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May 2005 Vol. 10 No. 5

 “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions,
they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
One of the “Founding Fathers” John Adams

 

Table of Contents:

Are Vitamin Supplements Safe After All?
Fruits and Vegetables Limit Stroke Damage
Five Ways to Reduce Your Risk of Dementia
Seven Ways to Beat Inflammatory Bowl Disease
Does Sunlight Help Vegans?
Nutritional Counseling Effectively Treats Cancer Patients
Breaking Medical News: Dairy Products and Overweight
Folic Acid and Vitamin B12 Cut Hip Fracture Risk
Heavy Hitters from the Fruit Kingdom
Are Vitamin Supplements Safe After All?

Are Vitamin Supplements Safe After All? 

An estimated 70 percent of the U.S. population uses dietary supplements at least occasionally and 40 percent use supplements on a regular basis. Vitamin E and vitamin C are among the most commonly used supplements.

Contrary to the belief some have, there are many studies that show vitamins E and C are safe for the general population. Why? Because these nutrients supply antioxidants for the protection against free radical damage. Thus, in light of these supposed benefits, many consume quantities of both vitamins E and C far beyond the recommended daily allowances (RDA).

Researchers tend to support the consensus of published studies that it is safe to consume:

  • Vitamin E doses up to 1,000 mg/d
  • Vitamin C doses up to 2,000 mg/d

Moreover, compared with the previous RDA, new recommendations for vitamin E have increased by 50 percent for men and almost 100 percent for women, while recommendations for vitamin C have increased by 25 percent for women and 50 percent for men.

Low Intakes of Vitamins E and C

Low intakes of these antioxidants, however, may increase the risk of certain chronic diseases and accelerate several indicators of the aging process. Such effects may be partially due to inadequate protection of tissues against oxidative damage from free radicals.

On the other hand, researchers have not found any consistent pattern of evidence to support concerns over serious adverse effects of taking quantities of vitamins E and C well above what is recommended.

So Are These Vitamins Really Safe?

Vitamin E and C supplements are widely used in the United States (and other industrialized countries). In relation to dosage concerns and the health implications of such, it is important to understand that the upper limits for using these vitamins were designed to protect the most sensitive individuals in the general population; upper limits were not intended to apply to the most sensitive persons, but rather the healthy general population.

Additionally, healthy people are not recommended to “routinely” take vitamin E and C in amounts beyond the upper limits.

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, April 2005;89(4)4: 736-745

Fruits and Vegetables Limit Stroke Damage 

According to a study, fruits and vegetables are packed with antioxidants that may limit brain damage from stroke and other neurological disorders. Researchers found rats that ate diets enriched with blueberries, spinach or spirulina (algae) experienced less brain cell loss and improved recovery of movement following a stroke.

Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory components of fruits and vegetables may somehow reduce the nerve cell injury and death evoked by a stroke.

Antioxidant-Rich Discovery

The study involved four groups of rats — all fed equal amounts of food for one month. The first group was fed rat food supplemented with blueberries, the second group was fed rat food with spinach, the third group was fed rat food with spirulina and the fourth group was a control group fed rat food only.

Four weeks following, scientists induced an ischemic stroke in each rat with a blood clot, and then later removed it. The results were, to say the least, encouraging:

Stroke size in the rats who received blueberry and spinach supplements was half that seen in the brains of rats in the control group.

Rats that received spirulina supplements had stroke lesions 75 percent smaller than rats in the control group.

Compared to the control group, rats that ate blueberry, spinach or spirulina diets demonstrated a greater recovery of poststroke movement.

The key beneficial ingredient in the fruits and vegetables: Antioxidants, which researchers explained may offset the burst of free radicals involved in the cascade of brain cell death caused by an ischemic stroke. Moreover, the supplemented diets fed to the rats contained anti-inflammatory components that may help reduce injury (provoked by inflammation) following a stroke.

Experimental Neurology May 2005;193(1):75-84
Science Blog April 13, 2005

Five Ways to Reduce Your Risk of Dementia 

Participating in a variety of exercise activities may reduce the risk of dementia in older people — and having variety in exercise seems to be even more important than how often, how long or how intense the exercise is performed, according to Johns Hopkins researchers.

