Tag Archives: Supplements

Post #61 – How much sleep do we need for optimal health?

16 Sunday Sep 2018

Posted by in Living to 120, Mental Health, Optimal Health, Optimal Sleep, Uncategorized, Vigor, Vitality, wellness

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In Post #59, I talked about the lifestyle choices that are important to maximizing health and lifespan:
1. Benchmarking Health
2. Nutrition
3. Exercise
4. Maintaining Musco-skelatal Integrity
5. Maintaining Mind-body Connection
6. Enhancing and Maintaining Brain
7. Stress Management
8. Adequate Sleep
9. Social Engagement
10. Purposeful Living
11. Making full-use of all modalities of medical care
12. Make use of Genetics Science

These were of course not in any particular order. For example, Adequate Sleep would rate much higher in priority, probably towards the top. After all, most of us cannot even function if deprived of sleep over even a few days.

I recently read the book, Why We Sleep by Mathew Walker, Ph.D. He is a professor at University of California Berkeley and has dedicated his career to research in sleep. This is a pretty definitive book on sleep and covers the topic from almost all angles.

Why we sleep cover

I have been generally aware that 7 to 9 hours of sleep is considered a must for optimal health. And, since I learned that I do make the effort to catch that much sleep and when I don’t I would make effort to catch up on that sleep during the weekends.

However, reading this book has been seriously eye opener for me. As a result, I am taking sleep as a lifestyle choice for living for optimal health now much more seriously than I used to.

Sleep Myths – Busted

Here are some myths about sleep that the research cited in the book has busted for me.

1. I can live quite well with 6 to 6.5 hours of sleep. Dr. Mathews is very definitive on research that the range of sleep for optimal health for healthy adults is between 7 to 9 hours. Of course, children have different needs for sleep and so do sick people to allow their body to recover.

He also makes distinction between “opportunity to sleep”, e.g., how long I kept my head on the pillow, and actual sleep. So, if I was “in bed” for 7 hours, it took me half an hour to fall sleep, I got up twice to go to the bathroom and each time it took me half hour to fall back to sleep, then I slept for 5.5 hour. There is some research that more than 9 hour sleep is not optimal, but that research is still controversial.

One test for adequate sleep is that if during the day you close your eyes and see yourself falling asleep, then you are not getting enough sleep.

2. Early morning sleep is more important that the late-night sleep. There are two broad categories of sleep: Rapid Eye Movement or REM happens when we are in deep dream state. In early sleep cycles, which generally happen before and shortly after mid night, most of the sleep is not REM or NREM. In early morning hours, sleep is mostly REM. Each REM and NREM have their very distinct function for brain and our physiology and we need both. The following figure from scielo.br illustrates how amount of REM sleep increases as the sleep progresses and NREM shown here as Stages 1 through 4 decreases.

Sleep Cycle 2

In NREM sleep, for example, our brain takes information stored in short-term memory and shuffles it over to the long-term memory regions of the brain. In REM sleep then our brain builds interconnection with pre-existing long-term elements. If we miss NREM sleep, short-term memory buffers get over-written. If we miss REM sleep, we don’t get a chance to develop ways to access and use the information on the long term.

3. If I don’t sleep enough during the week day, I can always catch up during the weekend. From the REM and NREM sleep discussion above, you can probably quickly extrapolate that if we short change sleep, certain functions are not optimal on a daily basis. Information once lost, probably is lost forever – unless of course you relearn it.

Sleep is driven by two cycles: Circadian clock and a hormone Adenosine, see the picture below (from hackyourgut.com). Circadian clock drives our urge to awake while adenosine drives our urge to sleep.  Adenosine only goes up after we wake up until we clear it again during sleep. More adenosine in our body the more is our urge to fall asleep.  Our body’s energy level changes with change in circadian rhythm. When energy is increasing, we have the urge to wake up.

Two-process-model-sleep-circadian-homestatic-sleep-drive

When we skip sleep, it feels that we have energy to keep going based on our circadian clock. But we may still have the urge to sleep because adenosine is still high. So, when we sleep extra during the weekend, we are clearing up any residual adenosine which clears the urge to sleep. So, we feel like we have caught up on sleep. But remember, we did not really catch up on the mental benefits of sleep for memory capture and reorganization. And, that is the missed opportunity, when we try to catch up on sleep during the weekends.

4. Alcohol and sleeping pills can make you sleep better. Alcohol makes you sleepy, so clearly it must make you sleep better. Right. Wrong. Both alcohol and sleeping pills have similar effect on the brain. They are sedatives and make you drowsy by shutting down you neo-cortex, i.e., thinking brain, activities. When monitored, your brain does not have the same physiology as if you were sleeping in either REM or NREM sleep. Hence, you find that people who take sleeping pills or night caps as sleep aids, are often groggy, lacking motor skills, lethargic, and forgetful during the next day.

5. If I am short of sleep, I will know so I can correct it. And, that is the same thing someone who is drunk would say, ”I am not drunk. I don’t feel drunk.” We just discussed above the effect of alcohol on the thinking brain, which is also the decision-making brain. Lack of sleep has exactly the same effect as being drunk. And, that is one of the reason, lack of sleep leads to car accidents.

In fact, did you know, lack of sleep causes more accidents than drunk driving. If you have slept only 4 hours or less the previous 24 hours, your chance of car crash increase by a factor of 10.

And, if you are short of sleep, it is the micro sleeps that make driving fatal. if you are sleep deprived, brain just shuts down for a second or two. And, a second or two while going at 60 miles an hour is sufficient to cause serious crashes.

6. Coffee, slapping myself, or loud music can keep me going: Turns out that research shows none of these are effective at preventing micro sleeps. The only thing that is found effective is, you pull over, stop and take a nap.

