Vitamin supplements not only provide nutritional needs, but also avoids the signs of aging. Several types of nutrients, like calcium and vitamin D, is not only useful for maintaining health, but also makes us stay young. What are the recommended supplements to maximize health and to keep us young?

Vitamin D
According to Michael F. Holick, MD, PhD, a professor from Boston University School of Medicine, you can reduce your risk of colon cancer, breast and esophagus by 50 percent if you get enough vitamin D.

Vitamin D will inhibit the growth of cancer cells and activate the immune system to fight infection. The best source of vitamin D are egg yolk, fish, and foods that are fortified, such as milk and cereal. Sun exposure is also good for increasing vitamin D levels in the body.

Calcium
This mineral is essential to maintain bone strength and is required for muscle and nerve function. Lack of calcium will cause bone damage occurs more quickly than construction. In addition to bones, research shows calcium supplementation can reduce the risk of polyp formation of colon cancer.

Magnesium
Studies show magnesium deficiency is more common in older people than young people. This happens because for the older people, the body’s ability to absorb magnesium from food is reduced. In addition, medicines such as antibiotics and diuretic medicines also have the same affect. In addition to preventing diabetes, magnesium may also lower blood pressure.

Vitamin B
Several studies have shown, stroke and heart disease could be prevented if we get enough vitamin B6, B12 and folic acid.  Enough of B vitamins can also help us avoid typical elder diseases, like dementia.

Tremendous strides have been made in the field of anti-aging medicine, The Wrinkle Cure, in 2000. It was there that I first introduced my inflammation–aging theory, which firmly places chronic, low-grade invisible inflammation at the center of aging, age-related diseases, and a host of degenerative conditions. This theory was often dismissed with either ridicule or skepticism— however, science has now recognized its validity, and inflammation has been overwhelmingly recognized as a serious threat to health and longevity.

As you will learn in this book, we do not need elaborate, expensive, and possibly dangerous pharmaceuticals to halt the inflammatory response and its resultant negative effects. Dr. Perricone’s 7 Secrets to Beauty, Health, and Longevity will give you all of the tools you need, starting with the single most important—the food we eat.

Every day multiple studies are published linking diet to disease. A recent study reported that diets high in saturated fats increase our risk for Alzheimer’s disease, which is an inflammatory disease. Conversely, the anti-inflammatory diet reduces our risk for this debilitating and growing epidemic. Just as important as choosing the right foods is choosing how they are grown and raised. A new study has clearly linked exposure to pesticides with Parkinson’s disease. As I have always emphasized, buy organic and protect yourself and your loved ones from exposure to proven toxic substances.

But it goes even further than the anti-inflammatory foods. We have also made great technological strides in the development of novel nutritional supplements to complement foods and provide the missing links in health and wellness. For the first time, as outlined in this book, we have proven methodologies to revitalize our tired, worn-out bodies at the cellular level and recharge them with increased energy, improved mood, a greater sense of well-being, and renewed purpose.

These targeted supplements are worlds beyond the original vitamins of past generations. Today we can target the key parts of the cells, such as the mitochondria, to restore energy to the cell. As we age, energy levels decline in the cells—in fact, they eventually lose their ability to repair themselves altogether. With the use of a newly discovered class of mitochondrial rejuvenators, we can recharge the cells in all of our organ systems, including the skin, for total body rejuvenation. Being a dermatologist, I find this particularly exciting. Learning how to restore bone structure and muscle mass to the aging face is one of our greatest strategies in maintaining a youthful face.

However, the good news doesn’t stop there. Science has recently learned that brain cells can also be rejuvenated. It was long and widely believed that we were born with a genetically determined brain of fixed size and potential, for better or worse. This is far from the truth. We now know that the brain is a growing and changing organ. As we will learn in this book, we have many strategies to optimize this growth, including the essential fatty acid phosphatidylserine, which is a powerful prevention for memory loss, Alzheimer’s, and dementia. Other fatty acids, such as the omega-3s and fish oils, dramatically improve brain health, mood, attention span, and more.

We will also learn about forms of exercise that will not only deliver powerful anti-aging benefits to the body but will also increase our powers of focus and concentration while restoring physical and mental equilibrium. As you will learn in Dr. Perricone’s 7 Secrets to Beauty, Health, and Longevity, our bodies, minds, and spirits have the potential for tremendous growth, rebirth, and regeneration, given the proper tools. Thank you for accompanying me on this exciting journey.

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More than 41 million women in America suffer from heart disease. The number of people with heart disease in women over time, more and continues to grow. Even people with this deadly disease experienced by more women than men.

However, based on tests conducted in the Swedish study, heart disease problems can be overcomed by performing five healthy lifestyle, for an example, non-alcohol, healthy diet, exercise every day, normal weight and not smoking can prove to expel the risk of heart attack.

