PODCAST #7 12-1-06

WELCOME TO THE 7th EDITION OF THE HEALTH AND HAPPINESS PODCAST

This podcast covers a very important fact that taking a multivitamin is a fast and easy way to improve your health. Every one should take a multivitamin. Population based studies show that taking a daily multivitamin reduces heart attacks, helps protect against colon cancer and helps boost the immune function.

Most people over 50 can no longer adequately absorb vitamin B-12 from their food. The body’s ability to make vitamin D on exposure to sunlight declines sharply with age. Pregnant women need 400 mg. or more of folic acid early or before pregnancy to prevent severe birth defects.

Whether you buy a highly advertised brand or a generic there is no difference, do not buy the super cheap vitamins in close-out or dollar stores. According to Consumer Reports half of the 18 tested brands from these stores failed to contain the labeled amount of at least one ingredient and several did not dissolve adequately.
You can take your vitamins any time of the day. Take them after a meal on a full stomach (this helps to avoid indigestion). Also the meal should contain some fat as this helps the absorption of vitamins D, E and the carotenoids.

While most of the multivitamins contain 100% of Daily Value (DV) which used to be called the Minimum Daily Requirement (MDR). Because this is the minimum that the FDA recommends. The less of each vitamin that the manufacturer puts into the Multivitamin the less it costs to make. These values have not been changed since the 1970s. Current thinking has increased the dosage of many of the vitamins in a multivitamin.

While a multivitamin is one important step on the road to good health the dosage of some of the vitamins in a multivitamin are too low. Higher doses of B, C, D, E and Calcium should be taken for optimum health.

B-complex is a mixture of six or more B vitamins. It comes as B-50.  Containing 50 mg of most of the B vitamins. Take one or two a day. If you take two a day take one with breakfast and one with dinner. The B-complex vitamin will color your urine yellow this is not harmful in any way.

Vitamin C is used to build the hormones that fight stress and strain. We are all under stress a good part of the day. I recommend one 500 mg of vitamin C with breakfast and one with dinner to help fight stress. Any excess will pass out in your urine.

Vitamin D studies have shown that we do not get enough Vitamin D in our food or in a multivitamin. The new requirement is 1000 IU a day. There is a theory that one of the contributing factors to getting the flu in the winter is because in the winter we do not get enough vitamin D. The preferred form is Vitamin D3 not Vitamin D2 since Vitamin D3 is absorbed better.

Vitamin E (natural) with tocopherols check the label for the tocopherols. The reason for natural Vitamin E is that the natural contains the tocopherols which improve the action of Vitamin E. Vitamin E in doses of 400 IU and higher decreases varicose veins and delays the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Lancet reports Vitamin E prevents free-radical damage to LDL, blocking an early step in Heart disease and reducing the risk of coronary artery disease by 77%. Vitamin E decreases blood clotting which helps prevent stroke. So if you take coumadin check with your doctor before taking excess vitamin E.

The recommended dose of Calcium is 1000 to 1200 mg daily. If Calcium was put into a multivitamin at this dosage it would be the size of a golf ball which even I would have difficulty swallowing. Calcium tablets come as 500 mg of calcium or 500 mg of calcium with 400 mg of magnesium. This combination usually does not change bowel function as they balance each other. Calcium acts as a binder and magnesium as a natural stool softener. So you might have to adjust the amounts of calcium or magnesium for a normal bowel movement.

That’s all for PODCAST #7. I hope you found it interesting and informative. The next PODCAST will be Jan. 1, 2007

If you would like your questions answered on the health and happiness podcast our e-mail address is health@lencolabs.com.

For more information on this subject and other subjects go to www.lencolabs.com, thank you for listening to the health and happiness podcast with–Leonard Austin