Vitamin D is a very complex substance. For more than half a centuryvitamin D was thought only to mineralize bones. But recent studiesindicate that it does much more:

Regulates calcium in all cells (especially brain cells)
Protects the immune system
Regulates cell growth and cell death
Provides antioxidant and antiviral benefits
Sincefoods contain very little vitamin D, the bodys major source is fromthat manufactured in the deeper layers of the skin. Food, evenfortified milk, is a poor source of vitamin D-3. This leaves sunexposure and vitamin D-3 supplements as the two most important sources.Many forms of commercial vitamin D supplements are not the active form.

When you buy vitamin D supplements, make sure they are vitamin D-3!

Vitamin D-3 and Parkinsons Disease

Parkinsonsdisease is another neurodegenerative disease of aging that is stronglyrelated to chronic brain inflammation, but different parts of the brainare involved than in Alzheimers disease.

This means that yourbest protection against developing neurodegenerative diseases is totake vitamin D-3 in higher doses than the recommended daily allowance(RDA) every day to attain maximum protection.

What Are Recommended Doses?

Recommendedlevels of supplemental vitamin D have recently been shown to be far toolow at 200 to 400 IU a day. The American Journal of Clinical Nutritionfound that safety concerns with vitamin D toxicity are grosslyexaggerated and that the daily dose should be 2,000 IU a day.

Recentreviews by health experts have revised the recommended doses forvitamin D from 400 IU to 2,000 IU a day, a dramatic five-fold increase.Daily doses of 10,000 IU or less have been shown to produce nocomplications. For daily maintenance in otherwise healthy people, 2,000IU a day appears to be adequate. For those with autoimmune diseases,cancer or viral illnesses, higher doses may be needed doses as highas 5,000 IU a day.

