What is the healthiest approach to skin care?

Skin

The skin is the largest organ in the body, and certainly one of the most important. Through touch, it provides us with a way to communicate with and experience the world. It also acts as a protective barrier against viruses, bacteria, ultraviolet rays, knocks and scrapes, poisonous chemicals, excess heat and cold.

It’s a temperature regulating system, and it helps us with metabolism and respiration, excreting excess salt, water, and other chemicals. In fact, unless your skin is doing its job properly most of the time, the chances are you’ll die.

The Anatomy of Skin

Skin sometimes looks like a single sheet of flesh, but really it comprises many different layers. They’re categorized into three main types, as follows.

The epidermis is the outer layer, and its job is to be the primary ‘bodyguard’ of the skin team. It stops pollutants, the sun, and other harmful elements getting to the more delicate layers of skin underneath. It also converts sunlight into vitamin D.

In addition, it stops your body losing too much of its water content, and that’s pretty important, because if it ends up below 10% your skin becomes brittle, dry, and vulnerable to infection and damage.

The next layer down is the dermis, the secondary ‘bodyguard’ within the skin and the one that gives it most of its colour, scent and oil content. In addition, it carries nutrients and oxygen in blood capillaries to the epidermis, and removes waste products from it.

The dermis is the part of the skin that helps most with the regulation of body temperature, through sweating and blood flow. Just as importantly, perhaps, it keeps us safe by giving us a large proportion of our sense of touch. The dermis also stops bumps and minor wounds from penetrating to the tissues underneath, by using a tough protein called collagen, along with elastic tissue and reticular fibres.

These give the skin strength and flexibility, while enabling it to help keep the internal organs safely in place. The next layer down is the hypodermis, or subcutaneous layer – the one hidden from view beneath the others. It has a more internal role in the body, providing a network of blood vessels and offering shock absorption, energy storage, insulation and the ability of skin to slide over joints.

Protecting Your Skin

With such an important role to play in keeping the body nourished and protected, your skin really is a vital resource for your health, and it pays to put in a bit of effort in to your skin care to help it out. Ultraviolet light is necessary in small quantities, for the skin to be able to make vitamin D. But too much sun can kill you.

In Australia, skin cancer accounts for around 81% of all new cancers diagnosed each year.

Over 382,000 people are treated for it, and over 1400 die. Even in the cloudy UK, the more serious form of skin cancer accounts for almost three per cent of all newly diagnosed cancers each year. Everyone is at risk from getting skin cancer, regardless of the colour of their skin. Skin care in this regard is critical - a matter of life and death. Even without the cancer, sun ages skin rapidly. Having prematurely aged skin can wreak havoc with your skin care and beauty regime and make you seem old beyond your years.

As we age, or if we suffer sun damage on our skin, it loses its ability to produce collagen and elastin so effectively, so loses some of its elasticity. It develops wrinkles, areas of uneven pigmentation and takes on a texture that’s ‘leathery’ or, ‘papery’ and delicate. That’s when ‘laughter lines’ start to seem a little less amusing. The best way to prevent these problems is to avoid over-exposure to the sun. Skin care does not just mean lotions and potions. It means spending time in the shade, especially during the hottest parts of the day; making sure you never burn; covering up with a t-shirt, hat and sun umbrellas; avoiding sunbeds; and taking particular care of children and their sun exposure.

Slap on a sunscreen with a factor 15 or higher, and consider using a titanium oxide sunblock on delicate parts of their bodies, especially faces.

After enjoying the sun, use a moisturizer. It’s also important to know your skin and keep an eye on moles – if you spot any changes in their appearance or sensation, see your doctor immediately.

Looking after yourself in the sun is one of the best things you can do for your skin care. But unfortunately, it will still change and degenerate as you age. Eventually, free radicals produced by pollution, intoxicants such as smoking, and the body’s normal metabolic processes, produce an oxidative stress on the body which it finds increasingly hard to repair. As a result, it becomes more prone to disease and decline, and the amount of nutrients its cells can absorb will also fall.

For a thorough insight about sun protection, sun’s ultraviolet radiation hazards, types and risk of skin cancer have a look at "the 1st Sun Protection Guide"

The Problems With Skin care Today

You may have noticed that skin care today is more complicated than it was for generations before. Simple beauty routines no longer have the same impact on the health of our skin, and you may be wondering why.

