What it does: Strengthens bones and teeth, promotes healthy muscles by helping them to relax, so important for PMS, important for heart muscles and nervous system. Essential for energy production.
Deficiency Signs: Muscle tremors or spasms, muscle weakness, insomnia or nervousness, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, constipation, fits or convulsions, hyperactivity, depression, confusion, lack of appetite, calcium deposited in soft tissue, eg kidney stones.
Best food sources: Wheatgerm, almonds, cashew nuts, brewer’s yeast, buckwheat flour, Brazil nuts, peanuts, pecan nuts, cooked beans, garlic, raisins, green peas, potato skin, crab.
Optimum daily amount: 500mg a day (350mg from a good diet; 150mg from a supplement).
What it does: Helps to form healthy bones, cartilage, tissues and nerves, stabilises blood sugar, promotes healthy cells, essential for reproduction and red blood cell synthesis, required for brain function.
Deficiency Signs: Muscle twitches, childhood growing pains, dizziness or poor sense of balance, fits, convulsions, sore knees, joint pain.
Best food sources: Watercress, pineapple, okra, endive, blackberries, raspberries, lettuce, grapes, lima beans, strawberries, oats, beetroot, celery.
Optimum daily amount: 10mcg a day (6mcg from a good diet; 4mcg from a supplement).
These include fatigue, depression, weight gain, osteoporosis, reduced sex drive, vaginal dryness and hot flushes. While optimum nutrition often helps relieve these, many women respond to small amounts of natural progesterone used as a cream. This is available on prescription from your doctor.
Supplementing vitamin C with vitamin E and bioflavonoids may help reduce hot flushes. Also important for this and other symptoms, including vaginal dryness, is sufficient essential fatty acids, which make the prostaglandins that help to balance hormone levels. For prostaglandins to work, sufficient vitamin B6, zinc and magnesium are required.
Diet advice
Follow a diet being careful to cut down on sources of sugar and stimulants. Have a tablespoon of a cold-pressed oil blend or a heaped tablespoon of ground seeds for essential fats, magnesium and zinc.
Supplements
• 2 x Multivitamin and multimineral
• 2 × Vitamin C 1,000mg with 500mg of bioflavonoids
• Vitamin E 400mg
• Bone mineral complex (including extra magnesium and zinc)
• Herbal complex with agnus castus, dong quai, black cohosh or St John’s wort
• 2 x Essential Omega 3 and 6 oil capsules
What it does: Helps rid the body of the protein breakdown products, strengthens teeth and may help reduce the risk of tooth decay, detoxifies the body from free radicals, petrochemicals and sulphites.
Deficiency Signs: Deficiency signs are not known unless excess copper or sulphate interferes with its utilisation. Animals show signs of breathing difficulties and neurological disorders.
Best food sources: Tomatoes, wheatgerm, pork, lamb, lentils, beans.
Optimum daily amount: None established. Supplementary range between 10mcg and 1000mcg (1mg) per day.
There are several factors that can trigger mouth ulcers, including nutrient deficiencies and food sensitivities. The link with stress appears to be that stress increases your need for vitamin C, and a deficiency in vitamin C is a factor in ulcers. When you ara stressed vitamin C is needed in higher quantities by the adrenal glands, which provide the body’s main stress response. So if you are under a lot of pressure, the adrenals are likely to be getting the lion’s share of your vitamin C supplies, leaving other areas low.
Diet advice
Obviously, the first thing to do is tackle the way you deal with stress so it’s not so much of a burden. When you are under pressure, take 1g of vitamin C three times a day. It’s best to take a less acidic form such as magnesium ascorbate, rather than ascorbic acid. You may also need more vitamin A, which strengthens the ‘inside skin’.
Try supplementing 250mcg (7,500iu) of vitamin A a day, as well as 15mg of zinc, which helps ulcers to heal.
Food allergies, to wheat in particular, can also trigger mouth ulcers; eating foods you’re sensitive to only every fourth day can help keep the allergic reaction a bay. Also, check your toothbrush. Splayed-out bristles, especially if you brush too hard, often cause the initial damage that leads to a mouth ulcer.
Multiple sclerosis is a condition affecting the central nervous system (the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves). In MS, the fatty tissue surrounding nerve fibres, known as the myelin sheath, is lost in many places, causing symptoms that range from extreme fatigue to difficulties with walking or vision. While MS is thought to be an autoimmune disease, its cause is still unknown. People with the condition, particularly in the early stages, often respond well to nutritional support.
Mercury toxicity may also contribute to the condition, either through mercury fillings, vaccinations, heavy pollution of a lack of other minerals in the body to counteract mercury accumulation. B vitamins (in particular B12) are key. So in addition to eating and supplementing with Omega-3s, the ideal nutritional support strategy would be a wholefood, low toxin diet supported by a high-strength multivitamin and mineral formula and a B complex. A hair mineral analysis would give an indication of any toxicity in the body.
Some think MS may be linked to food allergies, particularly to gluten (in wheat, oats, rye and barley) and milk. It’s worth cutting these out to see if it helps and getting yourself tested for allergies. There’s also a link between high homocysteine and MS so this is worth testing too. Finally, research has shown digestive enzymes may help.
Diet advice
Start with a look at the diet and lifestyle. As a high intake of animal fats is linked to MS, you should cut out cheese, milk and meat and eat plenty of fish, nuts and seeds that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fats have been found to be vital in the formation of myelin. I recommend your supplement a combination of the essential fats GLA, DHA and EPA. Myelin has been found to be very susceptible to oxidation, so avoid smoking, smoky atmospheres and fried or burnt food, and take a good antioxidant complex.
Cramps are most commonly due to calcium/magnesium imbalances and are corrected by supplementing 500mg of calcium and 300mg of magnesium. Despite popular belief, the condition is very rarely due to a lack of salt. In fact it is best to avoid added salt and to keep fluid intake high. Fruit is naturally rich in potassium and water, and contains sufficient sodium for the body’s needs.
Muscle aches can occur for the same reason, or when muscle cells are not able to make energy efficiently from glucose. Magnesium, particularly in the form of magnesium malate, helps here too, as do B vitamins. Aches can also occur due to inflammation.
Diet advice
Follow a diet avoiding salt and increase your intake of fruit (rich in potassium) and seeds (rich in calcium and magnesium). Drink plenty of water.
Supplements
• 2 x Multivitamin and multimineral
• Vitamin C l,000mg
• Bone mineral complex (to provide 500mg calcium and 300mg magnesium) or magnesium malate plus calcium
