Vitamin Information Center

Supplements of vitamin B are thought to increase the risk of bowel cancer, warns Jennifer Swift

Shirley Sepstrup’s busy job in a hospital lab in East Sussex left her with little time to cook, so she often relied on convenience foods, hoping that her daily multivitamin pill would make up for any dietary deficiencies. But when a colonoscopy showed that, at 52, she had developed bowel cancer - like her father, uncle and grandfather - she had to radically change her eating habits.
Out went the ready meals, and Shirley began to eat wholefoods, drink 1.5 litres of water a day, and avoid known risks for bowel cancer - red meat, preserved meats such as ham and bacon, sugar and processed foods. But recently she learnt of an unexpected risk: a vitamin.

Folic acid is the synthetic form of a naturally occurring B vitamin, folate. Women who have good levels of folate in their diet, or take folic acid supplements, are far less likely to have babies affected by the birth defect spina bifida. America and Canada started adding folic acid to flour in 1998 and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in the UK has called for a similar fortification here. But recent research has linked high folic acid consumption with an increased risk of bowel cancer; the modest-sounding annual increase of one per cent could, in fact, amount to an extra 3,000 cases per year in the UK. Other evidence points to an increased risk of breast or prostate cancers.

Natural folate protects against cancer because it allows the body to copy DNA accurately.

“But many middle-aged and elderly people have tiny pre?malignant lesions,” says Prof Young-Im Kim of the University of Toronto. “Excess folate, especially in the form of folic acid, can fuel lesion growth, accelerating progression into life-threatening cancers, because high levels of the vitamin make it easier for tumour cells to copy themselves.”

He says that soon after fortification of flour began in North America, the rate of bowel cancer - then in decline - abruptly increased. The FSA’s advisers were sufficiently concerned to recommend holding off a similar initiative until the results of two further studies emerge later this year.

Overdosing on B vitamins was thought to be impossible because they are water-soluble and any excess is excreted in the urine. But evidence is mounting that folic acid circumvents the body’s natural mechanisms for limiting folate absorption in the gut. Folic acid goes directly to the liver, which is easily saturated, and the excess spills out into the body.

“People with a high intake end up with unmetabolised folic acid floating in their bloodstream,” says Dr Siân Astley of the Institute for Food Research in Norwich. “We don’t really know what its consequences might be.”

The recommended daily intake for folate is 200 micrograms (mcg), and most multivitamins contain this amount of folic acid. But it is also added to breakfast cereals, snack bars and some margarines. Official government advice puts the safe upper limit for folic acid at 1,000mcg per day, but the leading vitamin B expert, Prof David Smith of Oxford University, thinks there is now sufficient evidence to cut that down to 500mcg in general and 400mcg for cancer survivors.

“If you eat a lot of fortified cereals, you may want to rethink your daily multivitamin. Or you could stick with the vitamin pill and switch to wholegrains without added synthetic vitamins, such as porridge or muesli,” says Dr Astley. “Fortification is an overly broad approach that increases everyone’s folic acid intake, instead of targeting those who need it.”

The August 20, 2008 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported that B Vitamins did not work effectively to prevent death or cardiovascular events in a population of patients with coronary artery disease or aortic valve stenosis. In the wake of this report, we’ve seen a vocal response from industry, claiming that the study is not credible, as it failed to acknowledge elements that could have altered the conclusions presented.

The study, conducted from 1999 through 2006, on 3,096 patients in two Norwegian hospitals, was headed by Dr. Marta Ebbing, M.D. at Haukeland University Hospital. Patients’ concerns about taking B vitamins to ward off cardiovascular problems, but at the same time, increasing the chance of cancer, resulted in the study being stopped prematurely.

The study divided participants into one of four groups; daily oral treatment of folic acid plus vitamin B12 and vitamin B6; folic acid plus vitamin B12; vitamin B6 alone; or a placebo. The doses of vitamins used in the groups were 0.8 milligrams of folic acid, 0.4 milligrams of B12 and 40 milligrams of B6.

