Can you get the nutrition you need from your current diet?

Because of the failure of prescription drugs in regards to preventing and curing disease, it's imperative that we take an initiative to insure our own health as we age. While getting proper exercise and eating healthy foods are a good way to start on this journey, the degradation of our food supply has made it necessary to get extra nutritional supplementation in the form of antioxidants and vitamins. However, because of doctors bias against supplements, we'll rarely hear from our modern physician about how incredibly easy it is to avoid or lessen the effects of harmful diseases. For some great books on health issues click on the following link:Health and Fitness eBooks

Women's Health and Disease

Women are under increased stress to stay or become thin, and while keeping a healthy body weight is better than starving ourselves, it's important to avoid obesity if at all possible. Obesity, while not a direct cause of many diseases, increases the rate at which oxidative stress occurs, leading to myriad health concerns like heart disease and diabetes. While heart disease and diabetes tops the growing list of health concerns for women, we also need to be vigilant against warding off other diseases.

Arthritis and osteoporosis, for example, affect more women than men as a whole in the Western world.

As women age, often the rate of absorption of old bone exceeds the deposition of new bone. Deficiencies of necessary minerals like calcium, magnesium and vitamin D can cause Osteoprosis and it's very important to fuel our bodies with as much of these minerals and vitamins as possible.

It's also incredibly important for women to quit smoking and avoid second-hand smoke as much as possible.

Cigarette smoke contains more deadly free radicals than any other widely encountered substance, and can eventually lead to lung cancer, and lung diseases like asthma.

Alzheimer's disease is another concern for women as they age, and it's been shown clinically that many of the neurodegenerative diseases are caused simply by excessive and ongoing oxidized stress.

This, too, is increasingly clear in the case of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. If we take a little more time avoiding exposures to free radicals like air pollution, cigarette smoke, and chemicals in our food, while taking quality supplements to enhance a healthy diet, we could avoid or greatly reduce our chances of contracting many of these diseases.

Women's Specific Health Concerns

Nothing is more controversial on the women's health front these days than hormone replacement therapy.

As you go through menopause, your doctor will most likely give you a couple of options for hormone replacement. However, in many cases physicians steer patients away from alternative and complementary medicine such as phytoestrogens and soy isoflavones. Sadly, if given the choice, many women may prefer this natural alternative to hormone replacement therapy.

Because of misunderstanding and a strong influence from big pharmaceutical companies, modern physicians often take the safety of supplements into question. However, studies have shown clearly the safety of most, if not all, good quality supplements, as well as the clear benefits of supplementing your diet with compounds like glucosamine and CoQ10.

Not only do many supplements help prevent and lessen disease processes, but they also have clear anti aging benefits, as well.

While skin care is obviously one step to achieving maximum anti-aging results, taking nutritional supplementation helps your body stay younger on the inside, which can result in more radiant, glowing, and youthful skin.

Women's Health and Supplementation

As we age, there are specific things we can do to not just look younger, but stay younger well past the ages of the generations before us. This can include a regular regimen of moderate exercise for disease prevention, as well as good nutrition with a diet rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

Two such important vitamins are vitamin C and vitamin E.

Nutrition studies have shown that vitamin C is one of the most potent vitamins when it comes to ridding the body of free radicals before they can do damage. Vitamin E has shown bnefits in maintaining healthy skin, maintaining the immune function as well as maintaining a normal health heart and arteries.

Fish oil is another nutritional supplement that's gained a lot of press over recent years.

This powerful compound contains essential fatty acids that help with heart health, as well as other organ function. Studies have shown that women in cultures where fish is a daily dietary staple have fewer occurrences of heart disease and display lower levels of cholesterol.

Another supplement that is less well-known, but just as important to women's health, is grape seed extract. With this addition to your diet, you're getting the extra bioflavonoids your body needs to help prevent heart disease and circulatory problems. In addition, it's been reported that grape-seed extract is a great help with diseases like fibromyalgia, asthma, and even skin diseases.

The importance of nutritional supplements to a women's diet is very apparent, thanks to new scientific studies that show true prevention is the best course for avoiding disease. And getting the proper supplementation levels doesn't just mean meeting the minimum amount of RDAs or RDIs, it means exceeding them in many cases.

A final note: Conception and the health of your unborn child

Arguably a woman's unique role in life is to conceive, nurture and give birth to a child. Her health strongly influences how readily she conceives as well as directly affecting the health of her unborn child. A woman's lifestyle today contributes to the health of the next generation.

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