By Audrey Kim

Every fall, school and life seem to pick up speedand overwhelm college students with stress, anxiety and all-nighters.Exhaustion becomes the norm that underlies all activity and it comes toreplace the boundless energy we once had in the summer, just a fewweeks ago.
Soon enough, our small talk in between classes will beconsumed with the depths of exhaustion and its various cures, such asdeciding whether to have a jolting cup of java or a cup of tea,pinkie-lifting tranquility.
The benefits of caffeine culture forcollege students include the ability to combat slumber and ride out themisery of sleep deprivation. As an increasing number of UC Irvinestudents join the ranks of those relying on caffeine to add some pep totheir step, the question is whether they are putting their faith incoffee or tea.
Tessa Zelaya, a third-year social ecology major andStarbucks barista, says, I drink coffee for the taste. Tea is just toowatered down. I need caffeine to speed up my day, so Ill drink aroundfour cups.
She adds, At Starbucks, Ive noticed that people are alot more health conscious from the shift in orders. There are moreespresso drinks instead of frappuccinos; especially non-fat lattes.
Teais healthier and lighter, said first-year biological sciences majorKevin Ergina. It helps me urinate and its more tasty than coffee.Caffeine is something I try to stay away from.
People areincreasingly realizing that those caffeinated beverages they drink allnight to help them finish their assignments are affecting their health,and they need to focus more on the beverage itself and less on thejolt. This critical awareness has sparked the debate over the healthbenefits that coffee and tea offer and spawned countless researchstudies.
The Journal of the American Medical Association did areport on a team of Japanese researchers who were able to link greentea consumption with decreased mortality from all causes, includingcardiovascular disease. Green tea is high in polyphenols, which arecompounds with strong antioxidant activity that in test-tube and animalmodels show anticancer and heart-protective effects.
The researchersfollowed 40,530 healthy adults from the ages of 40 to 79 in a region ofnortheastern Japan, where most people drink green tea. They monitoredthese adults for up to 11 years. Those who drank five or more cups ofgreen tea a day had significantly lower mortality rates than those whodrank less than one cup a day. There were also fewer deaths fromcardiovascular disease.
But the results showed no such associationwith deaths from cancer. Nor was consumption of oolong or black tealinked to any decrease in mortality. Those teas are more oxidized inprocessing, which not only darkens the color of the leaves and changestheir flavor but also reduces their polyphenol content.
Habitual teadrinkers reduced cancer risk might stem from teas high antioxidantcapacity. Tea might protect the heart by relaxing blood vessels,inhibiting clots and reducing cholesterol levels. And researchersspeculate that the fluoride and estrogen-like substances in tea maybolster bone density.
Coffee is more complicated. It has receivedboth gold stars and black marks in the medical literature. It, too,contains antioxidants, although they have not been studied as well asthe polyphenols in tea. However, evidence for the health benefits ofcoffee is growing.
In the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, agroup of investigators from Finland, Italy and the Netherlands reportthat coffee seems to protect against age-related cognitive decline. Thescientists studied 676 healthy men born from 1900 to 1920 and followedthem for 10 years, using standardized measures of cognitive function.
Theirconclusion: the men who consumed coffee had significantly lesscognitive impairment than those who didnt. Three cups a day seemed toprovide maximum protection.
Population studies like those help formhypotheses about relationships between dietary habits and long-termhealth. But scientists still have to test our suppositions incontrolled conditions and measure the effects of coffee and tea onvarious systems of the body.
A joint study by the Harvard School ofPublic Health and Brigham & Young Womens Hospital has found thatthere is no long-term link between coffee consumption and increasedblood pressure in women.
The BBC Health reports found that coffeehas been linked with a number of the risk factors for coronary heartdisease, including increased blood pressure and high blood cholesterollevels.
However, no relationship has been found between coffeedrinkers and the likelihood of developing coronary heart disease.Research has found that coffee may reduce the risk of developinggallstones, kidney stones and colorectal cancer.
A couple of cups ofcoffee a day is safe, but much more will raise the risk of otherproblems and side effects, including jittery hands, disruption to thesleep cycle and palpitations, not to mention stained teeth.
Yet itsdifficult to suggest a safe limit for coffee intake because of the hugevariation in caffeine content of different brands and an individualssensitivity to the drug. People with high blood pressure and pregnantwomen are advised to limit their caffeine consumption.
For the restof the population, theres no evidence coffee does any long-term harm.Caffeine does have a mild diuretic effect, however, so try to includeplenty of non-caffeinated drinks throughout the day as well.
Caffeinatedand decaf coffee each contain antioxidants and other substances thatmay help regulate blood sugar, which may explain the apparently reduceddiabetes risk. Certain compounds in coffee also appear to help preventbile from crystallizing into gallstones. Also, caffeine may cut therisk of Parkinsons by boosting supplies of the brain chemicaldopamine, at least in men.
Although coffee often seems moreubiquitous due to the Starbucks culture, consumption of tea is quicklygrowing as well. One may argue the ceremony factor: tea requirespatience to make, and the process is more enjoyable than the rush ofmaking coffee.
Kombucha tea has become popular, but there arent anyclinical findings to verify its health effects. Kombucha mushroom tea,also known as Manchurian tea or Kargasok tea, is not actuallyderived from a mushroom, but from the fermentation of various yeastsand bacteria. A starter culture is added to a mixture of black tea andsugar, and the resulting mix is allowed to ferment for a week or more.
However,research can only go so far. Dr. Soheyla D. Gharib of the Center forWellness and Health Communication at Harvard University Health Servicesnotes the old adage: everything in moderation.
Most students say research studies are unlikely to change their behavior, though the results may sit in the back of their minds.
Imjust annoyed with it all, said fifth-year mechanical aerospaceengineering major Paul Zelaya. Its the 21st century, and we figuredout how to get to the moon, but were still debating about whether ornot we should be drinking more coffee or tea.
Tiffanie Ramos, a second-year psychology major, says, Its not a religion. Its just a drink.

An over-the-counter dietary supplement may help slow the progression ofParkinsons Disease, a degenerative neurological disorder marked bytremor, stiffness of the limbs and trunk, impaired balance andcoordination, and slowing of movements.

The supplement, calledcoenzyme Q10, is a vitamin-like compound with powerful antioxidantproperties that is vital for the proper function of virtually everycell in the human body.