7. Caffeine is not a problem, if don’t ingest caffeinated drinks at dinner time. Half-life of caffeine is 8 hours. So, it can take up to 16 hours to purge effect of just a cup of coffee from the body. So, any caffeinated drink after lunch can probably disrupt the sleep and should be avoided to obtain highest quality of sleep.

8. Melatonin will help me sleep better. Actually this is yes and no depends upon the nuance. Melatonin does not improve the quality of sleep. It does, however, tell your brain and body when it is time to go to sleep and to start to get ready. Generally, it is released as the darkness sets in.

In our modern worlds, where darkness hardly sets in or if our body clock is messed up due to jetlag from travel, it may be helpful to have melatonin supplement to tell the body that it is time for bed. Dimming lights and shutting down screens (TV, smart phones iPads, laptops) as the bed time appraoches is an excellent way of getting your body to start producing its own melatonin.

If you do take mealtonin supplements, just be warned that melatonin pills available over the counter have great variability in the melatonin content when you compare actual vs. printed on the label. In one test, FDA found -89% to +473% variability. I recently learned that a great source of melatonin is raw pistachio. Just a few kernels of pistachio release enough melatonin that is in most pills. Check out this link from NutritionFacts.Org.

Sleep Hygiene – Best Method to Improve Quality of Sleep

Instead of taking any sleeping pills, Dr. Walker recommends the same sleep protocol that NIH recommend, see NIH published Your Guide to Healthy Sleep,
1. Stick to a sleep schedule.
2. Exercise is great, but not too late in the day.
3. Avoid caffeine and nicotine.
4. Avoid alcoholic drinks before bed.
5. Avoid large meals and beverages late at night.
6. If possible, avoid medicines that delay or disrupt your sleep.
7. Don’t take naps after 3 p.m
8. Relax before bed.
9. Take a hot bath before bed.
10. Have a good sleeping environment.
11. Have the right sunlight exposure.
12. Don’t lie in bed awake.
13. See a doctor if you continue to have trouble sleeping

Summary
Sleep is way at the top of lifestyle choices for optimal health. Statistics show again and again that most of us do not get enough sleep.

Dr. Mathew Walker’s book Why We Sleep is a great book if you want to learn about latest on every aspect of sleep. NIH published Your Guide to Healthy Sleep is also a great resource that summarizes healthful practices.

In this post, I covered several myths on sleep
1. I can live quite well with 6 to 6.5 hours of sleep
2. Early morning sleep is more important that the late-night sleep
3. If I don’t sleep enough during the week day, I can always catch up on the weekend
4. Alcohol and sleeping pills can make you sleep better
5. If I am short of sleep, I will know so I can correct it
6. Coffee, slapping myself, or loud music can keep me going
7. Caffeine is not a problem, if don’t ingest caffeinated drinks at dinner time
8. Melatonin will help me sleep better

If you want to improve the quality of your sleep, check out the 13 step Sleep Hygiene protocols that I summarized above. Dr. Walker and NIH recommend this method of improving your sleep quality and is proven to work better than sleeping pills.

NIH published Your Guide to Healthy Sleep and Dr. Walker’s book have more details on this method of improving sleep quality.

What do you think?

Have you learnt something about sleep, that you can share?

I would love to hear from you and learn from you.

Please click on Comment to leave your comments or question so others can benefit from your input.

Post #59 – What are our lifestyle choices for maximizing health and lifespan?

11 Sunday Feb 2018

Posted by in Life-Span, Living to 120, meditation, Mental Health, Nutrition, Optimal Exercise, Optimal Health, Optimal Nutrition, Puposely Living, Quality of Life, Stress, Supplements, TM, Uncategorized, Vitality, wellness, Yoga

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Lifestyle Choices for Maximizing Health and Lifespan

Unless you have been living under a rock on an isolated island, I am sure you have heard that lifestyle choices have big impact on both your health and how long you live.

Living longer means not dying sooner.  And, to not die sooner, you must take actions that eliminate the various ways one dies.

Living healthy, means taking actions to prevent all the ways one loses their abilities to enjoy day-to-day activities of life. Or, at least postpone the time as far into the future as possible before developing disabilities.

In both case, i.e., living longer and living healthy, lifestyle choices play crucial roles. But what are these life choices, besides the ones you hear all the time:  Eat Better and Exercise.

When I started to systematically pursue this topic of living optimal lifespan possible (my goal being 120 years), with optimal health span (my goal being no disabilities), I started enumerating all areas of life in which one can take some action to make this impact.

Of course, not everything is in our control. We did not come to this earth with guarantees. Unforeseen, random event, or events that are not in our control can ruin all our goals and plans. But the objective is to not let the possibility of events not in our control prevent us from taking actions that are indeed in our control.

So, here are all 13 dimensions of lifestyle that I have discovered so far that impact health span and life span. Each subject is a very extensive topic by itself.  I just very briefly summarize my personal take on these and may be an example of how I am attempting to address them in my lifestyle and where you can read about further in these blog posts.

1. Benchmarking Health: Knowing where you are is where I believe it has to all start. You go to doctor’s office and they take your physical measurements (height, weight), you vitals (pulse, blood pressure), order some measurements from the lab and then compare those with what should be “normal” for you. In Post #7 – Can biomarkers help in the quest for vitality and longevity?, I discuss the various measurements you can use as biomarkers for health. These days I measure:

Daily: Weight, waist, fat near navel and thigh, BP, SPO2, pulse, my over-all subjective state of my physical, emotional and mental health

Weekly: pH, Nitric Oxide, fasting glucose

Quarterly: Bloodwork through my primary physician – CBC (complete blood count), typical chemistry panel, Lipids (Cholesterol total, HDL, LDL, VLDL, Triglysrides), TSH, T3, T4 (Thyroid hormones), Male Hormones (Total and Free Testosterone, Estrogen, LH, FSH), Hydroxy-D, fasting glucose, A1c, PSA (for prostrate tumor screening), CRP, (for inflammation), Homocysteine (for heart condition)

Annually or Biennially: Telomere Measurements (DNA strands that dictate how long cells live), X-Rays of joints if I suspect arthritis etc., Ultrasound Study of Carotid and Aorta arteries, MRI’s to detect any tumors, eye-exam, hearing test, EKG.

