Doubts Cast On Vitamin Supplements
Can Some Do More Harm Than Good? How Much Is Too Much To Take?
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Some people swear by them, feeling supplements make them stronger and keep them healthier.
But The Early Show Saturday medical contributor Dr. Mallika Marshall explained that, when it comes to vitamins, too much of a good thing could be a bad idea and, with some supplements, doctors are coming to feel ANY dose may be ill-advised, with supplements pushing the dosage level into the risky range.
Vitamin and mineral supplements are, of course, a staple of a lot of people's lives.
But studies are now suggesting that some are not only unnecessary, but could be dangerous.
Of course, we all need vitamins, Marshall stresses, but only in very small amounts, and we generally get what we need from what we eat. So if you're generally healthy and eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day, you're probably just fine, vitamins-wise, and you might be better off saving your money.
Some vitamins can be dangerous in high doses.
For instance, Vitamin E is touted as helping to fight cancer and heart disease. It's one of those anti-oxidants we all hear so much about. But, Marshall points out, new studies and more recent data suggest that large doses can actually increase the risk of death, not prevent it. So we are not recommending that people take Vitamin E supplements for disease prevention.
Another popular supplement for fighting certain diseases, beta-carotene, used to be thought of as helping to prevent disease, but now it appears that additional beta-carotene can actually raise the risk of heart disease and cancer.
Loading up on Vitamin C to fight off colds is also coming to be panned in the medical community. Too much Vitamin C can cause diarrhea and kidney stones, and studies don't suggest that it reduces the risk of heart disease, cancer, or even the common cold. Vitamin A, another popular choice, can actually lead to liver damage, blindness, and bone fractures in high doses.
Of course, Marshall notes, there are exceptions - people who, due to poor nutrition, underlying medical problems, or the desire to have children, need to take vitamin supplements. But again, beware - in some of these cases, taking additional vitamins can actually be harmful.
Still, there is substantial evidence, Marshall says, that taking folic acid before pregnancy and in early pregnancy can significantly reduce the risk of birth defects, especially neural tube defects such as spina bifida, in infants. So, universally, it is recommended that all women of childbearing age who might become pregnant take 800 micrograms of folic acid, or a prenatal vitamin containing folic acid, on a daily basis. The Spina Bifida Association stresses that, "Research shows that if all women who could possibly become pregnant take a multivitamin with folic acid, the risk of neural tube defects like spina bifida could be reduced by up to 70 percent."
It's also generally recommended that women who are pre-menopausal, that is, entering the change of life, take 800 IU of Vitamin D and at least 1,200 mg of calcium to help prevent bone loss and osteoporosis.
When it comes to senior citizens, if they're generally healthy and eat a proper diet, they may not need vitamin supplements. But many older adults often suffer from poor nutrition and little sun exposure. Many could probably benefit from taking a daily multivitamin that will give them additional Vitamins D and B.
Also, it's not a bad idea for vegetarians, especially vegans, to take a daily multivitamin, since they could be deficient in certain vitamins, such as B-12, found primarily in meats.
And alcoholics are often deficient in Vitamins like A, B, C and folic acid, so they may benefit from a multivitamin, as well.
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"ANY dose may be ill-adviseda"
If this is the case which I do not personally believe, then all the foods and beverages that are fortified with any vitamin or mineral should also be ill-advised.
Doctor, drug companies and hospitals don''t want people healthy, they would stop making so much money. Seems they find many new disease, but the ones that make the most money for them, don''t seem to get cured, just more money for reasearch. Follow the money trail.
It is possible to get too much of the fat soluables. But a normal diet rich in veggies plus CORRECT dosages of mainstream vitamin suppliments still put most of us well below the limits approaching toxicity.
For most of us.
The "Aw, ***" comes with the rare individual with an unusual sensitivity to (usually) one of the fat soluable vitamins included in a multi-vitamin package.
Likewise it is possible to get too much Vitamin C as well. To do so you would need something like 5000 mg per day over a period of several weeks to see the effects. With a pH of about 4, though, you''d be feeling the consequences of hemo-acidosis long before any toxic symptoms directly related to the vitamin appear.
Yeah, you can get too much of a good thing; but it is not something to worry about if you take your suppliments at clinical (or better yet, subclinical) doses.
Posted by bobvan30
Well said. I love the arrogance of the medical community in poo-pooing anything that''s outside what they offer, themselves. I never hear the medical people trying anything that keeps us healthy and PREVENTS us from becoming seriously ill in the first place. I guess there''s no money in keeping people healthy. Doctors are parasites, keeping people alive long enough while they bleed their wallets dry, until the patient consumes too much of their time. Then it''s bye-bye, time to die.
Yep, natural things taken from nature are dangerous eh..
The amounts that you get from health food stores are so low that they are lucky to even be effective so the likely hood of it being to much is very low.. and yes we have to be careful of the very odd thing just as you do with eating tooooo many carrots, so put warnings that doses over a certain amount could be dangerous. I feel that this article is just another article to put the fear into people so as they will go and get help from a Dr, when it is Dr''s and pharmecutical Drugs which is the 4th cause of death in America..
