Essential Vitamin Stack for Health & Longevity

1. Choose a multi-vitamin with the right doses

You should know that whilst the recommended daily intake of particular vitamins is advised to prevent deficiency, this should not be you overall aim. Instead you want to choose a multi-vitamin that not only achieves the recommended daily dose but goes beyond these levels in order to achieve and effective dose for maximum health benefit.

Of course your specific effective dose will depend on a variety on factors such as your age, overall health and fitness or whether you are pregnant or have any other health conditions. There are plenty of different manufacturers out there that have done the research and who have designed their particular brand or range of multi-vitamins for your specific needs. Do your research, read up on reviews and ask around about what people think about different products prior to settling on a product that is right for you.

2. Special Naturopath Multi-Vitamin Formula

Professional naturopaths specialize in dealing with natural holistic approaches to well being, fitness and health. Given that this is what a naturopath exclusively deals with, you would be remiss not to make contact to a well regarded naturopath to ask their advice on the right multi-vitamin to choose for your specific needs. Sure you may need to pay for a few sessions to get an assessment and obtain their advice but in the long run the small amount of money spent can save you on spending money on multi-vitamin products which are not providing you with the maximum benefit.

Professional and certified naturopaths will only recommend products that are of a high standard and quality and that is why they are good people to obtain advice from in relation to these types of issues. Often they will advise you to consider multi-vitamin products which are made from the finest organic raw materials and which obviously suit your specific needs.

A naturopath may even be able to arrange for customized multi-vitamins to be specifically made up with the right doses of each ingredient to suit your particular needs.

3. Multi-Vitamins with Superior Ingredients

Different ingredients in multi-vitamins can have different effects when consumed by the body and for this reason you may need to research a little deeper on each individual ingredient included in the multi-vitamin product that you may be considering. For example we have seen that vitamin D is contained in most multi-vitamin supplements however after doing some more research into this particular vitamin ingredient you will come to understand that there is a vitamin D2 and vitamin D2 where it is preferable to obtain a multi-vitamin which contains the vitamin D3 since this is the same natural vitamin which is made by the body after obtaining some exposure to sunlight whereas on the other hand vitamin D2 is a synthetic ingredient which some studies suggest are far less ineffective that its vitamin D3 counterpart.

Generally when it comes to the multi-vitamin ingredients you can’t go past organic natural raw ingredients but in saying this it is definitely worth your while in assessing each and every specific ingredient in the multi-vitamin and doing your own background research on each specific ingredient. You will learn more about how the ingredients will help you and what ingredient are more effective than others.

4. What Special Needs to Consider

Probably digger a bit deeper on the issue raise in point 1 above in choosing the right doses for you we want to take a brief look at what types of special needs you may have in order to give consideration to when deciding upon the right multi-vitamin. As mentioned above it is worth doing the research on the different brands and products out there to find a product best suited to your needs. Some critical issues you should consider may include:

• Age
• Gender
• Pregnant
• Vegetarian
• Fitness
• Health
• Susceptible to low immunity
• Other health conditions

We recommend that you go along to your local doctor and obtain a general blood test which will provide full results on any deficiencies that you may have. In fact we recommend that you obtain a blood test every 3-6 months in order to monitor any variance in your results and deficiencies that may exist. This should be done prior to seeing a naturopath so that you can also discuss the results with the naturopath.

Take for example the following:

• Postmenopausal women may want extra calcium and vitamin D to support bone health
• Women of childbearing age who might become pregnant need extra folic acid to prevent birth defects
• People over the age of 50 may need extra vitamin B12, as older adults may have more difficulty absorbing this vitamin from food
• If you’re a vegetarian or vegan, you may need extra vitamin B12 (which is found in animal foods)
• Adult men and postmenopausal women should generally look for a multivitamin without iron
• Smokers and possibly former smokers should avoid products with large amounts of beta-carotene or vitamin A, which has been linked to an increased risk of lung cancer among this population

Now the reason why you need to consider your specific condition is because different people carrying different conditions, deficiencies or other subjective attributes may need higher doses of particular ingredients.

Omega 3 fatty acid has been researched quite thoroughly and whilst the jury still appears to be out on the effects it has in reducing cancer and other serious health problems however research has found that there is a link between Omega 3 fatty acids having beneficial effects on cardio vascular disease, cognition aging, developmental disorders and most profoundly reducing inflammation within the body.

Inflammation has been found to cause a whole range of health problems for the body. Certainly Omega 3 fatty acids can aid in reducing inflammation and preventing many of these problems.

The most available and best form of Omega 3 supplements to take are fish oil and krill oil. From whole foods you can obtain Omega 3 fatty acids from eating fish and grass fed beef.

Some of the main benefits from supplementing Omega 3 fatty acids include:

I have been using a great green food supplement lately from my favourite supplement brand Amazonia RAW (as pictured above). Reason why I love their products is because they are all natural, certified organic ingredients & on a whole they tend to only deliver products with natural quality being their main driver.

Magnesium:

Magnesium in an essential mineral required for growth and maintenance of health bones as well as bettering the function of the bodies muscles and nerves amongst many other vital components of the body. Other incredible benefits of magnesium is that it can help activate other vitamins such as Vitamin B and D.

