Outdated vitamin & mineral guidelines....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.)

Supplements that help prevent dementia…..

Today's post: Friday, 1-4-2008

I read a recent article about this last week. And, I thought it worth passing along the info to you. I subscribe to an email on health topics from the people at www.hsibaltimore.com

A. Here’s my report on their 5 points. I add two of my own under B. at the end of the article.

1. They quote a study that found that older people who supplemented with a small amount of daily beta carotene for over 10 years had better verbal memory than those who had not.

There are two ways to get that much beta carotene yourself. Most multivitamins today use beta carotene as their source of vitamin A, so by simply taking one such multivitamin & mineral each day, you can get a good bit of beta carotene.

But be sure to do the second method also. The carotenoids (or carotenes, if you prefer) seem to have the most health benefits & deliver them most safely if you get mixed carotenoids from the foods you eat. Carrots, sweet potatoes, orange & yellow colored squash, tomatoes & tomato sauces,& pumpkin, which you can easily buy as unsweetened pumpkin pie filling, are all high in carotenoids. So are broccoli and spinach and kale & other green leafy vegetables it may surprise you to know. The dark green pigment in them hides the orange & yellow carotenoids; but they ARE still there. In addition, eating these vegetables has many other health benefits including help keep excess fat off of your body.

2. They also quote a study that showed that people with Alzheimer's disease & other kinds of mental decline all had low levels of the Omega 3 called DHA for short. Even better, the people with high levels of DHA had half the risk of getting any kind of mental decline.

Here again there are several ways to get DHA. I personally do all three since DHA & other omega 3’s seem to help prevent depression & improve thinking skills in healthy people – plus, they seem to lower the unhealthy inflammation that helps cause many diseases.

You can take DHA directly as a supplement. Both Whole Foods Market & Source Naturals sell it. You can take Omega 3 supplements that have both DHA & EPA that are based on thoroughly purified fish oil. I take the one by Nordic Naturals. And, most potent of all, you can eat at least two servings a week of a health OK fish that is high in Omega 3.

(Since omega 3’s & omega 6’s seem to compete in your body, it may also help you get the balance that favors high blood levels of DHA to take in far less omega 6’s than most people. Grain, oils like corn oil, & the meat of animals & poultry fed grain instead of their natural diet are all high in omega 6’s. Beef fed only grass, poultry only naturally fed, & extra virgin olive oil are great substitutes. Grass fed beef is available & even has omega 3’s. Naturally fed poultry will become available I think. And, extra virgin olive oil is very low in both omega 6’s & saturated fat. It’s high in the monosaturated omega 9’s.)

3. Many kinds of mental decline are caused by circulatory problems. Since niacin both lowers the circulation damaging LDL cholesterol AND boosts the protective HDL cholesterol in your blood, it has been shown to prevent heart attack, stroke, & other circulation problems.

Not surprisingly, the people who took in the most niacin in their food had 80 percent less risk of mental decline. I take 600 mg a day of extra niacin, 300 mg after breakfast & 300 mg after lunch. And, I eat wild caught salmon two or three times a week which is one of the best sources of niacin also. (Taking the niacin after my meals help prevent the flushing response most of the time, while I get the flush every time if I take it on an empty stomach.)

Whole Foods Market sells real niacin in 300 mg tablets for a very reasonable price. (Their no flush niacin looks almost the same, so be careful to get the real niacin. I take two of the no flush niacin tablets a day also. But there is far less evidence that it works. And, it costs more besides. If you only take one, be sure to get the real niacin.)

4. Homocysteine levels in the blood of over 9.0 cause faster aging & circulatory problems including the related mental decline & heart disease. B complex vitamins support health nerves including those in the brain. And, lots of folic acid from supplements & leafy green vegetables over 2 grams a day plus 50 to 75 mg a day of B6 (more B6 is harmful by the way) & 500 micrograms or more of the methyl form of B12 all lower homocysteine.

So, it should be no surprise that people who have low homocysteine levels & high levels of B vitamins tend to get a LOT less mental decline. The data show people with high homocysteine & low B Complex vitamins were predictably likely to get mental decline. (Note: all smoking & second hand smoke exposure BOOSTS your homocysteine levels.)

