| Nutrition experts say we consumers have been taken in by the food supplement industry, buying vitamins and minerals in excess of need or when high doses may be harmful. the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. The reviews produce updated food guides, most recently a modified food pyramid shown in Figure 8 (page 57). The pyramid indicates the amount of each type of food required to meet the recommended RDAs.
What It Is
Vitamin supplements are purchased by up to 80 percent of U.S. |
| Scientists continue research in this area, working to expand knowledge about the effects of vitamins and minerals on health and physiological functioning, or learning that a bit more or less of a nutrient can produce better results than had been assumed. This is why the Recommended Dietary (or Daily) Allowances (RDAs) are reviewed regularly by the Food and Nutrition Board of
Dietary Supplements
Basic Facts about Vitamins
?Vitamins come from animal or plant foods and are essential to human life and health.
?Four of the thirteen vitamins (A, D, E, K) are fat-soluble. |
Rudolph M. Ballentine, M.D.
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 Then it will raid structural protein and steal vitamins and minerals from the least vital tissues. If this continues, the cells robbed become unable to function and die. Like a freezing man in a blizzard, stranded in a cabin with no firewood—who strips boards off the walls to burn—you begin to cannibalize your own tissues. Though such a scenario may be called "water fasting," it's not. It is more correctly termed starvation.
The destruction of starvation and the cleansing and repair that happen in a well-managed fast are polar opposites (see Fig. 88). |
| This has little or nothing to do with "nutrients" of the sort that we call vitamins and minerals. Though applying this fourth principle may take into consideration your digestive response, it is not focused on that, either. Rather it is based on judging how the subtle effects of various foods lead to either a clouding or a clearing of your awareness.
Western nutritionists have not explored how food affects one's sense of clarity and balance, though Eastern dietary systems have done so in great depth. |
| Chances are, with a little expert guidance, you will be able to replenish your stores of vitamins and minerals, discover the nutrients that you are characteristically liable to use and need most, and get established on a diet that will sustain you with only limited and/or intermittent supplementation.
Nutrients in pill form are, after all, only adjuncts to a diet. They are supplements, not substitutes. There is no way that fragmented nutrients can replace whole foods—despite sci-fi fantasies or industry hype to the contrary. |
Cheryle R. Hart, M.D. Mary Kay Grossman, R.D.
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 Main vitamins and minerals Provided by These Foods
Calcium, zinc, vitamin D, and several B vitamins
Iron, zinc, and several B vitamins. A diet low in animal proteins may be deficient in iron and vitamin B12.
Vitamins A and C and several B vitamins
Vitamins A and C and folic acid
Several B vitamins, iron, and zinc
The Wonder of Water
Water suppresses your appetite naturally and helps your body metabolize stored fat. Water is necessary to maximize muscle function. This raises your metabolism. |
Dr. Vern Cherewatenko and Paul Perry
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 If you have a chronic disease—high blood pressure, irritable bowel syndrome, or diabetes—you may need to append your diet, either with specific foods or with supplements, to make up for vitamins and minerals lost as a result of your disease or the medications you take.
Finally, RDAs don't take into account the changing nutritional needs that occur over a lifetime. For instance:
• Menstruating girls and women may need extra iron to compensate for blood loss during monthly flow. |
J. Robert Hatherill
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 Japanese or Oriental diet vitamins and minerals —C, E, selenium follow the diet to prevent prostate cancer
Fortify Your Lifestyle:
What to Eat if You Smoke or Drink Alcohol
Historians have noted that cancer often rises in proportion to the progress of civilization. The more affluent the society, the greater the chance of cancer. This is certainly true of Americans, who indulge in lifestyles that include tobacco and alcohol. Of course humans vary in their individual response to any kind of chemical agents. |
| Most enzymes require cofactors to work efficientiy, such as water-soluble vitamins and minerals. The human body can make proteins, but vitamin cofactors must be obtained from the diet.
For instance, vitamin B6 is needed in over half of the body's reactions involving enzymes, while folic acid is required for the activity of enzymes involved in making DNA.
When the enzyme has enough cofactor (or vitamin), additional amounts of that cofactor do nothing to increase enzyme activity. |
| The relatively few vitamins and minerals that exist each have precisely defined nutritional roles. In contrast tens of thousands of potentially important anticancer collages are present in whole foods. |
| And some pioneering studies have gradually convinced nutritionists to realize that there is much more to a good diet than adding vitamins and minerals to processed foods.
