Can Nutritional Supplements Help You Look Younger?

Why do we need nutritional supplements? Many of us, in today’s hurried lifestyle, do not eat a well balanced diet. Because of this we need nutritional supplements to boost our daily diet. We have seen numerous commercials for overweight bodies. When was the last time you saw a commercial about getting nutritional supplements, not just broad spectrum vitamins? We have become a nation of over fed and under nourished citizens.

Eating the right foods is great…BUT. The nutritional value of our food has diminished considerably in the last 50 or so years and this makes it necessary to take nutritional supplements. Our diet contains too much refined food and not enough pre-processed food. Unless you grow your own fruits and vegetables you will need to get your nutrients from another source, like nutritional supplements.

Nutritional supplements fill the holes that processed foods leave in our diet. Not having enough vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants,

  • Speeds the aging process
  • Contributes to poor cardiovascular health
  • Helps cause poor eyesight
  • Produces a weakened immune system.

Many factors cause degeneration of your body’s cells. Some factors are

  • Radiation exposure
  • Cigarette smoke
  • Overexposure to the sun’s rays.

Some nutritional supplements work at cell level, some do not. Make sure your nutritional supplements work at cell level. The nutritional supplements must contain enough vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants to supplement our daily diet. Combining a good diet with nutritional supplements and regular exercise will provide us with the basics to fuel our bodies. Adding nutritional supplements and exercise to our busy lives will give us more energy. The use of nutritional supplements can also slow the aging process.

For the past 5 years or so we have heard much about antioxidants and free radicals, and for a good reason. If the free radicals in our systems are not neutralized they will run rampant in our bodies. The free radicals will damage our bodies at the cellular level. Here is where nutritional supplements can help. This damage over time will escalate and eventually lead to the acceleration of the aging process. The aging process usually manifests itself as heart disease, cancer, or osteoporosis. Diets alone do not supply enough antioxidants to combat this process. That is why your nutritional supplement must contain these antioxidants.

Health and nutrition experts say that the basis for good cardiovascular health is a nutrient rich diet, exercise, watching your cholesterol level, and monitoring your blood pressure. The cholesterol and blood pressure levels should be periodically checked by your health provider. Nutritional supplements added to your diet can help improve these factors. Your nutritional supplements should contain a garlic extract (unless you are a garlic lover like me and eat it every day!). Garlic has been shown to be of great benefit in decreasing cardiovascular disease.

Nearly all eye damage and loss of vision can be linked to poor nutrition! Poor nutrition can be directly linked to blood shot eyes, blurred vision, and nearly EVERY eye irritation we suffer. Nutritional supplements can help here too. To help reduce vision problems the nutritional supplements needs to contain Vitamins A, B, C, and E, in large enough quantities. Natural food sources for these are in dark green leafy vegetables (Kale and mustard greens, etc) orange fruits and vegetables (like carrots and oranges).

I have only listed just a few factors here to show how important nutritional supplements are. Nutritional supplements are normally a combination of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Taking one of the nutrients (like Vitamin C for example) and or one antioxidant and ignoring the rest isn’t good. The vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants all work together to promote a healthy body.

Get a list of the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants from your health care provider. Armed with this information read the labels of the nutritional supplements that you are considering (check several). Your health is too important to not check these. Get high quality nutritional supplements and you are on your way to a healthier life!

Find a game plan and if it works, stick with it. I did!