This method is believed could overcome the problem of heart disease as much as 92 percent. This research has been tested on 24,000 women.

Here’s how health designed to help you reduce the risk of heart disease. Try to start doing a series of healthy patterns for a week, and feel the benefits for the long term:

Day 1: Drinking Green Tea

This potent beverage contains several powerful antioxidants that can reduce cholesterol and even lower blood pressure. To make this healthy drink, prepare 20 ounces of boiling water, put three bags of green tea without caffeine, and let stand for 10 minutes. If visible change color, you can serve it in a teapot. Could also add ice cubes. Enjoy the aroma and taste intensity throughout the day.

Day 2: Consumption of Low-Fat Healthy Foods

To keep your heart health, fat consumption which is recommended not exceeding 30% of calories. And more importantly, avoid using saturated oil and replace it with unsaturated fats that can be obtained from olive oil, nuts, dark chocolate, avocado and polyunsaturated which can be obtained from salmon, flaxseed, and walnuts.

Limit your intake of saturated fat to 7% of total calories (1600 calories to the diet, it was about 12 grams per day). Avoid Trans fats are commonly found in cakes, biscuits, baked goods and other processed foods. Both these fats can increase LDL cholesterol that can clog the arteries, cholesterol.

Day 3: Healthy Cooking

Use a MUFA-rich olive oil in your food preparation whenever possible. Heart healthy fats can lower “bad” LDL cholesterol and raise “good” (HDL). Olive oil rich in antioxidants, which can help reduce the risk of cancer and other chronic diseases, like Alzheimer’s or dementia.

Provide always substitute olive oil for butter or margarine on the table, and use it to replace vegetable oils in cooking.

Day 4: Provide adequate rest periods

According to a study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, each additional adult bedtime can reduce the risk of coronary artery calcification, the cause of heart disease, by 33%. When you have less time to sleep, your body releases stress hormones that constrict blood vessels and cause inflammation.

If you regularly feel tired when getting out of bed and always feel sleepy in the daytime, you need to be alert, so you can not sleep. Most adults need 7-8 hours a night to sleep.

Day 5: Consumption of many fiber

Studies show that the more fiber you eat, the less likely you are to have a heart attack. Reduce consumption of wheat bread and cereals that contain wheat, wheat bran. Expand consuming beans, soups, and salads. Within a day, you must consume 25-35 grams of fiber per day.

Day 6: Fish Feast

Meat saturated fats can clog your arteries. On the other hand, fish such as salmon and other fish species believed to be rich in omega-3 fatty acids that will help keep your heart still beat. Eat fish-fisheries that contain omega-3 may reduce the risk of death from heart attack by 52%!

Potassium represents 5% percent of the total mineral content of a human body, even though only about one litre is found in the body at a time. Potassium is found in our bodies both inside and outside cells and is a very important mineral required every day to stay healthy. More than 98% of the body’s potassium is intracellular. The body easily absorbs potassium, but nearly 90% of it is excreted through the kidneys and bowels. Thus, potassium is a natural diuretic and is important for the elimination of body wastes, such as water and sodium.

Potassium is a primary electrolyte, it is a great alkalizer, and important for maintaining pH and water balance.

Benefits of potassium:

1. Along with other minerals such as sodium, chloride and calcium, potassium helps in normal cellular function, such as transmission of nerve impulses, digestion, healthy muscle contractions, proper cardiovascular functioning (heartbeat irregularities are normally a sign of potassium deficiency), and helping the body to convert glucose into glycogen (the body’s stored form of energy).

2. Potassium helps promote healthy cardiovascular health. It is strongly believed that potassium has the ability to pump sodium out of the body’s cells and reduce body fluid.

3. Potassium, along with sodium, helps to regulate blood pressure. Increasing potassium in the diet may protect against hypertension in people who are sensitive to high levels of sodium.

4. Potassium also affects blood vessel tone as well as the way blood vessels react to the flowing hormones, thus affecting pressure within blood vessels.

5. Potassium therapeutically assists in the treatment of alcoholism, acne, alleviating allergies, promoting the early healing of burns.

6. It also helps with problems such as congestive heart failure, chronic fatigue syndrome or kidney stones.

7. Potassium plays a vital role in cellular integrity by regulating the transfer of nutrients into the cell.

8. Potassium also attracts oxygen to tissues, helps correct positioning of vital organs. Potassium deficiency indicates that probably albumin, sugar, sodium, and chlorine are also in short supply or not being properly absorbed.

9. Potassium helps proper functioning of the adrenal glands. It helps support healthy sugar balance in the body.

Deficiency of potassium –

The kidneys excrete excess potassium from the body, and deficiencies are rarely found in people on a normal balanced diet. A deficiency may result in fatigue, cramping legs, muscle weakness, sluggish reflexes, acne, dry skin, mood swings and irregular heartbeat.

