A decade ago, I lived reasonably unaware of the fact that food could have much of anything to do with the status of my health. After all, nutrition was not really taught in medical school and like so many, food was closely associated with every aspect of my social and family life. So suffice it to say, I was very amazed as I began my wellness journey, to learn that you really are what you eat! In fact, within the very first week of editing my dietary choices, I noticed immediate and dramatic improvement in my mood, energy, allergies, eczema, acne, and gastrointestinal issues. It was clear to me right away that I was on to something; something that now seems so obvious and logical, but I was brainwashed in medical school to think that all symptoms and diseases were due to pharmaceutical drug deficiencies.Repeatedly seeing this set of events unfold for thousands of patients time after time has only further solidified my strong belief in the value of good nutrition. Our views about nutrition here at The Woodlands Institute for Health and Wellness differ from the Dietary Guidelines recommended by the American Dietetic Association. Our recommendations are based on a very different food pyramid. If you think eating a low fat, low cholesterol diet is the cure-all, you have been misinformed. I can say without a doubt that it pays off exponentially when we eliminate problematic foods, add in variety, and eat nutrient dense foods. If you have not ever considered editing your diet for greater health, let me offer a couple good places to start and a few of my own observations:
• The biggest thieves to our health in our food are wheat/gluten, sugar and the vast array of chemical additives to our food. Start eliminating these. The results are amazing.
• I know that changing your diet can be a difficult road. I encourage you to have faith in the process and allow your body to cleanse and heal. The results will motivate you to continue down the road to eating better for life.
• Knowing that we are all human, we will occasionally deviate or default to our old habits. For most of my patients, the severity of the resulting symptoms will determine a person’s compliance. You don’t have to be deprived; you just need to be prepared. Anticipating and planning are the keys to sticking with healthy eating.
Not sure where to start or how to start making changes? Please come see us! Let us be your partner in health. Be wise, eat well! By Mila McManus MD, founder of The Woodlands Institute for Health & Wellness

In addition to bringing out the flavor in food, and being delicious on its own, red wine is strongly linked to a variety of health benefits. Studies have shown that drinking wine in moderation – a glass or two a day – can lower your risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other illnesses.
Some health benefits of red wine include its antioxidant content. Antioxidants are molecule compounds that repair cell damage caused by harmful oxygen byproducts in the body. Some research has found that antioxidants can help reduce the risk of certain kinds of cancer, heart disease, macular degeneration and diabetes – and red wine is full of them.

The skins and seeds of red grapes carry a powerful antioxidant called resveratrol. When red wine is made, the skins and seeds are fermented in the grapes’ juices, causing red wine to have high levels of resveratrol. Resveratrol has been shown to minimize the risks of some types of cancer. It helps prevent DNA mutations that could lead to cancer, and it prohibits new blood cells from encouraging cancer growth.

Resveratrol has blood-thinning properties. By keeping individual blood cells (“platelets”) from sticking to each other, resveratrol can limit the formation of blood clots. If blood clots form and become lodged in the smaller vessels of the heart or brain, oxygen can be prevented from reaching these vital organs. This lack of oxygen is called ischemia. Severe ischemia in the heart is known as a heart attack or myocardial infarction. Severe ischemia in the brain is called a stroke.
Neither the American Heart Association nor the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommend that you start drinking alcohol just to prevent heart disease. Alcohol can be addictive and is associated with other health issues. If you chose to stay away from wine altogether, and still receive the benefits of resveratrol, TWIHW offers Resveratrol supplements in quantities of 30 and 60 capsules. Read more in the “Supplement of the Month” article to the right.
Some portions of this article have been extracted from www.healthtree.com.

Cleaning is not really a word that conjures up warm feelings of joy or love for most of us, but still an essential in life. We vacuum our floors, scour our sinks, mow the yard and take out the trash, and all in the spirit of keeping things generally clean. It is part of taking care of what we have, protecting ourselves from germs, and keeping our lives in order. Did you ever think about cleaning the inside of your body?
The truth is, the human body struggles to keep up with the ever-increasing burden caused by the explosion of chemicals used in our society today. Everyday the body is exposed to an array of chemicals including pesticides, preservatives, antibiotics, hormones, over-the-counter and prescription drugs, additives, fertilizers, heavy metals, fire retardants and more. They are in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the clothes we wear, the food we eat and the things we touch.