One of many questions that quickly arose in study feedback was whether beta blockers, statins and anti-platelets were used for the duration of the study. The participants started the study while in their mid-60’s, and more than 75 percent of them had already been using the above mentioned drugs for existing heart disease.

Another issue with the study was that Norway does not add folic acid to its wheat as is done in the US, ostensibly, because they do not believe that fortified foods are necessary. This, in turn, meant that any folic acid, B-6 or B-12 through supplementation or other food that participants may have been taking at home was not factored into the study, and could have affected the results. Analysts also believe that the study involved too narrow a section of the population, and could not provide a proper answer to what B vitamin does for healthy people, arguing that folic acid supplementation should be considered from a preventative standpoint only.

With so many variables unaccounted for in the study, one might wonder how it still went on for years without intellectual intervention. Hindsight though, is 20/20, and the missing factors are quite evident in retrospective analysis.

Dr. Andrew Shao, of the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), in an interview with NPIcenter, explained that groups like the CRN “try to caution against over-interpretation of results and broad sweeping conclusions that you hear from some people.” Shao added “B vitamins may not work for people who already have heart disease, but these studies don’t answer the question of whether the healthy population, if they take B vitamins on a regular basis over the course of decades, may be at a lower risk for heart disease.”

Industry frequently complains, in cases like this, about study design.

Shao observed, “The study was actually pretty well designed. Every study has limitations. No matter what, you’re always going to have limitations to a study, and it’s important to identify those limitations; if you’re overly critical of them, that is a really difficult position to have because no one is ever going to conduct the absolute perfect study that answers every question that anyone would possibly want to ask in the world.”

Despite what seem like flaws in the study, it is important to remember that a be-all, end-all cure was not the final goal for Dr. Ebbing and colleagues. The study was to see if B vitamin use would lower homocystein levels and help those with existing heart disease, not simply if B vitamin use would prevent heart disease, and it seems to have done that.

“You have a tool box of prevention, and there are all kinds of tools in there that you can use to try and keep yourself healthy and avoid disease,” said Shao. “Using supplements is just one of these tools, among a whole bunch. It is not THE tool, it is A tool. You have other components such as diet, stress, exercise [and] genetics, which is a tool you can’t do anything with but you’ve still got it. Supplements are just one of those tools. If that’s your outlook and you understand it… that’s where the benefit will be seen.”

Will supplements and vitamins for hair loss in women work? This is the question. There has been an ongoing debate on whether or not vitamins can help prevent or stop hair loss in women. What is the real score here? Is preventing hair loss as simple as eating a good diet and taking vitamins for hair loss in women?

Androgenetic Alopecia

Majority of both men and women who lose their hair have andorgenetic alopecia. In this condition, the hormone DHT binds itself to the hair follicles and damages them. The condition is especially marked in those who are genetically predisposed to hair loss. Since genes and hormones are the main factors in this form of hair loss, some individuals have stopped seeing vitamins as a factor that can prevent hair loss.

Contributing Factors

With androgenetic alopecia, vitamins for hair loss in women don’t really have much of an effect. They are however still necessary to address the contributory factors that can make hair loss worse in women. It is generally known that aside from genes and hormones, female hair loss can be made worse by stress, trauma, emotional distress and serious illness. The only way to fight these contributory factors is through vitamins for hair loss in women.

What Vitamins Can Do

Vitamins for hair loss in women are perfect for keeping your present hair healthy, strong and free from damage and dryness. Vitamins also keep the entire scalp and the follicles properly nourished to encourage new hair growth. Although vitamins for hair loss in women can be found in nutritious foods, it still makes a lot of sense to get some extra boost from vitamin supplements. These can help supply whatever we lack from food intake.

Vitamins for Hair Loss in Women

There are numerous vitamins for hair loss in women. Here are some of the most important ones.

- PABA or Para-Aminobenzoic Acid - This is a B-vitamin that has a crucial role in the metabolism of protein. It is also a known antioxidant that can help sweep the body clean of harmful free radicals. Its role in hair health seems to focus more on the restoration or maintenance of hair color. Along with some other vitamins for hair loss in women, this one helps prevent your hair from graying prematurely. PABA can be found in whole grain foods and liver.

