Supplements Guide: Side Effects & Best Multivitamins

Vitamins and supplements like melatonin and fish oil offer health benefits but can cause side effects if misused. Learn about the impact of saw palmetto on blood pressure and find the best multivitamins for young women and adults over 50.

Fresh homemade yougurt

Benefits Of Bulgaros

Bulgaros is another name for kefir, a fermented milk product made by adding a starter culture, called kefir grain, to milk. The term "grain" describes the starter culture's cauliflower-like appearance.

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How Does Drinking Beer Affect an Overload of Iron?

Your body needs iron to carry oxygen to your red blood cells. Low iron levels can cause fatigue, shortness of breath and difficulty thinking. Very high iron levels can also cause health problems, including liver damage. You can inherit a tendency to absorb more iron than normal from your diet.

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Flax seeds in the sack and oli on wooden background

Filtered Vs. Unfiltered Flaxseed Oil

Flaxseed oil is an alternative source of heart healthy omega-3 fatty acids -- if you can't take fish oil. In addition to alpha-linolenic acid, flaxseed oil also contains lignans, weak estrogenic substances that may also have health benefits.

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Can You Be Allergic to Zinc?

Zinc, a common essential mineral found in foods, also has a number of medicinal applications. You may use zinc oxide paste to treat diaper rash or for other skin ailments. Some lozenges used to treat cold symptom also contain zinc.

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Doctor testing his patients blood

Tingling in the Hands and Electrolytes

Even though you can't see them, electrolytes-- minerals that carry electrical changes-- continually move across cell membranes to maintain a balance between your cells and your blood. Electrolytes in your body include bicarbonate, calcium, chloride, sodium, magnesium, phosphate and potassium.

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Calcium and the Optic Nerve

The optic nerve carries electrical impulses from your eye to your brain. Damage to the optic nerve can affect your ability to sight. Several types of calcium deposits can develop in the optic nerve. Calcium deposits may develop within protein deposits in the optic nerve known as drusen.

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Can I Take Expired Zinc Supplements?

You may buy of bottle of vitamins or minerals, take them for a few weeks and then stop. They may stay in your medicine cabinet for a few years without you thinking about the expiration date -- until you decide to start taking the supplement again.

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Woman using hot water bottle for her stomach pain

Can Vitamin Deficiency Cause Longer Periods?

Abnormally heavy or prolonged menstrual cycles, medically termed menorrhagia, can make your life miserable. If you have menorrhagia, you might have heavy menstrual bleeding that lasts for more than one week.

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Can Fish Oil Cause an Irregular Heartbeat?

Fish oil, which contains essential omega-3 fatty acids, has several potential heart benefits. Omega-3 fatty acids may help lower cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of ischemic stroke.

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Vitamin and Iron Supplements for Pre-term Infants

Premature infants -- babies born before 37 weeks -- have unique nutritional needs. Babies born early may have lower vitamin and mineral stores than babies born after a full-term pregnancy. Preterm infants may also have higher nutritional needs for not only calories, but also for vitamins and minerals for some time.

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Can You Improve Sperm Count With Fish Oil?

Fish oil has cardiovascular benefits, reducing inflammation and lowering cholesterol levels. But if you’re trying to get pregnant, you may have more interest in fish oil’s effects on something more crucial to reproductive function -- sperm.

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Linseeds

Flaxseed As a Blood Thinner

Flaxseed, which comes from the flax plant, has a history of medicinal use dating to ancient Egypt. Flaxseed contains omega-3 fatty acids, which might reduce cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, decrease inflammation and improve irregular heartbeats.

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Cranberry Capsules

The Daily Dosage of Cranberry Pills

Around 20 percent of women have at least one urinary tract infection in their lives and 3 percent suffer from recurrent urinary tract infections, Darren Lynch, M.D., of Beth Israel Medical Center reports in the December 2004 issue of the “American Family Physician.

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Does Vitamin C Help Once You Are Sick?

If the onset of a cold has you reaching for the vitamin C bottle, you may want to think twice. Vitamin C, an essential water-soluble vitamin not stored in the body, has a reputation as an immunity booster that can help fight off viruses. This may be true, but possibly only under certain conditions and at certain doses.

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capsules with bottle, vintage

Vitamins for Folliculitis

Folliculitis, an infection that develops around hair follicles, has many causes. Most cases of folliculitis clear up without treatment, but in some cases, antibiotics or oral antifungal medications may be prescribed.

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Saw Palmetto Background

Is Saw Palmetto Good for PCOS?

As many as one out of 10 women of childbearing age have polycystic ovary syndrome, PCOS, a disorder characterized by high levels of male hormone levels such as testosterone, according to the National Women’s Health Information Center. Reducing androgens, or male hormones, may improve the symptoms of PCOS.

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Rose hips bud. flower wild rose.

Is it Safe to Take Rose Hip Oil Internally?

Rose hips, also called haws, are the bright red, vase-shaped fruit of roses often used for medicinal purposes by alternative health practitioners. Rose hips are rarely allowed to develop on modern roses, although they’re abundant on wild rose species.

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