CBD—SHOULD YOU TRY IT? CBD or cannabidiol has become the hottest thing on the market. I attended the Fit Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center in January and there must have been 15 booths selling CBD in one or more forms including creams, oils, tinctures, roll-ons and pills. It’s in shampoos, foot creams, hand lotions, even special mixes for pets. I ended up buying a CBD cream to see if it would soothe the hip pain I have now and again. I’ve been trying it at home and it seems to work—although there’s always the placebo effect. In fact,...
THE VITAMIN D RIDDLE I take a vitamin D supplement every day—800 international units (IU). Why? Because it’s what I’ve been hearing for years that a senior should be taking. Until now, I didn’t much question this beyond doing some research for my post Dietary Supplements—Do They Work? last February. Vitamin D is necessary for building strong bones. Your body can only absorb calcium, the main component of bone, when this vitamin is present. Your body forms vitamin D naturally after exposure to direct sunlight; When ultraviolet (UV) rays hit your skin it triggers production of a chemical in your...
DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS—DO THEY WORK? I take a variety of bottled vitamin and mineral supplements every day. And you probably do too. We take supplements to make up for what we think might be missing in our diets and we hope they’ll also help prevent disease. But do they actually aid us or are we just wasting our money? Over time, I’ve added on or dropped this or that supplement depending on what I read in magazine or online articles. For instance, I’ve dropped glucosamine because I read it might adversely affect eyesight in seniors and fish oil because it probably...