Although it is produced naturally by the body, levels typically dwindle with age.

Agrowing body of scientific evidence suggests that low levels ofcoenzyme Q10 play an important role in many age-related diseases.

Theresults of several recent studies show that individuals withParkinsons have lower levels of coenzyme Q10 compared to those withoutthe disorder.

Supplementation with coenzyme Q10 can help boostlevels in the body and protect the specific area of the brain damagedby the disease.

In a 16-month clinical trial, researchersevaluated the effects of coenzyme Q10 in 80 individuals withearly-stage Parkinsons disease. Reporting in the medical journalArchives of Neurology, the scientists noted the supplement was safe andwell tolerated in daily doses ranging from 300 mg to 1,200 mg.

Atdoses of 1,200 mg per day, individuals with Parkinsons experiencedsignificantly less functional decline and were better able to carry outactivities of daily life, such as feeding and dressing themselves,compared to those treated with a placebo pill.

These findingsare particularly important, since few treatment options are availableand, to date, no prescription drugs have been found effective inslowing the natural course of the disease.

Coenzyme Q10 maybenefit individuals with other neurological disorders. In preliminarytrials, the dietary supplement was found to slow the progression ofdementia in patients with Alzheimers disease.

In individualswith migraines, coenzyme Q10 has been shown to significantly reduce thefrequency and severity of headaches, especially when taken daily for aperiod of at least three months.

In a study published in themedical journal Cephalgia, researchers found that daily doses of 150 mgcoenzyme Q10 reduced migraine symptoms by half in more than 60 percentof individuals treated.

Coenzyme Q10 appears to be just as beneficial for the cardiovascular system as it is for the brain.

Thesupplement is often recommended for individuals who have suffered aheart attack and for those diagnosed with congestive heart failure.

Theresults of several clinical trials have demonstrated that daily dosesof 100 mg to 200 mg can improve cardiac function and reduce the risk offuture heart attacks in these patients.

For individuals whosuffer from heart-related chest pain known as angina pectoris,supplementation appears to improve exercise tolerance and to protectthe heart from further damage.

Numerous studies have provencoenzyme Q10 beneficial in the treatment of hypertension. Daily dosesof the supplement have been found to produce measurable reductions inblood pressure, similar to the reductions achieved with someprescription medications.

Interest in coenzyme Q10 as apotential therapeutic agent in the treatment of cancer arose afterscientists discovered low blood levels of the substance in individualssuffering from cancers of the breast, lung and pancreas. Preliminaryresearch indicates the supplement may be beneficial in the treatment ofthese cancers, especially when combined with other therapies, includingchemotherapy and radiation.

Use of the supplement also has beenfound beneficial in the treatment of gum disease, chronic fatiguesyndrome, asthma, male infertility and age-related maculardegeneration, a leading cause of vision loss in the elderly.

Whileaging and poor nutrition are believed to be the most common cause oflow blood levels of coenzyme Q10, there is evidence that certaincholesterol-lowering drugs, known as statins, interfere with the bodysability to produce the substance.

More research is needed todetermine whether coenzyme Q10 supplementation should be routinelyrecommended for individuals taking these cholesterol-lowering drugs.

It is possible to modestly boost your intake -- and your blood levels -- of coenzyme Q10 without taking a handful of pills.

Good food sources of the substance include meat, poultry and fish, as well as nuts and canola oil.

Toobtain a therapeutic dose of coenzyme Q10, youll probably need adietary supplement, which you can get without a prescription atpharmacies and health food stores.

Although most adults can safely take the nutritional supplement, its wise to consult your doctor first.

Taking coenzyme Q10 wont keep you from aging, but it may help protect you from many age-related diseases.

RallieMcAllister is a board-certified family physician, speaker and theauthor of several books, including Healthy Lunchbox: The Working MomsGuide to Keeping You and Your Kids Trim. Her Web site iswww.rallieonhealth.com.

She has also createdwww.MommyMDGuides.com, which features the advice of mommy MDs fromtop-notch hospitals, medical centers and universities around thecountry.