Outdated vitamin & mineral guidelines....
Today's post: Monday, 3-9-2009
I happened upon a news article with these statements.:
“Vitamins Can Be Dangerous In High Amounts” &
“Government Sets Tolerable Upper Limits”
The information in the article had several flaws.
1. Where several vitamins are listed on vitamin and supplement bottles in iu or “international units” each of these vitamins were listed in milligrams or micrograms.
That means that without knowing the conversion factors, the information, even if accurate, is useless. In addition, these conversion factors seem NOT to be online !!
As you’ll see below, I did manage to get the conversions. But it took some research.
2. Some of the information presented was accurate for some vitamins and slightly off for others; and one for one vitamin, vitamin D3, we now know that the Tolerable Upper Limit they list is about what the minimum daily requirement is while the optimum daily intake or allowance is about 50 % MORE than their Tolerable Upper Limit!
Since my time is limited as is yours to read this, here are the important items.
1. Vitamin A has two forms, retinol which comes from animal sources, and beta carotene, which is one of the many carotenes found in plants.
The daily value or RDA is 3,000 iu and 900 mg of retinol while the Tolerable Upper Limit of 3,000 mg is equal to 10,000 iu. Since you get some retinol in foods and you can begin to get bad side effects over 20,000 iu a day of retinol, staying at or under 10,000 iu of retinol from supplements is about right.
Since retinol does have toxicity in high doses and can build up over time as it is fat soluble, taking 5,000 iu or at most 10,000 iu as a supplement is about right; & 3,000 or 5,000 iu in supplement form plus getting more vitamin A by eating carotene containing vegetables is likely better for you.
Since beta carotene is water soluble the www.supernutitrionusa.com info sheet I got shows that you can take up to 40,000 iu a day of it. BUT, 5,000 or 10,000 iu a day in supplements and eating lots of different carotene containing foods does a dramatically better job of supporting your health and preventing disease than taking that much beta carotene. And taking more than 10,000 iu of it without eating the vegetables with the carotenoids may cause unbalanced nutrition and bad results. This did happen in one study that gave high doses of beta carotene only and not more vegetables with mixed carotenes also to smokers.
2. Vitamin D3 is listed as having a Tolerable Upper Limit of 50 mcg a day. That turns out to be 2,000 iu. Oops! We now know that our bodies will use 2,000 to 3,000 iu a day of vitamin D3 and, while your body can make up to 15,000 iu a day in abundant sunshine, our economy no longer has most of us outside everyday working as hunter-gatherers or farmers. In addition to the exercise we no longer get, most of us no longer get much vitamin D3 from sunshine. We work indoors and often spend our time off indoors`.
That means that 2,000 iu a day of vitamin D3 is the minimum daily requirement most people need and that the optimum daily intake or allowance is about 3,000 iu.
In addition, although 20,000 to 50,000 iu of vitamin D3 or more may cause some problems if anyone not badly deficient in it takes it for several weeks or more, there are no studies of which I’ve heard that find that 10,000 iu or more is a problem. So, I’ve been suggesting people take at least 2,000 iu and, unless they have had a blood test, showing deficiency of vitamin D3, less than 5,000 iu to be extra conservative. But clearly for something labeled the Tolerable Upper Limit, 10,000 iu is about right. Unfortunately, that is FIVE times what this report says the government set it at.
The evidence I’ve seen suggests this 2,000 iu Tolerable Upper Limit for vitamin D3 is so inaccurately low as to be incompetent. It might not be in small children. But in adults it’s a joke.
3. For Vitamin B6 they have the Tolerable Upper Limit about right from what I’ve read at 100 mg a day.
The www.supernutitrionusa.com info sheet I got says that 200 mg a day is safe and up to 450 might be; but I read that at levels of 150 to 300 mg many people begin to develop numbness from nerve damage in various parts of their bodies that wasn’t always reversible by discontinuing the excess B6. To put it mildly, nerve damage is NOT good. So, to be sure people avoid that, 100 mg a day is safe for everyone. To be fair, 200 mg is likely safe for most people. But the Tolerable Upper Limit SHOULD be set at the limit that is safe for everyone.
4. For folic acid, the synthetic form of the folacin that is in plants, they have a Tolerable Upper Limit of 1,000 mcg a day. 1,000 mcg a day plus 6 to 9 servings of foods high in the folacin form of folic acid is likely better for you than 2,000 mcg of folic acid.