- This Biotin- This is another member of the B-complex group of vitamins. It plays a role in fat, protein and carbohydrates metabolism. Just like PABA, it is also crucial for the maintenance of hair color. Moreover, it also promotes hair growth, strength and thickness. Various studies have shown that a deficiency in biotin can result in some hair loss. Vitamins for hair loss in women like biotin can be found in milk, whole grain, egg yolk and liver. This vitamin however can be destroyed by over heating and the process of canning so it is best to always eat fresh or take supplementation.

- B6 Vitamin - This powerhouse vitamin can work wonders on the immune, circulatory and nervous systems. Like other vitamins for hair loss in women belonging to the B-complex family, this one also helps maintain hair color and strength. This vitamin can be found in bananas, liver and avocados.
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Newswise — Long known for its role in preventing anemia in expectant mothers and spinal birth defects in newborns, the B vitamin folate, found in leafy green vegetables, beans and nuts has now been shown to blunt the damaging effects of heart attack when given in short-term, high doses to test animals.

In a new study, an international team of heart experts at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere report that rats fed 10 milligrams daily of folate, also known as folic acid or vitamin B9, for a week prior to heart attack had smaller infarcts than rats who took no supplements. On average, researchers say, the amount of muscle tissue exposed to damage and scarred by the arterial blockage was shrunk to less than a tenth.

The team’s findings, set for publication in the April 8 edition of the journal Circulation, come just weeks after other international studies in humans suggested that low-dose folic acid supplements may prevent dementia in the elderly and premature births.

“We want to emphasize that it is premature for people to begin taking high doses of folic acid,” says senior study investigator David Kass, M.D., a professor at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and its Heart Institute.

“But if human studies prove equally effective, then high-dose folate could be given to high-risk groups to guard against possible heart attack or to people while they are having one,” says Kass.

The more likely and most practical advantage to ingesting supplements, he says, lies in folic acid’s potential to act as a short-term buffer for people who may be having a heart attack and who rush to their local emergency room complaining of chest pain.

Clinical trials are expected in the near future, although Kass says a major challenge in testing is that a high dose of folic acid for humans comparable to that given the rats would require an average-size adult to swallow more than 200 one-milligram pills per day, “an impractical and unrealistic regimen, even if the body excretes the excess.”

In addition, he cautions, “we do not yet know if folate is safe to consume in this high a dose, or how much or how little of it is needed to be effective,” citing 25 milligrams per day as the highest dose previously tested safe to consume in adults as.

Kass says that such large amount of folate may also yield unpredictable side effects. Some studies have linked the nutrient supplement to increased rates of colon and prostate cancer.

Each year, an estimated 565,000 first-time heart attacks occur in the United States, with an additional 300,000 recurrent heart attacks.

Results from the new study, conducted in rats - dozens were fed supplements and dozens more did not receive any - showed that overall pumping function during heart attack remained strong in vitamin B9-fortified animals.

The amount of blood pumped by the treated hearts during a 30-minute window when blood flow to the heart was restricted to simulate a heart attack stayed near normal for rodents, at an average ejection fraction of 73 percent. Meanwhile, it fell in the untreated group to 27 percent.

Similarly, the muscle wall at the front of the heart kept contracting during heartbeats, thickening by 37 percent in the supplement-fed group, but the muscle could barely compress, thickening by 5 percent, in the untreated group. (Sixty percent would be the normal amount of thickening in a healthy rat heart.)

Moreover, researchers found that an injection of folic acid into the bloodstream of rats that had never before taken supplements, within the first 10 minutes of a heart attack, was almost equally as effective as preventive therapy in reversing muscle damage, and in lowering infarct size by a factor of 10.

“Folic acid is already well known to be safe to consume in high doses in the short term, and it is very inexpensive, costing pennies per milligram, so its prospects look promising,” says Kass.