Of course, a lot of our perceived problems with trying to look good come from the advertising industry. The cosmetics and skincare giants are billion dollar concerns, and a great deal of hype is put out to make us buy products.

Some of them even contain substances which are bad for us. Parabens, for example, are used as preservatives in skin care cosmetics, but these chemicals have been found in breast cancer tumours.

Further tests are underway, but in the meantime, who wants to take the risk? They, and other substances, also need to be processed by the body and excreted, which puts unnecessary strain on the liver.

If you can, choose a skin care product with a self-preserving formula that doesn’t contain synthetic preservatives.

It is more important what you put in your body than on your skin

Much of our skin condition comes from what we eat. Food today is vastly different to the kind our ancestors ate, even as recently as 20 years ago. Chemical preservatives, steroids in meat, long storage periods, processing, and the poor quality of over-farmed soil are all to blame. Food that contains too much salt, sugar and hydrogenated or saturated fat, will play havoc with the quality and appearance of your skin.

What Can I Do To Help My Skin?

If you can, eat fresh, organic, locally-grown whole foods, including as many vegetables as possible, and preferably some fruit. Food that’s rich in antioxidants will reward you with healthier skin.

Drinking enough water is also vital for maintaining your health and good skin care, and 6-8 glasses day is a good general rule of thumb.

It’s a wise move to take a high quality nutritional supplement, too.

Do some research first, because many of the cheaper products are actually bad for your body, or simply don’t do what they promise. Fatty acids in the form of omega-3 (flax oil, for example) and fish oils help keep the skin nourished and lubricated. Antioxidants, especially vitamin C and E, will give a tremendous boost to your skin care, and help other parts of your body at the same time.

Finally, remember that ultimately, “you are what you eat” and especially when it comes to your skin.

Source: www.preventive-health-guide.com

What’s an effective approach to healthy aging and anti-aging?

You need to go beyond traditional reverse aging treatment, hyped skin care products, heavily marketed antioxidants, vitamins, creams, supplements and start to understand the science beneath the skin.

It's on -- the race to "anti-age" is a rapidly growing pursuit for many, many people in the Western world. But when you think about anti-aging, what's the first thing you think of? Probably the youthful look of your skin. And while skin care is an important step to healthy aging, it's not the only thing to consider. After all, what's outside very appropriately represents what's inside.

One of the biggest key factors in aging is oxidative stress. The onslaught of free radicals assaulting your body causes breakdown and nearly irreparable damage to the inside and outside of your body.

We'll all age - that's inevitable. But aging gracefully can be accomplished much more easily by paying very close attention, throughout your life, to cellular nutrition

Cellular Nutrition and Healthy Aging

In this world of quick fixes, plastic surgery, and a barrage of "miracle" cures, one thing is clear: These things don't offer a holistic, long-term approach to keeping your entire body fit, healthy, and young for as long as possible. Quite frankly, there's been a failure of prescription medicine in the war on degenerative diseases.

Today, we're living much, much longer than we ever have before. However, the quality of these long lives is sadly degraded by the oxidative damage done to our cells by myriad sources.

The best way to keep our bodies healthy - starting today and lasting a lifetime - is to eat a healthy diet, excerise moderately and consider starting a regimen of supplements that include antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins. These important ingredients help keep the cells healthy, inside and out, and remove the danger that the free radicals cause including internal and external damage.

However, because of doctors' bias against nutritional supplements, you may not have heard just how important getting the proper intake of this nutritional regimen is.

While you may have been told to start taking a multivitamin, the truth is, the recommended daily allowances in most of the popular, predominantly poor quality vitamin supplements is far below what you should really be getting in order to attain a healthy aging process.

The Risks of Premature Aging

Premature aging, in a nutshell, is a rapid depletion of antioxidants and necessary compounds in your system. If you're exposed to dangerous free radicals on a daily basis, and you don't take measures to stop this barrage, your body will begin to break down in various ways.

Take, for instance, sunlight. While sunlight exposure does offer us some essential vitamins, it's also an increasingly dangerous source of free radicals. If you don't take measures to protect yourself from the sun, your skin will begin to break down much faster. This leads to wrinkles, sagging, and potential skin cancer.

This can be said for any source of free radical exposure, and without the proper quality nutritional supplements, you could find yourself with a host of early aging problems - from cancer, to eye diseases, heart disease, and much more.

Anti-Aging Equals Prevention

While it's tempting to run to your nearest anti-aging doctor for the latest in prescriptive medicine, or to your plastic surgeon to have them cut away unwanted lines, the answer in anti-aging really starts at the core - with preventive health.

