Good News About Vitamins

That TV Doctor Lisa Masterson would just love you to believe her propaganda force fed to medical students and reinforced by mainstream media that all you need for good nutrition is a healthy diet. I wonder if she ever looked in to nutrient depletion caused by the drugs she prescribes and explains to her patients that they just don't need to take supplements to counter these losses.

You've also heard much of the same diatribes on ABC News with Diane Sawyer.

Registered Dietitians feed you the same pablum, but of course all this is spoon fed to them via Big Ag and USDA.

In today's world of corporate agriculture and its impact on food, especially considering the long distance things are sent to market, little in the way of nutrients are left by the time you get it home and prepared.

Worse are the frozen dinners used by a very high percentage of women, especially younger age groups, as reported in Nutrition Business Journal.

It does pay to eat organic and to use supplements, especially if you are dealing with disease and chronic health problems.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, May 25, 2010

Vitamin E Research Ignored by Major News Media Coast-to-Coast Censorship
If you think Medline and Wikipedia are biased, take a look through your newspapers and magazines. For example, have you noticed how the news media are quick to publish negative allegations about vitamin E, but slow to present the positive side?

Here's a check to see if this is so: Have you seen any articles on the effectiveness of vitamin E therapy reported in your daily newspaper?

* Increasing vitamin E prevents COPD [Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema, chronic bronchitis] (Agler AH et al. Randomized vitamin E supplementation and risk of chronic lung disease (CLD) in the Women's Health Study. American Thoracic Society 2010 International Conference, May 18, 2010.) Summary at http://www.thoracic.org/newsroom/press-releases/conference/articles/2010/vitamine-e.pdf

* 800 IU vitamin E per day is a successful treatment for fatty liver disease. (Sanyal AJ, Chalasani N, Kowdley KV et al. Pioglitazone, vitamin E, or placebo for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. N Engl J Med. 2010 May 6;362(18):1675-85.) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20427778

* Alzheimer's patients who take 2,000 IU of vitamin E per day live longer. (Pavlik VN, Doody RS, Rountree SD, Darby EJ. Vitamin E use is associated with improved survival in an Alzheimer's disease cohort. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. 2009;28(6):536-40.) Summary at http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/719537/alzheimers_patients_who_take_vitamin.html?cat=5

See also: Grundman M. Vitamin E and Alzheimer disease: the basis for additional clinical trials. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 Feb;71(2):630S-636S. Free access to full text at http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/71/2/630s )

* Taking 300 IU vitamin E per day reduces lung cancer by 61%. (Mahabir S, Schendel K, Dong YQ et al. Dietary alpha-, beta-, gamma- and delta-tocopherols in lung cancer risk. Int J Cancer. 2008 Sep 1;123(5):1173-80.) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18546288

* 400 to 800 IU of vitamin E daily reduces risk of heart attack by 77%. (Stephens NG et al. Randomized controlled trial of vitamin E in patients with coronary artery disease: Cambridge Heart Antioxidant Study (CHAOS). Lancet, March 23, 1996; 347:781-786.) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8622332

* 400 IU of Vitamin E per day reduces epileptic seizures in children by more than 60%. (Ogunmekan AO, Hwang PA. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, clinical trial of D-alpha-tocopheryl acetate [vitamin E], as add-on therapy, for epilepsy in children. Epilepsia. 1989 Jan-Feb; 30(1):84-9.) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2643513

Such effective quantities of vitamin E positively cannot be obtained from diet alone. 400 IU is over 25 times the adult US RDA for vitamin E. Is that a lot, or is the government recommendation too low?

Have you seen any article in any major newspaper or magazine pushing to raise the RDA?

This might be a good time for them to do so: they need the readership. The New York Times is over a billion dollars in debt. (1) Newsweek, having lost $40 million in just the last two years, is now for sale. (2) This could explain why they are so anti-supplement (and pro-pharmaceutical), since they appear to depend on drug advertising money to try to keep afloat.

The Orthomolecular Medicine News Service takes no advertising from anybody and is free of charge. It is not in debt, and it is not for sale. OMNS will continue to announce and advocate vitamin therapy, because it works.