Researchers plan further tests to determine precisely why folate protects the heart, and to determine how effective it is in not-as-high doses. But they point out that it has long been known for its role in the normal workings of the cell’s principal energy source, the mitochondria, whose function is essential to maintaining healthy blood vessels.

It was this evidence that led to the latest study, which, says lead investigator An Moens, M.D., suggests that folate acts as an energy reserve in the heart, “providing much needed energy for muscle contraction, in the form of ATP, at the same time the heart is being starved for oxygen-carrying blood by a blocked artery.”

According to Moens, a postdoctoral cardiology research fellow at Johns Hopkins, study results showed that high-energy phosphate levels went down 43 percent in the blood of treated rats, but levels dropped by one-third more (by 66 percent) in untreated rats.

“With more fuel, the heart kept pumping even though its blood flow was reduced,” says Moens, now a cardiologist at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. “The smaller heart attacks seemed related to this better energy balance in the heart produced by the folate.”

In the study, heart function was monitored by more than two dozen key tests, such as echocardiogram and magnetic resonance imaging, as well as by blood analysis before, during and after the heart attack, when blood flow was allowed to resume in the coronary artery that had been blocked.

Among the team’s other findings that backed up the protective effects of folate on the heart were mild, slight dips in systolic blood pressure during heart attack in treated rats, while pressure fell in untreated animals by 25 percent. Similarly, blood flow was stable in the treated group, but dropped by 40 percent in untreated animals. Post-heart attack buildup of dangerous chemicals, known as reactive oxygen species, was halved in treated rats. And fatal arrhythmias, unstable heartbeats that can immediately follow a heart attack, also went down from 36.7 percent to 8.3 percent in the supplement-fed group.

“In future, we might just pop in an I.V., and give people high-dose folate while they are waiting for their catheterization or CT scans to search for blockages,” says Moens.

Funding for the study of folate, one of eight B vitamins, was provided by the National Institutes of Health and the Peter Belfer Laboratory Foundation, with additional support from the American Heart Association, the Belgian American Educational Foundations, as well as the University of Antwerp, Belgium.

In addition to Kass and Moens, other Hopkins researchers involved in this study were Hunter Champion, M.D., Ph.D.; Azeb Haile, M.S.; Muz Zviman, Ph.D.; Djahida Bedja, M.S.; Kathy Gabrielson, D.V.M., Ph.D.; Nazareno Paolocci, M.D., Ph.D. Kass is also the Abraham and Virginia Weiss Professor of Cardiology at Hopkins. Additional researchers from Belgium included Marc Claeys, M.D., Ph.D.; Dirk Borgonjon, M.S.; Luc Van Nassauw, Ph.D.; Floris Wuyts, Ph.D.; Rebecca Elsaesser, Ph.D.; Paul Cos, Ph.D.; Jean-Pierre Timmermans, Ph.D.; and Christiaan Vrints, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Antwerp; and Barbara Tavazzi, M.D., Ph.D., and Guiseppe Lazzarino, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Rome. Further assistance with biochemical analysis was provided by Pawel Kaminski, M.D., Ph.D., and Michael Wollin, M.D., Ph.D., both from the New York University School of Medicine.

Men who have their diet based on green vegetables, fruits and lentils have a higher chance of fathering a healthy child, a new research shows.

Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that men with relatively low levels of folate (a B Vitamin) had increased risks for sperm containing either too few or too many chromosome, a condition known as aneuploidy. This condition is connected to failure to conceive, miscarriages, and children born with conditions such as Down’s syndrome, Turner’s syndrome and Klinefelter’s syndrome.

“We looked at sperm to find different kinds of genetic abnormalities. The abnormalities we looked at here were having too few or too many chromosomes,” lead researcher Brenda Eskenazi, a professor of maternal and child health and epidemiology and director of the Center for Children’s Environmental Health at Berkeley’s School of Public Health said, according to the Washington Post.