Keeping your body replenished with the important antioxidants is the most significant step towards aging gracefully. In the past, this may have meant simply eating healthier and avoiding prolonged exposure to free radicals. However, because of the degradation of the food supply, when you bite into a non-organically grown apple or banana, you may actually be inviting even more free radicals into your system. You need to take optimal levels of nutritional supplements to maintain and promote health throughout your life.

However, nutritional supplementation isn't the only thing you can do to achieve long-lasting anti-aging effects. You also need to begin to reduce your exposure to dangerous free radicals. And one of the most potent sources of free radicals is, of course, smoking.

If you smoke, or if you're exposed to second-hand smoke on a daily basis, you are inevitably aging much faster than if you weren't. Before you can expect any anti-aging processes to work, you have to quit smoking.


The same goes for free radicals found in the food you eat, the air you breathe, and the things you choose to drink. By radically reducing your exposure to chemicals, pesticides, and air pollution, you'll be well on your way to healthy aging.

Supplements and Anti-Aging

A big myth in the world of supplements surrounds the RDIs and RDAs. If you'll look on the back of any food label, you'll find a recommended daily allowance, or RDA list. These numbers are based on woefully low estimates of what it would take to maintain optimal health. The fact of the matter is that our bodies, because of our nutritionally lacking diets, need much more than just the RDA to age gracefully.

So the answer in all of this is finding a nutritional supplement that gives you optimal antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals - not just those based on the governmentally issued RDAs and RDIs. Look for supplements that contain optimal amounts of vitamin C, vitamin E, and other essential nutritional compounds.

Also, you should begin taking fish oil, if you don't already. This compound contains a plethora of important antioxidants, as well as omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. It's good for your skin, and good for your entire body. Another fantastic source for antioxidants and important bioflavonoids is grape seed extract. Studies have shown that grape-seed oil is even more potent than vitamin E and vitamin C in the quest for anti-aging.

Source: www.preventive-health-guide.com

Good child nutrition makes healthy kids.

As adults and parents good child nutrition is our responsibility. Children are our future, and they deserve the best possible start in life.

One of the most important things you can do for your children is to bring them up on a healthy diet, because a strong nutritional foundation will give them highest chance of remaining healthy later.

It also gives them the tools they need in order to maximize their potential in every area of life: academically, emotionally, socially, and in sport. In addition, good child nutrition and a healthy eating pattern and mainly plant-based diet in early life will help your child develop good dietary habits later.

Start early

Making sure your child has a strong health profile can start even before they are born. As early as 1989, reports began to suggest that the foetal environment affected a child’s risk of developing non-communicable diseases in adult life, such as heart disease and diabetes. But it’s not just later life that good early child nutrition can help. Good food, exercise and a healthy dose of vitamins, minerals and omega oils can prevent children becoming overweight.

Childhood obesity

Obesity is a rising problem in all parts of the world, because of a lack of exercise and the unhealthy diet many people consume.

In addition, our food no longer contains all the nutrients it should, because it’s subject to long storage periods and chemical intervention; it’s grown in poor quality soil, and is often processed. This kind of junk food only offers us ‘empty calories’ with low nutritional content, and high levels of salt and fat.

Surprisingly perhaps, most overweight and obese people, including kids, are malnourished! That’s because to be ‘malnourished’ means the body is not getting the nutrients it needs in order to be healthy, and most obese people are eating the wrong foods, and putting unnecessary strain on their organs, which means everything works less efficiently and they don’t absorb the nutrients they need.

They’re also struggling against a load of oxidative stress as the body tries to cope with ‘poisonous’ elements of junk food and can’t sweep out free radicals produced by its own metabolic processes.

Childhood obesity leads to other problems

Unfortunately, this means overweight and obesity are risk factors for a whole range of problems, including heart disease, asthma, diabetes, and stroke.

Being overweight also causes some children to be rejected by their peers, to lose out on taking part in sports and social events, and to have a poor body image.

In addition, overweight/obesity in young adulthood and middle age has long-term adverse consequences for health care costs in older age.
Osteoporosis is a key example, as a major bone disease resulting in 1.5 million fractures and over $10 billion U.S. in medical expenditures annually. It now looks likely that there is a link between obesity and/or poor calcium intake in child nutrition, and risk of developing the disease in later life.

