Vitamin ABC's Part I

The Natural Connection

This is the first of a two- part article.

Walk down any supermarket nutrition aisle, or visit one of our local well-stocked health food stores, and you will be immersed in Vitamin Alphabet Soup. Bottles of Mega-Multiples with Minerals or Super-Potency Supplements loom in front of you, begging to jump off the shelf into your shopping buggy with promises of Increased Energy! or Decreased Stress! There are vitamins packaged as tablets and soft gels, liquids and elixirs, chewable vitamins shaped like dinosaurs and cartoon characters. There are vitamins to rub on your skin and vitamins made into chocolate candy. There are even vitamins to squirt up your nose.

America, it seems, has a love affair with vitamins. Forty percent of our population takes some form of vitamin supplement sometime during the year. But do we, as one of the most overfed and obese nations on earth, truly need more vitamins than we are already consuming from our food? “Doctor, do I need to take a vitamin?” is one of the most common questions that I hear in my medical office every day.

The truth is that most of us just don’t eat the five fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and low fat protein foods that the Food Pyramid says we should every day. When America gets hungry, the majority head past the kiwis and the carrots and make a beeline for the Nacho Cheeze Whiz and Little Debbie Cakes. Those with the most generous waistlines are often the most malnourished when it comes to essential vitamins and minerals.

According to researchers from leading universities such as Tufts and the University of California, there is good reason to consider vitamin supplements, especially if you are young and female, someone who consumes alcohol or smokes, or if you are over age fifty. Also, if you are on a low calorie or vegetarian diet, or if your idea of breakfast is a Pepsi and a Honey Bun, you are also at risk. Research studies consistently show that these population groups are often deficient in a number of important nutrients that are essential for health and well-being.

Many premenopausal women have inadequate iron intake from their diet, and can benefit from a good multiple vitamin with iron. And all women who might become pregnant should be taking a vitamin supplement that includes 400mcg of folic acid daily. This B vitamin helps prevent neural tube birth defects, such as spina bifida, and is better absorbed as a supplement than in food.

Older patients have more specific vitamin needs. It is estimated that 25%-50% of adults over age sixty do not get the nutrients they need from their diets. They may eat poorly, and not be able to chew their food well due to dental factors. In addition, as we age, changes in our gastric mucosa, the lining of the stomach that is essential for proper absorption of many vitamins, changes. The absorption of critical vitamins such as B12 may decrease up to 50%, and lead to nutritional deficiencies.

Some medications designed to decrease the amount of acid that is produced in the stomach interfere with vitamin absorption. Vitamin requirements also increase during times of physical or emotional stress, and during acute illness and infections.

The major problem nutrients for older people include the vitamins A, D, C, B6, B12, folic acid, as well as the minerals calcium, magnesium, and zinc. These vitamins are known to play an important role in maintaining a healthy immune system, and in the prevention of bone disorders, eye problems, heart disease, and certain cancers. Recently the importance of Vitamin K to the prevention of osteoporosis has also been recognized.

The exact dose of vitamins and minerals required by each person depends mostly on their age and dietary habits. Most people can benefit from a high quality multiple vitamin, according to nutrition experts. The University of California maintains an excellent nutrition web site, www.berkeleywellness.com, that provides information on over sixty vitamins and supplements. Tufts has a similar site, www.healthletter.tufts.edu

For further information on vitamins and nutrition, please write to:

The Natural Connection, c/o Dr. Pauline Bellecci, Southeast Internal Medicine, PO Box 777, Waycross, GA 31502 or visit www.swampdocs.com