Every 5 years: Colonoscopy, Stress-test.    

2.  Nutrition – That is everything that crosses our lips, what we eat or drink. I discussed the topic of nutrition in a series of eight blog posts on this subject of Optimal Nutrition, Posts #22 through #29.  additionally, Post #15, #31 and #32 discuss the topic of how and when to complement the nutrition with supplements.

 3. Exercise – Exercise is indispensable for building and maintaining muscle strength, flexibility, balance, endurance. There is also abundant proof that it helps with the metabolism, overall health and health of specific organs. I discussed this topic of exercise in blog post #30 – How much and what type of exercise do you need for optimal health?

 4. Maintaining Musco-skelatal Integrity: Pains in the back, knees, hips, shoulder, wrists and other various joints creep up. We may think that these pains just come out of nowhere. After all, we often notice that “yesterday it did not hurt and today it hurts”. So, it got be a random event. Right?

Reality is that unless there was a trauma caused by an accident, most of these are the result of repetitive movement in un-aligned joints. The underlying cause could be neglect of the muscles, ligaments and tendons surrounding joints or prolonged asymmetrical movements, e.g., always carrying a bag on the same shoulder, or playing games such tennis or golf that inherently require asymmetrical movement.

Yoga, myofascial massages, Rolfing, rolling with foam rollers, visiting a chiropractor for body alignment, weight bearing exercises for join strengths, e-cise routines designed by Pete Egoscue are methods I have learned for maintaining musco-skeletal integrity.  I discuss some of these in Post #30 – How much and what type of exercise do you need for optimal health? And Post #49 – What is the role of massage therapy in Optimal Health? Also, I discuss how you can use foam rolling for body alignment in Post #39 – Ever heard of foam rolling.

5. Maintaining Optimal Dental Health: Good dental health not only impacts quality of your life, it can also impact how long you live.

The American Heart Association published a Statement in April 2012 supporting an association between gum disease and heart disease. The article noted that current scientific data do not indicate if regular brushing and flossing or treatment of gum disease will decrease the incidence, rate or severity of the narrowing of the arteries (called atherosclerosis) that can lead to heart attacks and strokes. However, many studies show an as-yet-unexplained association between gum disease and several serious health conditions, including heart disease, even after adjusting for common risk factors.

You may also have seen health and lifestyle surveys used for estimating life-expectancy that want to know if you floss daily. If you do the models give you credit for an extra 2 to 4 years of life.

In Post #47 – What does optimal dental health look like and how to achieve it?, I discuss this topic in greater detail.

 6. Maintaining Mind-body Connection: Our mind and body are inherently connected. Maintaining the connection between the two is essential for optimal health. Yoga, Tai Chi, Qigong, are some ways to develop and maintain mind-body connection.  I have very limited experience with Tai Chi and Qigong. I do, however, perform Yoga as part of my lifestyle.  In Post #11 – My first year of experience with Bikram Yoga, Post #12 – My second year of experience with Bikram Yoga, I describe how I incorporated Bikram Yoga into my lifestyle.

 7. Enhancing and Maintaining Brain: If we lose vitality of the brain, the quality of life suffers dramatically. Alzheimer and other forms of Dementia can often be very painful way of living. Evidence is mounting that for optimal brain health, we must keep the brain stimulated with right activities. All my life, I have been very focused on left brain type of activities. As I was turning 60, I decided to do something about it and started taking piano lessons to stimulate my right brain and prevent any premature aging of the brain. I discuss the activities for maintaining optimal health in Post #57 – Optimal Mental Health – what is it and how to achieve it?

 8. Stress Management: Stress is a root cause of many diseases. We have all experienced how stress can bring about disturbances in the digestive systems, back pain, high blood pressures, even heart attacks and strokes. Yoga and Meditation are two of the ways to manage stress. Perspective management is another powerful method. I got initiated in Transcendental Meditation over 30 years ago and I have been doing TM ever since with good benefits. I tackle the subject in Post #16 – What is stress really and why is it bad for longevity and health and Post #17 – Is meditation an effective antidote to stress.

9. Adequate Sleep: There is more and more evidence every day that inadequate sleep can cause all sorts of ailments. 7 to 9 hours of restful sleep is considered optimal. All my life, I thought the object of the game was to get away with as little a sleep as possible. Sleeping more than 6 hours every night is still a challenge for me. Although I am working on it to extend sleeping hours during the week and may be do some catch up sleeping during the weekends. Maybe I will tackle this topic in a future post. In Post #61 – How much sleep do we need? – I discuss the latest in sleep research.

10. Social Engagement: World-wide Study of Blue Zones, i.e., geographical areas where longest living people are clustered, showed a very surprising factor that contributed to long healthy life of people living there. Researchers found that people in Blue Zones are socially very engaged. Centenarians in these areas are engaged with tight knit groups of friends and family. So, the conclusion is that social engagement is an important factor in living longer and healthier.

 11. Purposeful Living: It is well known that death rates spike after the holidays and after major life events. Researchers deduce from studies of such phenomena that people live only as long as they find life meaningful.

Of course, it needs an ongoing effort to figure out what one can derive meaning from. One may find meaning in raising kids or grand kids, contributions to society, being the best spouse one can be or from “slaying some dragon”. Some people find meaning in their faith and service to God. Others find meaning in being of service to mankind or their fellow human beings. Yet others can find meaning in their job or career.

Viktor Frankel in his book: Man’s Search for Meaning, explores this topic beautifully. 