Scientists say it could be prevented by adequate diet, exercise, and quality dietary supplements to increase bone mass density (particularly calcium, vitamin D, vitamin K, and isoflavone), but about half of all American children and adolescents still consume less than the Recommended Dietary Allowance.

Get rid of the sugar and get the right fat!
In addition, a child’s bones can be damaged by large amounts of sugar. The body pulls minerals from the tissues and bones to buffer the sugar’s acidity; and it’s not just bones that suffer: blood sugar level soars (particularly after eating sweets, bread, sodas, chocolate, and processed carbohydrate) and either stays high (in diabetes) or is lowered too quickly (in hypoglycemia).

Stable blood sugar, not too high or too low, is one of the most important components of physical and emotional well being.

An optimal availability of omega-3 fatty acids for child nutrition also seems to be important in the development of normal emotional, brain and physical functions, especially intelligence and cognitive functions.

In one study, 20 children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) were treated with either the popular drug Ritalin, or with dietary supplements.

The results surprised everyone, by showing that dietary supplements were just as effective in improving the symptoms as Ritalin! And of course, supplements and good child nutrition come with a variety of other benefits, and without all the nasty side effects.

What role can supplements play?

In fact, multiple studies have shown that psychiatric symptoms like depression, mood swings, and aggression may be improved by supplementation with vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids: especially in young criminal offenders.

Adolescents who use multiple vitamin supplements also have more healthful dietary and lifestyle behaviors than nonusers, and supplements and good child nutrition may improve non-verbal intelligence and sporting performance. Dementia and Multiple sclerosis might also be related to an omega- 3 deficiency, so it’s wise to make a commitment to regularly giving your child good-quality (pure) omega oils from an early age.

Its your choice - Help your kids get healthy!

Taking action to give your children a healthy diet, good exercise, and a proper range of nutritional supplements can save them a world of pain and unhappiness later. Through good child nutrition, health is a gift you can choose to give your kid. The time to do it is now!

A word of warning: iron deficiency is common, but too much iron supplement can be lethal, and the younger the person taking the supplements, the higher the possibility of a lethal dose. Make sure you understand the importance of safety in nutritional supplements. Do consult a physician if you’re unsure.

Source: www.preventive-health-guide.com

Is poor cellular nutrition the true cause of degenerative diseases?

What is the secret to cellular health?



Cellular Nutrition: When we think of health and nutrition, few of us imagine the cell. But actually, the cell is the source of the body’s energy supply; it’s what keeps you not only functioning at optimal health, but functioning at all.



In fact, as soon as the cells lose any of their capacity to produce energy for the body, the result is a decline in health and the emergence of degenerative conditions.



Healthy cell life produces what we call “vitality” – a healthy level of energy and resistance to stress.



But how do we make sure our cells are working at full pump on the energy front? Fortunately, it’s not as hard as it sounds, because scientific research shows that good nutrition is the key.



Cells and energy



To understand how eating a particular diet can affect your cells, and therefore your energy levels, it’s useful to have a rough idea of how the cells actually work: how the cell produces its energy.



That particular task falls to the mitochondria, the "power plants" of the cell. There are hundreds of these in a typical cell, every one containing a unique pattern of DNA, and their job is to facilitate cellular respiration, a process through which they transform oxygen and nutrients into energy and water.



The many finger-like folds in the mitochondrial inner membrane house respiratory chains where this process happens.



The "bad" side of oxygen



So far, so good. Except that unfortunately, oxygen is actually toxic to biological molecules and cells. That means that all processes involving oxygen, including the oxygen used in cellular respiration, leads to the formation of free radicals.



It’s just a consequence of normal metabolism. The bad news is that these free radicals tend to oxidize biological molecules, just as iron oxidizes when it rusts. Eventually, this assault on the cells can damage them, and inactivate the cellular respiration, leading to the death of the cell.

The body’s response to all this is to unleash a grand defense mechanism, using antioxidant molecules (good guys) against the free radicals (bad guys).



It doesn’t always get the response right, however, or it can’t produce enough antioxidants for the task. The result is that free radicals ravage the body’s proteins, fats, and DNA/RNA. The body also removes and repairs some damaged macromolecules, but often the sheer volume of free radicals overwhelms the repair system.



Oxidative stress



In 1956, Professor Denham Harman propounded the famous "free radical theory of ageing." The theory holds that as we age and the oxidative damage the body has sustained over the years takes its toll, the level of oxidative stress itself rises.



