THE CONTROVERSY AROUND VITAMINS & MINERALS SUPPLEMENTATION

VITAMINS & MINERALS SUPPLEMENTATION

Extra Calcium and Vitamin maybe Harmful says 

New York Times - November 30, 2010

There is no substitute for nature.  This applies to everything, including vitamin and mineral supplementation.  If you want to receive the appropriate level of vitamins and minerals, you need to follow a healthy and varied diet that provides your body with all the natural nutrients and supplements it requires for optimal functioning.  Absorption of synthetic supplements is always less efficient and most likely second-rate when compared to natural absorption received directly through the consumption of vegetables and fruit.  Medical authorities are starting to question supplementation as totally unnecessary and consider it as a potential health risk factor.  For more, read below.

The very high levels of vitamin D that are often recommended by doctors and testing laboratories — and can be achieved only by taking supplements — are unnecessary and could be harmful, an expert committee says. It also concludes that calcium supplements are not needed. The group said most people have adequate amounts of vitamin D in their blood supplied by their diets and natural sources like sunshine, the committee says in a report that is to be released on Tuesday. “For most people, taking extra calcium and vitamin D supplements is not indicated,” said Dr. Clifford J. Rosen, a member of the panel and an osteoporosis expert at the Maine Medical Center Research Institute. Dr. J. Christopher Gallagher, director of the bone metabolism unit at the Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Neb., agreed, adding, “The onus is on the people who propose extra calcium and vitamin D to show it is safe before they push it on people.” Over the past few years, the idea that nearly everyone needs extra calcium and vitamin D — especially vitamin D — has swept the nation. With calcium, adolescent girls may be the only group that is getting too little, the panel found. Older women, on the other hand, may take too much, putting themselves at risk for kidney stones. And there is evidence that excess calcium can increase the risk of heart disease, the group wrote. As for vitamin D, some prominent doctors have said that most people need supplements or they will be at increased risk for a wide variety of illnesses, including heart disease, cancer and autoimmune diseases. And these days more and more people know their vitamin D levels because they are being tested for it as part of routine physical exams. “The number of vitamin D tests has exploded,” said Dennis Black, a reviewer of the report who is a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco. At the same time, vitamin D sales have soared, growing faster than those of any supplement, according to The Nutrition Business Journal. Sales rose 82 percent from 2008 to 2009, reaching $430 million. “Everyone was hoping vitamin D would be kind of a panacea,” Dr. Black said. The report, he added, might quell the craze. “I think this will have an impact on a lot of primary care providers,” he said. The 14-member expert committee was convened by the Institute of Medicine, an independent nonprofit scientific body, at the request of the United States and Canadian governments. It was asked to examine the available data — nearly 1,000 publications — to determine how much vitamin D and calcium people were getting, how much was needed for optimal health and how much was too much. The two nutrients work together for bone health. Bone health, though, is only one of the benefits that have been attributed to vitamin D, and there is not enough good evidence to support most other claims, the committee said.

'Fish Oils and Omega-3 fatty acids: A cure for psychotic mental illnesses?'

BBC News - February 17, 2010

The essential fatty acid Omega-3 has tremendous effects on the brain when received in ample quantities, improving brain functioning significantly.  While Omega-3 oils are present in fish, a much healthier alternative - in a time when most fish is contaminated by human pollution and contains poisonous mercury levels - is to turn to organic vegetable sources of Omega-3 such as botanical blue-green algae (which is the source of the Omega-3 for fish) and flax seeds.  For more on the findings related to fish oil, read below. 

The BBC reported that 'taking a daily fish oil capsule can save off mental illness in those at highest risk'.  A three-month course of the supplement appeared to be as effective as drugs, cutting a rate of psychotic illness like

schizophrenia by a quarter. The researchers believe it is the Omega 3 in fish oil already held for promoting healthy hearts that has beneficial effects in the brain.