5. The last point in the HSI article is that those who take both vitamin C & E each day are also less likely to suffer mental decline. Note that the natural forms of vitamin C & E are the safe and effective ones. So in addition to taking vitamin C, be sure to take the vitamin E supplements made from natural sources & eat plenty of fruits & vegetables that are high in natural vitamin C. (Solgar makes a 200 iu mixed natural vitamin E that I highly recommend & take myself.)

B. My two points that were not in their article.:

1. Taking Curcumin each day may be nearly as important as all of the above in preventing Alzheimer’s disease. Curcumin is available from many companies as a supplement. Some of these may be called turmeric supplements since Curcumin is the active ingredient in turmeric.

The evidence suggests that Curcumin empowers your immune system to clean out the amyloid plaque from your brain enough to prevent the Alzheimer’s you would have gotten if that amyloid plaque accumulated too much over time.

Turmeric is a key component in curries. And, people from India who eat a lot of curry in their food seem to hardly ever get Alzheimers disease.

Now, with Curcumin supplements, you can enjoy curried food occasionally if you want; but you no longer need to eat it every day to get protection from Curcumin.

2. Eating blueberries has been shown to almost literally rejuvenate older brains & improves mental performance. In addition to eating blueberries every week, you can take bilberry extract supplements which have other health benefits & may be a close enough cousin of blueberries to have this effect. And, you can eat many other kinds of berries as they are all high in natural vitamin C & have enormous other health benefits. They are also a good for you food that tastes good !!

C. There are even more supplements that lower homocysteine & protect your brain. But if you use these 7 methods, you’ll get very good protection indeed.

Dr Dharma Khalsa has a book Brain Longevity you can read. And, he sells many of these other supplements if you want even more protection.

D. It also helps to avoid mercury build up as mercury tends to destroy nerves. Avoid eating fish high in mercury like king mackerel & swordfish. And, don’t eat tuna too often as it has some mercury. Also, if you or a relative gets mental decline, be sure to get a blood test for mercury as a good bit of excess mercury can be removed & it has reversed mental decline in some cases when that has been done.

Taking vitamins is still a good idea ….

Today's post: Wednesday, 10-24-2007

Some of you may have read the Reader’s Digest article recently called, “The Vitamin Hoax,”

I. Unfortunately, it gave & gives mostly bad & badly researched advice.

It’s main points that most people should try to rely on food only & to NOT take extra of certain vitamins & minerals at all is totally wrong to such an extent it’s very bad editorial judgment on the part of Reader’s Digest to publish it.

If someone reading their article, stops taking multivitamins or certain key vitamins at all, the evidence I’ve seen suggests they will harm their health.

II. First, here’s what they got right:

A. It says that the best way to get vitamins & mineral is to eat foods that contain them.

That’s important & it’s partly true for three reasons:

1. Really nutritious foods, like blueberries & broccoli for example, have an enormous amount of health enhancing & protecting nutrients besides the vitamins they contain. So eating a wide variety of nutrient rich or dense foods like most of the ones in the Readers Digest list is actually a good idea.

Using our two example foods, in addition to the vitamin C they contain, both blueberries & broccoli contain fiber that helps you feel full without getting fat; & they also contain potassium that helps keep your blood pressure low enough for good health. Blueberries also contain anthocyanins & flavonols that seem to improve mental functioning in older people & to prevent stroke & which may also help prevent all cardiovascular disease. And, broccoli contains many carotenoids which are also extremely valuable nutrients AND it contains at least two known cancer fighters besides the carotenoids.

2. Many vitamins are actually the best known or most important of a family of related life & health sustaining substances. But in foods rich in the vitamins in vitamin pills, you get the whole family of related nutrients. Vitamin E from foods, for example, is NOT just the alpha tocopherol that you get in vitamins. In addition to alpha tocopherol, there are 3 other tocopherols & four tocotrienols. You get those in foods like avocados, nuts, some leafy green vegetables, & wheat germ.

3. The vitamins stated on the labels of vitamin pills are often NOT the real vitamins. Many vitamins are organic molecules which are literally ONE of two mirror image molecules, called the left handed & the dex or right handed forms by chemists. Many vitamins made from synthetic sources are only half the real thing. Even if the mirror image version causes no problems, foods & vitamin pills that only contain vitamins from natural sources, have the real thing only & are at least twice as potent.