12. Make Full-use of All Modalities of Medical Care: Modern medicine has developed amazing and miraculous treatments. By making use of the modern medicine one can live much healthier and much longer.  In general, the earlier you are able to catch a disease and the sooner you start treatment, better your chances are of a cure or at least minimizing the damage. Mantra for modern medicine is “early detection, early cure”

 Alternative schools of medicine, such as Ayurvedic, Homeopathy, Aquapuncture, Naturopathy, offer valid means for preventative care and whole-person healing.  Leveraging these modalities of medical care as appropriate can offer means for optimal healing and living. Here the rule is the age old wisdom: An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.

I was even able to eliminate my severe seasonal allergies by working with doctors of Naturopathy and thus was able to totally change the vector of my health as I discuss in Post #8 – So, did I you tell you the story of my allergies. Also strengthening your immune system can have major consequences on how your body deals with diseases as I discuss in a series of Posts #51 – 54 – How to Optimize Your Immune System – Part I through Part IV

13. Making use of Genetics Science: There is of course the truth of genetics. Genes do play a role in how long we will live and what diseases we may have the tendencies to develop. Over the last few years, however, scientists are finding that inherited genes often do not determine your destiny, it is the lifestyle that can either turn those genes on or off. This is the exciting field of epigenetics.

 Studies from the filed of epigenetics do  give us opportunities to leverage genes.  Through genome mapping, we can find out what might be our tendencies and to what aspects of our life, therefore, we should pay particular attention. Over the last few years, I have gotten my telomeres measured – these are tips at the ends of genes that are considered to act like our lifespan clocks.  I discussed this in Post #50 – How to optimize your health by maximizing your telomeres. More recently, I have sent for genetic testing to be able to receive personalized genetics bases lifestyle coaching. I will share results of that experiences in a future post.

The percent of role of genes that we cannot do anything about is constantly shrinking all the time. Now it is believed that only between 5% to 15% of lifespan and health span is determined by genes that we have no control over.

Bottomline:

In summary, researchers have shown again and again that health span and life span depend upon one’s lifestyle choices. A holistic look at lifestyle choices means many different and distinct areas of life.

I shared my take on these dimension of lifestyle and some of my experience. Also, gave references to where you can find more information, whenever, I have already discussed that topic in more detail in my blog posts.

  1. Benchmarking Health
  2. Nutrition
  3. Exercise
  4. Maintaining Musco-skelatal Integrity
  5. Maintaining Optimal Dental Health
  6. Maintaining Mind-body Connection
  7. Enhancing and Maintaining Brain
  8. Stress Management
  9. Adequate Sleep
  10. Social Engagement
  11. Purposeful Living
  12. Making full-use of all modalities of medical care
  13. Making use of Genetics Science

What do you think?

Do you think there some other dimension of lifestyle that I did not address here that is also important?

I would love to hear from you and learn from you.

Please click on Comment to leave your comments or question so others can benefit from your input. 

 

Post #58 – One Stop Shop to Find Information About Optimal Nutrition

14 Friday Jul 2017

Posted by in Living to 120, Nutrition, Optimal Health, Optimal Nutrition, Reversing Chronic Diseases, Supplements, Uncategorized, wellness

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It has been a few months since I last wrote a blog post. It seemed like I ran out of material to write about.

As you know, the purpose of these posts is to share only information 1) that is based on research and is not a merely hearsay, 2) that I have personal experience with, and 3) that I feel contribute towards a goal of living the longest with optimal health.

For a while I had plenty of such information that fit the scope of this blog. And, then I hit the wall.

About a year and a half ago, I found a source that has troves of nutritional information for optimal health. This information is available in videos and text form – all for FREE.

Using this information, I have been further optimizing my own lifestyle. And, it has already showing further improvements in my bio-markers.

The source is:  www.NutritionFacts.org  

This site is a labor of love for Michael Greger M.D. FACLM.  He seems to be on a personal crusade to share this knowledge and information. He and his staff of volunteers comb through over 20,000 research papers on nutritional studies published every year. They summarize this information in few minutes long byte-sized chunks and even as annual summaries, which last about an hour.

You can even subscribe to their site and you will receive a tip every day in your email.  I actually look forward to these emails. That way I can learn over time and don’t take in more than I can digest.

I got introduced to Dr. Greger’s work by reading his book: How Not to Die.

Gregor book

Some startling things I learned from this site:

  1. How you can reverse your diabetes by changing what you eat.
  2. How you can shrink you prostrates by adding certain fruits to your diet.
  3. How you can reduce blood pressure with certain plant based foods.

And, for every claim, he gives his rationale based on specific research studies and papers that you can further read up yourself, if you wish.

MY LIFE STYLE CHANGES

Here are some things I have already incorporated in my lifestyle, as a result of the research information I learned from Dr. Greger:

  1. I am now working on replacing, whenever possible, to get as many micro-nutrients as possible using whole foods rather than supplements.
  2. I started adding one tablespoon of freshly ground Flax Seeds and a quarter teaspoon of Turmeric in my shakes every morning. As you will see from the research, flax seeds and turmeric are effective for a whole bunch of issues, e.g., blood pressure, diabetes, inflammation.
  3. I started adding one table spoon of Apple Cider Vinegar in my salads at lunch to lower my blood sugar resulting from food at lunch, which tends to be my heaviest meal.
  4. I have been eating 2 to 4 pieces of Brazil Nuts as snack every night to further lower my LDL Cholesterol.
  5. I am now more conscious of making sure that I add Cruciferous Vegetables in my salads to boost my anti-oxidants.
  6. I have started sprinkling pomegranates seeds on my oat meal for my prostrate health.

RESULTS SO FAR

I have been quite pleased with the results of these changes so far. Here are a few:

  1. My most recent blood-work on 7/7/2017 shows, an Hemoglobin A1C of 5.4%! It was 5.5% three months ago.  My A1C was stuck at or above 5.8% for the last three years, ever since I have been measuring it.  Ever since then, I have been working on getting it out of the pre-diabetes range, considered to be over 5.6%.
  2. All my inflammation markers, CRP, Homocysteine, WBC are all trending down.
  3. LDL and Triglycerides are 86 and 57 in the latest blood-work – without any meds. These are on the low end of where they ever been.
  4. My blood pressure measured on my last doctor’s visit was 108/70! As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have working on reducing my BP.

