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Hi everyone!
I apologize for the lateness of this newsletter. What with the holidays and some traveling, I fell a little behind this month.
I'm writing this month about a trend that concerns me; that of taking TOO many supplements or vitamins. Another term for this is over-supplementation.
Some folks are concerned about the quantity of vitamins, minerals, etc., in our products. Since we've been conditioned to believe that "more is better" when it comes to supplementation, how can 1 ounce possibly contain so many good things!
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| The first thing I'd like to mention is that Dr. Drucker took great care to formulate the ratio and amounts of every single nutrient involved. Please keep in mind that carbon-bonding ensures a near 100% absorption into the body cells and when one is receiving that kind of efficacy of the included nutrients, megadoses are not necessary. In fact, most other supplements only achieve a cellular infusion percentage of 10-15%. So in order to receive what the body may require, it's often necessary to consume higher doses. Therein lies the danger.
I am constantly being told by our customers that their doctors have told them to take a certain amount of a particular vitamin such as B, C, D, E etc., far above the recommended guidelines. Now, I'm not pro-DV (daily value, former RDA) guidelines necessarily as far as the FDA is concerned. However, I think there is an increasingly dangerous practice of over-supplementation depending on the popularity of what I call the "vitamin du jour". What I've noticed is that along with the growing focus on a particular vitamin comes recommendations to increase the amount of that vitamin. We only need look at the excessive consumption of vitamin C years ago that was supposedly the cure for many ailments. People began consuming several grams of supplemental vitamin C and the result was an increase in GI distress in various forms and severity. Those recommendations were subsequently lowered.
I personally think that some current vitamin D recommendations are also set too high. There's always the potentially serious danger of hypervitaminosis from overconsumption of supplemental vitamin D (not from diet or sun exposure) which can lead to hypercalcemia and symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, poor appetite, constipation, weakness, confusion, heart arrhythmia, and kidney stones. There's also the consideration of those with health problems, such as liver or kidney disease or those taking thiazide-type diuretics which can make vitamin D overconsumption even more risky.
The Institute of Medicine (2009) recommends the same amount of daily vitamin D listed on our intraMAX label. Although the amounts do vary depending on the source, they are generally close. For example, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends closer to 300-400 IUs for children. Unofficially, we are seeing more recommendations for higher and higher levels of daily D. A level of up to 800 IUs for adults has been suggested for lowering the risk of osteoporosis, but that is nowhere near the megadoses of 2000 to 4000 IUs that are continually being recommended.
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I also believe that increasing the serum blood levels of vitamins is not necessarily a good test to determine vitamin absorption and utilization. If the vitamins are high in the blood, might that not mean they are not being absorbed by the body cells? Something to think about...
Logically and practically, if we look at a healthy diet, say the Mediterranean diet which consists primarily of grains, fruits and vegetables as well as some organic meats and fish, that person is getting at least 500-700 IUs of vitamin D, as one example, from a 3 ounce piece of fish or meat. However, since most people are NOT following that kind of healthy diet, but are eating according to the Standard American Diet (SAD), they are generally consuming much more meat and dairy and are thus receiving far more vitamin D than the current DV recommendations! Believe it or not, the same goes for calcium. Did you know that nearly every fruit or vegetable contains some amount of calcium (the best kind by the way)?
In my opinion health care providers should not be making blanket megadose recommendations for any vitamin or nutrient without taking into consideration specific individual deficiencies. Over-consumption of vitamins may wind up doing more harm than good.
In fact, when we think about it logically, it must be a very difficult process for the body to handle when we're taking a lot of different supplements from different companies, sources, strengths, purities, etc. I personally made my greatest progress with my health difficulties when stopping all other supplementation and sticking with the synergistic and comprehensive nutrient blends found in intraMAX and intraMIN. When supplementing this way and following a good, plant-based whole food organic diet, additional supplementation is rarely necessary.
Thank you once again for reading!
Until next month, I remain yours in good health!
Sincerely,
Dr. Mike drmichaelroth@juno.com 214-707-3878 www.SomaHealth.Net |
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