want to confirm uses of herbal remedies / vitamins i'm taking.?!

Hi wowfood - let me try and answer the question you asked:

* B-vitamins - their red blood cells, proper function of nervous system and digestion - the B's are water soluble, therefore you will wee out whatever you don't use. However, several of the B-vitamins are interdependent with each other, so it's best to take a multi-B (i.e. a complex, as you are taking), rather than just taking a lot of one B in particular. Your body makes a lot of its own B-vits for you. Vit B deficiency is not common, though - so it's possible that you don't need to be taking it at the moment.
* Vit C has many uses in the body - but most people only know it for 'coughs & colds'. Other important things it does are: your adrenal glands need Vit C to function, and any tissue in your body needs vit C (and Zinc) to repair itself (every time you cut yourself, for example) - so, if you've had an operation, or a broken bone, you will obviously have a need for extra vit C to do the tissue healing.

Vit C is also water-soluble and your body doesn't store more than 24 hrs worth, so we need to get vit C each day. We have something in common with the guinea pig, in that they, like humans, cannot make their own vit C!!

Vit C - important thing - your body can't work fast enough to process more than 1000mg (1gm) of vit C in an hour, so if you take 2 x 1,000 mg tablets at one time, you're definitely gonna wee out 1000mg worth of it!

* Vit D - mainly for bone strength - but we make our own vit D on exposure to the sun - so I question whether you need this one too?

* Korean Ginseng - mainly taken to 'boost' your adrenals - i.e. if you feel your endorphins (feel-good hormones) need a nudge. It has it's therapeutic role, but I've never suggested to anyone that they take it all the time. It's often good when someone has been slogging it out all year and is needing to keep their energy levels up through the exams.

* Ginkgo biloba - is a circulatory herb which favours circulation to the brain. It was traditionally known as the 'old person's herb' because, where circulation to the brain was compromised in old age, and memory loss (to whatever extent) resulted, ginkgo's ability to increase circulation to the area helped improve memory. It is often publicised now for 'peripheral circulation' - this concerns me, because there are many other herbs which will more effectively increase circulation to hands & feet, etc. without increasing circulation to the brain. Unless you have a 'brain-related' reason to take it, perhaps you should consider an alternative?

A little anecdotal aside - when I was studying to become a Naturopath, we had to each select a herb, research it, try it in its available forms .... and write a dissertation. One of the young students (19 yrs old) chose Ginkgo and one of her statements was that after a week (of taking it) it "felt like little explosions going off in her head"!!!

* Coenz Q10 - is one of the last substances along the pathway by which your body actually makes energy. So, it's vital to life - also very important for proper functioning of the heart. As we age, our CoQ10 decreases, so it's a good idea to supplement with it as we advance in years.

CoQ10 - Cholesterol-loweing statin drugs (Lipitor, for example) actually directly decrease the body's CoenzymeQ10 - so CoQ10 should be taken by anyone on statin drugs.

GENERAL COMMENTS:
It is often said that 'if you have a healthy diet you will get all the nutrients you need' - Unfortunately, these days, most people don't know what a 'healthy diet' is - food marketing masks a lot of questionable practices and relies an awful lot on the power of suggestion. So, I question whether these days, many people actually HAVE a 'healthy diet'.

Add to that, that there ARE times when more of a particular vitamin or mineral is needed - as explained for Vit C above or, in the case of vit A where it is necessary to repair mucous membranes.

Hope this info helps

I'm a Naturopath

Firstly a homeopath would haver no idea - they are into remedies consisting of plain water and sugar pills. Homeopathic remedies contain no discernible active ingredients; they think if the active ingredients are diluted away using a special dilution method, the water becomes 'energized' and your body's 'vital force' is able to detect this 'energy' and expel the disease. They place a drop of this water onto a sugar pill. Sounds crazy huh? It is - after 200+ years homeopathy have never been substantiated to work better than a placebo in robust clinical trials.

As far as your question is concerned the vitamins are only going to be of use if you have a diagnosed deficiency. There is only little or poor evidence that Korean Ginseng or Gingko Biloba is effective for any condition, and only weak evidence for coenzyme q10.

See:
http://vsearch.nlm.nih.gov/vivisimo/cgi-…
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/drugi…

Homeopaths are useless quacks, you should never take health advice from them.

All the vitamins and herbs that you are taking are not harmful, but unless you eat a very poor diet that has left you with a vitamin deficiency they won't help your health either.