Vitamin Bashers Are Wrong, Says Top DocThursday, 19 Dec 2013 01:11 PM
"Don't stop taking your multivitamin."
That's the simple advice offered by board-certified family practitioner David Brownstein, M.D., in the wake of heavily publicized recent studies that concluded a daily multivitamin does not have health benefits. After carefully reviewing the studies, Dr. Brownstein, one of the nation's top practitioners of holistic medicine, concluded that they aren't worth the paper they're printed on. "I have been practicing medicine for more than 20 years, and I can assure you I have never seen a patient harmed by taking multivitamins," Dr. Brownstein tells Newsmax Health. "However, I have had many patients harmed from FDA-approved pharmaceutical drugs.
"In the first place, one of the studies used very low potency
vitamins — so low that I don't expect anyone would think that they
could help anything. Second, most of the multivitamins used in the
studies were cheap synthetics, not natural vitamins. Inexpensive
vitamins are made with synthetics, and many of the substances are
made from petrochemicals, which provide a suboptimal response and
can even be dangerous."
A study to determine the usefulness of multivitamins in
cardiovascular disease was riddled with problems that made its
findings useless, in Dr. Brownstein's opinion. "Half of the people
stopped taking the vitamins during the study," he said. "That, in
and of itself, negates it. Even so, they still found an 11 percent
decrease in cardiovascular risk — it just didn't meet their criteria
for statistical significance."
The recent studies supposedly debunking the value of multivitamins
were released less than two weeks after a Harvard study showed a
multivitamin combined with selenium slowed deterioration in AIDS
patients. In fact, the scientists labeled their results
"groundbreaking," adding that multivitamins could save a lot of
lives at a small price. Another 2012 Harvard study found that
multivitamins reduced cancer risk in older men.
Although the best way to get the vitamins and minerals your body needs is through a healthy diet, the typical diet lacks essential nutrients, according to Dr. Brownstein. "I check my patients for nutritional imbalances, and the vast majority of patients, both sick and well, have nutritional deficiencies."
One of the answers is a daily multivitamin, but choosing the right
one is essential.
"Not all multivitamins are created equal," he says. "There are many inferior vitamins.
"It's best to enlist the help of a healthcare practitioner who can
guide you and test you and adjust your supplements depending on what
you need."
When looking for a good multivitamin, Dr. Brownstein suggests the
following:
• Choose a natural supplement that contains natural, bioidentical
versions of nutrients.
• Choose multivitamins that contain vitamin D3 — cholecalciferol. The synthetic form of vitamin D is D2 or ergocalciferol.
• Be sure to choose vitamins containing natural B12 — labeled as
hydroxy-, methyl-, or adenosylcobalamin. Synthetic vitamin B12 is
listed as cyanocobalamin.
• Avoid dyes,
including FD&C Blue No. 2 Aluminum Lake, FD&C Red No. 40 Aluminum
Lake, and FD&C Yellow No. 6 Aluminum Lake.
"These coloring agents are derived from coal tar, and they contain aluminum atoms," says Dr. Brownstein. "Elevated aluminum levels have been linked to Alzheimer's disease."
• Avoid
products that list hydrogenated oils in the "other ingredients"
section.
"Hydrogenated oils contain trans fatty acids, which are associated with a host of health problems," he says. © 2013 NewsmaxHealth. All rights reserved. |