Monthly Archives: January 2012

Studies have revealed that an alarmingly large proportion of the nothern European population with poor UV exposure have lower than normal vitamin D levels.

A recent report has suggest that exposing your skin to UV radiation in order for your body to produce vitamin D3 could be “highly irresponsible”.  Obtaining vitamin D3 through daily supplementation all year round is the safest way to increase vitamin D levels within the body. *

It is estimated that intakes of up to 75 IU per kilo of bodyweight per day would be a safe alternative to extended sun exposure and would reduce the risk of skin damage.  Also, during the months of October through to March, people living in the northern hemisphere won’t get enough of the correct UV light needed, due to the sun being too low in the sky.

The half-life of vitamin D is estimated to be up to 8 weeks, so don’t expect your summer holiday to keep your levels up throughout the winter.

Why should we care so much about vitamin D?

Vitamin D deficiency is associated with an increased risk of serious ailments, such as:

• Osteoporosis
• Bone fractures (and falls  – especially in elderly women)
• Rickets in children – up to 25% of toddlers in the UK are deficient!
• Infectious diseases (vitamin D can act as an up-regulator for anti-viral and anti-bacterial proteins)
• Cardiovascular diseases

What makes a good supplement?

Vitamin D is lipisoluble (which means it needs fat to be absorbed by the body).  This is a very important factor.  Also, look out for supplements that:

1. Contain at least 800 IU of vitamin D3 (many studies have used 800+ IU to obtain their compelling results)
2. Use the biological form of vitamin D, which is D3 (cholecalciferol).  This is bio-identical and used more effectively by the body.
3. Contain natural, healthy oils (such as olive oil) to enhance the absorption of the vitamin D3
4. Use blister packaging. Most vitamins are very sensitive to light and atmosphere.  Blister packs prevent all the capsules being damaged before they are taken
5. Prioritise pharmaceutical standards.  This ensures consistency and quality.  Ask for certificates of analyis.

Everyone should take a vitamin D supplement.  Pharma Nord’s Bio-Vitamin D3 D-Pearls are tiny, easy to swallow, safe and inexpensive at only £6.95 for 120 blister-packed capsules.

*Source: Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, June 2010, Vol 62, Iss 6.

An english woman has lived with the very annoying Restless Leg Syndrome for 40 years which has made her life a total misery, with legs “jumping” day and night. She has tried many things over the years with little or no relief until she tried Bio-Magnesium.

Background
Mrs. Sandra Duckworth (late fifties) lives in Poulton Lancashire. She is a widow with 3 kids, one still at home. She works from home and assists a local hedgehog rescue charity ran by her sister. Mrs.  Duckworth has lived with restless legs since she was a teenager. As a young woman this meant that socialising was difficult. She couldn’t sit still. Going to shows or to the cinema with friends was impossible due to her legs taking on a life of their own.

When married life came along, the combination of looking after small children and a snoring husband made it difficult to sleep. The restless legs made quality sleep impossible.

Medication had no effect
Sandra was very self-conscious about her problem, which she considered too trivial and embarrassing to take to a doctor. When she did seek help, she took part in a twelve week trial of medication that had no effect, apart from causing constant nausea.

Bio-Magnesium
Sandra did some research and was recommended the essential mineral magnesium. She tried a number of brands, including sprays, but to no avail. Eventually, she came across Bio-Magnesium, which contains a combination of three types of magnesium to ensure easy digestion and good bioavailabilty. It is made to pharmaceutical standards, blister-packed and produced by Pharma Nord.

About magnesium
Magnesium is a versatile mineral involved in over 300 enzyme-catalyzed essential metabolic reactions within the body. In particular, magnesium is important for the normal functioning (contraction) of heart and skeletal muscles, the normal functioning (signal transmission) of nerves, and normal blood clotting, as well as in the body’s energy supply process.