Bottom Line:

I highly recommend that you checkout www.NutrtionFacts.org.  An evidence-based nutrition advice that is labor of love of Dr. Michael Greger. You can search for a specific topic, browse the site in general for useful information and/or subscribe to the daily email.

This site has become a go-to site for me for all things nutritional for Optimal Health. I have found the information is research-based, concise, well-presented and at-times with profound implications.

Most of the time, information is very actionable.

 

What are your thoughts on this subject?

Would love to hear from you and learn from you.

Please click on Comment to leave your comments or question so others can benefit from your input.

 

 

Post #31 – What supplements to take for Optimal Health?

04 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by in Functional Medicine, Nutrition, Optimal Health, Optimal Nutrition, Supplements

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On June 8, 2014, I wrote a blog post #15, “Is taking multivitamin and supplements helpful, harmless or harmful?” There I described my thinking on this subject and what I was taking at that time as supplements. Back then I was taking supplement in 29 pills. These days, it is up to 42 pills! So, to anyone watching, it must feel a little more than crazy.

Over the holidays, when family and friends saw me take all those supplement pills, I kept getting these questions:

“What are all these pills you are taking?”

Do you need all these supplements?

Is it even safe to take all these on a daily basis?

Finally, I pulled out my bag of supplements and gave them the full tour. I particularly wanted to hear my niece’s opinion, who is a cardiologist, to understand if I was doing anything wrong.

So, I thought this was a good topic to revisit.

Here is what I am taking these days and why, and a little background how I got there. The following chart summarizes the supplements, their brand names and generally what there are for.

No. Vendor Name Description # Pills per Day
1.

 

 Xtendlife Total Balance Men’s Premium Daily multivitamins, minerals. It also have many other items generally considered beneficial 7
2. Xtendlife Omega 3/ QH Ultra Fish Oil, Omega 6, Omega 9, Ubiqunol 4
3. Nature’s Bounty Flaxseed Oil 1200 mg each Flaxseed Oil 2
4. Nature’s Bounty D3-2000 2000 mg each Vitamin D3 2
5. LifeExtension Glucosamine / Chondroitin Glucosamine Sulfate and Chondroitin Sulfate – for joint health 2
6. NOW Calcium Citrate

250 mg calcium each

 Along with Vitamin D, Manganese, Zinc, Copper and Magnesium required for absorption – for bone health 2
7. Nature’s Plus Red Rice Yeast

600 mg each

 To manage cholesterol 2
8. Xtendlife Male Rejuvinator For prostate health 6
9. Life Extension Super Miaforte For Low T 4
10. RAW Probiotics Ultimate Care-100 Billion Garden of Life 34 different strains of bacteria 1
11. VitaminShoppe B-Complex 50 All B Vitamins – recommended by Genova Diagnostics 1
12. Life Extension Optimized Folate

L-Methylfolate 1000 mg

 Metabolically active form of folic acid -– recommended by Genova Diagnostics 1
13. MethylCobamin Vitamin B-12 1mg Recommended by Genova Diagnostics 1
14. SOLGRID Chelated Molybdenum Recommended by Genova Diagnostics 1
15. VitaminShoppe Alpha Lipoic Acid 100 mg Recommended by Genova Diagnostics 1
16. KAL Magnesium 400mg each Recommended by Genova Diagnostics 1
17. VitaminShoppe CoQ-10

200 mg

 Additional amount for allergies and liver support 1
18. VitaminShoppe NAC N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine 600mg For hay fever/ rag weed allergies and liver support 2
19. VitaminShoppe Milk Thistle extract 300mg For hay fever/ rag weed allergies and liver support 1

Here is the story of how I got to my current 42 pills a day regime.

I started with the daily multivitamin.

That is the most basic. I know that many people, including some of the physicians I have had, believe that it is best to get the basic vitamins and minerals “in a natural way”. I guess that means from what we eat or drink. But doing the research on this topic I have decided that there isn’t much “natural” about our lifestyle.

Eating foods that include pizzas, fried ice creams, drinking caramel macchiatos, going through eating and dieting binges, living in temperature controlled houses and offices, using gadgets and gizmos for everything, rushing to doctors for prescription for every symptom, I am not sure what it really means to get nutrients that body needs in a “natural way”. And, with all the technology that we use to grow our food these days, even fruits and vegetable can hardly be called “natural”.

Any doctor will tell you, yes if you are deficit in any of the basic vitamins and minerals, you can develop health issues. The way I look at it, why would I want to chance having deficit of any of these essential items? So, as far as I am concerned, daily dose of all essential vitamins and minerals is a must.

My search for the best multivitamin in the marketplace led me to Xtendlife. And, as you can see in this table below, their super-duper multivitamin product is Total Balance Men’s Premium – which includes lots of other well-known herbs and molecules in additional to the essential vitamins and minerals. So, that is what I have been taking. In the table, each underscored item is a hyperlink to the detail about that item on Xtendlife’s website. In many cases, hyperlink shows the literature they have used to determine the daily optimal dose, which in some cases you will notice is much more than 100% for USDA recommended daily allowance (RDA).