A shortage of potassium in body may cause a fatal condition known as hypokalemia, resulting from diarrhea, increased diuresis and vomiting. Hypokalemia can occur in people with a chronic disease or due to aging process. Deficiency symptoms include muscle weakness, ECG abnormalities, decreased reflex response, congestive heart failure, cardiac arrhythmia and respiratory paralysis.

If the fluid and electrolyte balance is not restored, the risk of heart failure increases.

Potassium deficiency increases acid levels in the body, lowers the natural pH balance, causes problems with the formation of connective tissue. Kidney diseases (such as acute renal failure), diabetes can also cause fluctuations in the levels of potassium. Many medications such as diuretics, cortisone, prolonged use of aspirin, and laxatives also cause depletion of potassium.

Dietary sources of potassium:

Eating a variety of foods that contain potassium is the best way to get the required amount. Individuals who eat a balanced diet do not need potassium supplements. Foods, which are rich sources of potassium include turnips, whole grains, molasses, fish, citrus fruit, apple cider vinegar, bananas, avocados, yoghurt, tomatoes, poultry, oranges, apricots, potatoes (especially their skins), leafy green vegetables such as spinach, lettuce; and meat. One large orange will supply one with 250 mg of potassium, one-eighth of a person’s daily need. Dried apricots contain more potassium than fresh apricots.

Steaming of foods helps to retain nutrients that are lost through other cooking techniques such as boiling (loss of about 50% of potassium content). Steaming results in only a 6% loss of potassium.

Recommended Daily Allowance of potassium:

There is no recommended daily allowance (RDA) for potassium, but it is advised to get between 2,000-3,000 mg per day. The range of intake for children is 780 to 1,600 mg per day.

This is not difficult, and most people meet this requirement on their own through a normal diet. In general, nutritionists recommend reducing salt intake and ensuring adequate supply by increasing the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables in the diet.

If one is into bodybuilding, he must increase the potassium intake, since potassium is needed to maintain muscles in good form, and also because potassium is lost from excessive sweating and urine.

Symptoms of high intake of potassium:

Excessive potassium can be toxic and will affect the heart. This is a problem especially when one is suffering from some problem such as kidney failure. Irregular heart beat and muscle fatigue is sign of toxic potassium levels. In healthy people, the kidneys in the urine excrete excess potassium.

Who requires extra potassium?

People who require potassium supplements include:

# women on oral contraceptives,

# chronic alcoholics or drug abusers,

# smokers

# people undergoing stress

# athletes

# people doing strenuous exertion,

# anyone suffering from any degree of mal-absorption syndrome

# people with eating disorders, especially bulimia and anorexia..

For decades, the media has been preaching how fats are associated with obesity, cancer, arteriosclerosis, and heart disease. Back in the late 1980’s, the U.S. Surgeon General recommended that Americans decrease their consumption of dietary fats. Marketing savvy food manufacturers immediately started coming out with everything from fat free ice cream to fat free cheese. In place of fat, more carbohydrates were added.

With all of the “fat free” marketing, the general public believed that since something was “fat free”, they could eat larger portions. Over the next ten years, Americans became fatter than ever! Obesity skyrocketed from 12% of the population to over 20% of the population in just 10 years. Today, research has found that 50% of Americans are overweight and approximately 23% are obese. With the help of the food industry, the public has developed a “fat phobia” and the importance of including healthy fats in our diets has been neglected.

If your goal is to build a stronger, leaner, more muscular body, dietary fats are necessary to maintain and improve your health, and play an essential role in reaching your fitness goals.

There are two types of fats, saturated fats and unsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats are considered healthy fats, they are usually liquid at room temperature. Although there are many sources of unsaturated fat, two great sources of healthy unsaturated fat can be found in cold water fish like salmon, trout and halibut, and flax seed oil.

Saturated fats are the unhealthy fats that are associated with a myriad of health problems. They contain virtually nothing nutritious or good for your body, it’s only role is it can be burned as energy. The fact is, you don’t need saturated fats at all, but the typical diet is jam-packed with them. For health reasons, you want to consume as little saturated fats as possible. Saturated fats are generally solid at room temperature and can be found in butter, margarine, dairy, cheese, and meats. I am not recommending you become a vegetarian and eliminate meat from your diet, but make sure when you are at the meat counter you select lean cuts. You do not have to eat meat every day. There are many other good non-animal sources of protein including beans, soy, and tofu.

The truth is, some fats are health promoting and essential to life itself. I recently read a great book by Dr. Udos Erasmus, one of the world’s foremost experts on dietary fats. I highly recommend you read his best selling book “Fats That Heal, Fat’s That Kill.” Dr. Erasmus believes that eating enough healthy fats is just as important to maintaining health as eliminating unhealthy fats.