By Jonathan Evans
Herbal Information Specialist for the Herbarium
Here we go again. Almost on cue, news reports come out stating the use of multivitamins have no beneficial effect on humans, essentially all they do is give you expensive urine.
If I had a dollar for every time this statement has been made, broadcast or printed, I could have retired a long time ago.
Honestly, if the news people would even try to research this stuff, they would find just how important using a supplemental vitamin can be. The talking heads just get the news blurb, comb their hair and smile at the camera. I even doubt most of them could spell research if I spotted them five letters. (I am allowed to comment on these people since I was a reporter for many years and prided myself on getting the facts straight).
But enough grousing.
The latest vitamin flap
Here’s the facts: a recent story was published about how useless vitamin supplements are. Of course the source of the story was a prominent university, which must be right.
Wrong!
The story as published offered little in the way of detail on how the study was structured, what parameters were used, or what product was used in the study, etc., etc.
What galls me is the lack of research done on these studies. I have been looking into this sort of thing for years and have been able to find where the flaws are. Usually the research is designed to support an already established conclusion, sort of reverse engineering, if you will.
If these people even bothered to talk with established experts, I am sure the conclusions would be different.
Case in point, Dr. Tieraona Low Dog MD has spent years trying to get the government to stop saying people can get all their nutritional needs from a “balanced diet.” Dr. Low Dog comes with an impressive background. She was appointed to the White House Committee for Complementary and Alternative Medicine by President Clinton, She served on and chaired many governmental committees including the Advisory Council for the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute to name just a few. She also appeared some years ago at a program sponsored by Baystate Medical Center. (My wife helped get her brought in to do her talks).
Had she been consulted before this most recent study, it could have been eye opening for the researchers.
And the recent calcium flap
While I am on the subject, you may have seen the story about women being told to stop taking their calcium supplements because of the danger of kidney stones and hardening of the arteries. Ironically, this is true to a point, and directly the result of the advice given to women for the past 60-plus years. There are still commercials that suggest taking Tums for calcium is a good idea. Good for the Tums Company – but not for you.
Women have been told to take calcium with vitamin D for their bones, usually 1,200 mgs daily. When that did not work women were told to take more calcium.
Researchers from several universities and medical centers have shown that too much calcium flushes out the magnesium, further affecting proper absorption. The problem is calcium carbonate (the main ingredient in Tums) neutralizes stomach acid.
Here is a quick quiz: if you wanted to dissolve a bone (which is calcium) would you put it in water or acid? Answer: acid. Very good. So explain to me how using an acid-neutralizing agent is going to help break down calcium?
As we age, we produce less stomach acid, so digestion gets more difficult. Trying to break down calcium requires a better form of calcium, an acid agent and magnesium for better absorption, and magnesium helps to activate vitamin D. (I have written about this over the years. Check Prime magazines archives at www.primeontheweb.com/health for more detail.) When you are not absorbing the calcium it has to go somewhere, such as your arteries and kidneys. How is it that Americans are in the top three countries for calcium intake and yet we still have extremely high rates of osteopenia and osteoporosis?
The research is there, people; unfortunately the people who keep getting grants to study these conditions keep using the same tired information and keep coming up with the same tired and incorrect conclusions.
More vitamin misinformation
Someday, I will tell you about the erroneous study on vitamin E being dangerous, vitamin C allegedly causing hardening of the arteries (it doesn’t) Ginkgo biloba having no effect on memory, and homeopathic remedies that do not have any effect on humans (they do).
You may ask, “Why do they keep repeating these erroneous stories?” I wish I had an answer for you.
Jonathan
Send questions on botanical remedies to: Natures Rx: Jonathan Evans at herbarium258@gmail.com, or by regular mail to: The Herbarium,
264 Exchange Street, Chicopee, MA 01013. If requesting additional info, Include a self-addressed stamped envelope.