Supplement Facts (Total Balance Men’s Premium multivitamin) Serving size: 7 Tablets Servings per container: 15
Amount Per Serving % Daily Value*
Calories 25
     Calories from fat 5
Vitamin A 5000 IU 100%
(from Natural mixed carotenoids)
Vitamin C 285 mg 480%
(from 180 mg of Calcium ascorbate, 200 mg of Potassium ascorbate and 40 mg of  Ascorbyl palmitate)
Vitamin D3 500 IU 130%
(as Cholecalciferol)
Vitamin E 100 IU 330%
(as D-Alpha tocopheryl succinate from vegetable and soy bean oils 1 mg = 1.21 IU)
Vitamin K2 180 mcg 230%
(as Menaquinone)
Thiamin 10 mg 670%
(from 14 mg of Thiamin hydrochloride)
Riboflavin 10 mg 590%
(from 21 mg of Riboflavin-5-phosphate)
Niacin 27 mg 140%
(from 15 mg of Nicotinic acid, 15 mg of Niacinamide and 0.97 mg Chromium nicotinate)
Vitamin B6  8mg 400%
(from 12 mg of Pyridoxal-5-phosphate)
Folic Acid 300 mcg 80%
Vitamin B12  25 mcg 420%
(as Cobamamide)
Biotin 400 mcg 130%
Pantothenic acid 41 mg 410%
(from 48 mg Calcium pantothenate)
Calcium 50 mg 6%
(from 90 mg of Dicalcium phosphate, 180 mg of Calcium ascorbate, 60 mg of Calcium magnesium inositol hexaphosphate and 48 mg of Calcium pantothenate)
Phosphorus 28 mg 4%
(from 90 mg of Dicalcium phosphate, 60 mg of Calcium magnesium inositol hexaphosphate, 21 mg of  Riboflavin- 5-phosphate and 12 mg of Pyridoxal- 5-phosphate)
Iodine 150 mcg 100%
(from 197 mcg Potassium iodide)
Magnesium 67 mg 20%
(from 200 mg of Magnesium citrate, 102 mg of Magnesium stearate and 60 mg of Calcium magnesium inositol hexaphosphate)
Zinc 19 mg 130%
(from 33 mg of Zinc acetate dihydrate and 31 mg of Zinc citrate)
Selenium 100 mcg 140%
(from 250 mcg of L-selenomethionine)
Copper 0.2 mg 10%
(from 1.43 mg of Copper gluconate)
Manganese 2 mg 100%
(from 8 mg of Manganese citrate)
Chromium 106 mcg 90%
(from 970 mcg of Chromium nicotinate)
Molybdenum 64 mcg 90%
(from 163 mcg of Sodium molybdate)
Potassium 74 mg 2%
(from 200 mg of Potassium ascorbate, 100 mg of Tripotassium citrate and 0.197 mg of Potassium iodide)
RNA 150 mg **
(Ribonucleic acid, from yeast)
Green tea extract 100 mg **
(from Camellia sinensis, leaf)
(providing 80 mg of catechins)
Milk thistle extract  100 mg **
(from Silybum marianum, seed)
(providing 80 mg of silymarins)
Soy lecithin 100 mg **
(a source of Phosphatidyl choline)
Betain HCL 99 mg **
MSM 99 mg **
(Methylsulfonyl methane)
Choline bitartrate 93 mg **
DMG HCL 90 mg **
N-acetyl glucosamine  79 mg **
(from Crustacean shells)
Hesperidin 78 mg **
(from Citrus aurantium (Bitter orange) fruit)
N-acetyl L-cysteine 74 mg **
Horsetail extract 60 mg **
(from Equisetum arvense, stem & leaf)
Inositol 59 mg **
(from 50 mg of Inositol and 60 mg of Calcium magnesium inositol hexaphosphate)
SAMe 51 mg **
(from 98 mg S-adenosylmethionine tosylate)
Alpha lipoic acid 50 mg **
Bacopa extract 50 mg **
(from Bacopa monnieri, leaf)
(providing 15 mg of bacosides)
Black cumin extract  50 mg **
(from Nigella sativa, seed)
(equivalent to 190 mg of Black cumin seeds)
Ginger extract 50 mg **
(from Zingiber officinale, root)
(providing 2.5mg of gingerols)
Ginkgo extract 50 mg **
(from Ginkgo Biloba,leaf)
(providing 12.5 mg of ginkgo flavonoglycosides and 3 mg of terpene lactones)
Guggul gum extract 50 mg **
(from Commiphora mukul, gum exudate)
(providing 1.25 mg of guggulsterones)
PABA 50 mg **
(p-Aminobenzoic acid)
Pine bark extract  50 mg **
(from Pinus massoniana, bark)
Turmeric extract 50 mg **
(from Curcuma longa, root)
(providing 47.5 mg of curcuminoids)
5-Hydroxytryptophan  49 mg **
(from Griffonia simplicifolia, seed)
Myricetin 49 mg **
(from 70 mg of Myrica cerifera (Bayberry), leaf)
Grape seed extract  30 mg **
(from Vitis vinifera, species)
(providing at least 450 mg/g phenolics)
Mineral sea salts 30 mg **
(providing trace elements including strontium, tungsten and rubidium)
Piperine 28 mg **
(from 30 mg of Piper nigrum extract (Black pepper), fruit extract)
Trans-resveratrol 25 mg **
(from 50 mg of Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum), root)
Isoflavones 20 mg **
(from 50 mg of Soybean extract)
Coenzyme Q-10  19 mg **
Luteolin 18 mg **
(from Arachis hypogaea (Peanut), shell)
Alfalfa extract  10 mg **
(from Medicago sativa, aerial parts)
(equivalent to 110 mg of fresh alfalfa)
Phosphatidyl L-serine  9 mg **
(from 50 mg of Soybean lecithin)
Policosanol 8 mg **
(from 17 mg of Sugar cane extract)
Red clover extract  7 mg **
(from Trifolium pratense, aerial parts)
(providing 2.5 mg of isoflavones)
ATP 5 mg **
(Adenosine triphosphate, from Yeast)
Tocotrienol/tocopherol complex 2 mg **
(from 10 mg of Tocomin® (from Palm tree oil))
Vinpocetine 2 mg **
(from Criocerus longiflorus, whole plant)
Boron 720 mcg **
(from 12 mg of Boron citrate)
Amino Acid Blend
L-lysine HCL 164.00 mg **
L-carnosine 148.50 mg **
L-tyrosine 100.00 mg **
L-arginine HCL 90.00 mg **
L-methionine 89.55 mg **
L-ornithine HCL 50.00 mg **
L-proline 50.00 mg **
L-cysteine 49.75 mg **
L-glutamine 49.75 mg **
L-pyroglutamic acid 49.75 mg **
Taurine 49.25 mg **
(Reduced) L-glutathione 49.00 mg **
Male Health Support Blend
Phytosterols 190 mg **
(from 200 mg Soybean extract)
Saw palmetto extract  160 mg **
(from Serenoa repens fruit)
(providing 40 mg of fatty acids)
Nettle extract 100 mg **
(from Urticae dioica root)
Chrysin 99 mg **
(from Oroxylum indicum bark)
Zinc acetate dihydrate 33 mg **
Lycopene 99 mcg **
(from 15 mg of Tomato extract)
Enzyme Blend
Bromelain 50 mg **
(from Pineapple stem)
Nattozimes® 50 mg **
(Protease from fermentation of Aspergillus oryzae & Aspergillus melleus)
Amylase 30 mg **
(from fermentation of Aspergillus oryzae)
Lipase 20 mg **
(from fermentation of Aspergillus niger)
Immunity Stimulating Blend
Aloe vera  50 mg **
(from Aloe barbadensis leaf juice powder)
(equivalent to 10,000 mg of Aloe leaf juice)
Olive leaf extract  50 mg **
(from Olea europaea, leaf)
(providing 7.5 mg of oleuropein)
Beta glucan 35 mg **
(from yeast)
Tea polysaccharides 12 mg **
(from 50 mg of Camellia sinensis leaf)
Eye Health Blend
Bilberry extract 40 mg **
(from Vaccinum myrtillus fruit)
(providing 10 mg of proanthocyanins and anthocyanins)
Rutin  9 mg **
(from Saphorae japonica bud)
Lutein  2.4 mg **
(from 50 mg of Aztec marigold flower)
Astaxanthin 800 mcg **
(from 40 mg of Haematococcus pluvialis)
Zeaxanthin 475 mcg **
(from 10 mg of Aztec marigold flower)

