Synthetic Vitamins – Look Out for Active B Vitamins
In the quest to get healthier, many people have turned to taking vitamin supplements to help them out. There’s no mystery to why people are using vitamins at all; physicians are constantly telling their patients just how vital vitamin supplements are to optimal health.
As is usually the case with the medical industry, only part of the truth is being revealed. Yes, it is very important for people to take in the right amounts of healthy, natural vitamins and minerals, but synthetic vitamins are not the way that people should be acquiring these essential nutrients.
The Ugly Truth
The way that physicians and the supplement industry keep people buying a steady supply of synthetically produced vitamins is a very disturbing cycle that everyone needs to get out of as soon as possible if they are concerned about their health. The B Vitamin family for example, is routinely sold in its synthetic form. Instead of being a benefit to the body, these types of B vitamins are actually a hindrance to good health.
The labeling that these products use is even more misleading. They will list their B Vitamin products as containing, simply “folic acid”, almost as if this is something positive. What many people don’t realize, though, is that most folic acid is nothing more than another engineered, isolated vitamin product that is anything but naturally produced. Folic acid can be good for you, but only if it is natural, Folinic acid; 5-methyl tetrahydrofolate, per the listing below.
Try These Instead
If you’re interested in taking B vitamins in their natural, beneficial form, you must stay away from synthetic vitamins, but what types of B vitamins should you take? Look for vitamin supplements that contain “active B vitamins”, these are B vitamins in their “natural state”, and these are the B vitamins that are going to promote good health for you.
Here is a short listing of the active B vitamins you should be on the lookout for:
- Cobalamin (B12): Methylcobalamin; Adenosylcobalamin
- Choline: Phosphatydlcholine
- Folic acid: Folinic acid; 5-methyl tetrahydrofolate
- Niacin (B3): Nicotinamide (adenine dinucleotide)
- Pantothenic acid (B5): Pantethine
- Pyridoxine (B6): Pyridoxal-5-phosphate
- Riboflavin (B2): Riboflavin-5-phosphate; Flavin mononucleotide (FMN)
- Thiamine (B1): Thiamine pyrophosphate; Thiamine triphosphate
- Riboflavin (B2): Riboflavin-5-phosphate; Flavin mononucleotide (FMN)
Like other vitamins, the B Vitamin family relies on the right co-factors (other vitamins, minerals & nutrients) to give them their beneficial power. When synthetic vitamins are artificially produced in the laboratory, they are often isolated and kept apart from these co-factors. This is just one reason that the synthetic forms are not good for your health. You end up loading your system with engineered vitamins that are doing your body no good. When you factor in the extremely high doses that most of these products deliver, it’s easy to see how unhealthy levels of synthetic B vitamins can accumulate in the body and cause more harm to consumers than good.
Health Benefits of Shilajit, or Mineral Pitch
I had never heard of mineral pitch until the other day, much less the Latin term for it, Asphaltum punjabianum, or the Hindi, shilajit or the Urdu, salajeet, and was surprised to learn that it oozes from rocks high in the Himalayas in spring and summer. It is a tar-like substance that comes from concentrated prehistoric plant matter that was covered by the Himalayas when they formed as a result of tectonic plates colliding. When this happened they also swallowed up and ancient sea, the waters of which evaporated over the eons, leaving traces behind in the form of Himalayan sea salt.
I was told by a local book seller that he had had problems with his hand which was growing into a claw and he couldn’t straighten his fingers. He went to a hakim, or traditional healer who recommended he try salajeet. Not trusting anyone else, the man gathered his own on the mountain. After 15 days of taking the salajeet he collected, he claims, his hand was back to normal and certainly it looks healthy now.
If you are lucky enough to find this remarkable substance, you have to drink it with cow’s milk it is said to get the most benefit from it. The Pathans give it to their children in this way so that they become and remain, strong and healthy. Some healers put the substance in milk and then strain it through muslin several times to cleanse it of any impurities before drying it in the sun to use in herbal remedies.
One of the ancient Sanskrit texts says that without the addition of Shilajit to other herbal remedies, there can be no cure. Its name means rock-like, in other words able to stand against the ravages of time. It is said to help rejuvenate muscles, bones nerves and skin cells, so slowing the aging process and making people feel young again. The Kama Sutra, the ancient sex manual mentions it several times as a cure for impotency and it has been used for erectile dysfunctions and other male problems for centuries.
One legend has it that an elderly Indian Emperor prayed for renewed sexual vigor to Lord Shiva, and was given a substance form Shiva’s body, which was shilajit. It worked apparently.
Mineral pitch contains a whole array of natural substances, some of which are rare in nature, among these are the minerals, copper, iron, aluminum, antimony, calcium, cobalt, lithium, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, phosphorous, silica, sodium, strontium, zinc and lippuric, benzoic, folic, chebulic and tannic acids, as well as resin, gum, albuminoids and glycosides.
Apart from being known as the Indian Viagra it is used to treat diabetes, and can help prevent allergic reactions, has pain-killing properties as well as anti-inflammatory ones, has reduced stress related ulcers in vivo in the lab, and is effective against anaemia, liver dysfunctions including jaundice, and muscular atrophy. In Ayurvedic medicine it is used for many ailments including kidney and bladder problems, nervous disorders, arthritis and to heal fractured bones more quickly. It really is considered a cure-all.
A study undertaken at the University of Leipzig has shown that it enhanced cognition and memory in Alzheimer’s patients, but more research is needed to discover how far the claims of Ayurvedic practitioners are genuine. One of the problems associated with its use is that you do not know what any drug you buy in the West has been adulterated with. Like the book seller, only trust what you can gather yourself.