But people who need to lower their homocysteine levels and should do so for avoiding the things that high homocysteine tends to cause, may need up to 2500 mcg of folic acid. So for this one, I think 2500 or 3,000 mcg is a better Tolerable Upper Limit than 1,000 while the www.supernutitrionusa.com info sheet has no reported problems up to nearly 400,000.
5. I’ve not seen the Tolerable Upper Limit for iron. But there is evidence that the RDA or daily value of 18 mg a day is likely to be about right for a Tolerable Upper Limit. And that is safer for people who are deficient or anemic and women who are menstruating and for people who take abundant antioxidants and eat abundant antioxidant containing fruits and vegetables. Excess iron in normal people can help cause heart disease and speed aging as it is an oxidant.
Further, some people have a condition where their bodies don’t remove excess iron and can build up dangerous levels of it.
So, 18 mg a day is likely the Tolerable Upper Limit for iron. And some people should simply not take any other iron than what they get in foods.
6. Copper is another oxidant mineral I’ve not seen a Tolerable Upper Limit for. But 3 mg a day may be about right. Like iron, some people find taking any copper at all toxic. That is unfortunate however since the body need copper to balance your zinc intake. AND, copper deficiency causes heart disease while adequate copper tends to prevent dangerous aneurisms where your arteries balloon in size and can split and rupture causing rapid death. So for most people 2 or 3 mg a day of copper is important. But also taking abundant antioxidants and eating abundant antioxidant containing fruits and vegetables is a good idea to combat copper’s oxidant effect.
7. Zinc has a listed Tolerable Upper Limit of 60 mg a day I think. That is about right. Up to 45 mg a day regularly plus 3 mg a day of copper to balance it, tends to keep your immune system strong, your body healthy including good sexual function, and keep your HDL high.
But, while taking about 30 to 60 mg extra zinc when you first come down sick can help, a daily intake of MORE than 60 mg a day of zinc on a regular basis WEAKENS your immune system. Plus it means to balance it you need more copper than is likely a good idea. So 30 to 45 mg a day is good while 60 mg a day might be OK and more than 60 is not.
8. Niacin, nicotinic acid, sometimes called vitamin B3, can cause liver problems in amounts of 1,000 mg a day or more. But there is good evidence that even though 300 to 600 mg a day in 300 mg doses is safe and is very effective in preventing heart disease and cardiovascular disease it does cause a “flushing” effect which feels like a mild but all over temporary sunburn if you take it on an empty stomach.
The 35 mg Tolerable Upper Limit listed is one that avoids this flushing sensation. But healthwise, it is nearly 30 times too low. If you know the flushing is harmless and may even be beneficial due to the stretching and expanding it gives your capillaries, 900 or 1,000 mg a day is the Tolerable Upper Limit for niacin that I think makes more sense. I suggest taking 300 mg once a day or twice a day after meals plus whatever you get in your multivitamin or B-complex of niacin or its nonflushing cousin niacinimide. And, 300 three times a day is likely safe for most people as liver problems tend to show up at 1,000 mg a day or more.
So this one they also got far wrong.
But niacin DOES have a real Tolerable Upper Limit at 1,000. If your HDL and LDL and triglyceride levels are all horribly bad, it may well pay you to take 1,000 mg a day or more of niacin. But it is only safe to do so if you get regular liver function tests and your doctor monitors you. (Note that while niacinimide has some real health benefits, it has none of the heart protective actions niacin has on LDL, triglycerides, and HDL. So, since I think most of us need those, I recommend taking both niacin AND niacinimide.)
Some of the other Tolerable Upper Limits I saw were a bit off. But these are 8 of nine that I think have real limits. And in two cases the stated Tolerable Upper Limit is way too low.
(The ninth one is vitamin E. But that one is a bit complex and less well tested. Plus I’m out of time. So, I’ll just say that 200 iu of natural vitamin E plus 30 or 50 iu of the man made alpha tocopherol acetate is likely safe while more than that may not be for everyone. It is also a good idea to eat some of the foods high in the whole vitamin E complex such as avocado, nuts, -- and wheat germ if your body processes wheat and gluten OK.)