BUT!!! according to an other report, the most conservative reading of statistics culled from government and peer reviewed journals shows that 751,936 Americans die every year as a result of medical error, also known as iatrogenesis. This is the equivalent of over six jumbo jets filled with passengers falling out of the sky every day. A summary of the paper''s basic findings were published in Nexxus Magazine." ~Nutrition Institute of America
http://www.nutritioninstituteofamerica.net/ResearchOverview.htm...
Yep it sure is natural products we must be careful of eh..
There are two types of vitamin tablets, synthetic or the real thing, taking synthetic is like taking a chunk of starch you get nothing out of it..Most studies done by pharmaceutical companies are on synthetic vitamins which I suppose that they make themselves..
From what I can remember.. scientists can chemically reproduce sea water but when you put fish in this synthetic sea water they die.
Sensitive people may can sometimes have an adverse reaction to the synthetic vitamins..
the natural is more rounded where as the synthetic is one component eg..
Almost all of the beta-carotene on the market is an isolated synthetic compound made from acetylene gas. This is probably why some of the testing done with the synthetic form of beta-carotene has produced mixed results, and in one study on smokers, produced a negative result.
In nature, beta-carotene is part of a family of carotenoids thus is never found alone. For example, carrots and tomatoes have alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, cantozantheen, gamma-carotene, omega-carotene, etc. And although beta-carotene is a great antioxidant, cantozantheen is already known to be an even more effective antioxidant. In other words, by isolating beta-carotene from its entire family of carotenoids the experts have taken away an even more beneficial antioxidant.
Well I am off to bed, it is 10.9 here in Australia...Sunday night..
The decision to use supplements should be decided on family history and medical problems rather than some teenager at a retail store who is paid a commission to push the most expensive produts. Taking supplements as some sort of insurance policy against poor eating and bad habits is wishful, scientifically unsupported thinking. If you do not take supplements thoughtfully, you waste money and put your health at risk.
Posted by lpgideon at 05:36 AM : Jun 08, 2008
I can think of three reasons. First, contaminants may be present which can lead to adverse or unpredictable reactions. Second, the dosage is different from what the label says--high or low. Third, taking vitamins in high concentrations is not the same as getting them from food sources which provide a complete brew of nutrients.
Very cutting-edge reporting.
All anyone needs is a multivitamin. If you need anything else, it should be under a doctor''s guidance, not that of the teen behind the GNC counter.
Natural food should give us all that the body needs to repare itself, but if grown in bad soil or the same soil every year then there isnt much goodness in them..
The moronic Dr. who wrote this article is a shill for the medical establishment.
Doctors do not want you to take supplements because you won''t need their services.
CBS must not own any vitamin companies, if they did they would be singing a different tune.
I attribute my good health to heredity, good nutrition, AND the fist-full of supplements that I take every day. To me, staying out of the doctor''s office is priceless and I will continue to take my supplements. My grandfather lived to be 99 years old; there was nothing really wrong with him - he just got tired and drifted away. He had all of his own teeth, for goodness sake! He took all kinds of vitamins and supplements - I learned about healthy living from him.
FYI - I take one multi-vitamin and multi-mineral (CVS brand), one CoQ-10 with Fish Oil, two Glucosamine & Chondroitin with MSM, and four capsules of an herbal supplement called Intra-Cleanse. I feel great, right down to my mitochondria.
If you want to improve your health, you must eat right, avoid fast food, get regular exercise, and check out the 411 on Intra-Cleanse -
http://www.longlifesolutions.net/intracleanse.html?WMID=11418
My husband who is 66, is still teaching (school of distance education in Australia) and going all over the country seeing students.. Our kids say that we are healthier than them...but then it couldn''t possibly be the supplements that we take could it???
I agree that when taking supplements that you have to be careful in how you take them and with what, in the natural, naturally grown food possess the nutrient in the right proportions, eg the yellow of the egg has cholesterol but the white of the egg counteracts it. Unprocessed wheat, rice etc all have the B vitamins, iron, minerals etc all in the right proportions if one is missing it can make the others less effective, thus IF we could get everything in the natural we would be far, far better off than taking supplements but we can no longer get food which is whole now. And of course we have to realise that according to evolution, all this just happened, the balance is incredible without bees many of our food sources would die etc .. NO, NO I dont want to start an argument on evolution, it just makes one think though..
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by tucano2
June 9, 2008 8:46 PM PDT
- I''m always suspicious when somebody is called Dr. soandso rather than Soandso, MD, or, DVM, or DO, or whatever is appropriate. An MD generally knows absolutely zero about supplements, vitamins, nutrition, or much else beyond the very narrow area of training/education received. An OrthoPod generally knows absolutely nothing about general medical practice even though she may be quite good at the limited scope of practice she''s in.
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Reply to this comment
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See all 32 CommentsTo have any credibility a story must accurately identify the physician''s specialty and credentials. "Dr soand so" just doesn''t cut it.