The Vitamin A Story

This book shows how vitamin A deficiency – before the vitamin was known to scientists – affected millions of people throughout history. It is a story of sailors and soldiers, penniless mothers, orphaned infants, and young children left susceptible to blindness and fatal infections. We also glimpse the fortunate ones who, with ample vitamin A-rich food, escaped this elusive stalker. Why were people going blind and dying? To unravel this puzzle, scientists around the world competed over the course of a century. Their persistent efforts led to the identification of vitamin A and its essential role in health. As a primary focus of today’s international public health efforts, vitamin A has saved hundreds of thousands of lives. But, we discover, they could save many more were it not for obstacles erected by political and ideological zealots who lack a historical perspective of the problem. Although exhaustively researched and documented, this book is written for intellectually curious lay readers as well as for specialists. Public health professionals, nutritionists, and historians of science and medicine have much to learn from this book about the cultural and scientific origins of their disciplines. Likewise, readers interested in military and cultural history will learn about the interaction of health, society, science, and politics. The author’s presentation of vitamin A deficiency is likely to become a classic case study of health disparities in the past as well as the present.

This book tells the story of how the controversy about vitamin C has grown and continues even as increasing evidence demonstrates the value of the orthomolecular approach. The story of vitamin C is an exciting journey into the workings of science and medicine, the intrigues of political and economic influences, and the evolutionary history of hu...

Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, O, The Oprah Magazine, Vogue, San Francisco Chronicle, Esquire, Huffington Post, Nylon, Entertainment Weekly, Buzzfeed, Booklist, and The Independent Winner of the California Book Award for First Fiction Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist for First Fiction "A quietly brilliant disquisition . . . told in prose that is so startling in its spare beauty that I found myself thinking about Khong's turns of phrase for days after I finished reading."—Doree Shafrir, The New York Times Book Review "One of those rare books that is both devastating and light-hearted, heartful and joyful. . . . Don't miss it."—Buzzfeed "Hello, Rachel Khong. Kudos for this delectable take on familial devotion and dementia."—NPR Her life at a crossroads, a young woman goes home again in this funny and inescapably moving debut from a wonderfully original new literary voice. Freshly disengaged from her fiancé and feeling that life has not turned out quite the way she planned, thirty-year-old Ruth quits her job, leaves town and arrives at her parents’ home to find that situation more complicated than she'd realized. Her father, a prominent history professor, is losing his memory and is only erratically lucid. Ruth’s mother, meanwhile, is lucidly erratic. But as Ruth's father’s condition intensifies, the comedy in her situation takes hold, gently transforming her all her grief. Told in captivating glimpses and drawn from a deep well of insight, humor, and unexpected tenderness, Goodbye, Vitamin pilots through the loss, love, and absurdity of finding one’s footing in this life.

Learn the secret to avoiding osteoporosis and heart disease. Rheaume-Bleue shows that vitamin D and calcium supplements actually increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, and teaches you about vitamin K2, a little-known supernutrient that humans once thrived on-- and that has been ignored by scientists.

Vitamin D is crucial to our health, yet most people are low in this vital vitamin - despite the vitamins they take, the foods they eat, the milk they drink or the sun exposure they receive. In Power of Vitamin D you will learn:?Çó Why we are facing a true Epidemic of Vitamin D deficiency.?Çó The crucial role Vitamin D can play in the Prevention as well as Treatment of various Cancers.?Çó How Vitamin D can help Prevent Diabetes, Coronary Heart Disease, Hypertension and Kidney Disease.?Çó How Vitamin D can Prevent as well as Treat Muscle Aches, Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Bone Pains and Osteoporosis.?Çó The vital role of Vitamin D in the normal functioning of the Immune System.?Çó How Vitamin D can Prevent as well as Treat the Common Cold, Tuberculosis, Asthma, Thyroid Diseases, M.S., Lupus and Arthritis.?Çó The essential role of Vitamin D during Pregnancy for Mothers and Babies.?Çó Doctors frequently miss the Diagnosis of Vitamin D deficiency because they often order the wrong test.?Çó The right test to Diagnose Vitamin D deficiency.?Çó The best way to Prevent and Treat Vitamin D deficiency. ?Çó Vitamin D Toxicity and how to Prevent it. ?Çó Not just theoretical knowledge, but detailed, practical information from actual Case Studies.