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Thoughts for the pessimists
What makes your brain tick?
According to researchers, the parts of your body, if you don't use it you lose
it, particularly your brain. The more you use it, the more logic & brainier you
are, could that be true???
Winter Blues or Health Problem?
If you suffer from winter blues, all you need is plenty of artificial light at
home to mimic the summer weather from morning till bed time, but if that doesn't
work for you, then it could be your health needs attention.
Read what Dr. Alan
Pressman has to say about health in his book 'Vitamins and Minerals'.
Vitamin Deficiencies
If you suffer from vitamin deficiencies, your body cannot function normally
to produce the energy and the many complicated chemicals you need.
The classic
example of a deficiency disease is scurvy, caused by a lack of Vitamin C. Many
adults are marginally deficient in cobalamin (Vitamin B12) which leads to
depression and other mental symptoms.
In fact, studies show that at least one in four of all people hospitalized for
depression is deficient in pyridoxine ((Vitamin B6) and cobalamin; another study
suggests that over three-quarters of all depressed patients have a pyridoxine
deficiency.
Giving these patients even small doses of pyridoxine improves their
depression. Folic acid (Vitamin B9) supplements have been shown to help elderly
patients who are depressed.
Though vitamins are found in many different foods, but some people are
especially at risk, such as the following:
Alcohol abusers
- alcohol blocks your ability to absorb B vitamins and also
makes you excrete them faster.
- Alcoholics are most likely to be deficient in thiamin (Vitamin B1), riboflavin (Vitamin B2), pyridoxine (Vitamin B6), and
folic acid (Vitamin B9).
Smokers
- tobacco smoke decreases your absorption of B vitamins across the
board.
- People on strict diets
- vegetarians and vegans (vegans who don't eat any animal foods such as milk or eggs) may not get enough B vitamins.
- Vegetarian children and people following macrobiotic diets are especially at risk.
People with chronic digestive problems
- these people may not be absorbing enough B vitamins through their intestines.
- The elderly - you absorb less of some of the B's as you age. Also, elderly
people who live alone or in nursing homes often don't eat properly and don't get enough B's from their food.
- The B vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, B12) all seven of them pull together
to do the larger jobs of producing energy, making body chemicals such as
hormones, and controlling how your cells grow and divide.
- A shortage of any one of these B's you're likely to be deficient in the others, too. For example, if
you're low on Vitamin C, you're probably also low on folic acid (B9) - and vice versa.
Vitamins and Minerals by Dr. Alan Pressman & Sheila Buff, ISBN 0-02-863964-2
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