The best foods for hair growth

While many outside factors, such as stress and ageing, can affect hair growth, our hair also needs certain nutrients in order to keep healthy.

This article ‘Top 5 foods for hair growth’ from Medical News Today, looks at the different foods and their vitamin and minerals that can contribute towards healthy hair growth.

The list includes eggs as a good source of biotin, which contributes towards the maintenance of normal hair. It also mentions brazil nuts, for their selenium content, and fatty fish, for their omega-3 content.

The best vitamins for your skin

We need vitamins and minerals for all sorts of normal bodily functions as part of living a healthy life, as such, they also play a vital role in keeping our skin, the body’s largest organ, healthy.

A recent article from Medical News Today has listed these particularly vital vitamins as follows:

- Vitamin A, which contributes to the maintenance of normal skin

- B-complex, where several B-complex vitamins are said to support skin health

- Vitamin C, which contributes to normal collagen formation for the normal function of skin

- Vitamin D, which contributes to the normal function of the immune system and inflammation response

- Vitamin E, which has a role in protecting cells from oxidative stress

While these vitamins are all reported to contribute towards the maintenance of skin health, it is important to ensure you are maintaining the right levels of vitamins and nutrients to stay healthy as nutrient deficiency can have an effect on our skin and other organs.

dragon fruit benefit digestive health

The effect of dragon fruit on digestive health

Research, as reported in this article from NutraIngredients USA suggest that oligosaccharides, a type of carbohydrate, extracted from dragon fruit could boast potential digestive health benefits.

The researchers of Prince of Songkla University and Mahidol University in Thailand found that dietary supplementation of dragon fruit oligosaccharide accelerated the upper gut transit, which reduced total gut transit time.

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Alison Astill-Smith author Alison is Director and Founder of Metabolics who writes about Metabolics updates, events and natural healthcare. Her experience and passion for natural supplements and healthcare comes from her years of experience as a practising osteopath, having founded Metabolics in her search for high quality, natural products in her own work. Alison has been a qualified and practising Osteopath since 1981 and regularly gives seminars on a range of healthcare subjects to the wider practitioner community helping share her knowledge and experience.