The researchers analyzed sperm samples from 89 healthy, non-smoking men and questioned them about their daily intake of zinc, folate, vitamin C, vitamin E and beta-carotene. They found men with the highest intake of folate or folic acid (between 722 and 1150 micrograms a day) had 20 percent to 30 percent lower frequencies of aneuploidy compared to men with a lower intake. No correlation was made between the other vitamins and sperm aneuploidy.

The current recommended daily intake of folate for men over the age of 19 is 400 micrograms. Health experts recommend women of childbearing age maintain a healthy intake of folate because it is essential for healthy fetal developmental and to prevent neural tube birth defects such as spina bifida or anencephaly (severe type of brain damage). That’s the reason why folic acid is now added to bread, cereal, flour and other grain products in the U.S.

This study is the first to “say that male diet may be important for healthy offspring as well.”

“The emphasis related to the birth of a healthy baby has been weighted towards the health and diet of women, not just during pregnancy, but before. What we’re finding now is that a nutritious diet, specifically folate intake, may be beneficial for men as well when it comes to producing healthy offspring,” Dr. Eskenazi said.

She also adds that if other studies confirm her team’s findings of the link between folate intake and aneuploidy, scientists may recommend men tale folic acid for at least three months before trying to conceive.

The idea that diet can improve sperm quality is less well established. “There is increasing evidence from a number of studies to suggest that dietary factors can correlate with sperm health. The story so far suggests that dietary factors won’t help you make more sperm, but good diet might just improve that quality of the ones that are made,” said Dr. Allan Pacey, senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield and honorary secretary of the British Fertility Society, BBC News reported.

The study findings are published in the March 20 issue of the journal Human Reproduction.

Researchers have found an association between a vitamin found in leafy green vegetables, fruit and pulses and levels of chromosomal abnormalities in men’s sperm. Men who consumed high levels of folate (a water-soluble B vitamin that occurs naturally in food) and folic acid (the synthetic form of the vitamin) tended to have lower levels of abnormal sperm where a chromosome had been lost or gained (known as aneuploidy).

Writing in Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal, Human Reproduction, today (Thursday 20 March), the authors say estimates suggest that between 1-4% of sperm in a healthy man have some type of aneuploidy, but there are large variations among individuals, the mechanisms are poorly understood and little is known about the effects of men’s diet on their sperm.

In the first study of its kind to investigate the relationship between sperm aneuploidy and paternal diet, they analysed sperm samples from 89 healthy, non-smoking men and questioned them about their daily total intake (from diet and from vitamin supplements) of zinc, folate, vitamin C, vitamin E and beta-carotene.

One of the principal investigators of the study, Brenda Eskenazi, Professor of Maternal and Child Health and Epidemiology and Director of the Centre for Children’s Environmental Health at the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, USA, said: ‘We found a statistically significant association between high folate intake and lower sperm aneuploidy: there was increasing benefit with increasing intake, and men in the upper 25th percentile who had the highest intake of folate between 722-1150 micrograms, had 20-30% lower frequencies of several types of aneuploidy compared with men with a lower intake.

‘However, this study cannot prove that high folate intake caused the lower sperm aneuploidy levels, only that there is an association. This is the first study of its kind and the results indicate the need for further research, especially a randomised controlled trial, on this topic.’

The researchers found no consistent associations between intakes of zinc and the other vitamins and sperm aneuploidy.

Prof. Eskenazi said: ‘While the importance of maternal diet on reproduction, especially folate intake, is well known, the results of our study suggest the importance of studying paternal nutrition when considering male-mediated developmental consequences. In previous studies, we and others have shown that paternal micronutrient intake may contribute to successful conceptions by improving the quality of the sperm. This study is the first to suggest that paternal diet may play a role after conception in the development of healthy offspring.’

The current recommended daily intake (RDA) for men aged over 19 is 400 micrograms, and the authors say that if other studies confirm their findings of the link between folate intake and aneuploidy, then a possible intervention would be to increase the RDA for men considering becoming fathers for at least three months before trying to conceive in order to reduce the risk of chromosomal abnormalities in their children.