Think about it another way. Recall how you felt the last time your “to do” list was miles long, your in-box was full, and everyone wanted something from you. Overwhelmed, you found it hard to get everything done and done well. Maybe the quality of your work suffered, maybe you made a few mistakes, and most likely you crossed a few things off the list and did not do them at all. The inside of your body is no different. At some point, your body becomes overwhelmed with too many toxins. The body cannot keep up with removing the trash and begins to store it in tissues and fat cells. The congestion makes it much harder for the body to do everything it needs to do, do it well and avoid making mistakes. Toxins can wreak all kinds of havoc in there – causing inflammation, promoting disease, preventing weight loss, disturbing hormone balance, and contributing to symptoms from fatigue to brain fog. They can cause congestion and roadblocks in your liver and colon just like an accident on a busy freeway system at rush hour.

In our society today, more people are discovering the benefits of cleaning the inside of the body, often called detoxification or cleansing. Best done under the care of a medical practitioner, the process involves reducing exposure to toxins, supporting the detoxification pathways in the body, while stimulating toxin elimination and providing sufficient supplementation to attack free radicals resulting from the process.
Article written by Nutritionist, Nancy Mehlert, The Woodlands Institute for Health & Wellness

With the 2010-2011 flu season here, so is the wonderment on whether to get a flu shot or not! You’re not the only one confused and perhaps this article will assist you with your decision. Last year, the swine flu, tagged as “pandemic,” was actually much less than the media warned. Statistics show that flu mortality rates were only a third of an average year. Although 170 million doses of swine flu vaccine were in the U.S., only 90 million doses were used. That says that less than 1/3 of our population fell into the hype of flu shot mania.
It’s not just an ordinary flu vaccine being promoted this year-it’s the new trivalent vaccine, which may be even more reactive than the monovalent. That means that this vaccine is a three-in-one, containing influenza A, influenza B, and 2009 pandemic swine flu (H1N1) strains. Administering this highly suspect formulation to Americans can have potentially disastrous implications.
According to Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), a special government committee has been created to investigate last year’s H1N1 vaccine for signs that it may be associated with more adverse reactions. What the committee found out provisionally is there were three signs of trouble with the H1N1 swine flu vaccine used last year:
All vaccines are immune suppressive-that is; they suppress your immune system, which may not return to normal for weeks to months. Not only do flu shots weaken your immune system, expose you to toxins, but may cause allergies and other adverse reactions. The flu vaccine has now been officially listed as a Category C drug. What that means is that Category C is for drugs that do not have enough human or animal studies to establish safety. Thimerasol-containing vaccines are considered hazardous waste and can’t be thrown into a garbage can, poured down a sink or flushed down a toilet because of the mercury-they’re considered environmentally toxic. Yet, humans are injected with it. Flu shots don’t work — Yes, you read that correctly. Besides being full of complications, flu vaccines simply don’t work to decrease flu incidence or flu mortality. Healthy and health-conscious people tend to get the vaccine and may come down with flu less often, not because of the vaccine itself, but because they are healthier to start with. The best way to prevent flu is through proper nutrition, and getting plenty of vitamin D, lowering stress and getting the right amount of sleep.

Article obtained from mercola.com

Research presented at the Annual Meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies indicates that vitamin D is crucial during pregnancy. The American Pregnancy Association reports that of the estimated 6 million pregnancies per year in the United States, 875,000 women experience one or more pregnancy-related complications. In addition, they state that 467,201 babies are born prematurely, 307,030 babies are born with low birth weight and 154,051 infants are born with birth defects each year.

In this new study, researchers assessed the relationship between high-dose vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy and the risk of developing pregnancy-related complications. The subjects included pregnant women between 12 and 16 weeks gestation. The women were supplemented with vitamin D at a dose of 400 IU, 2,000 IU or 4,000 IU per day until delivery. The subjects were evaluated monthly for treatment safety and were given blood tests to measure vitamin D supplementation effectiveness. The women were also followed to determine the rate of pregnancy complications including preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, infections, preterm labor and preterm birth.