So, regardless of whether or not you take vitamins, they are right to recommend that you should eat as many of the foods high in them as you can.

(The tuna fish they recommend is often too high in mercury. And, they recommend meat & poultry which are too high in omega 6 oils & saturated fat when grain fed and which many people already eat more of then is good for them. Wild & pasture fed poultry & meat in moderation is much safer to eat & has some omega 3 oils. They also recommend fish. Similarly, farmed fish tend to be grain fed & so high in pollutants & low in omega 3’s they are likely best not eaten. Mercifully wild caught are mostly still good for you.

The good news is that, particularly if organically grown, the nuts, legumes, fruits & vegetables they recommend are good for you.)

B. Second, they got something right; but irresponsibly left out the most important parts. And, their coverage was incomplete. So the article is a very BAD guide for people.

Some vitamins are actually bad for people in excess. They did get that right.

But except by not taking any of the vitamins in question, which the research I’ve seen shows in extremely bad for people to do, they fail to give enough information to guide people in taking those vitamins.

The animal form of vitamin A is not good for you if you take 25,000 iu a day or more. But it does have some value. And, I’ve never heard of research saying that getting 5,000 iu from a supplement & another 5,000 iu from food has caused problems. And, most vitamins now only have 5,000 iu of beta carotene, the water soluble, plant form of vitamin A.

They do say that high levels of beta carotene from pills only did have a bad track record in smokers. But they don’t emphasize enough that taking some, 5,000 iu, PLUS eating a wide variety of vegetables high in the whole family of carotenoids has been shown to have the REVERSE & positive effect.

They suggest that taking folic acid, B6, & B12 can cause problems if not in balance. Then they say NOTHING about what an OK balance is. This is irresponsible & stupid in the extreme since taking these 3 vitamins is one of the best ways to lower homocysteine levels if they are high or to prevent them from getting high. And, high homocysteine increases your rate of aging; sharply increase your chance of dying soon; & causes cardiovascular disease.

If they know so much, why leave that information out?

Even worse, they left out that taking B6 in excess of 200 mg a day often causes neurological & sensory problems.

That’s actually well known. Why leave it out? But it’s also true that taking up to 100 mg a day total, for sure & maybe up to 200 mg & getting as much as you can in foods will either lower your blood pressure if it’s high or keep it low enough for good health to begin with.

Zinc can be harmful in excess. More than 50 mg a day for an extended period has the reverse effects of getting 25 to 45 mg a day. And, they leave out that if you get extra zinc, you may need to take a bit of extra copper as zinc & copper have bad effects if they are not balanced by about ten percent of the intake of zinc as copper. So taking 30 mg of zinc suggests you should also get a total of 3 mg of cooper each day. But to suggest NOT taking any zinc when the lower amount is actually proven to have health benefits is NOT sound or desirable. The lower amount, 25 to 45 mg a day total, actually boosts HDL levels which is heart protective & has other positive health effects. Their suggestion to simply leave those potential benefits on the table & not take any since too much has the reverse effect is not very bright.

C. They also probably got right that taking 2,000 mg of vitamin D3 is a good idea based on the recent research on this & more people getting outside in the sun less.

It works with calcium to keep your bones strong & your blood pressure low enough for good health. And it seems to improve immune functioning enough to prevent you from catching serious diseases like TB; get well faster; & to prevent or kill off cancer. It may also prevent or help treat autoimmune diseases like MS.

They don’t say that the form of vitamin D in most multivitamins is a form that is only about 30 % as strong as D3. (That means the 400 iu stated only has the effect of 120 of D3 though 120 is a LOT better than none.)

Oddly, like vitamin A, taking more than 25,000 iu a day for an extended period may not be wise. And, they say nothing about this.

Since it’s relatively easy to get up to 15,000 iu a day from summer sun exposure, taking up to 2,000 to 5,000 iu a day should be quite safe however.

III. The worst part of the article though is the part where it suggests that NOT taking any extra of most of the main vitamins is either desirable or good for your health.

