Take multivitamins, AMA urges in policy reversal

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Linnea
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Take multivitamins, AMA urges in policy reversal

Post by Linnea » 06-19-2002 02:12 AM

Take multivitamins, AMA urges in policy reversal

By Ronald Kotulak
Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — Reversing a long-standing anti-vitamin policy, The Journal of the American Medical Association today is advising all adults to take at least one multivitamin pill each day.

Scientists' understanding of the benefits of vitamins has rapidly advanced, and it now appears that people who get enough vitamins may be able to prevent such common chronic illnesses as cancer, heart disease and osteoporosis, according to Drs. Robert Fletcher and Kathleen Fairfield of Harvard University, who wrote the new guidelines.

The last time JAMA made a comprehensive review of vitamins, about 20 years ago, it concluded people of normal health shouldn't take multivitamins because they were a waste of time and money. People can get all the nutrients they need from their diet, JAMA advised, adding that only pregnant women and chronically sick people may need certain vitamins.

That was at a time when knowledge about vitamins was just beginning to expand. The role that low levels of folate, or folic acid, play in neural tube defects, for instance, was not known, nor was its role as a major risk factor for heart disease.

Researchers hope JAMA's endorsement will encourage more people to reap health benefits of a daily multivitamin.

Health experts are increasingly worried that most American adults do not consume healthy amounts of vitamins in their diet, although they may be getting enough to ward off such vitamin-deficiency disorders as scurvy, beriberi and pellagra.

Almost 80 percent of Americans do not eat at least five helpings of fruits and vegetables a day, the recommended minimum amount believed to provide sufficient essential nutrients. Humans do not make their own vitamins, except for some vitamin D, and they must get them from an outside source to prevent metabolic disorders.

"It's nice to see this change in philosophy that's saying we can make public-health recommendations based on this really compelling set of data," said Dr. Jeffrey Blumberg, chief of antioxidant research at Tufts University's Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging.

Blumberg said the JAMA recommendations underscore a growing concern among nutrition experts that the recommended daily allowances, or RDAs, for many vitamins are set too low.

RDAs essentially were established to prevent symptoms of vitamin-deficiency disorders, he said. But evidence is growing that higher levels of many vitamins are necessary to achieve optimum health, he said. The National Academy of Sciences, which sets RDAs, is revising its recommendations based on the new evidence.

Even people who eat five daily servings of fruits and vegetables may not get enough of certain vitamins for optimum health, Fletcher said. Most people, for instance, cannot get the healthiest levels of folate and vitamins D and E from recommended diets, he said.

"All of us grew up believing that if we ate a reasonable diet, that would take care of our vitamin needs," Fletcher said. "But the new evidence, much of it in the last couple of years, is that vitamins also prevent the usual diseases we deal with every day — heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis and birth defects."

Because foods contain thousands of vitaminlike compounds — many not yet identified — that may be important for good health, vitamin supplements should not be a substitute for a wholesome diet, Blumberg said.

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eliza_nightvoice
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Post by eliza_nightvoice » 06-19-2002 08:22 AM

"Duh?" is right.

Wonder when those folks in the hallowed halls of the AMA will start realizing that they aren't the only medical practioners on the planet?

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Post by Cherry Kelly » 06-19-2002 10:22 AM

ayup I agree -- duh is very appropriate! Been taking multi-vitamins for years!

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Post by Poptart8 » 06-19-2002 02:26 PM

Geez, I was raised in a household of physicians and it was standard practice to swallow your daily vitamins. They hate making house calls to charity patients so the only viable alternative was to keep your family healthy by consuming vitamins and eating fresh garden grown vegies and fruits.

My kid brother never was given any antibiotics as a family test. He's a healthy 38 years old today!

As a kid I use to thumb through JAMA publications looking at the gross pictures of deformities. That's when I wasn't playing with the drug companies toys/plastic hearts, ears, limbs etc.

You have to understand that most physicians in the past where not trained in preventive medicine. They training was in injections or the use of oral medicines. The quick patch method of repairing a sick body.
We can sympathize with a child who is afraid of the dark, but the real tragedy of life is that most people are afraid of the light.

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Post by eliza_nightvoice » 06-19-2002 08:04 PM

Poptart, you're right.