I had started taking Vitamin D-3, several years ago, when my routine blood work showed deficiency. Statistics show that over 70% of people living in Northern hemisphere are deficient in Vitamin D-3. There are over 500 different genes that Vitamin D can switch on and off. And, every single cell in our body has a receptor for Vitamin D. Looks like a must supplement to me! Two pills a day of Nature’s bounty 2000mg per day is the dose I have chosen.

Next must for me after the multivitamins and Vitamin D is Omega 3. I have been taking both based on Fish Oil and Flax Seed Oil. Again, I found Xtendlife Omega 3 as the best product in the market. I have chosen to take to their super-duper product, Ultra QH, which in additional to Omega 3, contains Omega 6, Omega 9 and Ubiqunol. For flax seed oil, I selected Nature’s Bounty product. There are different recommendations on minimum vs. optimal. I have settled on four pills of Ultra QH and 2 pills of flax seed oil.

To these I added Glucosamine Sulfate and Chondroitin Sulfate for joint health. Most primary physicians are recommending these for over-50 patients for joint health. Add to that Calcium Citrate for bone health (again physicians recommend these routinely for over-50 patients, especially women).

When I told my physician that I wanted to get off Lipitor and demonstrated to him that with exercise and nutrition I had gotten to within striking range of the target of 100 for LDL, he recommended Red Rice Yeast as “natural statin”. In the last two tests, my LDL has been 90 and 88. So, I am keeping on with Red Rice yeast.

My primary physician had recommended Saw Palmetto for prostate health. I found a good formulation, at VitaminShoppe of Saw Palmetto & Pygeum Complex. That worked well for me. Then I found even a better formulation, Male Rejuvinator at Xtendlife.

Early last year, I did a full hormone panel of tests and found that my Testosterone was quite low. In my search for supplements to rebuild Testosterone, I came across a formulation called Super Miaforte from Life Extension. I have been taking Super Miaforte for about nine months now. Follow up test results for Testosterone have been very encouraging so far.

So, in the middle of last year, I made an appointment with University of Maryland Medical Center, School of Integrative Medicine clinic. There I met with Dr. Lauren Richter, a functional medicine specialist. I told her my objective of purposely living to 120, discussed my lifestyle, showed her all the supplements I was taking and posed to her this question: So, what supplement should I take for an optimal health?

Instead of looking at me cross-eyed, she said that she (and functional medicine specialists) has a very specific approach to figuring out the optimal nutrition in-take. She recommended that I go through blood/urine test called NutrEval FMV by Genova Diagnostics. The tests involve looking at a large number of metabolic biomarkers, and then as a result, deducing very specific recommendations about supplements for optimal health.

Test results pointed out high need for me for the entire B-complex (Thimain -B1, Riboflavin -B2, Niacin-B3, Pyridxine-B6, Biotin-B7, Folic Acid -B9, and Cobalamin-B12), Magnesium and need for me to add Vitamin C, alpha-Lipoic Acid, Molybdenum and Zinc and Probiotics to what I was already taking. Results contained very specific quantities for these. Dr. Richter reviewed what I was already taking and told to me to continue taking those.

Finally, when I discussed with Dr. Richter, my past history of hay fever/allergies, which had re-emerged for a couple of weeks at the beginning of this past fall, she recommended I take Milk Thistle, up the quantity of CoQ10 and add N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine (NAC) 600mg –all in support of the liver.

So, at that point, I added these recommended supplements to my regime.

I have been doing this full regime faithfully now for about five months. I definitely have had more energy than before. I have not really experienced any side effects so far.

So, there you have it – full story of my supplement regime.

What do you think?

What is your practice/experience/research on supplements?

I would love to hear.

Post #15 – Is taking multivitamin and supplements helpful, harmless or harmful?