The results showed that serum levels of vitamin D (25(OH)D) were significantly different between the 3 treatment groups. As serum vitamin D levels increased, the risk of infection and preterm labor and birth decreased. The group receiving 4,000 IU of vitamin D daily had the lowest rate of infection and preterm labor and birth. In fact, compared to the group receiving 400 IU vitamin D per day, the group receiving 4,000 IU per day had a 50 percent reduction in risk of these complications.
The researchers concluded, “Vitamin D sufficiency was strongly associated with decreased risk for preterm labor and birth and infection during pregnancy and comorbities of pregnancy, with the greatest effect with 4,000 IU vitamin D/day regimen. Therefore, to attain a minimal 25(OH)D level of 40 ng/mL, we recommend 4,000 IU/day for all pregnant women.”
Reference: Wagner CL, Johnson D, Hulsey TC, Ebeling M, Shary J, Smith PG, Bivens B, Hollis BW. Vitamin D Supplementation during Pregnancy Part 2 NICHD/CTSA Randomized Clinical Trial (RCT): Outcomes. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies; 2010 May1-4, Vancouver BC. Abstract 1665.
Article obtained from Complementary Prescriptions

(information below obtained from Dr. Mercola)
In the latest study, researchers analyzed data from over 40,000 Norwegian women with breast cancer and found that those who had mammograms and were treated by special breast cancer medical teams had a 10 percent lower breast cancer death rate than women who had neither.
However, they also found that women over the age of 70 who were treated by the special teams had an 8 percent lower death risk from breast cancer, even though they had not received mammograms.
What this suggests, and what Dr. H. Gilbert Welch wrote in an accompanying editorial, is that mammograms may have only reduced the cancer death rate by 2 percent; an amount so small it may as well be zero.
So the fact remains that there is no solid evidence that mammograms save lives. Past research has also demonstrated that adding an annual mammogram to a careful physical examination of the breasts does not improve breast cancer survival rates over getting the examination alone. Now, if mammograms were completely safe and capable of reducing your cancer death risk even a small amount, you might be able to make an argument for their use. But mammograms are not only ineffective, they’re unsafe as well, due to the radiation.
Mammograms expose your body to radiation that can be 1,000 times greater than that from a chest xray, which we know poses a cancer risk.
“The premenopausal breast is highly sensitive to radiation, each 1 rad exposure increasing breast cancer risk by about 1 percent, with a cumulative 10 percent increased risk for each breast over a decade’s screening”, says Dr. Samuel Epstein , a top cancer expert.
Dr. McManus commentary: Don’t follow the herd! It’s not always headed the right direction. Be informed. Know the differences between regular synthetic prescription hormones and those of bio-identical hormones. And don’t misdirect your fears of cancer at hormones, but rather your lifestyle habits, dietary habits, sleep habits, stressors, and other environmental factors that create a perfect storm which leads to cancer. If you aren’t WELL in every way, then take control now, invest in your health, and get well soon! You invest for retirement, so why not invest in yourself so you’ll be around to enjoy it ?

Erectile dysfunction (ED), defined as the inability to achieve or maintain an erection sufficient for satisfactory sexual performance, affects up to one third of men at some point in their lives. The prevalence of ED in men younger than 59 years old is 12 %, and in men ages 60-69 it’s 22%, and in men older than 69 years old it’s 30%. ED may be a harbinger of undetected cardiovascular disease, so if psychological causes (e.g. anxiety, depression, guilt, stress, relationship problems) have been ruled out, an evaluation by a health care professional is recommended. ED may result from vascular disease, neurologic disease, hormonal imbalances/deficiencies, anatomical issues, drug or alcohol abuse, certain medications, or psychological issues. Obesity and smoking nearly double the risk for ED, while diabetics have a threefold greater risk. Other risk factors for ED include prostate surgery, high blood pressure, sedentary lifestyle, and advancing age.

Medications that may cause ED include opiate pain killers (e.g., vicodin), antihistamines, antidepressants, blood pressure medications (e.g., alpha blockers, beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, clonidine), heart meds (e.g., digoxin, Norpace, gemfibrozil), diuretics (e.g., Aldactone, HCTZ), and sedatives (e.g., xanax, valium, clonazempam.