Many individuals do not have an adequate intake of magnesium, because of their reliance on processed foods which contain little magnesium. Magnesium stores are depleted by drinking alcohol. Magnesium used in dietary supplements may occur in several chemical forms with great difference in their bioavailability

Restful sleep at last
After taking Bio-Magnesium, Sandra found that she could lie in bed, watching TV and then gently drift off to a peacefull sleep. Before then, she lived with the fear of being kept awake and pacing the floor all night.

Sources

• Woman December issue 2011
• Pharma Nord UK

Transcript of original letter:
Hello,

I would like to tell you about my experience with you Bio-Magnesium tablets.

For as long as I can remember I have suffered from RLS (Restless Leg Syndrome), which has made my life a total misery, with my legs ‘jumping’ day and night. I have tried many things over the years with little or no relief until I tried your tablets.

I can honestly say they have made a huge improvement and have quite literally changed my life. I was absolutely desperate to find something, which would help this condition and I have at last found it.

I am in my late 50′s, so it’s been a long, difficult journey, but you have no idea what it means to be able to sit or lie down without your legs taking on a life of their own and jumping around.
I will make sure I take my daily dose to keep this awful condition at bay.

Many thanks.
Yours sincerely,

Mrs Sandra Duckworth.

About Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS)
Also called Ekbom’s disease is often described as crawling sensations, electric charge and jumpy or twichy legs. Attacks can occur every 10-60 seconds and are worse in the evenings, when resting or lying down. Sometimes arm are affected too. Attacks happening while sleeping will not necessarily be noticed.

RLS is rare in individuals under 30 years of age. The frequency of attacks increases with age. Some experience RLS only at bedtime, while others experience it throughout the day and night. Most sufferers experience the worst symptoms in the evening and the least in the morning.

A connection seems to exist between lifestyle, general state of health, and the frequency of RLS attacks. People suffering from anaemia, diabetes, kidney problems, heart problems, atherosclerosis, nervous diseases, overweight, and smokers plus people who do not exercise are at increased risk of developing RLS.

The cause of RLS is unknown.  In about 1/3 of the affected people, the condition is hereditary. The symptoms it is believed to originate from spasms in the arterial walls. In some cases, the cause can be vitamin- and mineral deficiencies, electrolytic imbalances, and lack of fluid.

About Bio-Magnesium
Bio-Magnesium is a complex of three different magnesium salts. Each tablet provides you with 200 mg of pure magnesium. The tablet contains a mixture of organically and inorganically bound magnesium contained in a matrix that causes the tablet to dissolve completely within a few minutes – even in people with a low stomach acid content – where the magnesium content will be changed to a absorbable ion form. Bio-Magnesium need not necessarily to be consumed with a meal.

Results from a questionnaire survey of a group of older American women’s use of dietary supplements have been used to erroneously conclude that vitamin and mineral supplements would be ineffective or downright unhealthy. This is totally wrong.

The study, which is made by the Finnish researcher Jaakko Mursu and colleagues and published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine in October 2011 and later mentioned in many media, suggests that older women who take vitamin and mineral supplements, may die before other women at the same age who are not taking supplements.

Not a controlled trial

Many health concerned experts in several countries has obviously pondered upon this study, and when it comes to quality, it certainly did not get good marks. This is because it is a highly uncertain survey that not even have had a placebo-controlled control group. A group of women with a mean age of 61 years, over a period of nearly 20 years were asked to write down their intake of certain vitamins and minerals 3 times. It required them to remember what dietary supplements they used aprox. 10 years ago.

No statistical certainty

The main conclusion described a few percent excess mortality connected with the intake of multivitamin, B6, folate, iron, magnesium, copper and zinc. Apart from iron supplementation, none of these conclusions, however were significant, meaning that the results due to poor control could well be due to coincidences or factors which have nothing to do with dietary supplements. Calcium supplements however, lowered the risk. The supplements which gave the highest statistical certainty was calcium, which increased survival and iron supplements who appeared to lower it.

Basically, the uncertainty in this study is so great that nothing can be concluded with certainty!