Today's post: Monday, 3-9-2009
I happened upon a news article with these statements.:
“Vitamins Can Be Dangerous In High Amounts” &
“Government Sets Tolerable Upper Limits”
The information in the article had several flaws.
1. Where several vitamins are listed on vitamin and supplement bottles in iu or “international units” each of these vitamins were listed in milligrams or micrograms.
That means that without knowing the conversion factors, the information, even if accurate, is useless. In addition, these conversion factors seem NOT to be online !!
As you’ll see below, I did manage to get the conversions. But it took some research.
2. Some of the information presented was accurate for some vitamins and slightly off for others; and one for one vitamin, vitamin D3, we now know that the Tolerable Upper Limit they list is about what the minimum daily requirement is while the optimum daily intake or allowance is about 50 % MORE than their Tolerable Upper Limit!
Since my time is limited as is yours to read this, here are the important items.
1. Vitamin A has two forms, retinol which comes from animal sources, and beta carotene, which is one of the many carotenes found in plants.
The daily value or RDA is 3,000 iu and 900 mg of retinol while the Tolerable Upper Limit of 3,000 mg is equal to 10,000 iu. Since you get some retinol in foods and you can begin to get bad side effects over 20,000 iu a day of retinol, staying at or under 10,000 iu of retinol from supplements is about right.
Since retinol does have toxicity in high doses and can build up over time as it is fat soluble, taking 5,000 iu or at most 10,000 iu as a supplement is about right; & 3,000 or 5,000 iu in supplement form plus getting more vitamin A by eating carotene containing vegetables is likely better for you.
Since beta carotene is water soluble the www.supernutitrionusa.com info sheet I got shows that you can take up to 40,000 iu a day of it. BUT, 5,000 or 10,000 iu a day in supplements and eating lots of different carotene containing foods does a dramatically better job of supporting your health and preventing disease than taking that much beta carotene. And taking more than 10,000 iu of it without eating the vegetables with the carotenoids may cause unbalanced nutrition and bad results. This did happen in one study that gave high doses of beta carotene only and not more vegetables with mixed carotenes also to smokers.
2. Vitamin D3 is listed as having a Tolerable Upper Limit of 50 mcg a day. That turns out to be 2,000 iu. Oops! We now know that our bodies will use 2,000 to 3,000 iu a day of vitamin D3 and, while your body can make up to 15,000 iu a day in abundant sunshine, our economy no longer has most of us outside everyday working as hunter-gatherers or farmers. In addition to the exercise we no longer get, most of us no longer get much vitamin D3 from sunshine. We work indoors and often spend our time off indoors`.
That means that 2,000 iu a day of vitamin D3 is the minimum daily requirement most people need and that the optimum daily intake or allowance is about 3,000 iu.
In addition, although 20,000 to 50,000 iu of vitamin D3 or more may cause some problems if anyone not badly deficient in it takes it for several weeks or more, there are no studies of which I’ve heard that find that 10,000 iu or more is a problem. So, I’ve been suggesting people take at least 2,000 iu and, unless they have had a blood test, showing deficiency of vitamin D3, less than 5,000 iu to be extra conservative. But clearly for something labeled the Tolerable Upper Limit, 10,000 iu is about right. Unfortunately, that is FIVE times what this report says the government set it at.
The evidence I’ve seen suggests this 2,000 iu Tolerable Upper Limit for vitamin D3 is so inaccurately low as to be incompetent. It might not be in small children. But in adults it’s a joke.
3. For Vitamin B6 they have the Tolerable Upper Limit about right from what I’ve read at 100 mg a day.
The www.supernutitrionusa.com info sheet I got says that 200 mg a day is safe and up to 450 might be; but I read that at levels of 150 to 300 mg many people begin to develop numbness from nerve damage in various parts of their bodies that wasn’t always reversible by discontinuing the excess B6. To put it mildly, nerve damage is NOT good. So, to be sure people avoid that, 100 mg a day is safe for everyone. To be fair, 200 mg is likely safe for most people. But the Tolerable Upper Limit SHOULD be set at the limit that is safe for everyone.
4. For folic acid, the synthetic form of the folacin that is in plants, they have a Tolerable Upper Limit of 1,000 mcg a day. 1,000 mcg a day plus 6 to 9 servings of foods high in the folacin form of folic acid is likely better for you than 2,000 mcg of folic acid.
