riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (12/08/83)
Is your average middle-class American really likely to have a serious
vitamin deficiency with its own classic symptoms, or is he more prone
to a minor vitamin problem resulting in a generally poor state of
health (lowered resistance against infection, general run-down feeling,
etc.)?
----
Prentiss Riddle
{ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddlesebb@pyuxss.UUCP (12/08/83)
Few people who live in the industrialized world have serious vitamin deficiencies(probably more than the government would care to admit, though). Our diet has improved drastically. But we are now aware that certain problems will occur if too little of a nutrient to taken. These problems are in most cases small compared to beri-beri and scurvy. For instance, I have a good friend who experiences irritability and depression when she does not take her vitamin supplements. This sort of thing is well documented. And there are other problems which some people believe may be linked to poor eating habits such as arteriolsclorosis(sp?) and elevated cholesterol. Now, I'm not saying that there is concrete proof of this. But I figure that taking a vitamin supplement a day is a small price to pay even if it doesn't work. Back to deficiencies. It is probably difficult for your own MD to diagnose a small vitamin deficiency. You may find you are dragging, very sleepy, have headaches, stomach aches. All sorts of little things that probably don't bother you too much. One way to find out if vitamins work for you is to try them yourself. Rejecting them without using them is not giving them a fair try. My friend with the de- pression didn't really believe the supplements would help, but they did and she was very glad she gave them a shot. You may say "Well I get my RDA(recommended daily allowance) of all those vitamins." Two warnings about the RDA- 1. people have different needs. The RDA is generally considered to be a low estimate of our need for a certain nutrient. How many of you would care to bet that your needs are "average"? 2. RDA has been determined for certain nutrients. Many vitamins and minerals have no RDA. This does not mean you don't need it. It is often very difficult to get these trace minerals in our diets and this makes vitamin supplements even more important. (as an aside the MDR(minimum daily requirement) is just enough to keep you from getting those horrible diseases like beri-beri. It is not enough to keep you healthy) Vitamin overdoses to happen. The ones I've heard about have been for vitamin A and D. You do have to take a heck of a lot of them to get sick. But it does happen. A lot of people agrue about the usefulness of vitamins. How useful they are depends upon how they effect you personally. You don't get addicted to them so there is no harm in trying them. If they don't work for you, don't use them. Sharon Badian
cas@cvl.UUCP (Cliff Shaffer) (12/08/83)
For a book which talks about vitamin deficiencies, try
Earl Mindell's Vitamin Bible. I don't know how balanced his views
are, but he does list all of the deficiencies/causes/symptoms he
could think of.
Cliff Shaffer
{we13,mcnc,seismo}!rlgvax!cvl!cascarey@seismo.UUCP (Marie Carey) (12/09/83)
WHEREVER did the person who stated that vitamin A overdose causes a brain tumor get that information? I have read I don't know how many times that a vitamin A overdose will cause toxicity in the liver, but never anything about a brain tumor! I think that a brain tumor would be just as serious if not more so than toxicity in the liver and yet I have never read anything about brain tumors being caused by vitamin A overdose. This information scares me just a bit since I take 25,000 ius. a day. I think that is the maximum that I have ever seen sold in the store. Does anyone have any *factual* information about actual dosages and what is considered high? I certainly don't feel as though I have any toxicity of the liver, but I would really appreciate any information. Thank you, M. Carey
rene@umcp-cs.UUCP (12/09/83)
An overdose of vitamin A does NOT cause a brain tumor - I wrote that
it sometimes causes the same symptoms as brain tumors, with the
result that it is occasionally is misdiagnosed as such. This was
according to a Science News article some months back (I believe they
mentioned someone having SURGERY to remove a tumor, and there wasn't
one ...). The article also mentioned that megadoses of vitamin A can
mask symptoms of serious problems (I don't remember which ones they
mentioned).
- rene
--
"Peoles have feeelings, too"
Arpa: rene.umcp-cs@CSNet-relay
Uucp:...{allegra,seismo}!umcp-cs!reneseifert@ihuxl.UUCP (D.A. Seifert) (12/12/83)
The books I've read say: (a) No one has ever actually *died* from a vitamin overdose, the few cases of people getting sick (usually from vitamin A) were cured by merely reducing intake of the vitamin. (b) 'dangerous' levels of vitamin A are usually listed as 50,000-100,000 IU per day *for an extended period of time*, or, of course, a truely massive dose will do it. I believe polar bear liver was listed as a source of dangerous levels of A. (They should have listened to the Eskimos.) Snoopy -- ) ( ) from the mildly opinionated keyboard of _)__________________ |OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO| Dave Seifert |OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO| ihnp4!ihuxl!seifert |OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO| |------------------|
pc@hplabsb.UUCP (Patricia Collins) (12/13/83)
Someone claimed (excuse me for losing the reference) that very few "normal" people have vitamin deficiencies. I'm not sure who qualifies as normal, but there are large numbers of people who have significant Vitamin B deficiencies. The symptoms are typically lethargy or depression. One of the prinicpal groups of people who suffer this problem are those who have gastro-intestinal disorders. The problem can be exacerbated by the intake of sucrose because this produces a "dumping syndrome" where food passes through the system too quickly for the vitamins to be absorbed. My dad is TOTALLY against vitamin supplements, but had slipped into a serious depression after a serious GI problem. After everything from psychoanalysis to drugs, it turned out that the problem was a serious Vitamin B deficiency. He now takes a Vitamin B shot regularly and my mom will vouch for the difference! If my dad had not been convinced before the vitamin therapy that there was no way a person "with a healthy diet" could need vitamin supplements, I might believe there was some placebo effect. I believe that the connection between Vitamin B deficiency and GI disorders is well documented. Certainly there are a lot of otherwise normal people who suffer from this combination of problems. One question: why would Vitamin B injections every few days be preferrable to a daily B supplement? Patricia Collins hplabs
dbb@fluke.UUCP (Dave Bartley) (12/15/83)
A couple of pertinent notes influenced by perusing *Laurel's Kitchen*, my favorite nutritional reference: Vitamins interact, with each other and with minerals. For example, one's requirements for B6 and calcium are proportional to the amount of protein in the diet. Each B-complex vitamin is considered to be virtually useless without the others. Rather than megadosing a single vitamin, it is more prudent to take multi-vitamins. Because of the influence of differing diets and lifestyles on requirements, the RDA of vitamins and minerals is often set high, with hopes of covering the worst-case. An example is that of zinc (15 mg), which is extremely difficult to get without mineral supplementation. However, this is NOT the case with thiamine (B1, RDA of 1.0 mg). For the curious, *Laurel's Kitchen* is a cookbook/nutrition book by Laurel Robertson, Carol Flinders, and Bronwen Godfrey. Nilgiri Press, 1976; paperback by Bantam Books. -- Dave Bartley John Fluke Mfg Co, Inc, Everett, WA 98206 _____________________________________________ ucbvax!lbl-csam , decvax!microsof , uw-beaver \ allegra!uw-beaver , ihnp4!uw-beaver , ssc-vax >!fluke!dbb