced 3-D images of it in action.

University of Michigan and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have created computer-generated 3-D ribbon diagrams of vitamin B12 (and other molecules) in action as it performs its role in transferring methyl groups — a crucial reaction in the body.

Methyl group transfer is an essential vitamin B12 function needed for the maintenance of the central nervous and cardiovascular systems, as well as the conversion of food into energy. It also occurs in the cells of bacteria that reside in our guts (and in the guts of cows and other animals), enabling gases such as carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide to be detoxified and eliminated. Continue reading →

“Diabesity” Rates Soaring in the U.S.

By Dennis Harper, DO, Isagenix Scientific Advisory Board Chair

CDC map showing the rising rates of obesity and diabetes since 1994

Those of you who read my last report on obesity know the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a map showing the increase in obesity rates on a state-by-state basis since 1985. They also have a similar map related to diabetes rates. I have included the link here and suggest it is very worthwhile to review. The set of slides is a comparison of diabetes and obesity trends, but they have only correlated these statistics beginning with 1994. It would have been more enlightening to view the comparison of statistics beginning with 1985.

What is very interesting is the high correlation between obesity and diabetes trends. It is important to understand that almost all obesity-related diabetes (“diabesity”) is considered type 2. Most doctors’ first line of therapy will be diet and exercise. If diet and exercise does not work for the patient, doctors will add oral medications to increase the amount of insulin being produced or medications to increase the receptors’ ability to absorb glucose. In many instances they will use both.

Continue reading →

More Sleep May Mean Less Cravings

Getting adequate sleep correlated with less binge eating episodes in women, according to new study

Not getting enough sleep may bring about binge eating in women, a new study finds.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina suggest that women lacking restful sleep are more likely to report binge eating, irrespective of weight, age, current relationship status, and depression.

Binge eating is viewed as a loss of control that results in large intakes of food during a short period of time. As much as a quarter of U.S. adults battling obesity have reported a history of binge eating.

“Over the past half-century, there has been a steady and rapid decline in time spent sleeping, which has paralleled the rapid rise in the prevalence of overweight and obesity,” the authors wrote. Continue reading →

Multivitamins May Improve Short-Term Memory in Healthy Adults

Taking a multivitamin may improve short-term memory, according to study

The days of forgetting where you put your car keys could be gone with supplementation with a quality multivitamin like Isagenix Essentials for Men or Women, Australian researchers suggest.

Taking a multivitamin may be more than a dietary insurance policy; it might improve short-term memory, according to the researchers’ meta-analysis published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Researchers from Monash University in Australia pooled data from 10 randomized, placebo-controlled trials that included nearly 3,200 participants and lasted from four weeks to more than four years. To be included, the trials had to report on the effects of supplementation after at least one month of multivitamin use on cognitive performance in “cognitively intact” adults over the age of 18. Continue reading →