In the 1960s, as the term "health food" came into vogue, what was meant was that this food was more healthful than the processed, refined foods already on supermarket shelves. One of the early popular health foods was yogurt; the marketing campaign used spry elderly Soviet Georgians to extol its health benefits. Perceived as refreshing and exotic, yogurt was quickly accepted by consumers. |
| During the early years of the vitamin revolution, the entire focus was on taking in sufficient vitamins and minerals to stave off deficiency diseases. The science of nutrition became a trifle boring in 1940 after most vitamins had been discovered. However, there is much more to health than vitamins.
Your food shall be your remedy.
Let food be your medicine and let medicine be your food.
—Hippocrates, Greek Physician, 5th Century B.C.
You Call That Food?
In the years following the Second World War, the burgeoning American food industry offered hungry people convenience foods. |
James Braly M.D. and Ron Hoggan M.A.
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 More recent advances clearly show poor absorption of essential vitamins and minerals among untreated celiacs, along with many other signs and symptoms throughout the body. However, the persistent notion of malabsorption in celiac disease has been overgeneralized and overemphasized, suggesting a general failure to absorb nutrients as the sole or primary defect. This conception of celiac disease is probably a defensible understanding of very advanced cases, but it ignores the majority who are either of normal weight or sometimes obese. Carbohydrate absorption often continues fairly normally. |
| Regular monitoring of blood levels of vitamins and minerals is an important first step. During the first year, monthly or bimonthly monitoring offers a means of checking for deficiencies, as well as monitoring the impact of supplementation.
Magnesium Supplementation
Magnesium is essential for proper maintenance of the parathyroid gland. Not only is this gland a major regulating factor in your body's calcium metabolism, but endomysium antibodies have also been shown to cross-react with the tissues of this gland. |
| Deficiency in each of the vitamins and minerals listed above will produce a set of symptoms that can usually be distinguished from each other. For each deficiency, there is often a range of possible symptoms and sets of symptoms. Sometimes, the number of variations in symptoms for one deficiency can be quite surprising. When compounded by the interaction of several or many deficiencies, the range of signs and symptoms can be enormous and quite confusing. |
Michael Janson, M.D.
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 Chapter 1
A Revolution in Health Care: Dietary Supplements
Your Health at Risk
Your health may be at risk if you believe the current medical and food industry myths that assert that you do not need extra vitamins and minerals if you eat properly (what is commonly called a balanced diet). For decades, this has also been the position of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which appears to have had an antagonism to dietary supplements since early in its history. |
| In fact, a recent study showed that large doses of vitamins and minerals markedly reduced tumor recurrence in patients with bladder cancer, compared to those who received just the Recommended Dietary Allowances. This was a reputable study, published in the Journal of Urologyl
Luckily, I was introduced to nutrition after medical school and was able to pursue it with an open mind. I did not have to contend with as much opposition as I would have had during medical school. Since that time, I have had to learn (and unlearn) a lot. |
Stephen T., M.D. Sinatra
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 Minerals
Calcium
800 mg
1,000 mg
Phosphorus
800 mg
1,000 mg
Iodine
70 meg
150 meg
Iron
10 meg
18 meg
Magnesium
200 mg
400 mg
Copper
1 mg
2 mg
Zinc
6 mg
15 mg
When considering nutritional supplementation, remember that taking vitamins and minerals in their proper balance is important. For example, high doses of single B vitamins may cause depletion of other B vitamins, and too much of the mineral zinc may interfere with the absorption of iron, causing anemia. |
Michael Janson, M.D.
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| Orthomolecular physicians are more cautious in their use of hormone supplements, such as DHEA, thyroid or melatonin, because of their potent effects and sometimes greater risk of side effects compared with vitamins and minerals. (DHEA and melatonin have been shown to be quite safe even in very large doses; usually natural hormones are much safer than the synthetics that are commonly used in medicine, except for melatonin. |
Barnet Meltzer, M.D.
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 In addition to their premium protein, nuts and seeds are also packed with vitamins and minerals. Their phytoenzymatic protease inhibitors aid in the suppression of cancerous cell growth. And although they are high in fat, it's largely of the unsaturated (that is, good) kind. My top nut is the almond, and my top seed, the peanut. But familiarize yourself with the various flavors of other nuts and seeds, and experiment with different combinations in order to create superior nutrition.