First line treatment for ED is a PDE5 inhibitor (e.g., Viagra, Levitra, Cialis); however, a third of men do NOT respond well to these medications. Losing weight, exercising, smoking cessation, and caffeine and alcohol avoidance are common first-line measures that have shown benefit. Since PDE5 activity is androgen-dependent, PDE5 inhibitors listed above are not likely to be helpful if the patient has an underlying low testosterone level that hasn’t been addressed.
Alternative supplements that are worth a try:

• L-arginine (see article in this newsletter)
• Panax Ginseng 900mg 3 times daily

Another note regarding testosterone levels in men:
Normal reference ranges for testosterone are quite large, and your doctor is not likely going to address your testosterone levels until they fall out of range (less than 300). Visit Test Yourself and see if you might have symptoms of low testosterone. If you feel that you have an issue with low testosterone, but your levels are in range, it may be that your blood level is not your normal, or that you have adrenal burn out, or that you have other metabolic derangements or nutritional deficiencies that are affecting your body’s utilization of testosterone.
Article by Dr. Mila McManus MD Information contained in this article is taken from American Family Physician Feb 1, 2010, volume 81, Number 3

The next time someone offers you a bottle of water, take a stand and say something clever like, “No thank you, I don’t believe in it.” This simple move will open up a conversation about the massive swindle that is bottled water ,and possibly persuade one more person to give it up entirely.
Even beyond the issues of your health and the environment, bottled water represents a novel form of privatization, in which private corporations have succeeded at making water a commodity. Private corporations should have no more control over the selling of water than they do the selling of our air supplies. Well, this is already occurring to some extent as corporations make a profit selling water — which at times even makes water less available to the people living in the area. Even public water supplies are being increasingly taken over by private corporations, and in some areas of the world are up for grabs by the highest bidder. This has been publicized in countries such as Bolivia, where residents battled police and the military to protect their water rights from the US-based Bechtel Corporation, but water privatization initiatives are being pushed all over the world, including in the United States.
If you’re interested in learning more, an excellent, eye-opening film on this topic is Thirst.
Getting back to bottled water, however, many, many Americans still drink it, believing it is somehow healthier than tap water. In 2008, U.S. bottled water consumption reached nearly 9 billion gallons, raking in revenues of more than $11 billion.
Are You Paying 1,900 Times More for Unhealthy, Earth-Damaging Water?
If you drink bottled water, yes, you are! Bottled water typically costs more than $1.50 per bottle, which is 1,900 times the price of tap water.Yet, that very same bottled water that you’re paying a premium for is, in about 40 percent of cases, simply bottled tap water, which may or may not have received any additional treatment.
On top of that, most municipal tap water must actually adhere to more strict purity standards than the bottled water industry. Further, while the EPA requires large public water supplies to test for contaminants as often as several times a day, the FDA requires private bottlers to test for contaminants only once a week, once a year, or once every four years, depending on the contaminant. An independent test performed by the Environmental Working Group revealed 38 low-level contaminants in bottled water, with each of the 10 tested brands containing an average of eight chemicals including disinfection byproducts (DBPs), caffeine, Tylenol, nitrate, industrial chemicals, arsenic, and bacteria. When you factor in other elements, like the chemicals that each from the plastic bottle and its impact on the environment, bottled water becomes a losing proposition no matter how you look at it.
Drinking From Plastic Bottles is Not a Wise Health Move
When drinking bottled water you need to think not only about the water but also about the bottle itself. Plastic is not an inert substance as its manufacturers would like you to believe. It contains chemicals like BPA and phthalates, which mimic hormones in your body. Even tiny concentrations can cause problems such as:
• Structural damage to your brain
• Hyperactivity, increased aggressiveness, and impaired learning
• Increased fat formation and risk of obesity
• Altered immune function
• Early puberty, stimulation of mammary gland development, disrupted reproductive cycles, and ovarian dysfunction
• Changes in gender-specific behavior, and abnormal sexual behavior
• Stimulation of prostate cancer cells
• Increased prostate size, and decreased sperm production
Anytime you drink from a plastic bottle you risk exposure, but if you leave your bottle of water in a hot car or reuse it, your exposure is magnified because heat and stress increase the amount of chemicals that leach out of the plastic.
About 1.5 million tons of plastic are used to manufacture water bottles each year around the world, and the processing itself releases toxic compounds like nickel, ethylbenzene, ethylene oxide and benzene. Further, according to the Sierra Club, the U.S. alone uses 1.5 million barrels of oil to make plastic water bottles, the majority of which then end up in landfills. In fact, 1,500 water bottles are thrown away every second! This massive waste is one reason why there is now a plastic “stew” twice the size of Texas swirling through the Pacific Ocean. Also extremely harmful to the environment is the way corporations are pumping water from underground aquifers. These natural springs serve as water sources for nearby streams, wells and farms, but the aggressive pumping can easily dry them out prematurely.