Ms Suzanne Young, a researcher in Prof Eskenazi’s group and the study co-ordinator, said: ‘Increasing folate intake can be as simple as taking a vitamin supplement with at least 400 micrograms of folate or eating breakfast cereal fortified with 100% of the RDA for folic acid. In addition, green leafy vegetables, such as spinach, can have up to 100 micrograms of folate per serving.’

Disentangling the effects of folate from other micronutrients (e.g. the other vitamins) can be difficult, but the authors think they have succeeded in doing this by looking at several different nutrients in statistical analyses. Ms Young said: ‘The results of the different analyses were different, which gave us some confidence that we could look at the effect of these micronutrients separately. The definitive way to answer this question would be with a randomised control trial with folate supplementation.’

Source: European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology

If you’re a young woman, take a vitamin supplement with folic acid.

Public health experts have been saying this for years, because folic acid _ a synthetic form of the B vitamin folate found in leafy green veggies _ can reduce the risk of brain and spinal cord birth defects by up to 70 percent.

Alas, only 12 percent of women ages 18 to 45 have heard about the benefits of folic acid, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among Hispanic women, awareness is even less, which the CDC says is why their children are 1.5 times to three times more likely to have a “neural tube” birth defect such as spina bifida than children of non-Hispanic white women.

7The government recommends 400 micrograms a day of folate for everyone over 13, but 600 mcg. for pregnant women.

Since many pregnancies aren’t planned, it’s important for women of childbearing age to take a folic acid vitamin supplement just to be safe, said CDC epidemiologist Heather Hamner.

Do you take a multivitamin? Or a single vitamin, mineral, or combination supplement? If so, you are in the company of tens of millions of U.S. adults.

Why do you take them? Most people say it makes them feel healthier or they believe it will prevent chronic diseases, or colds and flu. But you may be surprised to know that what is in your bottle and on the label is not strictly regulated. And there is no system in place to collect reports of adverse affects.

Over the past few years there has been increasing evidence that multivitamins and single or combination type vitamin/mineral supplements may not provide the health benefit sought by you, the consumer. In some cases the opposite or no beneficial effects have been reported.

Alarming to think that vitamin or mineral supplements could actually cause more harm than good. An example of this is the use of beta carotene by smokers actually increased the incidence of lung cancer. This is echoed by a recent study out of the University of Washington that reports the use of multivitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E and folate did not reduce the risk of lung cancer.

It is not all bad news though; there are studies to support the use of folate (folic acid) prior to and during pregnancy in the prevention of neural tube defects in the developing fetus. And history has proven that vitamins and minerals play a critical role in our health — the reason we know about the benefits of vitamins and minerals in food is because of the major discoveries in disease prevention such as vitamin C and scurvy and thiamine, a B vitamin, and beri beri (a wasting type disease).

This may leave you wondering if those vitamin mineral supplements in your medicine cabinet are doing what they should or even worth your money.

Let’s look at this way — do you eat a well balanced diet? If so, you may not need a multivitamin and if you take one as a “safety net” know that you may exceed what your body needs or can use.

Are you concerned about a chronic disease? If so, making changes in your diet and exercise habits, not smoking and following through with recommended screenings by your physician are more likely to benefit your overall health picture.

Consider your current state of health, talk to your doctor and/or dietitian, and weigh the possible benefits and risks of a multivitamin and mineral supplement for you.

To your health,

Katherine

A multivitamin is needed by most individuals to provide all of the needed vitamin and mineral missing in ones diet to support proper bodily functions on a daily basis. Here are some nutrients that it provides in sufficient levels, which include vitamin A, vitamin D, B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E, and Minerals.

Vitamin A, which is important for normal vision, integrity of the skin and those cells lining the inner surfaces of the body, gene expression, reproduction, embryonic development, growth, and immune function, is most commonly found as beta-carotene in a multivitamin. Unless the person supplementing is diabetic, the body can convert beta-carotene into vitamin A as it is needed. Therefore, the risk of vitamin A deficiency is nearly nonexistent, while the daily value for vitamin A is 5,000 IU, although supplementation of up to 25,000 IU of beta-carotene is safe and effective.