ALMONDS
Notable Personality Factors: Romantic folklore surrounds almonds. |
Dr. Vern Cherewatenko and Paul Perry
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| The Food and Nutrition Board sets the recommended dietary allowances (RDAs) of vitamins and minerals. RDAs are guidelines for safe and adequate levels of nutrition, not optimal or even minimal requirements. That leaves room for individual need based on age, lifestyle, and health. Keep this in mind when you're studying food labels or considering the purchase of a vitamin or supplement. disease in some people with diabetes. |
| Taken in proper levels, vitamins and minerals can act as "exorcists" against the evils of diabetes.
7
De-Stressing for Diabetes Care
The Program
What? Use the stress reduction techniques recommended in this chapter before they are needed and when stress sneaks up on you.
How often? I recommend at least two concentrated sessions of stress reduction per day. That can mean performing your thirty minutes of exercise in the morning and a thirty-minute session of meditation in the evening. Stress reduction can be practiced at every opportunity during the day. |
| Possible negative effects of higher than recommended intake: According to the Harvard Medical School Health Group Publication on vitamins and minerals, no toxicity is reported for B12 at intakes up to 100 micrograms.
Vitamin C—the citrus vitamin. Even for those who can maintain good control of their diabetes, C is significant for its cell building and stress-management capacities. More than 80 percent of vitamin C in the U.S. diet comes from citrus fruits, green vegetables, peppers, tomatoes, berries, and potatoes. Its actions are diverse. |
| Diabetes: The Vitamin and Mineral Connection
Researchers increasingly are looking to vitamins and minerals as potential tools for treating people with diabetes. These substances may hold the key for long-term good health, complications management, and possibly even prevention.
Heart Disease
Cardiovascular disease is an ever-present concern for people with diabetes, who are at greater risk. According to the American Diabetes Association, adults with diabetes have heart disease death rates two to four times higher than adults without diabetes. |
| These are good choices because they're major sources of fiber, vitamins and minerals, and energy that's easily accessible to the body.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are your body's primary energy source. They contain 4 calories per gram, and 100 percent of carbohydrates are metabolized into glucose. Carbohydrates have a protein-sparing effect by supplying the energy needs of the body and enabling the body to use protein for growth and repair. When broken down, carbohydrates become glucose, a simple sugar that is your body's main energy source. |
Stanley W. Jacob, M.D.
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 Medical science knows a good deal about deficiencies of many vitamins and minerals, but not about sulfur.
One sulfur researcher at a major university put it this way: "People look so little at sulfur nutritionally because it is so well known that sulfur-containing proteins, which are in the foods we eat, must be present in plants or else the plants don't grow. When we meet our protein requirements we have enough sulfur produced through the breakdown of the protein to obtain the body's sulfur needs. |
| Sulfur also has a long history of healing but it has been overlooked in our current fascination with vitamins and minerals. When asked to think of minerals important for health, most people know that calcium is good for their bones, that iron is important for their blood, that zinc is needed by the prostate. But rarely does anyone mention sulfur.
In the next chapter we will look at the MSM's "pedigree" and its connection to DMSO and sulfur. |
| Prior to 1990, vitamins and minerals were viewed narrowly by most physicians as necessary elements contained in food that prevented nutritional deficiency states such as scurvy, beriberi, rickets, and pellagra. The prevailing attitude held that supplementation was unnecessary because a balanced diet was supposed to provide all the good nutrition our bodies needed. For decades, only a small minority of nutritionally oriented physicians advocated supplements as a potent, safe, and inexpensive way to help treat illness and create optimum health. |
| At a landmark 1992 symposium sponsored by the New York Academy of Science, researchers presented many new findings on the beneficial effects of vitamins and minerals against cancer, heart disease, and other illnesses. The symposium was called "Beyond Deficiency: New Views on the Function and Health Effects of Vitamins." Medical World News, a periodical read by many doctors, led off its January 1993 issue with an article entitled "Vitamins: Emerging as Disease Fighters, Not Just Supplements. |
| Along with a gentle exercise program and the addition of important vitamins and minerals, this patient has continued to make a remarkable recovery.
Many of my rheumatoid patients report rapid and substantial relief from symptoms with MSM. Previously, if I was unable to help severe cases, I would refer them to a specialist. Now, I find this amazing supplement helps even the most severe conditions and gives me a substantial therapeutic tool. It doesn't restore destroyed joints but it makes the lives of patients much more comfortable and also produces many other side benefits. |
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