An Apple A Day

If you read about vitamin supplements you must be confused. Actually, it would be hard not to be. Vitamins are, by definition, essential to health. Studies of hundreds of millions of people confirm that truth. However, a rash of recent studies have linked taking vitamin supplements to higher rates of a variety of diseases, especially cancer. What’s up?

The fundamental problem is bad research. This bad research is the consequence of poor understanding, plus the difficulties inherent in designing and conduct nutritional studies that apply to the real world. The best examples of the faults in these nutritional studies are probably those dealing with folic acid and vitamin E.

Many studies show that dietary folic acid reduces the risk of many diseases, particularly cancer. The prevention of congenital spinal malformations is the main reason our food supply has been fortified with folic acid for decades. Surveys of the American population show that this approach works. That is the simple part. The confusing part is that some studies have shown an increased risk of cancer with folic acid supplementation, while others have shown that folic acid lowers the risk of the very same cancers.

As many of you have heard me explain following your own blood testing, nearly 20% of us have a genetic inability to convert folic acid to its metabolically active form. Those individuals among us need to take a special form of folate. If they take the common, most widely available kind of folic acid, not only does it not help, it seems to cause problems consistent with the unhappy research findings. After MERCK, which holds a patent on this form of folic acid, allowed others to use it, I had it added to my multiple vitamin. Very few multiple vitamins contain this form of folic acid, as it is more expensive. Two months ago I read an editorial in a major medical journal wherein a couple of prominent experts pointed out that negative studies on folic acid in diabetics had neglected to address this issue. Their opinion, with which I am in complete agreement, was that these studies were fundamentally flawed and almost certainly drawing incorrect conclusions as a consequence.

Vitamin E has also taken a lot of heat due, to a similar lack of understanding. Most of the vitamin E you can buy in supplements comes as alpha tocopherol. Unless you are a chemist, your brain won’t want to swallow that word or distinguish it from beta, gamma, delta or any other tocopherols. It is not even that simple, because even with all of those tocopherols, an additional class of compounds called tocotrienols are part of the Vitamin E family and seem to be important. Food contains all of these compounds, and it appears that alpha tocopherol might be the least important of all. As one vitamin E researcher wrote, “taking a mixture of vitamin E that resembles what is in our diet would be the most prudent supplement to take”. I would amend that statement to read, “taking a mixture of vitamin E that resembles what would be in an ideal diet and considers your individual needs, would be the most prudent supplement to take”.

A recent survey concluded that very few Americans were low on any vitamins or minerals. While that got significant media attention, the fact that hundreds of studies have shown the opposite, did not. Many of those studies actually measured body levels. That is especially important as estimates from dietary records are woefully misleading. Dietary records are infamously different from the truth of what people really do eat. On top of that, absorption varies tremendously from person to person and even time to time for the same person.

Thankfully, there is evidence that some who write about and study nutrition are thinking more clearly. The “experts” are becoming more expert. Also, those with a better understanding are getting at least some attention for their criticisms.

Positive evidence of the benefits of dietary supplementation continues to accumulate (of course). Recent studies have shown that the brains of people of all ages, from young children to elderly adults, function better beginning just days after starting to take a multiple vitamin. The same holds true of omega-3 supplements. In an example of the complexity of nutrient interaction, vitamin E lowers the rate of prostate cancer but only when taken along with selenium.

Bottom line-

Think critically - If something is vital, many of us need it.

Don’t forget the food - A vitamin pill cannot entirely replace good food.

Don’t go crazy - Take moderate amounts of nutrients as a safety net.

Go crazy if YOU need to - Some people, especially when ill, need much more.

Vitamins vary - Cheap forms of nutrients cost less, but they are usually a waste of money and can be harmful

This video talk is exceptional. You will find it interesting and surprising. The presentation style is very cool and the information is accurate, overlooked and extremely important.