Have a number of docsin my family, too. They are just trained to be body mechanics. "Fix it after it breaks." No real work on preventative measures. AMA /CDC just says it's up to the individual to be health pro-active by avoiding everything, because of some grad student's thesis work or a lame statistical survey.

But there are a lot of supplements out there that I'm sure are efficacious. Seems like such a waste of research resources to prove that they are all bogus. After all, they can't be patented, so they can't be any good. Right?

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Post by Ninerism » 06-20-2002 02:21 PM

Linnea, well ain't it about time?!

Look at the people a generation ago, the ones who grew-up closer to the food-sources on the farms, the ones who usually did some daily chores of real WORK indoors and outdoors, GOT SUNLIGHT INTO THEIR EYES EVERY DAY (reticular formation activated in the brain!), the ones who ate the fresh foods grown at home.... and they are probably the last of the best stock we will see, but for those who have been truly conscious to try to eat wholesome fresh veggies and fruits daily, too, and have sought to take their daily vit's knowing that too many foods today are overly-processed, and are vit-deficient due to depleted soils.

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Post by Ninerism » 06-20-2002 02:26 PM

Linnea, Eliza_Nightvoice, Cherry Kelly, PoptArt8, why would doctors, some who tell us that the human body is "merely" a finely tuned machine then think that we would not require highly-refined and nutritious foods to provide us the proper "fuels" to operate most optimally? Yet, they will be the first to buy a very expensive sports car, and understand that only high-octane fuel will meet the needs of that sensitive engine. Why would our bodies be less-needy of optimum-"fuels" than a sports car? Why wouldn't we require real essential vitamins and minerals each day?

The AMA has mis-led the public for far too many years!

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Post by Cherry Kelly » 06-21-2002 10:23 AM

As noted I took vitamins (multi kind) all my life - raised my sons with vitamins too. Knock on wood - have been fairly healthy. I also take some specific vitamins - extras on a rotational type basis. C with D boost - since C is so readily consumed by the body it needs the D boost. Extra B twice a week and E are also good for you.

Its about time the AMA and the medical ssociations start working on preventatives especially since they aren't doing such a hot job on curative end of things.

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Post by LisaA » 06-25-2002 12:39 PM

Yep.

When my daughter was 2 she got an ear infection, which we took care of with antibiotics. Then she got thrush. Then she got another ear infection...

Meanwhile my friend's kid got ear infections, three or four times, then had to have shunts put in to drain the kid's ears.

Erin got that second ear infection, and I let it go without giving her antibiotics. She wasn't that uncomfortable. I just kept her in bed. The ear infection came draining out her hear one night and it was gone after that. Never had one again.

My friend has always gone to doctors and gotten medication for whatever the problem was. I've always used supplements and avoided going to the doctor unless the reason was clear and the old immune system needed help. I like believing that we are basically okay and can get over things on our own. So I take vitamins because I think they help my body do its job better, and when you need something repaired you have to have the necessary supplies.

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Post by Ninerism » 06-25-2002 02:51 PM

LisaA: I have heard that colloidal silver can be used for many types of viral infections, and have heard it is one of the first "meds" used on babies, placed in baby's eyes to kill any bacteria/viruses, and have read that Ag.-colloid can be placed into ears, too, to help stop many ear infections nicely. It can be made at home for pennies per gallon, too! And has many many uses at home.

Oh, and just read, we all hear about prostate cancer.... well, per this idea, NICKEL is the noted invader, ends up in the prostate, and that condition "invites" parasites, and which then release ammonia that can be noticeably detected by smell in the urine, and that condition produces the cancer of prostate eventually. Well, per this idea, people can drink lots of COLLOIDAL SILVER and it will kill the parasites, and thus ammonia odors will be reduced and eliminated, and then other ways to eliminate the NICKEL from tissues, such as taking lots of fresh CILANTRO, it chelates the toxic metals from the tissues even from the prostate tissues. It is only recently discovered that common fresh CILANTRO can chelate toxic metals from body tissues.

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Post by Cherry Kelly » 06-26-2002 09:59 AM

There are many supplements people can take that do different things. However there are some vitamins - like B which one has to be careful about taking too much...

What ever happened to a child with a fever - mom doing a baking soda bath, or using cold cloth on back of neck or bottom of feet? Today it seems that its a rush to the doctors office for even the slightest rise in temperature.

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