If you would like to join in, please consider writing a pro-vitamin letter to the editor of your local newspaper or favorite magazine. OMNS would welcome a copy of your correspondence.

For More Information:

These doctors say, Raise the RDA now: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v03n10.shtml

Specifically in regard to vitamin E: http://www.doctoryourself.com/evitamin.htm

For vitamin C: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n08.shtml

For vitamin D: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n10.shtml

References:

(1) http://www.observer.com/2009/media/new-york-times-company-quarterly-conference-call-total-revenue-down-186-percent-debt-13-b

(2) http://www.investorguide.com/article/6411/washington-post-attempts-to-sell-newsweek-magazine-wpo/

Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine
Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org. The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.

And if this isn't enough a new report shows 

Anti-aging supplements better sooner

GAINESVILLE, Fla., May 25 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers suggest a study in rats indicates anti-aging supplements may be better taken sooner rather than later.
Researchers at the University of Florida's Institute on Aging in Gainesville say a neutraceutical -- a pharmaceutical product that has nutritional properties -- taken before very old age may benefit muscles.
Senior author Christiaan Leeuwenburgh and colleagues measured grip strength in rats fed for six weeks with a mixture of co-enzyme Q10, creatine and ginseng commercially available and marketed for relieving chronic fatigue and preventing muscle aging. The rats were middle-aged -- 21 months old, equivalent to humans ages 50-65, and late-middle-aged -- 29 months old in rats, equivalent to humans ages 65-80.
The study in rats, published in the journal PLoS One, finds supplementation was linked to a muscle improvement of 12 percent in middle-aged rats. However, supplementation brought no improvement in the older group of rats.
"I think it is important for people to focus on good nutrition, but for those of advanced age who are running out of energy and not moving much, we're trying to find a supplement mixture that can help improve their quality of life," Leeuwenburgh says in a statement.

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Help Prevent Colon Cancer: Hope for Whole Health

Natural Health News has at least 20 posts related to vitamins and other help that is protective for colon cancer.

Now another article relives us from the negative hype about vitamin supplements and cancer that you have heard now for at least a decade.

Selenium, Omega-3s May Stave Off Colorectal Cancer

HealthDay Reporter by Jennifer Thomas
TUESDAY, Dec. 8 (HealthDay News) -- Certain dietary supplements appear to affect the development of colorectal cancer or its recurrence, two new studies suggest.

In one study, researchers from the U.S. National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences found that eating a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids cut the risk of developing colorectal cancer by nearly 40 percent. In the other study, from cancer researchers in Italy, consumption of a dietary supplement containing selenium was found to reduce the chances of having polyps recur by a similar amount.

Both studies were to be presented Dec. 7 in Houston at a conference on cancer prevention sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research.

In the selenium study, 411 people, 25 to 75 years old, who'd had one or more colorectal polyps removed took either a supplement or a placebo. The supplement, described as an antioxidant compound, contained 200 micrograms of selenomethionnine (a combination of selenium and methionnine - Our Note: This is the best form of selenium according to the most currant science), 30 milligrams of zinc, 6,000 international units of vitamin A, 180 milligrams of vitamin C and 30 milligrams of vitamin E.

Participants had a colonoscopy one year, three years and five years after starting the regimen.

Polyps recurred in 4.2 percent of those taking the supplement, compared with 7.2 percent of the placebo group. Overall, the study found, people taking the supplement had about a 40 percent reduction in risk for a return of polyps.

The researchers estimated that, after 15 years, about 48 percent of those taking the supplement would still be free of polyps, versus about 30 percent of those not taking the supplement.

Polyps, or adenoma, are benign growths on the large bowel. Though only a small proportion progress to become cancer, about 70 to 80 percent of colorectal cancer cases begin as polyps, according to the American Association for Cancer Research. About one in four people, most older than 60, will have at least one adenoma.

Selenium is found in soil (Our Note: Western US states bordering Canada are known to be severely low in selenium and as such has a negative impact on thyroid function.), and human consumption comes by eating plants that have absorbed the nutrient or fish or animals that have eaten plants as part of their diet. "The content of selenium in the food depends on the soil content of this trace element, and in the same country there are areas at high, adequate or low content of selenium in the soil," said the study's lead author, Dr. Luigina Bonelli, head of the unit of secondary prevention and screening at the National Institute for Cancer Research in Genoa, Italy.

