DailyDirt: Take Your Vitamins... Or Not. Who Knows What's Good For You?
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
It's not always simple to know what's good for your health. We've seen that the placebo effect is far more complicated than it seems (or is usually presented) as its effects have grown stronger and stronger over the years across many clinical trials. Doctors themselves aren't always certain what's the "best" health advice, and they're constantly re-evaluating whether current recommendations are actually valid -- to develop better recommendations. Here are just a few links on vitamins and some of their (mistaken) benefits.- Vitamin deficiencies are certainly something to avoid, but some folks are going a bit too far with their vitamins. There is little evidence that antioxidant supplements prevent any kind of disease, but advertisers encourage everyone to take vitamin A and other dietary supplements in vast excess. More is not necessarily better, especially when it comes to vitamins. [url]
- Studies come out all the time that correlate the intake of vitamins with various health benefits, but that's not supposed to lead us to taking more vitamins. You're probably not going to suffer from rickets any time soon, so lay off the vitamin D and just go outside occasionally. [url]
- The amount of iron in spinach was mistakenly thought to be much higher than other green vegetables, but spinach actually doesn't have an extraordinary amount of iron. People also thought that Popeye ate spinach for the iron, but Popeye actually ate spinach for its vitamin A content.... [url]
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Filed Under: antioxidants, dietary supplements, health, iron, placebo effect, popeye, spinach, vitamins
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Some megadoses of vitamins are okay
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Re: Some megadoses of vitamins are okay
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_C_megadosage#Possible_adverse_effects
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Vitamins D3, B12
Thus, taking vitamin D3 (as opposed to D2, which isn't as beneficial) makes a lot of sense, especially during winter when you are much less likely to be exposed to sunlight. In fact, many medical researchers have concluded that the flu epidemics in winter are the result of less vitamin D being produced in the body at that time of year. Vitamin D apparently plays a big role in helping the immune system.
Just how much vitamin D3 should one take in winter? It used to be that the minimum daily requirement was established at 400 IU, but that is just barely enough to prevent rickets, a dangerous disease caused by vitamin D deficiency. These days, 2000 IU should be considered minimum, or about 5000 IU at the high end. On a sunny day, sunbathing will get you around 20,000 IU per hour (though it may also get you a bad sunburn).
About vitamin B12 - no need to take supplements if you eat meat or fish. But the recent trend to go vegan poses a serious risk of deficiency. There are no plant foods that provide sufficient quantities of B12. If you're vegan, you'd be well advised to take B12 supplements. A B12 deficiency is serious - it can lead to brain damage.
As it so happens, I'm a person who has to take B12 injections (I do it twice monthly, administering the shots myself). In my case it has nothing to do with diet, but it's because I've had intestinal surgery with the part of the intestine that absorbs B12 removed. Before I started doing the injections, I was developing all the classic symptoms of B12 deficiency - fatigue, depression, nervous system issues. Fortunately, caught it on time to avoid any irreversible damage. But I'm now acutely aware of just how important B12 is, and I tell my vegan friends (though none of them want to listen - they may live to regret it).
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Just saying
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Maybe
It's not placebo effect, it's something I realized maybe a year or two after I started, that the headaches had disappeared. My theory - if you are deficit on something the vitamins will help. If you have enough of a vitamin or mineral, odds are extra does little for you. However, with the lesser variety in modern processed food, it probably can't hurt to have a small dose of everything to ensure you are topped up.
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A misguided sound bite
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Not only vitamins, minerals can be deadly too.
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Infact excess of anything can be harmful !
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vitamins
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