The 5 Truths Of Vitamins

By Bonnie Jenkins, Advanced Natural Medicine

If you’ve ever talked vitamins with your doctor, you’ve probably heard one of two things. Either that you don’t need them because you should be getting everything you need from a well-balanced diet. Or that the only thing vitamins do is give you expensive urine.

So what’s wrong with this line of thinking? Just about everything. First, the diets many of us eat today are anything but balanced. And even if they are, the nutritional value of food isn’t what it used to be. Processing, soil depletion and a myriad of other factors have zapped many of the nutrients out of our food.

The second argument does hold some truth – but not much. Yes, the body does excrete excess vitamins, but numerous studies have shown that vitamin supplements increase blood levels of critical nutrients. So while some of the vitamins you’re taking are probably being flushed down the toilet, much of what you take is being put to good use.

Most of us take vitamins as a form of dietary insurance. These supplements can help us fill in the gaps when our diets are lacking and may even be able to address specific health conditions. But there aren’t any pat answers on what to take or even how much you need – which is one of the reasons your doctor may hesitate to recommend them. But the following “truths” just might help you understand why you really do need vitamin supplements.

5 Vitamin “Truths”

Vitamin Truth #1: Everyone has different vitamin requirements.

If you’ve been basing your vitamin intake on the Minimum Daily Requirements (MDRs), the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) or the Reference Daily Intakes (RDIs), I’ve got news for you: the amounts listed aren’t going to make you any healthier. The truth is that these amounts are just enough to prevent gross nutritional deficiencies, which is great if you want to prevent scurvy.

But even if these recommendations contained amounts that would promote optimum health, they are based on a statistical norm. They don’t take into account variables in diet or activity levels. Many people also lead stress-filled lives, live in polluted cities, smoke tobacco, and drink excessive amounts of alcohol - all of which increase their vitamin requirements. So, while 500 mg. of vitamin C might be good for your neighbor, it may be far too low for you.

Vitamin Truth #2: Sometimes one or two vitamins can make a huge impact on your health.

Every now and then, you hear about a new "super" nutrient. These reports are often accompanied by stories of people who have experienced dramatic health improvements just by taking this one supplement. But are these really super nutrients? Or is something else going on?

What happens when a stressed person eating a poor diet takes one or two vitamins? They're going to get something their body has been lacking - and the effect may seem miraculous. But the truth is that some people are in such bad nutritional shape that almost any single supplement will give them a boost. It's worth remembering that these folks would feel even better if they were getting a full complement of nutrients from both diet and supplements.

Vitamin Truth #3: Vitamin C is different from other vitamins.

Most animals manufacture their own vitamin C - and lots of it. On average, a 150-pound animal produces 4,000 to 13,000 mg. of vitamin C a day. Only a handful of animals, including human beings, do not. Why? Researchers believe that a genetic accident occurred 25 millions years ago in one of our evolutionary ancestors, eliminating our ability to produce this vitamin.

In the 1960s, Irwin Stone, D.Sc., theorized that people still have the need for large doses of vitamin C, even though they don't produce it. This becomes obvious when we see how people respond to high daily intake of vitamin C (1,000 to 6,000 mg. a day). Their risk of heart disease and cancer drops. They manage their diabetes better. They live longer. In other words, people become healthier when they consume high amounts of vitamin C.

Vitamin Truth #4: Many people are taking responsibility for their own health.

Many people take vitamin supplements as nutritional insurance, and that's a good thing. That's because it's smarter – and easier – to prevent disease than to treat it. And a growing number of people are also realizing the limitations of conventional medicine – and have decided to take matters into their own hands.

There's nothing wrong with improving your health with vitamins. When it comes to treating diseases like heart disease, arthritis, even cancer, people often turn to self-therapy because they haven’t been helped by conventional medicine. Emanuel Cheraskin, M.D., D.M.D, professor emeritus at the University of Alabama, has described medicine as "America's fastest growing failing business." He's got a point. But it’s important to educate yourself before you begin. Make sure you get an accurate diagnosis, then read everything you can find (including these e-bulletins) so that you are aware of all the potential benefits and pitfalls of the supplements you are taking.

Vitamin Truth #5: Supplements can never replace the nutrients found in food.

Even though our food isn’t as nutritious as it once was, it’s still the best source of nutrients. And topping the list are fruits and vegetables. But dietary surveys show that 65 to 91 percent of Americans don’t eat sufficient quantities of these foods.

Now a new study adds to the arsenal of evidence that fruits and vegetables reduce the risk of disease. Known as the CARDIO 2000 study, a research team from the University of Athens in Greece surveyed 848 coronary patients and 1078 healthy control subjects to tease out the link between diet and the risk of developing non-fatal acute coronary syndromes.

After adjusting for several cardiovascular risk factors, the data revealed that those subjects who ate the most fruit (five or more servings each day) had a 72 percent lower cardiac risk than those with the lowest intake (less than one serving of fruit a day). Similarly, eating vegetables more than three days a week was associated with 70 percent lower risk compared with those who didn’t eat vegetables at all. But what was even more interesting, the researchers found that every additional piece of fruit eaten gave the participants a 10 percent reduction in coronary risk.

So if you really want a nutritional boost, try adding a few extra servings of fruits and vegetables to your diet every day. And, if possible, eat organic. Recent research has found that choosing organic produce may give you significantly more nutritional bang for your buck.

One Last Thing ...

How you take your vitamins can also have a big impact on how much you’ll get out of them. For instance, if you take a lot of vitamins at the same time, you’ll excrete more than you will if you divide the dose up over the course of a day. And don’t take fiber at the same time you take your vitamins. The fiber will absorb much of benefit.

Since vitamins are either water-soluble (vitamin C and the B vitamins) or fat-soluble (vitamins A, D, E and K), it’s important to make sure your diet contains enough water or healthy fat (think fish and olive oil) to make sure these nutrients are absorbed by the body.

This Just In ...

Score another one for Mother Nature.

British scientists from the Medicinal Plant Research Centre (MPRC) at the Universities of Newcastle and Northumbria, recently provided scientific evidence backing up what herbalists have been saying for centuries – that sage can improve your memory. In fact, it’s so effective that researchers are looking at its potential against Alzheimer’s disease.

The Newcastle team tested 44 healthy young adults between the ages of 18 and 37. Some were given capsules containing sage oil and others were given a placebo. The volunteers then took part in a word recall test to see how many words they could remember. Their results showed that those who had taken the sage oil consistently performed better than those who had taken the placebo.

What’s so special about this common kitchen herb? Earlier research has shown that sage inhibits an enzyme called acetylcholinesterase (AChE) which breaks down the chemical messenger acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter essential to brain development and short-term memory and this may be the key to why the Newcastle researchers got the results they did.

This isn’t the first time science has looked to plants for answers to Alzheimer’s and other memory-related problems. Johnson & Johnson and Shire Pharmaceutical has already developed a drug derived from daffodil bulbs and other companies are feverishly working on experimental plant-based compounds for Alzheimer’s. But why take a high-priced drug when you can go directly to the source and take the herb itself?

Sounds like sage advice to me.

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References:

“More research showing fruit and veg benefits; no further explanation.” NutraIngredients.com. 9 Feb 2003.

Tildesley NTJ, et al. “Salvia lavandulaefolia (Spanish Sage) enhances memory in healthy young volunteers.” Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior. 2003;75:669-674.