Multi-supplement takers have better health....

Today's post: Thursday, 4-3-2008

Dr Dharma Singh Kahlsa wrote a book called Brain Longevity in which he reports on his successful efforts to prevent brain dysfunction & even often reverse it with supplements, exercise, & stress relief techniques.

His email letter is mostly a direct promotion for the supplements he found to work that he now sells himself.

I do keep reading it because he occasionally has terrifically good & useful information in it.

Last week, he had this:

"In a new study published in Nutritional Journal, it was revealed that
long-term multiple dietary supplement users were in much better
health. Beyond that, they were less likely to have many illnesses
including high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer's
and others.

In the study, the users of a family of supplements, such as those
mentioned above, as compared to non-users and those who took only a
multi, were better off when it came to their health and wellness.

Researchers obtained information from 278 people regarding long-term
multiple supplement use patterns, health, and nutrition through
questionnaires and a physical examination. The researcher scientists
then compared all the data and information they collected with 800 non-
users and single multivitamin/mineral supplement users.

What do you think was the outcome?

The consumers of multiple supplements were less likely to have the
illnesses I mentioned above and moreover, more likely to have low
levels of what doctors call chronic disease- related biomarkers. Your
own doctor may have ordered some of them on you, for example, C-
reactive protein (CRP), which is associated with chronic inflammation
and homocysteine.

Homocysteine, which I order on all my patients, is associated with
elevated risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and Alzheimer's so
having a low level is very health-promoting and life-giving.

Multiple supplement users were also more likely to have optimal
levels of blood fats such as triglycerides and beneficial high levels
of HDL."

There are two reasons for this. Careful researchers & people who don’t like supplements much will point out, I think correctly, that people who are proactive enough about preserving or improving their health to take multiple supplements are also much more likely to do other things that protect or improve their health such as exercise regularly & eat more health OK foods & a LOT less health damaging foods.
This could account for these results they argue.

Sometimes they are correct at least in part. It’s somewhat true for me in fact. I have mostly good biomarkers and exercise regularly; eat mostly health OK foods; & eat hardly any health damaging foods other than occasionally having sugar & drinking a bit too much red wine.

However, I have measured results that show conclusively that when I’ve had a biomarker that was too high or too low & then found out which supplements improve it & began taking them, the biomarker did improve afterwards.

Further, multi-vitamins often leave out key nutrients or have some in what is now known to be insufficient amounts to best protect your health.

Most multi-supplement takers have taken extra vitamin C, Vitamin E, & added B Complex vitamins for years. Now, most of the ones who follow the health news have added 2,000 or more iu of vitamin D. And, those who have read why tend to take extra magnesium.

You then add to that people who take supplements that increase HDL, lower LDL, help keep blood glucose in the desirable range, & lower homocysteine & the results began to look largely due to the supplements.

In addition, it works the other way than the pessimists argument to the benefit of the multi-supplement takers.

For, example people who take niacin to increase HDL, lower LDL, & lower triglycerides may also begin & keep doing regular exercise when they didn’t before as it helps get these same results. And, they may also begin to eat more onions & wild caught salmon (for their omega 3 content) & stop eating foods with transfats for the same reasons. Doing both -- taking the right supplements AND protecting your health in other, complementary ways -- gives you levers that work to directly upgrade your health.

So, the bottom line is taking the right supplements DOES improve your health & biomarkers BY ITSELF.

People who take supplements DO tend to already be doing more for their health.

AND, people who take supplements are also more likely to begin doing more for their health.

They are all three true statements.

The most important take away from this is to take action to protect your health; do it as many effective ways as you can, & include the supplements that best protect your health and help you achieve what you in particular most need to achieve in protecting your health.