COMPETING WITH MOTHER NATURE

    According to Consumer Reports on Health, new evidence shows that vitamin and mineral supplements cannot compete with the nutrients from Mother Nature.  Vitamin supplements as well as fresh vegetables and fruits are now available at most health stores and now even many of the large super stores handle both.  If anyone is exhausted by 9:00 pm, it is time to crawl under the covers where only sleep can come to the rescue.  The digestive system calls to the brain to get digestive crews on duty and may have completed their jobs very early in the morning as far as they can until missing nutrients can be found.

    GLIMMERS OF HOPE support the use of certain supplements for certain conditions. Vitamin and mineral pills can benefit certain people in different times of their lives.  First discuss this need with your physician to be sure it does not interfere with other medications. People who have at least moderate age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness, may be able to limit damage by taking a daily supplement that contains vitamins C, E and beta carotene, but talk to your ophthalmologist first since the formula could be risky for some people, depending on other medications used.  Recent research suggests that folic acid and other B vitamins reduce the risk of AMD for some people.  This is the first suggestion of a way of preventing the early stages of AMD other than avoiding smoking,” says William G. Christin, Sc,D, an associate professor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.  But the study sponsored by the National Eye Institute needs to be repeated before firm recommendations can be made.

   An OSTEOPOROSIS study presented a comprehensive review of 167 studies federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found that calcium and vitamin D pills reduced fractures and bone loss – although the fracture benefit was primarily in female nursing home residents.  Vitamin D also helped prevent falls in older people in a 2009 analysis but only at doses of 700 IU a day or higher.  Shortfalls of vitamin D are common, recent research suggests, so if you have health problems possibly linked to abnormal calcium metabolism or vitamin D deficiency such as hyperthyroidism and osteoporosis, consider having your blood levels tested.  If the reading is low your doctor may likely call for a vitamin D supplement for a few months and then retest.