That means that oxidative damage increases over the course of a lifetime and advances especially quickly in old age. At that point, we tend to see a prevalence of degenerative diseases, and the most obvious signs of ageing.



Oxidative stress and chronic degenerative diseases



In fact, scientists and doctors now widely agree that oxidative stress figures prominently in atherosclerosis and heart disease, cell transformation and cancer, all kinds of inflammatory conditions, eye problems such as cataracts and macular degeneration, as well as brain and nervous system conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.



Neutralizing free radicals and disease prevention



So how can we try to reduce or prevent free radical damage to the cells?



If oxidative stress increases when antioxidant defenses weaken, or free radical levels rise, it follows that we can decrease oxidative stress by bolstering the body's antioxidant defenses and reducing the amount of free radicals floating around the blood and tissues.



Optimal cellular nutrition



Many experts now agree that this is most easily done by boosting your natural defenses through optimal cellular nutrition.



This simply involves providing ALL nutrients to the cell at optimal levels, which allows it to decide what it actually does and does not need.



In this way, you can make sure there aren’t going to be any nutritional deficiencies – because nutrient levels will automatically be corrected within a few months of regaining optimal cell nutrition. Which nutrients are needed for optimal cellular nutrition?



Basically, getting optimal cellular nutrition means giving your body all the Research often shows that the antioxidants, in addition to the supporting B vitamins and antioxidant minerals. These also need to be ingested at optimal levels.



recommended daily allowance (RDA) of each nutrient may not be enough to prevent many health conditions.



That’s because the RDA levels were originally determined during the years of last century’s World Wars, and they really only apply to the minimum levels of nutrients needed to ward off certain acute deficiency diseases which are no longer particularly common (e.g. scurvy, rickets, pellagra).



As a result, they don’t account for conditions such as chronic degenerative diseases, which are far more prevalent today.



Optimal levels to prevent degenerative disease



Nowadays, the optimal levels of nutrients known to provide health benefits are significantly greater than those suggested by the RDA levels. For example, some studies show that the optimal level of vitamin C is approximately 1200 to 2000 mg daily, while the RDA is only 60 mg.

To benefit from the optimal levels of cellular nutrition, you’d need to eat 17 kiwifruit, or 18 oranges, or 160 apples!



When you look at it like that, it seems obvious that the best way to get these levels of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients is to take a good quality supplement. Think of cellular nutrition as a very wise way of using the supplement and your food as “preventative medicine” to stop the disease process before it even begins.



Source: http://www.preventive-health-guide.com/cellular-nutrition.html



Drop me a line at gohtan88@gmail.com if you need to know more about what you can do to ensure the continued good health of you and your loved ones.

The Use Of Vitamins And Minerals In Finding An Insomnia Cure

Vitamin supplements may be used to provide you with some relief from insomnia. This is particularly true if you are deficient in certain vitamins, amino acids, minerals, or enzymes that are necessary for healthy sleep.
Try adding one of the following nutritional supplements to your daily well-balanced diet:
Calcium
When combined with food, calcium can have a sedative effect on your body. Calcium deficiencies in your body can cause wakefulness and restlessness. The recommended amount of calcium supplement per day is 600mg.
Calcium should be taken along with food and may be combined with a magnesium supplement.
Magnesium
Take a magnesium supplement of 250g each day. This can help induce sleep since a magnesium deficiency can cause nervousness which may prevent you from sleeping. Studies show that low levels of magnesium can lead to shallower sleep and cause you to wake more during the night.
Try to add magnesium-rich foods to your diet. These include wheat bran, almonds, cashews, blackstrap molasses, and kelp.
Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine)
50 to 100mg of Vitamin B6 per day can help prevent sleeplessness. Your body needs adequate B6 in order to produce serotonin which it requires for the manufacture of the sleep-triggering hormone - melatonin. An excellent source of vitamin B6 is a tablespoon or two of nutritional yeast which can be stirred into a glass of fruit juice.
Vitamin B12 (cobalamin)
This is another important supplement in the cure for sleeplessness. If you are deficient in vitamin B12 you may experience confusion, loss of memory, and a general feeling of tiredness. The recommended daily dose is 25mg and this can be combined with Vitamin B5.
Vitamin B12 and B5 can be found in walnuts, sunflower seeds, bananas, tuna, wheat germ, peanuts, and whole grains.
Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid)
This vitamin is good vitamin for relieving stress and anxiety. Deficiency of B5 can cause sleep disturbances and fatigue. The daily recommended dose is 100 mg.
Folic Acid
A deficiency of folic acid may be a contributing factor to sleeplessness. The recommended daily dose is 400 micrograms. Folic acid can be found naturally in orange juice, leafy green vegetables, fortified breakfast cereals, and beans.
It should be noted that the synthetic form of folic acid found in over-the-counter vitamins is more easily used by your body than the natural product.
Copper
Studies show that a low intake of copper in pre-menopausal women may inhibit them from falling asleep quickly. The study showed that those women who received a 2 mg copper supplement each day fell asleep faster and felt more rested in the morning. You are probably getting 1 mg of copper each day which wouldn't cause enough of a deficiency to cause any obvious symptoms but may be affecting the way that you sleep. Try to include more copper in your diet.
One of the best sources of copper is to be found in cooked oysters and lobster.
If you eat a well-balanced diet you should find that you have no problem with vitamin deficiencies.
You may want to add one or two of the above supplements to your diet for a short period of time to see if you notice a significant difference.


