This Harvard medical related vitamin and mineral resource presents a very good starting point for vitamin knowledge, including a number of supplement precautions. But, more detail is needed to clarify the points raised, plus some vital points missed. These necessary explanations form the premise for the existsnce of Vitamin Workshop 101.
Consumers face a mountain of choices in vitamin supplement decisions. Today, this is more of a challenge than at any time in the past. And one that few people have the time to adequately evaluate on their own. Even Scientists and Doctors have disagreements as to proper vitamin and mineral protocols. Contradictory research results are often behind such disagreements. To say a blind faith belief governs most vitamin choices is unfortunately an inescapable reality. Take this simple Vitamin Quiz and see for yourself.
Before you take another Vitamin...
Everyone needs some guidance. After a reasonably thorough examination of scientific resources (10,000) and existing vitamin websites left helpful and honest guidance information painfully inadequate, this website sprang to life.
CAUTION: Ideally, discussing health issues with your medical professional is a top priority. Hopefully, they have educated themselves in proper supplement usage. Medical school offerings in nutrition are lacking and the unfortunate reality is that very few medical professionals have such knowledge. This leaves people on their own to discover with very limited avenues the needed vital healthy vitamin information. While this website has some short-comings, it just might be one of the best researched go to websites to serve as a stepping stone for continuing vitamin truth education.
Example: 10% of people do not produce the elements necessary to convert sunshine into the needed vitamin D3 form. Up to another 40% have various limited abilities. Finding out if you are influenced by this defective gene (or genes) gives better guidance for supplement dosages, forms, and the need to have levels tested. pages
VITAMIN THEORIES: Sense out of Nonsense
Vitamin theories and facts today are as misleading as they were over 50 years ago. Some of the same myths still exist and new ones have emerged. Plus, long term scientific research is now challenging some old established "theories" and should soon be updating vitamin facts and initiating changes in vitamin product formulas. This is how the scientific method is suppose to evolve and improve health. But instead, today there is a built-in resistance to change in mainstream medicine that is potentially jeopardizing your health.
Intelligent vitamin choices have the power to optimize health. Unfortunately, unwise choices may compromise health over time. DO YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE? Where would you look to find this relatively new but extremely vital knowledge?
...novel vitamin concepts...
This author asked these same questions 20 (now 31) years ago and, failing to find any constructive unbiased answers amid growing vitamin ambiguity, began the scientific research leading to this website. Now, after 20 years of reading thousands of scientific journal articles, here are some novel and insightful vitamin concepts that so far are not conveyed together on any other resource. Current scientific vitamin research coupled with human physiology and some good old-fashion common sense form the backbone for this new vitamin criteria. See for yourself if the conclusions manifested after reading the supporting research studies don't validate these positions.
Included here is the official website (http://ods.od.nih.gov) of the U.S. Government from the Office of Dietary Supplements, a part of the National Institutes of Health. There are excellent nutrient databases and fact sheets, but missing are the more controversial new scientific discoveries that must still be under development and not yet verified or offered for public discussion. The next reference lists some of these, but still needs clarifications found in other articles on this website. ref
YOU CAN JUST FOLLOW THIS NEW VITAMIN CRITERIA WHICH ALREADY HAS FACTORED INTO IT MOST IF NOT ALL OF THESE ISSUES, OR YOU CAN DIVE DEEPER TO GAIN A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE WHY AND HOW FOR THESE CONCEPTS TO MAXIMIZE YOUR INTELLIGENT VITAMIN SUPPLEMENT CHOICES. Use the SEARCH key to find subjects of interest.
Not everyone is affected the same by nutritional aspects. You might go quite some time, maybe a lifetime, before any of these issues become manifested in unhealthy conditions. Some people are blessed with stronger immune systems and better genetics. Yes, the body has adaptive mechanisms to deal with "unbalanced" nutrient ratios, often for a long period of time, but this takes energy and nutrients away from other vital functions. You may be gambling with your health.
SOME EXAMPLES TO EXPLAIN AREAS OF VITAMIN INFLUENCE
- First, dosages matter. More is not always better. ref Adverse effects for many vitamins and minerals are possible at both deficiency levels as well as at excessive amounts. i.e.- Selenium at 200 mcg on increasing diabetes rate if body levels already at high end.