San Francisco Gets Serious About Arts Education

September 28 was the beginning of a new era for arts education in San Francisco schools. The San Francisco Unified School district and the City are partnering on a historic effort to bring back the arts for all students. The Arts Education Master Plan will revitalize the education of San Francisco’s young citizens by capturing the diverse cultural and artistic energy of a city that is internationally renowned for its love of the arts.At 10:30 a.m. at the San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum, Mayor Gavin Newsom, SFUSD’s Interim Superintendent Gwen Chan, and SF Arts Commission President P.J. Johnston joined members of the Board of Supervisors and SFUSD Board of Education, arts providers from across the city and students from Lowell High School, Claire Lilienthal and George Washington Carver Academic Elementary Schools in celebration of the Arts Education Master Plan.”This master plan is a living document that exemplifies the partnership between the City and the school district on arts education,” said Mayor Newsom. “San Francisco’s efforts are unprecedented – and over the next few months, we will witness ‘order of magnitude’ changes in the arts education that children receive,” continued the Mayor.The Arts Education Master Plan is San Francisco Unified School District’s blueprint for integrating the arts into each student’s daily curriculum. The Plan calls for a sequential, comprehensive arts education program that reflects the high quality of San Francisco’s artistic landscape in the areas of dance, drama, music, visual arts and literary arts.
The guiding principle of this plan is that all students deserve both access to and equity in arts education and each school community, no matter the neighborhood or academic emphasis, will be called upon to embrace the notion that every student must be provided with the arts as an integral part of the academic day.Interim Superintendent Gwen Chan said “In San Francisco, we are committed to providing every student with a well-rounded education. For too many years, some students have not had opportunities to develop artistic literacy. Every school and every student will benefit from this plan.”Community InvolvementThe Master Plan reflects the views of more than 1,500 students, parents, teachers, administrators, arts providers, and civic and business leaders. Proposition H approved by San Francisco voters in 2004, became the catalyst, making the Arts Education Master Plan, completed in August 2006, a funded mandate. The extensive increase in arts education spending, programming, support and resources that the Plan recommends will be funded largely by Prop H funds. Additional funding, such as the new State funding for the arts, will be aligned to the Arts Education Master Plan.The new plan will hopefully keep San Francisco school students in touch with the vibrant artistic community around them and help them to take advantage of the many enriching opportunities for art in the classroom and beyond. San Francisco schools are ready to implement the new curriculum program at all levels to ensure a consistent and fulfilling learning experience for all students. Students, parents, and teachers at San Francisco schools are confident that the Arts Education Master Plan will mark their community as one committed to continued arts education.

Filipinos and Why I Bother to Write About My “Degenerative Neurologic Disease”

I am a doctor with young-onset Parkinson’s disease. After my diagnosis 5 years ago at age 44 my life changed but my neurologist told me two things that stuck: “keep moving, ” and, “make hay while the sun still shines.” The first was a nod to exercise and to stay involved in life, and the second, “do it now.” First I explored Asia, did a lot of writing and then, took an assignment from a US research firm in the Philippines. I spent two years there and learned a great deal about being happy. Filipinos were designated by a study in the British journal “The Economist” as the second happiest culture in the world. I took notice.These were relatively poor people but each took a great deal of pride in whatever capacity they served whether it be in a job or as a family member. This was a place where maids (“ya-ya’s”) and fast food workers were no less happy, pleasant, or proud; and each treated their functions with no less importance than that of real estate tycoons and high level government officials. I met all of these and came back feeling that it was essential if I were to “keep moving” to rework my own purpose. I could no longer execute medical procedures with a slow unsteady right hand, and daytime sleepiness made a call schedule next to impossible. I needed to serve in some new capacity that stirred enough tireless passion to get me out of an indulgent sleepy malaise and back into life.I had done a great deal of writing for my research and in logging my experiences during the time in the Philippines and at the suggestion of a close friend, a pediatrician who was enjoying my emails that chronicled my often insane time there, began writing about Parkinson’s. Thus emerged my new mission and purpose: to utilize a love for writing and combine it with my medical knowledge.I started to research and write and distill all the random information out there into a structure that I hoped would really educate people facing Parkinson either themselves, via a family member, or as a caregiver. That source needed to be constructed with good information easily digestible by anyone.As part of that structure I wanted to create an online community of sharing. Thus Dopadoc’s Parkinson’s Journal has become a major focus. In it’s rather short life I have asked almost every day, “How can I make it better, more interesting, more useful, and more interactive?Regarding covering the actual field of Parkinson’s disease, I dove head first into finding out what works, what might work, what’s just plain Vodoo, what to expect, and how you and your loved ones can deal best with this condition. I want to share this knowledge with you and learn as much as I can from your input. I invite participation from, patients, doctors, family members, friends, researchers and anyone just interested in this condition and in finding better treatments and even a cure someday.And guess what? Like the Filipino “ya-ya” maid or the owner of Philippine Air, I have found a worthy purpose for now and can say that despite everything, I feel blessed and happy!

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