Dr. Ben Kim's blog

Folate is found in whole foods and in your body, while folic acid is found in most vitamin supplements. Folic acid needs vitamin C, niacin, and vitamin B12 in order to be converted to its biologically active form.

What Does Folate Do in Your Body? Read more

Although choline is not a vitamin or mineral, it is an essential nutrient for your health. Your body can make small amounts of choline from other nutrients, but you need to have reliable sources of choline in your diet to be at your best. Choline in your body is found mainly in specialized fat molecules called lecithin.

What Does Choline Do in Your Body? Read more

There are two main forms of chromium: chromium-3 and chromium-6. Chromium-6 was made famous as a carcinogen by the movie Erin Brockovich. Chromium-3 is the main form of chromium that is found in foods and used by your body. The information on chromium in this article refers to the properties of chromium-3.

What Does Chromium Do in Your Body? Read more

Vitamin B6 is commonly referred to as pyridoxine. It is a water-soluble B vitamin that comes in six different forms. The most active form in your body is called PLP, short for pyridoxal 5'-phosphate. The biological features of vitamin
B6 described in this article refer mainly to PLP.

What Does Vitamin B6 Do in Your Body? Read more

Niacin, also known as vitamin B3, is a water soluble B vitamin that actually refers to two similar compounds called nicotinic acid and nicotinamide. The term niacin was created in order to prevent people from confusing these two compounds with nicotine, the drug found in tobacco.

What Does Niacin Do In Your Body? Read more

Vitamin B12 is also known as cobalamin. In most nutritional supplements, B12 comes as cyanocobalamin, which breaks down in a healthy body into two active forms of cobalamin: methylcobalamin and 5-deoxyadenosyl cobalamin.

What Does Vitamin B12 Do in Your Body? Read more

Zinc is mineral that your body needs in trace amounts for a variety of different mechanisms.

What Does Zinc Do in Your Body? Read more

Vitamin P, also called the bioflavonoids, is a group of water-soluble nutrients that work together with other components of vitamin C to: Read more

If you haven’t already read other articles that I’ve written on healthy vs. unhealthy fats and oils, you may not know that the healthiest oil that you can use on a daily basis is coconut oil.

Although coconut oil has always been a healthy food choice, its reputation suffered a great deal during the 80s and 90s when it was lumped together with other saturated fats as a cause of cardiovascular disease.

Coconut Oil Speeds Up Metabolism and Increases Energy Read more

Over the past several months, many people have visited our clinic or written letters asking what they can do about various aches, pains, and cramps in their legs.

Here's an example of such a note that came in this past week:

I'm 83 and have a problem that has slowly developed over the past year. More and more I am experiencing cramps in my legs and inner thighs. They interrupt sleep and this morning it was extremely hurtful in my left leg. I have searched medical books that I have, but (haven't been able to find out) what is wrong.

I'm sure there is something natural that my system is lacking, but I don't know what. Is there anything you can recommend that I can try? Read more