And, here again they state correctly that some vitamins are harmful in excess but they ignore the proven benefits of lower amounts & do NOT state how much is definitely too much & how much is actually quite safe.

Here are a few examples.:

Vitamin C They state that there is no conclusive evidence taking it prevents heart disease. Unfortunately, they or the research they relied on seems to have conveniently ignored quite substantial research that basically proves this incorrect.

I got this in an email not long ago:
The Nurses' Health Study followed more than 85,000 women for up to 16 years. This study found that a higher intake (more than 359 mg a day from food and supplements) reduced cardiovascular risk by 27 percent.

Similarly, an analysis of NINE other studies of more than 290,000 people total found a 25 percent reduction in risk in people who took more than 700 mg vitamin C, compared with those who took none.

I find it strange that they would write an advice article in a publication like the Readers Digest that goes to millions of people & not do enough due diligence to find that information.

Personally, even without the other studies I’ve read about the health benefits of vitamin C, studies like the Nurses Health Study that are reasonably well done & which include such large numbers over several years strike me as being close to conclusive.

Niacin Similarly, taking niacin is enormously protective for your heart & cardiovascular system.

It RAISES your beneficial HDL cholesterol better than anything else yet known. And, even if some of the drugs to do that eventually work, niacin will still be safer, likely as effective, & cost a LOT less.

It lowers your LDL cholesterol nearly as well as statin drugs. And, even more importantly, it causes much of your LDL cholesterol to bunch up into pillows of it that are too large to fit into the molecular chinks in your artery walls & prevents it from sticking to your blood vessels & causing high blood pressure & cardiovascular disease. (Regular exercise has all these same beneficial effects by the way.)

Taking niacin has been found to LOWER death rates.

So is it a hoax to suggest taking niacin? Is it sound advice to suggest ONLY eating tiny amounts in food instead? It certainly is NOT.

The evidence is that taking up to 1,000 mg a day is quite safe for most people. And, for people who take more than that, the risk of liver damage does exist.

And, if you do take three 500 mg capsules of time release niacin as heart health expert, Robert Kowalski, recommends & does himself, you do have to have periodic liver function blood tests to check for problems. But problems are not common & when problems occur cutting back the amount or discontinuing over the counter or prescription pain pills like NSAID’s or cutting back on excessive drinking often solve the problem & can be done in time to avoid permanent harm.

This is actually well known & the authors of this piece conveniently didn’t mention it.

Lycopene Lastly, 30 mg a day of lycopene, when taken in the form that is derived from extracts of real tomatoes did once test as slowing existing prostate cancer. And , it also has been found to significantly reduce blood pressure in people where it was too high before.

They are right to suggest eating tomatoes. They have other health benefits besides lycopene for example. And, eating tomato sauce is better as lycopene & the other carotenoids in tomatoes are more bioavailable when cooked & eaten with the extra virgin olive oil that is often in tomato sauces. You also wind up eating more tomatoes at a time.

The same kind of thing is true for the other vitamins they suggest NOT taking.

The bottom line is that almost all the conclusions they reach are wrong or stated in a way that LEAVES OUT the information that would enable readers to safely get the proven benefits of taking vitamins & the other supplements they include.

I’ve seen evidence in earlier times that the Readers Digest used to have higher standards.

X* X* X *X *X

They do quote a study that found that taking vitamins seemed to increase prostate cancer incidence or the amount of the more dangerous form.

A recent study found that eating either cauliflower or broccoli even once every week cut the incidence of the more dangerous form in half. So, even if the study showing this negative effect is true, I suspect you can take vitamins & eat those foods more than once a week and cancel out this effect even if it exists.

Many multivitamins contain iron & copper. These are valuable nutrients for many people. But some people don’t process iron well & get excessive iron build up. This also happens to some people with copper. And, if you take iron or copper, it’s important to keep your intake of saturated fat low as that high saturated fat plus taking iron or copper is apparently harmful. Keeping your saturated fat intake low is a good idea anyway, so that seems like the better way to solve that problem to me.

Those effects might explain this finding since most multivitamins contain copper & many contain iron though there are now multis that leave out iron.

But until further studies show more exactly what this effect is & confirm it exists, I remain skeptical. And, even then, I prefer to counteract the effect in other ways without losing the value of taking the vitamins.