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"Five Reasons Why You Need To Take Supplements" by Melissa Wood, N.D. HSI e-Alert:

"It happened again the other day…another new patient coming in with lots of health problems. One of the biggest misconceptions that people have when visiting a Natural Health Practitioner, is that they will only get one or two 'medicines'. The other misconception is that they might only need them for a month or two to 'get over' whatever serious symptoms they have that brought them to my door.

"First of all, generally by the time someone is sitting in front of me, they have allowed their body to get to such a state that they are now having uncomfortable symptoms. Generally, this has taken years to get to this point. It's important you understand it's going to take many months, if not years, to get you out of it.

"Natural and herbal supplements can restore the body to a place of balance. But it's probably going to take more than one thing; or even two. Generally, it might take between 5- 10 supplements to help restore your health. And if there is a 'serious' health issue on the table, it will take much more than that."

In her article, Dr. Wood offers details about these five reasons why she feels it's important for everyone to take some sort of natural, whole-food supplement:

1. Depleted soils
2. Long transit time for delivery
3. Overcooking of foods
4. Not eating regular meals
5. Normal aging = digestion issues

Livin’ on the Edge: The Dangers of Vitamin Supplements

Even though vitamins are generally good for you, and you might have no cause to think that there may be dangers associated with using too much vitamin supplement or too many vitamins, there are certain dangers that might come along with using too much in general.

If you are going to be responsible and truly understand what you are putting in your body, you should know that indeed too many vitamins and supplements might actually cause you problems. However, it is important to know how much you should be using at any given time. Dangerous results are real.

For instance, if you have too much vitamin D in your system, you might be causing yourself kidney damage. Vitamin D is generally good for you, so it is simply a matter of knowing your limits and knowing how much you should take.

Don’t think that just because the supplement bottle says to take one a day that you will be better off or increase the results you want by taking more than that.

That is simply not true – you will actually be causing yourself harm if you take more than you are supposed to be taking. Vitamin A commonly has the same results. Liver damage is very series and can cause many other problems, resulting in death.

If you are taking regular doses of niacin, you should know that you might experience flushing and stinging of the skin. This is natural, and a side effect that can be managed. However, if you take too much niacin, you might be causing heart and liver problems for yourself.

Once again, it’s simply an issue of only taking the recommended amount.

Mineral supplements can be dangerous too. Even if you are just increasing some of your mineral intact by a modest amount, you might be finding that this is leading to imbalances in your body’s ability to use other types of minerals.

If you take more than just 5 times the recommended doses of supplements such as iron, chromium, zinc or selenium, it can actually be a toxic event for your body. Almost every kind of vitamin and mineral can end up being toxic if you take too much.

Therefore, you should know that while vitamins and supplements are generally good for you, there are many times that these could actually become harmful, especially if you take more than is recommended to take during the day. For those reasons, you should simply be careful to only take what is recommended each day, and not more.

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Edward S Bumgarner Blogger, Writer, Collector, Photographer ©2009

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Keeping Vitamin E in the Body: Is it Important?

Your body relies on you to eat the right foods, making it possible to stay healthy. If you do not think you are getting enough of a certain kind of nutrient, you should consider supplements to help you achieve those normal levels. Vitamins are one part of your diet that you should be careful not to overlook.

Among the thirteen vitamins needs in your body, vitamin E is one of them, and you should be aware of what it does in your body. Simply put, understand our own health is important because if you do not understand it we cannot make sure we are staying healthy.

Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin, along with a few other vitamins, including vitamin K. Because it is fat-soluble, it does not exit the body completely and in high levels, but instead can be stored for later use and made in the body as well.

This is very important, because it means that we do not have to eat foods rich in vitamin E every single day. However, it is still important to get enough vitamin E, whether it be through foods or vitamin supplements.

The main function of vitamin E is to be an antioxidant. Antioxidants are simple guardians of the body. They help your tissue sustain damage cause by free radicals, which are unstable substances in the body. Tissues make up our organs, so antioxidants are very important to keep all parts of out body health.

They are also thought to help slow the degenerative aging process. Another important function of vitamin E specifically is its role helping the body use vitamin K, which helps your blood clot.

Most people get enough vitamin E when eating a healthy diet. Foods especially rich in vitamin E include wheat germ, corn, asparagus, vegetable oils, olives, margarine, nuts, and leafy green vegetables, like spinach. Look on the label.

Foods rich in vitamin E will have its presence listed under ingredients or on the nutritional value part of the label. Vitamin E may also be called tocopherol.

Vitamin E deficiency is usually not a problem, nor is overdose. However, it is important to be careful is you are taking multivitamin supplements that include vitamin E. Reports of taking large amounts are mild, but can give you headaches. It is best to talk to your doctor is your believe that you are not getting enough vitamin E.
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Edward S Bumgarner Blogger, Writer, Collector, Photographer ©2009
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Vitamins for Disease Prevention

There are many different aspects of the food that we eat that help to protect us. Our body can take the food that we eat and turn it into energy. However, our body cannot produce several things that we need in order to survive.