Earlier research had suggested that selenium can inhibit cell proliferation in the colon and rectum, Bonelli said.

Michele Forman, a professor of epidemiology at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said that, though the findings are interesting, it's impossible to tell if the benefit was attributable to the selenium or to the other vitamins and minerals included in the supplement.

"You really don't know if it's the selenium or some combination that reduces risk of recurrence," Forman said.

In addition, the daily dosages of vitamins A and E taken by the participants were higher than the recommended daily allowances, Forman added. High levels of such vitamins can be detrimental, she said. (Our note: Not all supplements at high dose levels are harmful.)

In the omega-3 study, U.S. researchers surveyed 1,509 whites and 369 blacks about their dietary habits in the past year. About half of the participants had colorectal cancer.

Among the white participants, those whose diets were in the highest fourth of omega-3 fatty acid consumption were 39 percent less likely to have colorectal cancer than those in the lowest fourth. However, for reasons the authors said they did not know, no association was noted between omega-3s and a reduction of colorectal cancer risk among black participants. The disease occurs at a higher rate among blacks than whites.

"Our finding clearly supports the evidence from previous experimental and clinical studies showing that long-chain omega-3 fatty acids inhibit tumor growth," said the study's lead author, Sangmi Kim, a postdoctoral fellow at the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C.

Kim said the research supports boosting omega-3 intake through diet or perhaps by taking an omega-3 supplement. Omega-3 fatty acids are found in fish, especially oily fish such as salmon, mackerel, herring, anchovies, sardines and tuna. Plant-based sources include flax and flaxseed oil, Brussels sprouts, soybeans and (soybean oil, canola oil - NOTE: We suggest you avoide both these oils), spinach, walnuts and kiwi.

Previous studies have suggested that omega-3 fatty acids act as anti-inflammatory agents and help prevent cancer. But in the new study, Forman noted, participants were asked about their diets after they had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer so it's possible that their recollections were not fully accurate.

In addition, she said, it's possible that the benefit was not the result of omega-3s. Those who ate more fish might have had a healthier diet overall, she said.

"Were they eating a salmon-and-broccoli diet or a hamburger-and-french-fry diet?" Forman asked. "We don't know enough to say that it's truly the effect of the omega-3s."

Our Note:  We beleive that the dose levels in the supplement mentioned in this areticle is well below therapeutic levels.

While I am not an institutionalized thinker, I am in support of those who have tried to help make more people aware of the role of nursing, probably a truly wholistic profession on its own. I would like to see the same support from the organizationally based groups to the work we do.

I will say however that I support this comment from the AHNA:

The American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA) has formally requested that US Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) not move to re-name the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) the "National Center for Integrative Medicine." Harkin brought up the idea of the name change in public comments surrounding the Institute of Medicine Summit in February of this year. In a letter co-signed by 23 other nursing organizations, the AHNA wrote:
"There are so many in this country who enthusiastically support a vision to put integrative health care at the heart of national health reform. However, to facilitate this vision; to reinforce a more inclusive, representative, and collaborative partnering of every health and health-related profession and constituency; and to recognize and maximize the valuable contributions of all, we would like to suggest the renaming of the National Center for Complementary and Alterative Medicine to the National Center for Integrative Health and Healthcare. In transforming the health care paradigm, a shift in language can be a critical influence in supporting and adopting that change. The use of Integrative Health and Healthcare focuses on people’s health and well-being, rather than on a specific profession, and broadens the array of disciplines involved in promoting it."

As of this writing, Harkin had not formally responded to the nurses nor had an Integrator query to Harkin's staff elicited a response.

I do not support the use of the terms "integrative" or "complementary" in regard to health care.  I believe this promotes more separation from what used to be quite common, the "team" approach. And I believe it further sets up barriers to health and limits access both for providers but for patients.