08 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by in Aging, Optimal Health, Vigor, Vitality

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So, my son Dan visited us over the last weekend. He is 22, generally eats well, is in great health and has no health issues whatsoever. As he watched me taking my multivitamins and a handful of supplements he asked, “What is all this stuff you are taking Dad? Should I be taking any of this stuff for optimal health?”

So, here is what I told Dan.

Through all my reading and learning, I have come across all three points of view on multivitamins:

  1. Unless you have deficiency in some vitamin or mineral, you don’t really need to take daily vitamins and mineral supplements. If you do, they just get secreted out of the body in urine. So, by taking multivitamin as supplements, all you get is expensive urine.
  2. You have to be careful very careful with the supplements. They can actually cause harm to your body. For example, have you not heard about the study about taking too much antioxidants is harmful?
  3. To get all vitamins and minerals, you really need to eat all the various foods during the week. Besides, many of our fruits and vegetables are depleted of nutrition due to the present day methods of farming. Moreover, there are many studies that demonstrate effectiveness of the many supplements in Optimal Daily Allowance, which can be significantly more than the minimum Required Daily Allowance (RDA). So, not only one should take multivitamins every day, but make sure to take based on optimal daily allowance.

I have come to subscribe to number 3, i.e., for optimal health we must take daily optimal quantity of multivitamins and minerals.

While there is no shortage of material out there discussing this topic, I would briefly share here some information and sources that have influenced my thinking.

Kimberly and I attended a presentation by Chris D’Adamo, Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Director of Research at Center of Integrative Medicine at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine, in Baltimore, MD. I found his presentation, D’ADAMO – Supplementing Your Dietary Supplement IQ – 2013 to be very objective and informative. He discussed each vitamin and mineral, their impact on health, the required and optimal intake and sources from which we get those. And, culturally, do we get sufficient quantity or not. Bottom line: Consider taking the following: Multivitamin, Vitamin D, Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Probiotics. Add other supplements for specific issues as needed.

Pretty much the same conclusion is described in “Blood Sugar Solution”, by Dr. Mark Hyman, “The Life Plan: How Any Man Can Achieve Lasting Health, Great Sex, and a Stronger, Leaner Body”, by Jeffry S. Life M.D. Ph.D., and in The Joe Dillon Difference, by Joe Dillon.

The next question is which brand. Should I just go to Safeway, Giant, Cosco and pick the cheapest multivitamin? Is there difference between any of these brands?

Before you pick a brand, I advised Dan, you need to do some research, since there are no guidelines or standards or compliance audits for supplements.

Multivitaminguide compares and ranks multivitamin brands. ConsumerLabs also tests supplements and assigns Approved or Not Approved designations. These websites claim they have tested brands for composition, bioavailability, safety and potency.

From the Multivitaminguide check out the top five. Some of them have extensive information on what is in the capsules and why. For example, two of the top five brand websites, Xtend-life and LifeExtension, describe in detail not only the different ingredients, but also cite research studies from where they derive the reasons for including a particular ingredient as well as the quantity of the ingredient.

National Institute of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements is also a great place to get educated on this subject.

You will also notice that in addition to the basic 26 vitamins and mineral, some multivitamins on the list (including the ones from Xtend-life and LifeExtension) have other ingredients, e.g., green tea extract, Lycopene (from tomatoes, alfalfa extract etc. So, that becomes another consideration in selecting a multivitamin. Do you want to add these other ingredient, “everyone” is talking about being important for wellness, curcumin, ginger, turmeric, resveratrol (from Red wine) and so many others.

Given all this information, what would I recommend? Just like Dr. D’Admo recommends: a good multivitamin, omega-3’s, vitamin D and probiotics as a baseline. Then add specific supplements that you may need due to specific health condition.

These days, I am taking the following:

  1. Xtend-life Men’s Total Balance Premium. Comes in 7 capsule a day
  2. Xtend-life Omega 3 / QH Ultra. 4 capsules a day.
  3. Nature’s Bounty 1200 mg Flaxseed Oil Softgels. 2 capsules a day
  4. Vitamin D3 2000 mg. One capsule a day
  5. Raw Probiotics – Ultimate Care. One capsule a day. Just today ordered for the first time.
  6. Nature’s Plus – Extended Release 600mg Red Yeast Rice. 2 capsules a day for managing my cholesterol.
  7. Now Foods Calcium Citrate Plus Caps 600mg, 2 a day for bone health.
  8. Cosamin ASU Active People Capsule. 2 a day for joint health
  9. Male Rejuvinator. 3 capsules a day for Prostate Health
  10. Life Extension Super MiraForte with Standardized Lignans. 4 capsules a days. Added recently to restore Testosterone level – indicated as low by blood work. Too early to say if it works.
  11. Miracle Phytoceramides. One capsule a day. Another experiment for healthy moist skin and wrinkle prevention.

So, based on my experience, I advised Dan to read up some of the related literature and start with the following:

  1. Xtend-life Multi-Xtra. $18.95 + 4.49 shipping from Amazon or Xtend-life.com. 2 capsule a day.
  2. Xtend-life Omega 3 / DHA Fish Oil. $17.95 + 4.49 shipping from Amazon or Xtend-life.com. 2 capsules a day.
  3. Nature’s Bounty 1200 mg Flaxseed Oil Softgels. $8.95 from Amazon. 1 capsules a day
  4. Nature’s Bounty Vitamin D3 2000 mg $11.52 from Amazon for 240 capsules. One capsule a day

You should take it for three months and see how you feel. Then may be stop taking it for a week or two and see how you feel. Based on that comparison you should be able to see for yourself if it is worthwhile for you to keep taking these.

Dan told me that this was a good topic for my future blog posts. So, here it is Dan and feel free to share it with others.

What is your experience with multivitamins and supplements?

Do you have your favorite brands or supplements that have had major impact on your physical and mental health?