A Simple Solution is at Your Disposal
One you realize that many sources of bottled water is:
• No safer than tap water
• Extremely expensive
• Often contaminated by plastics chemicals
• Contributing to massive environmental harm
The choice to stop using bottled water becomes simple. Fortunately, the alternative to having pure water is also simple: filter your own at home.

What is the BEST Water in the World? There is no question in my mind that the absolute finest source of water in the world is NOT from an artesian well but from a gravity fed mountain spring that is obtained directly from where it has come out of the earth. It is filtered by the earth and structured and it is also not pasteurized or heated like nearly all commercial bottled waters. You see there are living organisms in water like algae that are actually beneficial for us but when you heat the water, just like pasteurizing milk, you damage it. So you are probably wondering the best way to find a gravity fed raw spring. Well fortunately there is a web site called Find a Spring.com which allows you to do so. The website also allows you to add a spring that is not currently in the database. You can include information about the spring’s temperature and location, and insert pictures or videos you took of the spring. Relax if you don’t live near a mountain though as just about any spring is better than all other available options. So if you are at sea level just use that local spring. Typically they are monitored by the local municipalities for contaminants. Most of these springs are FREE, that is right, the best water in the world and there is NO CHARGE for it. You can easily store ten five gallon jugs in most cars and it is a wonderful opportunity for you to regularly escape from the city get out in nature. If you don’t have the large water bottles you can easily find them online. Glass would be best but if you use those, it would be better to get the three gallon jars as the five gallon ones are too large and can easily break and you can hurt yourself. You can also find corks to stop the bottles at most hardware stores. Just bring the bottle in with you so it fits properly. If you do choose glass just make sure you wrap the bottles in your car with some blankets or towels so they don’t bang against each other and break. In my mind getting fresh raw spring water is one of the more powerful, inexpensive and phenomenal lifestyle adjustments you can make and I would strongly encourage you to try it.
Article obtain from www.mercola.com Edited by Dr. Mila McManus

Grass-Fed Beef In A Nutshell The health problems associated with diets high in Omega-6 and low in Omega-3 are cancer, heart disease, depression, obesity, insulin resistance, allergies, autoimmune diseases such as lupus and arthritis, diabetes, attention deficit syndrome, and the list goes on. These diseases are not associated with bacterial infections. They are all body failures, not from aging, but from improper diets. We know the positive health story for natural grass-fed beef is ironclad.

What About the Eating Experience? Beef “quality” grades (prime, choice, select, and standard) are supposed to compare the “eating experience.” The grade is based on fat content. The greater the quantity of intramuscular fat in the meat, the higher the grade. The higher the grade (more fat) the more tender the meat. (Fat is more tender than muscle!) But everyone knows that sometimes standard grades of beef (beef with low levels of visible fat) provide better eating experiences than some prime grades of beef. So the current grading system is not perfect. Yet it’s the measure the beef industry uses to sell beef to the consumer. Since this quality grading system is based on grain-fed fats (high Omega-6 tenderness as the most important aspects of meat. Alarmingly, it totally neglects the nutritional characteristics of the meat and the actual eating experience.

Unfortunately, what the “industry sells” is what the consumer believes it wants. Therefore industry wants the fattest grain-fed beef possible because Americans believe the beef with the most marbling and a close trim on the external fat is the best beef. Of course, a few consumers actually want healthy, nutritious food. But the vast majority really do not care. The want cheap and bland! The consumer’s fascination with bright-white saturated fat (which develops when cattle are fed grain) started about a century ago and industry picked up on this consumer preference. The feedlot industry then evolved on the back of the grain feeding concept. Therefore for the past 60 years the modern grain-fed beef industry has been promoting fat as the reason why beef has good flavor, why it is juicy, and why it is tender. All the while it has been promoting fat the beef industry has had to fight a rearguard action because many “modern” health problems have been linked to eating beef. But it wasn’t until just recently that scientists determined that it wasn’t just beef that caused the dramatic increase in health problems in the United States, but the feeding of grain in the production of all meat, poultry, dairy, and fish/shrimp products (plus the feeding of grain to people) and the dramatic reduction of Omega-3 fatty acids in the American diet that was a result. To this day the beef industry is still ignoring the grass-fed health conscience story. But the facts are overwhelming and in time the consumer will wake up and industry will change and provide the consumer with grass-fed meats. We know that there is at best a 10% correlation between intramuscular fat and tenderness. We know that studies comparing tenderness in grain-fed beef vs grass-fed beef have shown no significant differences. (Grass-fed beef is not as consistent because it is raised in an uncontrolled environment.) We know that in grain-fed beef the flavor is in the fat, and that the meat has very little flavor. We know that beef from cattle that graze lush grasslands definitely has flavor in the meat plus the visible fat. We know that fat is juicy, but meat can be juicy too, so fat isn’t needed for a juicy steak. We know that nutritionists say people shouldn’t eat excessive quantities of saturated fat. Yet they say the human body requires a proper balance of the right fats.