But people who need to lower their homocysteine levels and should do so for avoiding the things that high homocysteine tends to cause, may need up to 2500 mcg of folic acid. So for this one, I think 2500 or 3,000 mcg is a better Tolerable Upper Limit than 1,000 while the www.supernutitrionusa.com info sheet has no reported problems up to nearly 400,000.
5. I’ve not seen the Tolerable Upper Limit for iron. But there is evidence that the RDA or daily value of 18 mg a day is likely to be about right for a Tolerable Upper Limit. And that is safer for people who are deficient or anemic and women who are menstruating and for people who take abundant antioxidants and eat abundant antioxidant containing fruits and vegetables. Excess iron in normal people can help cause heart disease and speed aging as it is an oxidant.
Further, some people have a condition where their bodies don’t remove excess iron and can build up dangerous levels of it.
So, 18 mg a day is likely the Tolerable Upper Limit for iron. And some people should simply not take any other iron than what they get in foods.
6. Copper is another oxidant mineral I’ve not seen a Tolerable Upper Limit for. But 3 mg a day may be about right. Like iron, some people find taking any copper at all toxic. That is unfortunate however since the body need copper to balance your zinc intake. AND, copper deficiency causes heart disease while adequate copper tends to prevent dangerous aneurisms where your arteries balloon in size and can split and rupture causing rapid death. So for most people 2 or 3 mg a day of copper is important. But also taking abundant antioxidants and eating abundant antioxidant containing fruits and vegetables is a good idea to combat copper’s oxidant effect.
7. Zinc has a listed Tolerable Upper Limit of 60 mg a day I think. That is about right. Up to 45 mg a day regularly plus 3 mg a day of copper to balance it, tends to keep your immune system strong, your body healthy including good sexual function, and keep your HDL high.
But, while taking about 30 to 60 mg extra zinc when you first come down sick can help, a daily intake of MORE than 60 mg a day of zinc on a regular basis WEAKENS your immune system. Plus it means to balance it you need more copper than is likely a good idea. So 30 to 45 mg a day is good while 60 mg a day might be OK and more than 60 is not.
8. Niacin, nicotinic acid, sometimes called vitamin B3, can cause liver problems in amounts of 1,000 mg a day or more. But there is good evidence that even though 300 to 600 mg a day in 300 mg doses is safe and is very effective in preventing heart disease and cardiovascular disease it does cause a “flushing” effect which feels like a mild but all over temporary sunburn if you take it on an empty stomach.
The 35 mg Tolerable Upper Limit listed is one that avoids this flushing sensation. But healthwise, it is nearly 30 times too low. If you know the flushing is harmless and may even be beneficial due to the stretching and expanding it gives your capillaries, 900 or 1,000 mg a day is the Tolerable Upper Limit for niacin that I think makes more sense. I suggest taking 300 mg once a day or twice a day after meals plus whatever you get in your multivitamin or B-complex of niacin or its nonflushing cousin niacinimide. And, 300 three times a day is likely safe for most people as liver problems tend to show up at 1,000 mg a day or more.
So this one they also got far wrong.
But niacin DOES have a real Tolerable Upper Limit at 1,000. If your HDL and LDL and triglyceride levels are all horribly bad, it may well pay you to take 1,000 mg a day or more of niacin. But it is only safe to do so if you get regular liver function tests and your doctor monitors you. (Note that while niacinimide has some real health benefits, it has none of the heart protective actions niacin has on LDL, triglycerides, and HDL. So, since I think most of us need those, I recommend taking both niacin AND niacinimide.)
Some of the other Tolerable Upper Limits I saw were a bit off. But these are 8 of nine that I think have real limits. And in two cases the stated Tolerable Upper Limit is way too low.
(The ninth one is vitamin E. But that one is a bit complex and less well tested. Plus I’m out of time. So, I’ll just say that 200 iu of natural vitamin E plus 30 or 50 iu of the man made alpha tocopherol acetate is likely safe while more than that may not be for everyone. It is also a good idea to eat some of the foods high in the whole vitamin E complex such as avocado, nuts, -- and wheat germ if your body processes wheat and gluten OK.)
