Saturday, September 10, 2011

Mom Was Right

And I say what she said, "Eat food rich in vitamins and minerals as well as hefty amounts of protein. Watch your sweets and fats. Get some sun." With the added qualifier that you can keep more money in your pocket to buy essentials for the weightlifting room: bars, bumpers, chalk, tape, etc.
Too many supplements and you are risking shortening your life.
From a doctor's update:

Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine
September 11, 2011

Get Vitamins from Food, Not Pills

One in three women and one in four men in the United
States take vitamin pills regularly. This month, a study that
followed 182,099 people in California and Hawaii for an average
of 11 years showed that taking multivitamin pills neither
decreased nor increased the death rate for all causes or the rates
of heart attack or cancer (American Journal of Epidemiology,
August, 2011).
A previous review of 67 randomized trials of vitamin pill
effects on life and health found that taking vitamin pills may
shorten life (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 1,
2008). The authors found an increased death rate of 16 percent
in those taking vitamin A pills, seven percent with beta-
carotene, and seven percent with vitamin E. The Women's Health
Initiative study followed women for eight years and found that
taking multivitamin pills has little or no influence on the risk
of common cancers, heart attacks or death rate in postmenopausal
women (Archives of Internal Medicine, February, 2009). A review
of the world's literature shows that multivitamin use neither
increases nor decreases risk for breast cancer (Annals of
Pharmacotherapy. published online April 2011)...
...VITAMIN B PILLS MAY CAUSE HARM: Every chemical reaction in
your body is started by an enzyme. For your body to convert
chemical A to chemical B, you need an enzyme to start that
reaction. All eight B vitamins are parts of enzymes. When you
take large doses of one enzyme, you accumulate end products that
must be balanced by also taking large doses of other enzymes.
For example, NIACIN LOWERS CHOLESTEROL, BUT RAISES HOMOCYSTEINE:
People who take large doses of niacin to lower cholesterol have a
marked elevation of homocysteine, a risk factor for heart
attacks. Here is how it happens: Proteins are made up of
building blocks called amino acids. The B vitamin, Niacin, is
part of the enzyme that converts an amino acid, cysteine, into
homocysteine..."

Now, I am not a doctor nor do I have a doctorate, but it seems that there is some pretty good data to concentrate first on food and much further down the list cramming a truck load of supplements down your gut.

No comments:

Post a Comment