避孕器IUD就是 Intra Uterine Device 的縮寫，避孕器是裝置在女性的子宮腔內，所運用的是房客原理來避孕。避孕器的形狀有很多，材質大都是較軟的塑膠材質及配合銅線圈。裝置避孕器並不是自己就可以完成的，而是要經過婦產科醫師檢查過後，裝置在子宮內適當的位置。每裝置一個好的避孕器可以使用五年，之後只要定期接受檢查即可。一個避孕器的費用大約是NT$1,000至NT$2,000不等，算起來避孕器是一種相當省錢的避孕方法，避孕器較適合性關係單純或已婚者使用，良好的避孕器的成功率高達99.4%。
Currently, Health Food is developing very fast while many people are used to taking a variety of vitamins, minerals, and other suppliments. If you are one of them, the information below may provide you with some detailed referrence about nutrient suppliments that you are taking.
Some plant extracts may cause side effects when taken along with some medicines. Therefore, it is essentially important to inform your doctor or pharmacist in advance about low-salt, low-sugar, or any other particular diet.
如何正確食用營養補充品 How to Take Nutrient Suppliments Correctly
1. Basically, nutrient suppliments are usually taken during regular meals. However, some particular nutrient suppliments have to be taken before meals in order to increase absorbing rate. i.e. Glucosamine, Chasteberry. By drinking adequate warm water, absorbability can be effectively increased while side effects can be possibly decreased.
2. Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Betaman, and essential fatty acids (fat-solube nutrient suppliments including Fish Oil, Linoleic Acid, etc.) should be taken along with meals since absorbability can be increased when mixed with food.
三、礦物質不應在高植物纖維量的飯餐時或與植物高纖錠同時食用，因為高量植物纖維會影響礦物質的吸收。
3. Minerals should not be taken along with fiber crops or SeaSlim because fiber crops can possibly effect the absorbability of minerals.
四、若要食用高劑量的補充品，應將其分為較小的劑量，然後平均分散在當天不同的時間食用。
4. High-dosage suppliments should be divided into several servings with lower dosages. Each serving should be evenly taken at different time in a day.
5. Some people's digestion systems are quite sensitive when they take suppliments in capsule or tablet form before meals. Symptons can be fixed simply by taking the suppliments along with meals or taking suppliments in liquid state.
6. When the amount of one single type of B vitamin taken increases, the amounts of other B vitamins taken should be increased simultaneously. Regularly, it is unnecessary to take any individual vitamin. If you are afraid of having insufficient nutrients, you can simply take the Total B-Complex, which contains various vitamins; however, each individual type of vitamin has very low dosage, so it is not harmful for human body at all. Typically, Total B-Complex already provides enough various vitamins and minerals for the elderly unless it is suggested to take any particular high-unit individual vitamin by doctors or medical professionals.
7. Water-soluble vitamin-B complex and vitamin C are possibly damaged when suffering from factors, such as high pressure, high temperature, acids, bases, lights, cigarettes, and alcohols. They can also be carried away by perspiration and urine. As a result, it is necessary to take them frequently and consistenly. On the other hand, absorbabilities of fat-soluble vitamins can last longer. Hoever, they should not be taken at high dosages in case excessive vitamins turns out poisonous.
Currently, there are a lot of products with unreal ingredient labels! Although those unreal products are usually sold at lower prices, there is only little effect. As a consequence, it will just become a waste of money and cause bad effects on your health! The most important key for selecting health foods should be the quantities of the acting ingredients, which are supposed to be contained in any health food of natural extracts. Regularly, people can be easily misled by the seemingly right names, the cheap prices, or the numbers of capsules. Meanwhile, "miligrams per capsule" may be noticed when a deeper look is taken. However, knowledgeable customers will realize that those factors are not enough to determine the quality of any health food. Instead, the concentrations of active ingredients are the actual key for any health food of natural extract. Some wholesale markets sell their health food products at extremely low prices in order to attract customers. To prevent purchasing low-quality health foods, customers should carefully verify the detailed dosages and ingredient labels. On the other hand,
Take Fish Oil for instance, the concentration of omega-3 is the most important factor. Regularly, the concentration of omega-3 of any fish oil marketed is supposed to be labelled to tell the contents of EPA and DHA. For example, the most common omega-3 concentration on the market is 30%, which means every capsule of 1000mg fish oil contains 300mg of omega-3 unsaturated fatty acid in total (180mg of EPA and 120mg of DHA). However, the effect of it is relatively incomparable to the MegaPure Fish Oil with a much higher omega-3 concentration of 60% (396mg of EPA and 264mg of DHA). Therefore, the actual quality of any health food cannot be only based on the contents in miligrams per capsule. In addition, high-quality fish oil appears transparently golden while low-quality fish oil appears turbid, unclear, or mixed with other colours.
Take Evening Primrose Oil (EPO) for instance, the concentration of Gamma-Linolenic Acid (GLA) is the most important factor. The highest concentration of standard Evening Primrose Oil (EPO) is 10% of Gamma-Linolenic Acid (GLA). However, regular EPO only contains around 6% to 7% of GLA. High-quality EPO appears transparently amber while low-concentration EPO appears turbid, unclear, or mixed with other colours.
Take Chitosan for instance, deacety lation is the most important specification. Many Chitosan products sold on the market only has a deacety lation of around 80% to 85% and can only be purchased for cosmetic and industrial uses. Those Chitosan products with relatively low deacety lation are definitely not supposed to be taken into human bodies. Only Chitosan with deacety lation higher than 90% is suitable to be dietary fiber and edible.
