Feed Your Cells: Why do we need vitamins and minerals?

Feed Your Cells and they will keep you healthy

Running on Empty

You may feel full after eating but your cells may still be hungry. There are many types of cells in your body and while one group of cells may get all the nutrients they need, another group may not get good nutrition. 

The cells in different organs in your body can have different nutritional requirements: heart cells need lots of protein, vitamin E and minerals such as magnesium and selenium.  Lung cells need a lot of vitamin A; cells in a woman’s reproductive tract need high levels of the B vitamin folic acid. In men, zinc is important in preventing prostate trouble.  Our genetics also play a role in determining what our cells need.  You may see that heart disease runs in one family and not in another family.  Why? What is really happening is that the heart cells in the family with disease have a greater requirement for one or more nutrients than heart cells in the healthy family.  By learning about the nutrients that each cells needs and by looking at your family history you can find out what you really need to have well fed cells.

One thing that all our cells need is energy. You can only get this energy if there are good amounts of vitamins and minerals present in your food – these nutrients act to unlock the energy in the food and carry it to the cells.  Toxic substances – in our food, in the air and water get into the body and can harm the cells because they create what is called “free radicals”. These free radicals destroy the cell membranes – the protective covers of the cells -- unless the cells are protected.  The vitamins and minerals called antioxidants give you this protection: Vitamins E, C and beta carotene and the mineral selenium are examples of antioxidants.

Inside your cells

Slowing Aging

Antioxidants do something else that is very important: they slow down the aging of cells (and therefore slow down your aging). We’ve all seen those little brown spots on the skin that increase as we age. Some people have more than others. What are these spots?  They are the result of going for years without enough antioxidants.  When free radicals destroy cells they produce a brown pigment that you can see as these spots on your hands and other areas of your body. There are some brown spots you can’t see: they are inside your brain, in the testes and in the heart.  In the brain, these spots cause the brain cells to lose their function resulting in senility.  No one has to become senile as long as they feed their brain cells.

Nutrients are important if you don’t want your skin to sag, your bones and joints to get out of alignment or your teeth to get loose.  It is connective tissue that prevents these things from happening.  To make strong connective tissue we need good supplies of protein, iron, vitamin C and the amino acid called lysine.  If we can hold our bones in place properly with strong connective tissue we won’t get arthritis and back and knee pain. If our teeth are firmly held in place by healthy connective tissues we won’t get gum disease.

So there is more to good nutrition that a full stomach.  By giving your cells what they need to thrive you can look forward to more years, with a better quality of life.  This blog, Everything Healthy will help you achieve your optimal health so stay tuned.

Feed Your Cells: Live Long and Stop Cancer

Are you really well fed?

You may be eating well and your weight may be fine.  You stomach may feel full after each meal. However, the cells in your body may be starving!  Our bodies are made up of organs: heart, liver, brain, kidney, the skin, etc.  Each of these organs is composed of many different types of cells. 

Cells are the basic building blocks of all living things: humans, animals, fish and plants. The human body contains trillions of cells. Cells provide structure for the body – like the skin cells and bone cells. Cells take in nutrients from your food and change those nutrients into energy. Groups of cells have specialized functions: some make hormones that control your kidneys, pancreas, ovaries, heart and lungs. Cells also contain the body’s hereditary material – the DNA -- and can make copies of themselves.

It runs in the family - or does it?

We all have an “Achilles heel” – a weakness that your family has. Your biochemistry – the function of your cells – is like your fingerprint – no person is identical to another.   What runs in families when you see heart or lung disease or cancer is a difference in the nutritional requirements of the cells in those families.  For example, someone may have a heart attack at 50 years of age. The cells in this heart did not get enough of the nutrients the heart cells needed. So the heart cells wore out before their time. Under a microscope these cells look like the cells of an 80 year old.  

Each body cell has a genetic message to live for a certain time span.  If the environment around the cell is healthy, the cell will reach its potential – it will “go the distance”.  But our cells are exposed to many toxic substances – air pollution, tobacco smoke, chemicals in our food. They still manage to survive but function poorly on less than optimal fuel.  Then the cells don’t live as long, the organs stop functioning and so we don’t live as long.  The “hungry” cells look smaller and miss-shaped under a microscope. When you see abnormal shaped cells, you are usually talking about cancer. 

The best cancer treatment is prevention

It is amazing that with all these insults we still live longer than many species of animals. This is because we have better cell repair mechanisms. Damaged cells are repaired or discarded. Cancer cells appear in our bodies every day.  As long as the repair mechanisms and our immune system is in good shape, we stop the cancer cell in its tracks. But this repair system depends on key nutrients that the cells need. The better the nutrition, the better is the chance of holding off disease and the forces of aging.

In the second part of this article we will talk about the nutrients that your cells must have to live long and thrive.