The most visible sign of U.S. nutrition policy is the Food Pyramid, or lately, the Food Plate. Recognizing that dietary quality plays a role in health and the prevention of chronic disease, the USDA issued a Pyramid revision in 2005 to address the shortcomings of the previous one. Walter Willett, chair of Harvard’s nutrition department, comments, “…the previous pyramid was in substantial discordance with current scientific evidence.”

There are quite a few products on the market that promise to heal wounds quickly. The one made from a combination of bacitracin, neomycin and polymyxin is so popular that it’s been copied as a generic. But it isn’t all-natural. For those interested in a natural alternative, there’s a new kid on the block, called beta-glucans, found in baker’s yeast and a few other common sources, and destined to be on the shelves as a gel in 2012. Heralded as a “super medicine,” beta-glucans are currently used in veterinary medicine, dietary supplements, and cosmetics. And Norwegian scientists say it has even more potential.

Pantothenic acid (vitamin B5) is essential to the metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, as well as for the synthesis of hormones and cholesterol. Deficiency is rare and likely to occur in cases of malnutrition. Its anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, wound healing, and antiviral actions are now being studied.

About half of thiamin is found in skeletal muscle. Beriberi, more common in the 19th century, is a thiamin deficiency disease caused by a diet of highly polished rice, where the thiamin-rich husk is removed. Deficiency appears in alcoholics, those with malabsorption syndromes, and in long-term use of loop diuretics.

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is among the most underdiagnosed, untreated and potentially deadly conditions people can face, raising the risk of heart attack and stroke. An aging population and an increase in obesity and diabetes are causing a wave of non-cardiac vascular disease, affecting as many as eight million people. Canadian cardiologists learned that five percent of the adults over fifty who were screened for PAD had it, but an astounding 80% were unaware of it.

When it comes to fueling an athlete, there had been as many approaches as there are sports to play. Several respected bodies have merged philosophies to incorporate and publicize nutritional recommendations that can be adapted to most athletic pursuits.

In the early 1980’s, British physician R. Edgar Hope-Simpson proposed a relationship between solar radiation and the seasonality of influenza. Without sufficient sunlight, the skin does not produce vitamin D, deficiency of which is common in winter.

If a plant had cognitions, whereby it could think and perceive, it almost assuredly would pay attention to the environmental and predatory insults that bombard it regularly, never thinking that the chemicals it makes to protect itself could likewise benefit its animated aggressors.