The rate of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is rapidly rising and estimated to be 12% nationwide by US Census Bureau data. According to community estimates, ADHD rates are as high as 20% in some areas. Nationwide the percentage of children receiving prescription medication for ADHD is approaching 5% (and well over that in some areas). As the number of children diagnosed with ADHD soars in the US, parents, educators, health care providers and scientists are asking, “why”?

The list of answers and possible explanations is quite long. With no blood test to diagnose ADHD, and many reasons why overworked teachers, stressed parents and hurried doctors would want easy fixes, stamping a child with the ADHD label and starting that child on medication is an appealingly quick shovel-it-under-the-carpet response. Anyone with the most superficial experience of the challenges posed by these children will be sympathetic.

One reasons for over-diagnosis is uncertainty about what really is normal. Kids who are creative and unusually smart, need challenges or they will often create them for those around them. Kids who learn well but need a lot of physical activity also draw negative attention. Sadly, a child who sits quietly underachieving is often neglected. We live in a culture where driving a two ton metal projectile hurtling down the road, inches away from dozens or even hundreds of other vehicles, is boring. So we crank it up by talking on the phone, messing with CDs, running videos in the car and TEXTING! Driving has become our most popular extreme sport. Our culture is ADHD. We create children in our own image.

Cultural elements have a huge impact. So does diet. As I’ve discussed before, many in the medical community have decades-long experience of the ADHD-reducing effects of a diet limited in additives, preservatives and sugar. Even the British government is on board with this idea, after they funded a study expecting to discredit the theory. Prenatal care is vital, as is getting enough of the right nutrients, physical activity, positive parenting and teaching. Besides avoiding food additives, more and more research is linking unwanted “environmental additives” (ie, toxins) to ADHD.

The latest is a newly released Harvard study of nearly 250 pregnant women. Researchers tested their urine for BPA, finding it in over 97% of the women, and compared those BPA levels to mothers’ reports of ADHD behaviors in their children at age 3. With each 10 fold rise in BPA levels, there was a significant rise in mothers’ reports of their daughters’ emotional instability, anxiety and depression. Although ADHD is much more common in boys, there was no correlation between BPA levels and the behaviors of boys in this sample.

For decades now, we have known that the poisons we dump into our world poison our brains, causing ADHD and other problems. In the early 1970’s Harvard researcher Herbert Needleman discovered a very close correlation between blood lead levels and IQ. Since then the list of bad actors grows year by year. Organophosphates, developed for chemical warfare and present now in herbicides, pesticides and other chemicals, cause severe neurologic damage, as originally intended. Studies by UC Berkeley on the young children of agricultural workers in California’s Central Valley, by Harvard on preteen and early teens and by Columbia have all found links between even barely detectable levels of organophosphates and ADHD. In 2008, 20-30% of US samples of foods such as celery, strawberries and blueberries found contamination with one or more organophosphates. Korean studies have discovered strong links between phthalates and ADHD in school-aged children. Government research shows that nearly every American man, woman and child now has detectable levels of phthalates in our bodies.

What to do? Follow the essential health habits. Drink enough water. Exercise. Eat a healthy diet. Take a moderate amount of vitamin and mineral supplementation. Develop and maintain a positive attitude and social interactions. Avoid the stuff that makes us sick. That covers a broad range. Avoid food additives, including preservatives and flavoring agents. Select foods least likely to expose you to unwanted chemicals (review the list below and favor organic and local). Make your water as clean as possible. Create a stable, calm and pleasant environment. Use music and physical activity to help your child move in the rhythm that suits him or her.

Most contaminated

Fruits - peaches, apples, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, imported grapes, pears

Vegetables - bell peppers, celery, kale, lettuce, carrots

Least contaminated

Fruit - pineapples, mangoes, kiwis, papayas, watermelons

Vegetables - onions, avocados, sweet corn, asparagus, sweet peas, cabbages, eggplants, broccoli, tomatoes, sweet potatoes