- Next, scientific methods have detailed and specific protocols as to how to express vitamin study results. There are major abuses in some past research conclusions. Far too many unscientific generalizations and assumptions exist. i.e.- If a synthetic vitamin E is used in a study, the results cannot be applied to natural vitamin E due to significant differences between the two forms. A Johns Hopkins study about vitamin E on mortality did not reveal how the study participants died or if the causes were even those influenced by vitamin E actions. Yet, the conclusion reached was that 400IU and larger doses of vitamin E will kill you at greater rates than not taking vitamin E. (Should have only applied to synthetic vitamin E if that was form used in studies.)
- There are many missed synergistic vitamin connections necessary for proper functions. i.e.- Vitamin D needs magnesium, a particular form of vitamin A (9-cis), and vitamin K2, before calcium gets deposited into bones attached to a vitamin D produced protein, Osteocalcin. Vitamin E needs all family members for complete health protection. Article
- Vitamins and minerals often have unique and different functions in various body areas and health conditions. i.e.- Vitamin D on bone strength, blood sugar control, and cancer prevention
- Although not all aspects of vitamins have been studied yet, there are enough study results to make some definitive decisions for challenging many up to now long term assumed theories. i.e.- Women and men can respond differently to same nutrient in study. Calcium generally helps women while too much is not beneficial for men with prostate problems. article
- Old Vitamin theories and many multiple-vitamin products are now known to exhibit far too many flaws which can jeopardize health. Most vitamin manufacturing companies, like professional nutritional agencies, have simply been too slow to respond and make changes to conform with the new science.
- Many Vitamins have seemingly opposing functions. Vitamin D can tear down bone while at the same time initiating the process to rebuild new bone.
- Some Vitamins have counterbalancing functions to other vitamins as a method or process to control metabolism rates. As active Vitamin D begins to breakdown, one of the breakdown forms turns off the activation of more Vitamin D.
VARIATION OF VITAMIN EFFECTS Explained
Not everyone is affected the same by nutritional aspects. You might go quite some time, maybe a lifetime, before any of these issues become manifested in unhealthy conditions. Some people are blessed with stronger immune systems and better genetics. Yes, the body has adaptive mechanisms to deal with "unbalanced" nutrient ratios, often for a long period of time, but this takes energy and nutrients away from other vital functions. You may be gambling with your health.
REMEMBER: No two people are exactly alike. Yes, twins are very close. You are a product of your ancestors and not only pass on a certain genetic code, but also any mutations that occur along the way. Scientists are finding many mutations that influence how the body processes and uses vitamins. Vitamin D has many such genetic changes that interfere and limit sunshine D production and conversion. Certain altered genes can increase disease rates like BRAC1 and BRAC2 on breast cancer. ref (some modification may be possible with diet, lifestyle, and immune watch-dogs)
Biological individuality is a factor Scientists have difficulty controlling and factoring into study results. Nutrition is part Science and part Art. The Science part is pretty cut and dried, nuts and bolts. The Art part is due to biological individuality. How the nuts and bolts of science will react in each individual can be similar or seemingly worlds apart. Thus, that makes it more like Art than Science and Scientists and the scientific method are not really set up to deal with variations of Art.
IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS
AUTHOR INSIGHTS: Health and Vitamins, similar to life in general, don't always fit into nice neat black and white facts and theories. An important concept to remember in reading this website is that when reading science study reports, everything is a matter of degrees. And most vitamin research results concern quite small degrees and often only affect a limited number of people with either noticeable benefits or adverse effects. The majority of test subjects are largely unaffected. A 50% reduction in cancers doesn't mean 50% of the people in the test group, but simply the difference between the number of cancers in the test subjects versus the number in controls. This could be as few as 2 out of 10,000 or as large as 50 or more, rarely. Although any decrease or increase in disease rates is significant since we are talking about people's lives.
One more thing needs to be addressed. Health concepts developed in the 20th century had many flaws since the young science at the time hadn't yet uncovered all the vital facts. Today modern medicine is still significantly influenced by many of these "original" flawed theories. Some of them such as the germ theory worked quite well in dealing with the many infectious diseases at the time, but fail in the modern world with degenerative diseases dominating. Yet mainstream medicine tenaciously hangs onto old unworkable theories, unable or unwilling to let go and admit such major shortcomings of the past.
This website simply attempts to find truths, as close to the actual reality as possible. Until clarification exists for many still controversial vitamin issues, the Precautionary Principle for taking vitamin supplements should be in play.