Take Grape Seed for instance, the concentration of Proanthocyanidin (OPC) is the most important factor. The highest concentration of standard Grape Seed is 95% of OPC. If there is no concentration label for the product, there are chances to contain 95% of OPC, but also chances to contain only 15% or below 15%. If the 100mg/capsule grape seed extract has a concentration of 15% of OPC, then there is 15mg of OPC contained. However, if the 25mg/capsule grape seed extract has a concentration of 95% of OPC, then there is approximately 24mg of OPC contained. As a result, the 25mg/capsule grape seed extract is contrarily more effective than the 100mg/capsule one.
Good suppliers are supposed to be professional in the functions, active ingredients, and dosages of the products in order to responsibly provide sufficient information for customers for reference.
劑量單位的換算 Converting Dosage Units
1公克(gram)=1,000毫克(mg)=1,000,000微毫克(μg)
維生素A (Vitamin A): 1μg= 3.3 IU (IU=國際單位 international unit)
維生素D (Vitamin D): 1μg= 40 IU
天然維生素E (Natural Vitamin E): 1mg= 1.5 IU
合成維生素E (Synthetic Vitamin E): 1mg= 1.0 IU
β-胡蘿蔔素 (β-Carotene): 6μg= 1 RE(視網醇當量，retinol equivalentRE)=3.3 IU
資料來源：營養教育資訊網
如何正確儲存保健食品 How to Store Health Foods Correctly and Safely
Proper storage of health food is very important; improper storage can possibly cause deterioration and inefficacy of the health food. Basic principles for storing health foods are listed below:
1. 放置於孩童伸手不及之處，以避免孩童誤食。
Place health foods in locations unreachable for children in order to avoid being eaten by mistake.
2. 盡量放置在原來容器中，以便於保存與辨識。
Place health foods in the original containers for easier identification and storage.
3. 避免放置於熱或陽光照射之處，因為高溫會使保健食品變質。
Avoid placing health foods in any hot or sunlit location because high temperature can cause deterioration.
4. 勿儲存於浴室、近廚房洗物台或其他潮濕之處，因為熱或濕氣可能會使保健食品分解、變質。
Avoid storing health foods close to washrooms, sinks, or other humid locations because heat and humidity can cause health foods to decompose and deteriorate.
5. 勿長時間留置於汽車中，因為高溫會使保健食品分解、變質。
Avoid storing health foods in cars or other vehicles for too long because of their high temperatures.
6. 勿保留過期或變質之保健食品，因為可能會被誤食。
Avoid keeping expired or deteriorated health foods because they can possibly be eaten by mistake.
一般保健食品不得引用衛署食字公文字號或同等意義之字樣！
Regular Health Food Products Are Not Supposed to Cite Any "DoH Food Permit Number" or Any Other Synonymous Words
In contents of product names/ descriptions/ images, health foods are not supposed to cite any official serial numbers like "DoH Food Permit No. xxxxxxxx" no matter the products have passed inspection and registration or prescription inspection to be officially identified as food.
For Detailed Information: DoH Food Permit Number (Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health).
藥物-食物交互作用 Vitamin-Drug Interaction
以下內容係由行政院退除役官兵輔導委員會台北榮民總醫院藥劑部團隊撰稿 Content below is written by Taipei Veterans General Hospital Medical Team, Veterans Affairs Commisions, Executive Yuan
Vitamin A is mainly stored in liver. Over intake may cause liver function index to dramatically increase or damage; etc. Therefore, taking high-dosage vitamin A along with drugs in the treatment of arrhythmia, such as amiodarone and isoniazid, may cause danger of liver disease. Also, taking high-dosage vitamin A along with warfarin may increase danger of bleeding.
Simultaneously taking vitamin E and aspirin, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug like ibuprofen or naproxen, or warfarin, may increase incidence of bleeding.
Simultaneously taking vitamin D and antacids (also known as stomach acidity neutralizer), which contains aluminum or magnesium, may increase the accumulation of aluminum or magnesium in body whose kidney fails to function. High-dosage vitamin D may not only cause high calcium in blood but also increase the risk that digoxin results in arrhythmia, declines the medical effect of verapamil in the treatment of atrial fibrillation. Diuretic of thiazide class itself can reduce calcium drained through urine, but it may cause high calcium in blood when being taken along with vitamin D.
Vitamin K can reduce the effect of warfarin. Since green vegetables also contains rich vitamin K; therefore, warfarin takers are suggested to maintain everyday ingestion quantity of vitamin K the same.
High-dosage aspirin may decrease the concentration of folic acid in blood. Folic acid may reduce the medical effect of phenobarbital, in the treatment of epilepsy. High-dosage folic acid (>1mg/day) may increase the metabolism of phenytoin and therefore deteriorate the control of epilepsy.
Vitamin C may reduce the absorbency of Beta-blocker, such as propranolol, increase the absorbency of iron. Vitamin C may also increase the absorbency of estrogen but decrease the metabolism of it, and therefore increase the concentration of estrogen in blood.
Vitamin B6 may increase the metabolism of phenobarbital and phenytoin, in the treatment of epilepsy, and levodopa, in the treatment of Parkinson's disease; as a result, decrease the effects of those above.
Niacin may increase the risks that lipid-lowering drugs result in muscle disease. Taking niacin along with aspirin, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, such as ibuprofen and naproxen, or warfarin, may increase incidence of bleeding.
Reminder: It would be better get advices from professenials as doctors, pharmacists, nutritionists; etc, while taking health foods. Alss, please follow the proper methods and take health foods patiently in order to reach the ideal effect. It is especially important to consult with doctors before taking drugs and health foods simultaneously.