Source: http://help-me-to-sleep.com/insomnia

Do You Want Ford Or Cadillac Vitamins

"What brand of vitamins should I buy?" is a question readers often ask when I write about them. I've never been able to provide any good answer with so many brands available. But I recently read "A Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements" written by Lyle MacWilliam. I was shocked to learn that some well known brands I'd often purchased failed to make the grade. As a Scot, wanting to get value for the dollar, I interviewed MacWilliam who gave me course 101 on how to buy vitamins.
MacWilliam, a biochemist, used the published recommendations of seven nutritional authorities to determine what vitamins, minerals and other nutrients should be present in a multivitamin pill considering our state of scientific knowledge. He then analyzed over 500 nutritional supplements sold in Canada and the United States. The perfect score was 100 and no vitamin product reached that goal.
I'd never heard of the brands that were rated the best. For instance, Vitamin Research Products', "Extend Plus", scored 93.1 I'm sure my Scottish ancestors would have taken me to task when the ones I'd spent my dollars on didn't even hit a 10!
Faced with such an incredible difference between these scores I asked MacWilliam the obvious question, "Had I been mislead for years thinking I was buying a Cadillac vitamin and only getting a Ford?" His answer, "Quality is a function of price". Or as we have been told many times, "you get what you pay for".
MacWilliam added, that in terms of purity, safety and quality there is no problem with the brands I'd been taking. What these products say is in the bottle, is in the bottle. The problem is that their potency is based on old outdated recommended daily allowances (RDAs). They do not recognize that most people today fall short of recommended nutritional intake of fresh fruits and vegetables.
MacWilliam continued that these old potencies were developed 50 years ago to avoid diseases such as scurvy and rickets. But these strengths fall woefully short of meeting the nutritional needs of today's toxic world. Now we are talking about optimal health.
But what makes Vitamin Research Products and other high ranking vitamins so different? MacWilliam says that many popular products do not contain the full spectrum of minerals, or fail to use bioavailable chelated minerals that are more easily absorbed. Or if they contain the right minerals their potency is below ideal standards.
He cited other cases in which popular brands fail to fully look after cardiac health. For instance, they contain synthetic vitamin E rather than natural E, have insufficient magnesium and no coenzyme Q10, all three vital to proper functioning of the heart.
Consumers also have to ask whether the product they're taking contains adequate amounts of flavonoids, vitamin C and the B vitamins. And is there sufficient vitamin D, calcium, boron and silicon necessary for bone health?
Lyle MacWilliam admitted the large brand names were not happy with these findings. But the facts are supported by scientific studies.
Some readers may be tired of opening several vitamin containers daily to swallow a bucket-full of pills. If so, Vitamin Research Products and other higher potency brands get around this nuisance. It also takes the guess work out of what vitamins to buy and provides a balanced intake of vitamins.
Buying vitamins "a la carte" can also be like flying by the seat of your pants and may trigger unknown consequences. For instance, taking iron can interfere with the absorption of several minerals. And high amounts of folic acid can mask a vitamin B12 deficiency.
MacWilliam reports that when researchers initially started this study the price of purchasing individual vitamins was more expensive than the more up-to-date multivitamin pills. That got my Scottish blood working overtime. But I couldn't find the high potency brands in any pharmacy.

Source: http://www.canadafreepress.com/medical/vitamins061506.htm