In order to do the things that our cells need to do to be healthy and to get by in life, our body has to receive several types of vitamins and minerals.

Our body does not make these vitamins and minerals; they are instead gleaned from the food that we eat. There are many ways to get vitamins and minerals from food, so a balanced and healthy diet is always recommended.

If you are eating foods from all of the food groups in a balanced manner, you are going to find that you are getting the correct vitamins and minerals. This means that your cells are going to be able to do the work that they need to do to make your body function correctly.

However, if you are not able to get the vitamins and minerals that you need, you are going to find that actually your body is not able to function. This is why some people choose to use vitamin and mineral supplements – because they know they aren’t get the proper amount of vitamins and minerals through what they eat.

Whether you get your vitamins through the food that you eat, or through supplements, there is no joke that they are very good for you, and in fact they are essential for you to stay healthy. One of the main jobs that vitamins and minerals do for you is the prevention of disease.

When you have the correct vitamins and minerals, your cells are going to be able to break them down and use them in many different ways. The best way that they can use the vitamins and minerals is to use them to strengthen themselves and to put up barriers against disease. The barriers that are built with the correct vitamins and minerals are going to allow you to not get sick as often and to not be as prone to disease.

If you truly want to be healthy, you should make sure that you have a balanced diet that includes the vitamins and minerals that are needed to make your body strong and healthy. This will increase your immune system, helping to prevent all kinds of illnesses.

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Edward S Bumgarner Blogger, Writer, Collector, Photographer ©2009

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Different Elliptical Trainers Ratings

There are many elliptical trainers ratings out there, which can make it hard to decide which machine is actually the very best. People do have different opinions, and with each new individual machine there are always different features that are factored into the elliptical trainers ratings score.

Before we can decide which machine we will buy, we first have to know what is really most important to us. This will prevent us from selecting a machine that has nice features that we will most likely not use or may not be important to us.

We also have to factor in our budget and what we can afford. The elliptical trainers ratings, are rated from the best budget buy all the way to best overall quality.

The Schwinn 418 Elliptical received an elliptical trainers rating of a “best buy” by consumer reports. This machine; however, only has eight resistance levels, twelve workout programs, a pulse grip heart rate monitor and can hold someone with a maximum weight of two-hundred-and-seventy-five pounds.

Although it seems like this machine is comparable to the Proform 900 Elliptical, it is a far more durable and comfortable machine and is highly recommended by users.

The Smooth CE elliptical received an elliptical trainers rating of five stars and “best buy” from consumer search. Some great features for this machine is that it has sixteen resistance levels, nine built in programs, a wireless and hand grip pulse sensor, and can hold a maximum weight of three hundred pounds along with an ergonomic pivoting foot pedal.

This is a highly recommended machine that holds good value for the money. This elliptical machine also comes with a lifetime warranty on parts and a one year warranty on labor.

The Precor EFX 5.19 had an elliptical trainers rating as “best quality” from consumer reports. This to some will come as no surprise, especially since Proform's EFX series of Elliptical machines are considered the best top rated Elliptical machines around.

This is not the cheapest machine that you can buy on the market; but, it does have some very nice features to give you a great full body workout. It has a fixed ramp at twenty degrees, it can target different muscles by being able to go forward and in reverse, it has an electronic readout along with a membrane console with multiple features, a very accurate heart rate reading and ergonomic handlebars that adjust to a variety of hand positions.

These are just some elliptical trainers ratings of different machines from other sources. You must remember that just because a machine has a elliptical trainers rating that seems to score well with you, it is still good to research the machine itself and not just go solely on an elliptical trainers ratings when buying a machine.

You do not want to rely solely on an elliptical trainers ratings, because despite the given elliptical trainers rating, the machine could still not be right for you. It is good to let an elliptical trainers ratings peak your interest in an elliptical machine; however, it does not do any harm to make sure that machine will best suit you.

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Edward S Bumgarner: Writer, Blogger, Collector, Photographer ©2008
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Elliptical Trainer Reviews

Have you ever looked at an elliptical trainer review? If you have you can see that they cover a great deal of information, usually focusing on key points within their elliptical trainer review. However, sometimes you can read one elliptical trainer review about one elliptical machine, and then later on come across another elliptical trainer review about the same product, yet the two elliptical trainer reviews are completely different.

This may puzzle people about how the elliptical trainer review of a product can be so different when they are reviewing the same product that another critique is looking at. There are several reasons why elliptical trainer reviews can come out so differently.

We will cover these reasons and show you the key elements that help form a proper elliptical trainer review. You may even be surprised as to how elliptical trainer reviews are scored.