And we know that the proper balance of the right fats comes automatically from livestock grazing lush grasslands. That’s why we should eat their visible fat for our health! We know that diets high in Omega-6 fatty acids and low in Omega-3 fatty acids are very bad for human health. We know that grain-fed beef products have high ratios of Omega-6 fatty acids to Omega-3 fatty acids even when they are “extra lean.” (That’s because the fatty acids are components of all cell membranes.) We know that beef from cattle grazing lush grasslands is a natural source of Omega-3 fatty acids. And, unlike grain-fed beef, it is also high in CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid), beta carotene, and vitamins A and E. For a fact the consistency, flavor, look, smell, and texture of grass-fed beef differs from grain-fed beef. Therefore some consumers will have to learn to appreciate the differences if they are going to eat grass-fed beef. Others will like it immediately because it actually tastes like beef. Others will gladly learn to like it because it does a body good. In all cases folks will need to learn how to properly cook grass-fed meats. Yes, the time for Grass-Fed Beef and other Grass-Fed livestock products is now

Grain Fed Beef vs. Grass Fed Beef
Grain Fed Beef
• Added Hormones
• Fed Antibiotics
• Fed Grain
• Omega 3 Fatty Acid = 0.1
• Omega 6 Fatty Acid = 3.1
• CLA = 0.21
• Beta Carotene = 41
• Vitamin E = 1.3
• Vitamin A = 10
• Total Fat = High and Saturated
• Flavor is Bland/Pasty
• E. coli Danger is
High Grass Fed Beef
• NO Added Hormones
• NOT Fed Antibiotics
• NOT Fed Grain
• Omega 3 Fatty Acid = 1.22
• Omega 6 Fatty Acid = 1.08
• CLA = 1.46
• Beta Carotene = 87
• Vitamin E = 5.3
• Vitamin A = 52
• Total Fat = Properly Balanced
• Flavor is Original and Bold
• E coli Danger is Minimal
Article obtained from www.texasgrassfedbeef.com

The relationship between dietary multivitamin and multi-mineral intake and the risk of becoming overweight or obese was evaluated in a new study. In the United States, approximately 68 percent of adults are overweight or obese, and over 33 percent qualify as obese. Overweight and obesity are categorized based on body mass index (BMI), which is a calculation based on height and weight. Overweight is defined as a BMI between 25 and 29.9 and obesity is defined as having a BMI of 30 or greater.
In this new clinical trial, researchers analyzed the effect of supplementing multivitamins in a group of obese women. The subjects in this study included 96 obese Chinese women between 18 and 55 years of age. The women received a multivitamin and multi- mineral supplement daily or a tablet of 162 mg of calcium daily or a placebo for 26 weeks. The women were evaluated for body weight, BMI, waist circumference, fat mass and fat-free mass.
The researchers also evaluated blood pressure; resting energy expenditure, which is the amount of calories required by the body for a 24-hour period during a non-active period; and respiratory quotient(RQ), which is used to calculate basal metabolic rate. Additionally, blood tests, which measured fasting blood glucose, insulin levels, total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein, cholesterol (HDL “good” cholesterol), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL “bad” cholesterol) and triglycerides, were performed at the beginning of the study and after 26 weeks.
The results showed that the group receiving the multivitamin had significantly lower body weight, BMI, fat mass, total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol compared to the placebo group. Additionally, the multivitamin group had higher resting energy expenditure and HDL cholesterol values. There was also a trend in the multivitamin and multimineral group showing reduced waist circumference and respiratory quotient. The group receiving calcium supplementation alone showed higher HDL cholesterol and lower LDL cholesterol compared to the placebo group.
The researchers concluded, “The results suggest that, in obese individuals, multivitamin and mineral supplementation could reduce body weight and fatness and improve serum lipid profiles, possibly through increased energy expenditure and fat oxidation. Supplementation of calcium alone (162 mg per day) only improved lipid profiles.”
Article obtained from complementary prescriptions newsletter