The study involved 3,375 people aged 65 years and older who took part in the Cardiovascular Health Cognition Study from 1992 to 2000. None of the volunteers had dementia at the beginning of the study. Each participant filled out a questionnaire reporting how often, and for how long, they performed 15 types of physical activity ranging from hiking and jogging to household chores and gardening. The researchers then created an activity index that calculated the number of different activities each person had participated in over the previous two weeks (other factors, such as APOE genotype (indicating a predisposition to Alzheimer’s disease), age, gender, smoking and education level were also taken into account).

After an average of 5.4 years, 480 new cases of dementia were found. Those who participated in more activities had a lower risk of all forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. However, the association was not found among those who have the APOE-4 genotype.

Specifically:

  • Among the people who reported one or no activity, 130 cases of dementia occurred.
  • 152 cases occurred among those who reported two activities.
  • 113 cases occurred among those who reported three activities.
  • 84 cases occurred among those who reported four or more activities.

Researchers are not certain what is causing the association, but suggest that participating in a variety of activities may keep more areas of the brain active, or may indicate that a person is more involved in physical and social activities overall.

Confirming the association between activity and a lowered risk of dementia may motivate people to stay involved in a variety of physical and leisure activities as they age. This is an important finding as close to 4.5 million Americans currently suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, and the disease is expected to affect 11.3 million to 16 million Americans by 2050.

American Journal of Epidemiology April 1, 2005, 161(7): 639-651
Science Daily April 14, 2005

Seven Ways to Beat Inflammatory Bowl Disease 

A Cleveland Clinic study found that fish oil, soluble fiber and antioxidants helped treat patients with ulcerative colitis and reduced their need for steroid therapy. Patients who took the supplements, which have fewer side effects and are safer than many of the colitis drugs on the market, were less likely to start treatment with the drugs.

The study involved patients aged 18 and older who suffered from mild to moderate active ulcerative colitis. Those who were on corticosteroid therapy and were given the nutritional supplement needed significantly lower doses of the drugs to control their symptoms than those given a placebo.

Ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease that typically affects those between the ages of 15 and 40, can cause abdominal cramps, bloody diarrhea and fever. Drugs like corticosteroids are used to control inflammation in the disease, but, while they’re highly effective, long-term use often leads to:

  • Insomnia
  • Mood alterations
  • Increased appetite
  • Hypertension
  • Osteoporosis
  • Other negative effects

The side effects are often so severe that many patients stop using the drugs all together. However, over 25 percent of patients who stop their use have a relapse of symptoms.

While the nutritional supplement in the current study combined fish oil, soluble fiber and antioxidants, previous studies have shown that fish oil alone is also able to reduce the need for corticosteroids in colitis patients.

Researchers believe the nutritional supplement helps to diminish inflammation and provide nutrition in colitis patients, and suggest physicians add this combination of ingredients to their ulcerative colitis therapy regimens.

Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology April 2005;3(4)
Daily News Central April 10, 2005

Does Sunlight Help Vegans? 

Although nutritionists and the food industry have cautioned that a diet devoid of dairy foods can lead to the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis, scientists found that those who stick to raw food vegetarian diets (vegans) have surprisingly strong bones, even though they avoid meat and dairy products.

But how can raw food vegans, who believe in eating only plant-derived foods, have strong bones? The answer: Sunlight.

Vegans’ Strong Bones

Scientists compared 18 patients (ages 33-85) who had maintained a strict raw food vegan diet (including unprepared foods such as vegetables, fruits, nuts and sprouted grains) for more than three years with people who ate an average diet. The study showed that raw food vegans had an average body mass index (BMI) of 20.5, compared to a BMI of 25 in the average diet group.

Additionally, the vegans had low levels of C-reactive protein (linked to diabetes and heart disease) and IGF-1 (connected to breast and prostate cancer). The most important finding, however, was that vitamin D levels among those in the raw food group were significantly higher than average. Vitamin D is:

  • Made by the skin when the body is exposed to sunlight
  • Key to keeping bones strong

Scientists explained that the raw food vegans involved in the study were clever enough to expose themselves to sunlight in order to increase their vitamin D concentrations.