It can also assist in helping the bodies muscles recover after a strenuous workout by acting as a muscle relaxant especially for sore or cramping muscles. It is also said to play a role in improving a persons sleep cycle.

Some other but lesser known benefits that the right levels of magnesium can have include treatment of:

• asthma
• diabetes
• fibromyalgia
• high blood pressure
• migraines
• osteoporosis
• premenstrual tension

Magnesium is an essential mineral required by every organ in the body for a range of activities including bone, protein and fatty acid formation. It is also essential in activating vitamins B and D, relaxing muscles, regulating calcium levels and helping blood to clot and is required for the secretion of insulin. Many of us do not get enough magnesium in our diets. Adults require about 300 to 400 milligrams a day.

Why are we deficient in Magnesium?

1. We use magnesium to break down sugars
2. The foods we buy can often be grown in average quality soil with deficient levels of magnesium and commercial fertilizers do not contain any magnesium thus the food we buy can often have insufficient levels of magnesium.
3. We tend to lose significant levels of magnesium through stress
4. The body struggles to absorb magnesium when there is insulin resistance and poor functioning cell membrane.
5. The bottled and tap water we drink these days contains far smaller levels of magnesium compared to the natural spring and mountain water reserves that people would have better access many years ago.

In order to supplement magnesium you should do your homework on choosing a quality daily supplement which you can take to maintain appropriate magnesium levels. It is recommended for men to take around 400mg per day and for women around 300 mg per day.

You can also get a good source of magnesium from taking ebsom salt baths whereby the magnesium is absorb through the skin.

Zinc:

Luckily for us though we can take daily zinc supplements to ensure that we maintain the recommended zinc levels.

There are some very important reasons why we should take our zinc intake seriously, these reasons include the following crucial roles that zinc has with our body, it is involved in:

• cellular metabolism
• immune function
• wound healing
• DNA synthesis
• cell division
• supporting growth & development during pregnancy, childhood & adolescence

Zinc can easily be lost due to sweating and detoxifying the body and it generally hard to replenish since zinc is found in very few foods. That is a major reason why taking zinc supplements is such a good isea.

Probiotics:

Much is talked about in recent times of probiotics and the importance of “gut health” for our digestive system. Basically, our digestive tract is full of bacteria which you may immediately think is a bad thing but the reality is that we need a whole range of different bacteria in our body and specifically in our digestive system in order to function and operate efficiently. Probiotics are live good bacteria and yeasts which aid in the bodies digestive system.

The problem that some people face is that their digestive system has too much bad bacteria which inhibits the ability of our digestive system to work properly. Alternatively, other problems can arise when people are prescribed with anti-biotic medication which basically kills off all the good and bacteria leaving the digestive system sterile and unable to perform as it is suppose to.

Taking a good Probiotic supplement can help your digestive tract recover from the use of anti-biotics by repopulating your gut with good bacteria which aid in the digestive process that your body goes through. Even if you have not been taking anti-biotics you should seriously consider taking a good quality Probiotic supplement so that you ensure that your digestive tract is continually populated with more good bacteria that bad bacteria.

Often probiotics can be found in specific types of foods such as fermented foods like yoghurt, kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, apple cider vinegar, kimchi, miso soup, ginger beer plus many other natural probiotic foods. The body also creates probiotics naturally so it seems only natural to supplement this process with a good quality probiotic supplement.

If you are focus on anything then your digestive system is a great place to start since a good healthy digestive tract can completely change the entire way you feel and increase your energy levels and mood.

Have you ever had that feeling where you constantly feel bloated in the stomach, low on energy, tired and sluggish – then it is quite possible that you need to get your digestive system back on track.

Digestive Enzymes:

Digestive enzymes are generally built into most foods, some more than others, which facilitate in the breaking down if the food into smaller blocks which are more easily absorbed by the body. The bodies digestive system seeks to absorb the right kind of nutrients that it needs to fuel the body however it simply cannot absorb these nutrient unless the body is first able to break down the foods that are put into the body. This is where enzymes come into play, they work to break down the foods which then enable the digestive system to better absorb the nutrients it needs.

It is often suggested that we eat foods rich in digestive enzymes at the beginning of a meal so that it can aid in the break down of other foods consumed in the meal. You will often find that raw whole foods contain the most amount of digestive enzymes where as foods which have been cooked or processed generally leaves the body struggling to produce enough enzymes to aid in the breaking down of foods in the digestive process.

The bodies pancreas is responsible for releasing a whole range of different enzymes for breaking down different types of foods such as fats, proteins and carbohydrates. However, when the body is under digestive distress this is when digestive enzyme supplements can offer massive benefits to the bodies digestive system to help it work at its most optimum.

Other  benefits of ensuring your body has the correct amount of digestive enzymes is that it will help reduce joint pain and stiffness through breaking down built up fibrin.

Digestive enzymes should definitely be considered as an added supplement to the essential health and longevity stack that we have looked at throughout this post.

So here is the Health & Longevity Stack in a nutshell: