Thursday, March 27, 2008

Preventing Mouth Ulcers with Tea Tree Oil Toothpaste - Results after Three Weeks


Sodium lauryl sulfate is what makes toothpaste foam. (Photo by Leo Reynolds)

As I wrote earlier, I was hoping to get rid of the mouth ulcers that appear every now and then by switching from a normal toothpaste to a tea trea oil toothpaste without sodium lauryl sulfate.

Unfortunately, the results have been rather disappointing. During the time I've been using the new toothpaste, I've had two mouth ulcers, which I don't think is an improvement at all. I'm going to continue the experiment until the toothpaste runs out, but seeing as it costs like 5 euros per tube, I won't be buying it again.

Here's the ingredient list: chalk, water, vegetable glycerine, carrageenan, essential tea tree oil, propolis, myrh.

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Sunday, March 23, 2008

Overdosing with Vitamin B - Results after Two Weeks

Here's what nutritiondata.com has to say about my vitamin B consumption:

So in addition to the amounts I posted earlier, I'm getting quite a lot of vitamin B from food alone. These values are from my typical daily diet. Combined with the supplements, it looks like I'm eating about three times the RDA of niacin and four times the RDA of B12. Still no visible effects.

Maybe it's time to up the ante before ending this experiment. I might try to eat one more supplement for a few days to see if it makes any difference. Bring it on, vitamin B!

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Sunday, March 16, 2008

Overdosing with Vitamin B - Results after Five Days


A lot of grain products are fortified with vitamin B9 - that is, folic acid. (Photo by ** Maurice **)

I've been taking the vitamin supplements but haven't noticed any changes yet. This is what I'm currently taking:

Vitamin B1 (thiamine) - 186 % of RDA
Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) - 188 % of RDA
Vitamin B3 (niacin) - 189 % of RDA
Vitamin B5 (panthotenic acid) - 192 % of RDA
Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) - 165 % of RDA
Vitamin B7 (biotin) - 200 % of RDA
Vitamin B9 (folic acid) - 200 % of RDA
Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) - 300 % of RDA

Plus whatever I get from food (I'll analyse that later). I'm not even sure what kind of effects I'm expecting or hoping for, but right now I don't notice any difference in my mood, energy level, etc.

Still, let the experiment continue.

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Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Preventing Mouth Ulcers with Tea Tree Oil Toothpaste

I have two new experiments going on right now.

The first one is switching to a toothpaste without sodium lauryl sulfate to see whether it prevents mouth ulcers. I've had mouth ulcers since I was a child, and while not a terrible health hazard, they're definitely uncomfortable. One appears perhaps once every month or so, though it varies a lot. Sometimes I'll go for months with zero ulcers, and other times another one appears just as one has healed. I chose a tea tree oil toothpaste because it looked very convincing and tea tree oil is said to have antibacterial properties.

The other experiment has to do with B vitamins. I'll go into further detail later, but I'll begin the experiment by taking supplements that provide me with about twice the Recommended Dietary Allowance. I want to find out whether taking more than is officially suggested results in any positive or negative changes.

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Tuesday, March 4, 2008

The Effects of a High-Fat Diet on Health and Weight - Conclusion


Choosing the right fat for cooking is surprisingly close to rocket science. (Photo by Squonk11)

It's time to wrap up the high-fat diet experiment with some final conclusions.

First of all, it's difficult to say how a diet high in fat really affects cholesterol levels, since it is also affected by other factors. Some studies suggest that if the relation of different types of fats stays the same, there is no difference between cholesterol levels in people on high-fat and low-fat diets. Other studies say that replacing saturated fats with monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats lowers both types of cholesterol. Finally, there are studies that conclude that cholesterol levels are unrelated to the quality, quantity and proportions of dietary fat.

So, it cannot be said with certainty how eating fat affects cholesterol. Similarly, it cannot be said with certainty how cholesterol affects health (especially atherosclerosis). Some studies claim there is a relationship between high blood cholesterol levels and mortality, but sceptics usually refute these claims by saying that correlation is not causation. Like high blood pressure, high cholesterol can be a warning sign, but it does not necessarily follow that high cholesterol is the cuplrit that should be treated. And to make things even more complicated, there are studies that say low cholesterol is related to mortality.

One things the Atkins Diet has shown us is that eating lots of saturated fat and protein does not make you fat, if you keep carbohydrates to a minimum. I ate lots of fat and protein while restricting carbohydrate intake to mostly fruit (which I ate plenty of) and lost a couple of pounds, even though I was thin to begin with. This, of course, is just my own experience, but I challenge anyone to come up with different results.

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