Archives of Internal Medicine March 28, 2005;165(6):684-689
Reuters March 28, 2005

Nutritional Counseling Effectively Treats Cancer Patients 

Fruits and VegetablesEating an optimized diet is a recommended route to treating the ravages of cancer. Researchers found that in colorectal cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy, individualized nutritional counseling promoted better nutrition, reduced weight loss and fostered a better quality of life.

Moreover, nutritional counseling on an individualized basis seemed to work more efficiently than simply recommending supplemental protein-packed nutritional drinks.

Patients involved in the study were divided into three groups:

  •  Those who ate a “regular” diet
  • Patients who ate a high-protein liquid supplement in addition to a “regular” diet
  • Those who ate a special diet based on individual nutritional counseling

The study confirmed that individualized nutritional counseling during radiotherapy was a far better treatment for patients than the other two options (as well as in the intervention phase and the three-month follow-up period). And, compared to the other two groups, anorexia, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea were lower in the dietary counseling group. Researchers noted they were surprised with the impact nutrition had on the improvement of quality of life and in reducing symptoms and suffering.

Journal of Clinical Oncology March 1, 2005;23(7):1431-1438
Reuters March 28, 2005

Breaking Medical News: Dairy Products and Overweight 

A new study from Purdue University counters the notion that dairy products encourage weight loss, an idea touted in dairy industry advertisements. Researchers assigned participants to one of three groups: (1) a control group that maintained its usual diet, (2) a medium-dairy group consuming 1000-1100 mg of calcium daily, or (3) a high-dairy group consuming 1300-1400 mg of calcium daily. Participants in the two dairy groups were instructed to compensate for the addition of dairy products by reducing consumption of other foods so as to keep their energy intake unchanged.

None of the groups lost weight. In fact, the high-dairy group gained 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) over the year, which was slightly (although not statistically significantly) greater than the weight gain in the control group (0.8 kg, 1.8 lb) and the medium-dairy group
(0.8 kg, 1.5 lb).

Dairy products clearly did not facilitate weight loss. In fact, if the high-dairy group’s experience continued in a similar fashion over a ten-year period, the average participant would have had a 15-kg (33-lb) weight gain from the average baseline weight of 62.4 kg
(137 lb) to 77.4 kg (170 lb), leading to an average body mass index of 27.8, which puts the group well into the overweight range
(BMI > 25). The control group’s 10-year experience, if similar to the one-year result, would have been a gain of about half as much weight as the high-dairy group.

Gunther CW, Legowski PA, Lyle RM, et al. Dairy products do not lead to alterations in body weight or fat mass in young women in a 1-y intervention. Am J Clin Nutr 2005;81:751-6.

Folic Acid and Vitamin B12 Cut Hip Fracture Risk 

Folic acid and vitamin B12 supplements cut the risk of hip fracture by approximately 80%, according to a new JAMA study. The two-year randomized trial included 559 Japanese patients aged 65 and over who had had strokes with residual hemiplegia, putting them at high risk for osteoporosis, falls, and hip fracture. Treatment consisted of 5 mg of folic acid and 1500 mcg of vitamin B12 daily over a two-year period. The dramatic effect of folic acid and vitamin B12 in reducing fracture risk appears to be related to its ability to cut plasma levels of homocysteine. At higher levels, homocysteine appears to interfere with the formation of collagen cross-links within bone, weakening the bone matrix and increasing risk of osteoporotic fractures.

Sato Y, Honda Y, Iwamoto J, Kanoko T, Satoh K. Effect of folate and mecobalamin on hip fractures in patients with stroke: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2005;293:1082-8.

Heavy Hitters from the Fruit Kingdom 

Ounce fo ounce watermelon contains more of the cancer-fighting compound lycopene than tomatoes. Blueberries provide in 1/2 cup more than twice the amount of anti-oxidants that American consume during an average day. Apples provide more protection than other fruits and vegetables in reducing the risk of lung cancer, emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Selected segments are reproduced from Dr. Mercola’s excellent website:
http://www.mercola.com/index.htm 

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
http://www.pcrm.org