Labels: health benefits of niacin, niacin. heart health, safe amount of vitamins, safe amounts of mineral supplements, Tolerable Upper Limits for vitamins and minerals, vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamins
posted by David at 2:25 PM
2 Comments:
can WE SIMPLIFY ALL THIS? PLEASE!!just tell us what to eat and how much? IM TOTALLY CONFUSED! never know what to eat of what that contains what? for eg? what contains magnesium? niacin? zinc? b vitamins? etc? plus,other anti-oxidant goodies? and--beyond that one---WHO STARTED ALL THIS ? AND WHY? seems so complex and farms the vitamin companies? is this more "CONTRACT RIGGING ?" AND "MONEY GRABS"---? --its like the "coffeee news" and "wine " news? seems like they "pay the news corporations" to tell us "studies show it lowers cholesterol and lenghtens our lives"? ---thankyou
This comment is in reply to both Kirsten and "Viagra."
I'll reply to Kirsten first; but if you have an interest in Viagra, be sure to see that reply!
Kirsten,
Here's the simple outline.
I. On food.:
A. "Eat real food. Not too much & mostly plants."
Food author and jounalist Michael Pollan said that.
I'll add that organically grown plants and eating meat from animials that in turn ate only the food they evolved to eat is MUCH better for you.
The real foods include raw fresh vegetables & steamed fresh vegetables, spicy plants and spices made from them such as garlic, onion, basil, rosemary, sage, etc; whole fruits, beef or buffalo meat from animimals fed only grass, milk from such animals, or nonfat or very lowfat dairy products, meat from pasture raised only chicken and turkeys, eggs from such chickens, raw nuts, cooked beans and lentils, wild caught fish that are low in mercury such as salmon and sardines, etc. For people who are not fat and exercise regularly, foods made from whole grains can be OK. I include unsweetened cocoa, water, tea, green tea, coffee, and extra virgin olive oil as real foods.
B. Do NOT drink or eat stuff that is not on that list -- or if you do, do it once or twice a week total and no more.
Those other things provide only calories and taste mostly; cost money that is basically wasted as a way to feed your body; make you fat; cause diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and worse-- particularly if you ingest the stuff several times a day.
Those include oils high in omega 6 oil such as corn oil and soy oil, and unfortunately, canoloa oil; high fructose corn syrup, ALL regular and diet soft drinks; any product made with hydrogenated vegetable oil or that contains any transfats; and it includes foods made with refined grains. Foods made of this stuff are seemingly cheap and taste good and have a long shelf life. But they make you fat and sick and charge you money for it!
A lot of people do eat that stuff now; but we are paying horribly high health care costs for the medical care for the older people who have been eating that stuff for years now; and it's made them sick with avoidable diseases.
So, it IS simple. If you want to be healthy, learn to eat well from just the real foods list.
For recipes made of such foods, see: www.totalhealtbreakthroughs.com or buy Prevention magazine for ideas.
II. On supplements.:
If you eat well from only real foods, you'll already get many of the vitamins and minerals you need.
However, to be sure you get enough of the basics since on any given day you might be a little low on one or more vitamins and minerals, be sure to take a good daily vitamin and mineral supplement and another 2,000 iu of vitamin D and at least another 500 mg of vitamin C each day.
To put it simply, other supplements are taken as solutions to problems or to improve or prevent something.
Start out with what you want to do extra and then take the supplements that do that.
As an example, if you want to think better, be less irritable and more even tempered, or experience less depression, &/or be less likely to get heart attacks, take DHA, omega 3 supplements from purified fish oil, and eat wild caught salmon or sardines that are high in omega 3 oils.
If you have a health problem or want to prevent it, there often are supplements that will help prevent it or make it better. Ask at the health food store or do a Google search. You can also look up specific supplements on Wikipedia.
"Viagra" posted on this topic for a post that is not quite relevant.
HOWEVER, on Thursday, 3-19-2009, we did a post called, "Veggie Viagra" available now that does talk about this subject. If you have this problem and want to avoid your doctor, that post might help you.
Also, if you are an older man who needs viagra, you also likely have cardiovascular disease and do everthing you can to protect your heart and make the lifestyle changes necessary to do that. See our many posts on that.
We also recommend only buying Viagra if you get a prescription from it from a doctor you see in person and buy it from Walgreens or drugstore.com or some other source that will NOT sell you a sugar pill or Viagra that is at half strength or that has dangerous chemical or bacterial contaminants. (Some stuff sold as Viagra elsewhere DOES have those problems.)
Post a Comment
<< Home