Beware of iron

It is well known that it is unhealthy to take a supplement of iron, unless you lack this mineral. When the body’s iron stores are full and you take extra iron, it creates a cascade of harmful free radicals. For the same reason, Pharma Nord multivitamin does not contain iron.

Other causes of increased mortality

Many factors may have influenced the test result to give a misleading and negative image of dietary supplements. It has been pointed out that many people only start taking dietary supplements after they have got a disease. At the start of 1986 almost twice as many taking supplement also were receiving hormone treatment compared with non-supplement users. This trend was also present at the follow-up questionnaire in 2004.

Negative comments

In fact there is so much uncertainty about this study that it is surprising that it has been found worthy of publication. Much of the negative twist, this study has got in the media, seems not to originate from Mursu and colleagues but from a subsequent comment to the article written by two doctors: Bjelakovich and Gluud which is well known for their highly negative attitude to dietary supplements.

Manipulated data

It is worth mentioning that the main conclusion in the Mursu study does not mention either vitamin A, beta carotene or vitamin E as these two doctors do – from the obvious reason that there were no significant adverse effects of these vitamins in the study! Instead, they mention their own previously published study in which they discarded more than 400 studies, also because there was reported some deaths! – In this way it’s also much easier to scold at eg. Vitamin A, E and beta carotene (2).

It is claimed that if you want a really thorough overview of the studies which have shown a beneficial effect of dietary supplements, you only need the list of discarded studies from these two doctors.

Better quality studies

Studies of better quality have shown positive effects of the vitamins and minerals in question. In 2010 a research team led by Hans Biesalski did a reanalysis of the data Bjelakovich and colleagues had made of vitamin A, E and beta-carotene and which allegedly showed an increased mortality of 16% (2). The reanalysis found that 36% of the surveyed studies showed a positive effect of these antioxidants. 60% gave a neutral result (3).

Also the researcher Li and colleagues’ study of vitamin and mineral supplements (4) concludes that supplementation with antioxidant vitamins may reduce the number of cancer incidents and all-cause mortality. Here they point out the statistical risk of corrupted data that might occur when people get sick and then start taking supplements without having participated in a possible pre-preventive effect.

Recently an article by researcher Bowman and employees (5) were published about development of Alzheimer’s disease where the focus was on the content of nutrients in the blood of the trial participants, rather than relying on questionnaires. This analysis showed with clarity that those with the most vitamin B, C, D and E in the blood did better on tests of memory and thinking. People with high blood levels of omega 3-fatty acids, primarily found in fish, also did well in the test.

The placebo-controlled SU-Vi.Max study showed that a daily intake of just 120 mg of vitamin C, 30 mg vitamin E, 6 mg beta carotene, 100 micrograms selenium and 20 mg of zinc lowered the number of cancer cases and deaths from all causes in men significantly (6).

The list of high quality scientific studies showing beneficial and life-prolonging effects of supplementation with vitamins and minerals is very long, and is still becoming longer.

Refs.

1. Mursu J, et al. Dietary supplements and mortality rate in older women: the Iowa Women’s Health Study. Arch Intern Med. 2011 Oct 10;171(18):1625-33.

2. Bjelakovic G, et al. Mortality in Randomized Trials of Antioxidant Supplements for Primary and Secondary Prevention: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis JAMA. 2007;297(8):842-57.

3. Biesalski HK, et al. Reexamination of a Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Antioxidant Supplementation on Mortality and health in Randomized Trials. Nutrients 2010, 2:929-49.

4. Li, et al. Vitamin/mineral supplementation and cancer, cardiovascular, and all-cause mortality in a German prospective cohort (EPIC-Heidelberg). Eur J Nutr. 2011, Jul 22. Epub ahead of print.

5. Bowman GL, et al. Nutrient biomarker patterns, cognitive function, and MRI measures of brain aging. FASEB 2011. E-pub ahead of print.

6. Hercberg S, et al. The SU-VI.Max Study. Arch Intern Med 2004;164:2335-42.