In the classes I taught in the Pueget Sound area for so many years, always, in my discussion of vitamin E, its protective benefit for colon cancer was always noted.
See "Vitamins Enhance Chemotherapy" from leaflady.org

Senate Cmtee on Aging - Important Hearing 5/26

The Senate Special Committee on Aging is chaired by Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI). The Committee may be about to take some potshots at supplements during a hearing scheduled for tomorrow, May 26. Everyone involved is being very hush-hush on what they’ll be discussing. We have, however, learned of a couple of items on their agenda.

Supplements used as drugs

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) sent undercover shoppers into health food stores with tape recorders to see whether they could get store employees to give them information on the treatment of their ailments, and many did so.

This information may be used to support the notion that supplements should go through the same lengthy and exorbitantly expensive approval process that patented drugs do. The argument will be that supplements are being used like drugs to treat medical conditions, so they should be treated like drugs. The truth is, it’s simply a case of some store employees sincerely wanting to share their knowledge and help people and not following the rules closely enough.

Product purity

The GAO also took samples of the forty top-selling herbs and tested them to see whether they were contaminated with heavy metals or other toxins. ConsumerLab found contaminants in a number of the samples, and is on the witness list for the hearing. However, the GAO and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) both found the supplements to be within acceptable levels.

The point which needs to be made at the hearing is that the supplement industry is already regulated by the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the power to protect consumers from those few supplement manufacturers not following the rules, something which it has refused to do.

In an earlier administration, we know that the FDA intentionally chose not to monitor supplements, hoping that this would lead to a crisis and thence to an expansion of FDA control. Perhaps partly in response to this history, Senators Tom Harkin (D–IA) and Orrin Hatch (R–UT) plan to introduce the “Dietary Supplement Full Implementation and Enforcement Act of 2010” before the hearing (and may have already done so by the time you receive this newsletter). This act will fully fund DSHEA and give the FDA more resources to ensure proper enforcement.

You will be able to view the live webcast at the Senate Special Committee on Aging website on May 26 at 2:00 PM Eastern time.

And in other Nutrition Business, from the Journal -
Senators Introduce Dietary Supplement Full Implementation and Enforcement Act of 2010, May 25, 2010

Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) unveiled new proposed legislation on May 25 that would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) more muscle to effectively enforce longstanding provisions of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994. The bill asks Congress to give at least $20 million to FDA for DSHEA enforcement.

The bill includes other provisions designed to address issues that have frustrated supplement companies attempting to navigate the intricacies and ambiguities surrounding DSHEA and its enforcement. For example, the bill mandates that FDA provide industry with guidance on existing rules that apply to new ingredients, according to a press release from the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA). In addition, it requires FDA to submit to Congress an annual accountability report including information on the number of dietary supplement manufacturers inspected under FDA�s Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) regulation, the number of new dietary ingredient (NDI) notifications reviewed, a brief summary of all enforcement actions taken in relation to dietary supplements, and other specific data related to the agency�s regulation of dietary supplements, AHPA reports.
�Such an annual accountability report to Congress will provide a written record of FDA�s continuing regulation of dietary supplements,� said AHPA President Michael McGuffin. �Building a collection of facts and figures related to FDA�s enforcement of DSHEA is key to setting the record straight when it comes to the regulation of this class of goods.�
Like AHPA, the Council for Responsible Nutrition has come out in support of the bill. �DSHEA was enacted to ensure consumers have access to beneficial, high quality supplement products,� Steve Mister, president and CEO, said in a statement. �It also provides an important regulatory framework that safeguards the general public from adulterated, mislabeled or harmful products. Many of the challenges our industry continues to face can be attributed to the lack of enforcement of these basic tenets of DSHEA. CRN believes this legislation will go a long way to demonstrate that DSHEA works and to reinforce the safety, quality and benefit of supplement products to the public.�

The NBJ bottom line: Many players in the dietary supplement industry will view this news with a sigh of relief. The threat of more draconian legislation remains throughout the global supplement industry�witness Europe�s Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation that has effectively shut down the pipeline of new functional ingredients seeking a health claim�but, in the United States, the industry�s champions in Congress are committed to fixing the current law instead of reinventing it. This is a �lesser of all evils� option that will hopefully allow the legitimate supplement companies to differentiate themselves and add credibility across the industry.