Thread: Red Blood Cell Lifespan, and why it's important.

Who here has ever taken a new health supplement, seen no effects after a month, and stopped taking it? I have!!! Maybe you've tried Hoodia, or EFA's, or greens, or antioxidants?

Well, I know now, that I shouldn't do that anymore. The reason the lifespan of a red blood cell is important, is that when taking any new supplement, you should give it 4 months before you decide if it's helping, because red blood cells last 4 months before they die, and are replaced by your body. As a red blood cell ages, it becomes more difficult for it to carry oxygen and nutrients to the cells, so that supplement may not be fully delivered to your cells after only 1 month, because only 1/4 of the red blood cells are fully saturated with it.

Now, unfortunately, I can really find any good resources that explain this function on the internet to provide you with a reference. I heard this for the first time from a scientist on a nutrition audio CD, and then I asked my endocrynologist, and my cardiologist, who both confirmed it for me. They both know I take a lot of health supplements. I did find a good link that has a little bit about red blood cells in general though for you: Red blood cell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ugh.
A red blood cell's lifespan has nothing to do with whether or not a supplement is working in your body. Red blood cells carry oxygen to other cells, organs and tissues in the body. They do NOT carry creatine to your muscles or St. John's Wort to your brain. The only things a red blood cell can carry are things like serotonin and oxygen - things that are not ingested, but part of the cell. Red blood cells have no nuclei and cannot carry supplments.
Recent research has shown the only other thing a red blood cell can do is attack bacteria that attaches to the outside of the red blood cell in the body.
Someone would use a statement like you have above to get a client to continue to buy more supplments even though they are not seeing any changes after a 4 month period.
I like to ask that you stop posting about selling supplements and such. I can understand that you are trying to run a business, but as a dancer and dietitian with a masters degree in nutritional science (my disseration was on nutritional supplments) I am not going to allow my sister/brother dancers to be duped with phony science.
Maybe you don't know these things and you are only posting what you find from other supplement sellers but I do not agree with posting incorrect information made to mislead people.

Yeli, you are so right on with red blood cells. What determines how long a supplement is to stay in your body and produce effects depends on one's own pharmacokinetics (no, I didn't make that term up. It's a more explanatory term than "metabolic processes"). If someone has a high rate of metabolism (and therefore the excretion of a particular supplement/drug/hormone etc), this means the substance has less time in the body and therefore less of a chance to be efficacious (in other words, less time to do it's intended job).

Let me add another biologist's (B.S., M.S., Ph.D.) confirmation to what Yeli already said so well. Red blood cells DO NOT BECOME SATURATED WITH SUPPLEMENTS!!!!!! That is complete and utter bunk and can be disproven with any Freshman-level general biology book that explains what red blood cells do. If indeed, your endocrinologist and cardiologist "confirmed" to you that red blood cells become saturated with supplements YOU SHOULD FIRE THEM BOTH NOW BECAUSE THEY ARE COMPLETE IDIOTS WHO SHOULD NEVER HAVE PASSED THEIR UNDERGRADUATE COURSEWORK.

Ahem {wipes persperation from brow with sequinned handkerchief} Perhaps this gentleman doesn't know he is speaking to a predominantly well-educated crowd of women and men here.

You can either take your pseudoscience elsewhere, or prepare to be blinded with science everytime you try to feed us this crap.

Sedonia

Also, if you do not forward this information to ten friends within the next hour, YOU WILL DIE!!!

Really. The sales-related "info" is making me uncomfortable. I probably wouldn't mind if it were on the sales board.

Ok, ok. I'm leaving. I'm sorry if this post was innaccurate. My doctors verified this or I would never had repeated it to anyone.

Originally Posted by zumarrad

Also, if you do not forward this information to ten friends within the next hour, YOU WILL DIE!!!

..l;, ..l;, ..l;, ..l;, ..l;, Bwaahahahahahahahah!!!!!..l;, ..l;, ..l;, ..l;,

Gawd, you people are SO NEGATIVE. I mean, rilly.

Yeah, how dare we value logic and reason?

But seriously - the only posts he has made have been about this "health" information, and it seems really weird to me that a person who is a known and able photographer of dancers might not, for argument's sake, join in on discussions of costumes or makeup or presentation on stage, or getting a good photo or.... anything at all to do with belly dance.

Personally, I would love to see some photos.

Originally Posted by Taj

Personally, I would love to see some photos.

Honestly Taj, Rich is a great photog and I sent him a personal note saying so and that he should stick with posts relating to that. I did know Rich when I lived in Chicago and I enjoyed his company at shows.

On your note from above though, as a professional in the field of nutritional science, I am not going to sit idily by and allow people to fooled by faulty science. I am sure Rich was just posting info he thought was right. However, I know that it was not and I wanted other people on the board to be aware of this incorrect info.

I hope that you would do the same for you fellow dancer if you saw incorrect info that could be potentially damaging to someone.

Yeli

Originally Posted by enigmahealth

Ok, ok. I'm leaving. I'm sorry if this post was innaccurate. My doctors verified this or I would never had repeated it to anyone.

See, that's why you should always get a second opinion from the medical field. Be careful with those MDs of yours.

Originally Posted by zumarrad

Also, if you do not forward this information to ten friends within the next hour, YOU WILL DIE!!!

And we'll deride you for being a bunch of negative women...incase DEATH didn't learn ya!

The thing that I like about this type of post is that it shows what great diversity of professions and interests there is within the bd community! OF COURSE we have biologists and nutritional scientists on bhuz! All knowledge is contained somewhere in bhuz!

Originally Posted by Taj

Personally, I would love to see some photos.

Check out my website and photo gallery - he took almost all the the studio shots on there. We had a three hour photo shoot in his studio in May 2006; Rich was absolutely professional, and I have nothing but the highest praise for his photography work. I'm trying to save up for another shoot in 2008!