One part of an elliptical trainer review is the price. The prices of the actual machines plays a big factor into the elliptical trainer review of the machine. The price ranges are categorized into economy buys, mid-priced buys, and then commercial grade elliptical machines.

Now an elliptical trainer reviews, results only compare the products that fit into these three price ranges. So if you have an elliptical trainer review for a machine in the economy buys, that has a “best buy” rating with five stars, versus a elliptical trainer review of a machine in commercial grade elliptical machines, with a four star rating, the elliptical machine with the five stars does not mean it is better then the elliptical machine with four stars.

All it means is that the five star machine was judged against all of the other elliptical machines within its class to form the results for the elliptical trainer review and rating. This is a major mistake that many consumers make when they read elliptical trainer reviews and look at the ratings.

Each reviewer and expert has certain criteria that they use to rate the machine and use that in their elliptical trainer review. Some experts may value the machines warranty more then they value the machines features when making the final assessments of their elliptical trainer review.

Other experts may find more value in the price, then they check the quality of the machine to form a final analysis for their elliptical trainer review. So when you read reviews, you must understand what the values of the reviewer are, because they may judge certain aspects of the machine in a different way than you might.

Another part of elliptical trainer reviews that you want to keep track of is the person doing the review. You want to pay attention to reviewers with unbiased opinions who write legitimate elliptical trainer reviews, and are not just sources that try to make money from writing a good review for a company to boost their products image.

You also need to know that even the best manufacturers who are known for quality and great products do have products that are not so great. This is the purpose for elliptical trainer reviews and is the reason why you cannot always judge a product by its manufacturer.

By understanding how an elliptical trainer review works and how different ratings of the same product can occur, you can now understand how to look at reviews differently.

Remember that there are trusted sources that write reliable elliptical trainer reviews. Do not fall for a review from a company that may be just writing a review for their own personal gain.

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Edward S Bumgarner: Writer, Blogger, Collector, Photographer ©2008
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The Three Best Buy Elliptical Trainers

Elliptical trainers are very new and are a great alternative to treadmills. You have heard about the many elliptical trainers that are available on the market, however, which ones should you get.

Elliptical trainers should not be judged just on price, but also on rating the machine itself. We will go over the best three elliptical trainers that fit the best price and value for the money that you pay.

Elliptical trainers that are under one-thousand dollars usually are questionable as far as quality. However, the Nordic Track CX 990, falls in the rare elliptical trainers that has one of the best prices on the market, along with good quality.

This machine has a incline feature that can change the incline form ten all the way up to 30%. This is a great feature to add intensity to your workout, along with the ten levels of resistance that you can change.

Now most Elliptical trainers only have a ninety day warranty, however, the CX 990 has a one year warranty which makes this machine a safe and smart buy for people who plan on using the machine regularly and want to maintain a nice low budget not wanting to spend less then one-thousand dollars on elliptical machines.

The Smooth CE 3.2 is a very great value for a low amount considering all of its features compared to other elliptical trainers. Besides having a heavy duty flywheel and electromagnetic brake system, it also has a wireless heart rate control and a hand grip HRC.

The Hand Grip HRC by Smooth is exclusive technology that other elliptical trainers do not have. The CE 3.2 also includes nine programs and has ergonomic, pivot foot pedals to make the use of the machine easier without having a risk of injury.

There are some elliptical trainers that do not let your body move in full alignment of the machine which does add some risk for injury. The Smooth CE 3.2 does allow your body to move your body in full alignment of the machine which is not only safer, but also provides a much more comfortable workout.

This machine retails for less then one-thousand-five-hundred dollars, which is a great deal for not only the machine, but also for the reputation of Smooth.

The Precor EFX 5.33 beats all other elliptical trainers on the market and is the top value for your money. This machine can be found at health clubs and offers a full body workout eliminating the need to join or go to a gym. It has movable handlebars, a twenty degree elevated ramp that is non adjustable as well as forward and reverse elliptical strides.

The best thing about this machine is that it offers some of the best quality parts and even has a ten year warranty on the individual parts of the machine, as well as a one year service warranty on the machine.

There are no elliptical trainers that can compare to the quality, craftsmanship and performance of this machine which is why this machine costs slightly over threethousand fivehundred dollars. Despite the cost, the Precor EFX 5.33 will save you thousands of dollars in the long run, as you will not have to be replacing machines over the years.

This is by far the best investment that you could put into any of the Elliptical trainers on the market, if you can afford to pay for the cost of the machine all at once.

All of these elliptical trainers have their different benefits along with their unique features that make them stand out. However, one common theme that these Elliptical trainers share is that they are the top three best buys for their class.

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Edward S Bumgarner: Writer, Blogger, Collector, Photographer ©2008
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