Vitamin D has recently become more and more recognized by the greater public. Its main role in human nutrition is the absorption of calcium and phosphorus from the intestinal tract, which therefore promotes the mineralization of the bones. Vitamin D can be made in our body by ultraviolet rays of the sun converting a cholesterol derivative in the skin. The daily value for vitamin D is 400 IU, while a range of 400 to 1,000 IU is a good daily dosage.

The B vitamins are involved directly or indirectly in energy metabolism. Some B vitamins facilitate the energy-releasing actions themselves while others help to build new cells to deliver the oxygen and nutrients which allow the energy pathways to run. The B vitamins are also involved in the function of the nervous system. The daily value of these vitamins differ according to the B vitamin, with the dosage ranging from 10 to 100 mg, and the dosage for folic acid ranging from 400 to 800 mcg/day.

Vitamin C promotes collagen synthesis in the body, offers antioxidant protection against free radicals, supports thyroxin synthesis and amino acid metabolism, strengthens resistance to infection, and helps in the absorption of iron. The daily value for vitamin C is a simple 60 mg, but studies have safely used 500 to 3000 mg/day.

Vitamin E is very valuable and worth taking as a separate supplement to get the best dosage. It helps the body by providing antioxidant protection against free radicals, stabilizing cell membranes, regulating oxidation reactions, and protecting both polyunsaturated fatty acids and vitamin A. It has also been proven in studies that a natural vitamin E is three times more active in the human body than synthetic vitamin E at similar doses.

Minerals have often been overshadowed in importance by vitamins, but the need for them is vital as they are recognized as essential to human nutrition. Important minerals include calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, iodine, potassium, manganese, selenium, and chromium.

Calcium is necessary for the formation of bones and teeth as well as blood clotting and normal muscle and nerve activity. Adequate calcium helps to maintain good bone health and may reduce the risk for osteoporosis later in life. The daily value for calcium is 1,000 mg but some research suggests that higher doses may be beneficial.

Magnesium is important for muscle and nervous tissue function and helps with the formation of bones and teeth. Supplementing with magnesium may help to reduce indications of bone loss. Research has shown that supplementing with 250 to 750 mg/d of magnesium can help stop bone loss and increase bone mass.

Another important mineral is iron, which transports oxygen in the body and is also makes oxygen available for muscle contractions. It is also necessary for the utilization of energy. The daily value for iron is 18 mg, but if a deficiency is diagnosed doctors may recommend up to 200 mg/day of iron.

Zinc is associated with the hormone insulin, zinc is involved in making genetic material and proteins, immune reactions, transport of vitamin A, taste perception, wound healing, the making of sperm, and normal development of the fetus. The daily value for zinc is 15 mg, but for specific purposes, levels up to 60 mg/day can be recommended for a short time. However, increased zinc levels can lower copper levels, which is responsible for the formation of red blood cells and nerve fibers. Therefore, copper should be added if zinc is being consumed at higher levels.

Other important minerals include iodine, which is essential in regulating metabolic rate; potassium, which helps to maintain normal osmotic pressure of body fluids and the acid-base balance of the body; manganese, which activates enzymes and is involved in fatty acid metabolism and protein synthesis; selenium, which detoxifies products of oxidized fats, and is found in red blood cells; and chromium, which is necessary for the formation of glucose tolerance factor, a complex that works with insulin.

Most generic multiple vitamins found at mass market stores only supply the RDA for vitamins and minerals. When looking for a good multiple vitamins you should buy only name brands and read the label to see that the above mentioned vitamins and minerals are supplied in the recommended doses. If the one you look at doesn’t have the above listed potency then move to another brand that does supply what is needed for optimal health.

A multivitamin is needed by most individuals to provide all of the needed vitamin and mineral missing in ones diet to support proper bodily functions on a daily basis. Here are some nutrients that it provides in sufficient levels, which include vitamin A, vitamin D, B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E, and Minerals. Continue Reading…