Health News

REPORTING POINT 03/12

HEALTH NEWS

“Live healthy...Live well”

Dedicated to providing pertinent information on health, fitness, and nutrition to foster a culture of wellness among Southwest Airlines flight crews and their families.

by Larry Kline

email: livehealthy-livewell@cox.net

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING?- MULTIVITAMINS – the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee in 2010 singled out seven nutrients that many Americans are deficient in their diets. Two of them, fiber and potassium, are not available in significant amounts from multivitamins, but the other five are:

            -Vitamin D. (Recommended Daily Intake: 15 micrograms/day; upper limit 100 mcg/day) A majority of adults do not get enough from their food, although our skin makes vitamin D when it is exposed to the UV rays in sunlight).

            -Folic acid. (RDI: 400 mcg/d; upper limit 1000 mcg/d) It helps protect against spina bifida and other neural tube birth defects that can occur before a woman knows that she is pregnant.  About one in five women who are capable of becoming pregnant do not get enough folic acid.

            -Vitamin B-12. (RDI: 2.4 mcg/d: upper limit ND) Adults over 50 should get some of their B-12 from fortified foods or supplements since they may have too little stomach acid to absorb naturally occurring B-12 in foods.

            -Iron. (RDI: 18 mg/d younger females: 8 mg/d over 50: 8 mg for males: upper level both male and female, 45 mg/d)  About 15 percent of women 50 and younger are iron deficient.

            -Calcium. (RDI: 1000 mg/d; upper level 2,500 mg/d)  A majority of adults do not get enough calcium from their food.  Multivitamins, which typically have 100 to 200 milligrams, can help, although adults need 1,000 to 1,200 mgs a day. Calcium supplements were associated with the greatest reduction of death risk.

Researchers are concerned about the safety of three nutrients:

            Folic acid (folate) is a B vitamin that helps cells divide and grow.  Too little causes anemia and birth defects.  In 1996, the FDA required companies to add folic acid to rice and to the flour used to make white bread and pasta.  Folate is also added to many breakfast cereals.

            Since fortification began, the rate of neural tube births defects in the United States has plunged by 36 percent.  Too little folic acid may raise the risk of colorectal cancer because the vitamin can prevent mutations that lead to tumors.  But too much folic acid may spur the growth of precancerous colorectal adenomas.  A third to a half of Americans over age 50 has those kinds of adenomas.

            The available evidence strongly suggests that if there is some danger to the general public, it probably only exists for people who are taking in more than 800 to 1,000 micrograms a day from fortified foods or supplements.  The folate that occurs naturally, mostly in fruits and vegetable is not a problem.  The American Cancer Society tracked nearly 100,000 men and women for eight years.  Those who got the most folic acid (an average of 660 mcg a day) from supplements and fortified foods were no more likely to be diagnosed with colorectal cancer than those who got the least (70 mcg a day).

            Most multivitamins contain 400 mcg of folic acid.  The average American probably is getting about 250 micrograms a day from fortified foods like bread, pasta, rice, and cereals.  So if you have a typical diet and you take a multivitamin, you are getting 650 micrograms, which is probably safe.  So how do you get too much folic acid?

            While most breakfast cereals have 100 to 200 mcg, some like Kashi Heart to Heart, Total, Multigrain Cheerios and Kellogg’s Mueslix, have 400 mcg per serving.  If you are taking a multivitamin and eating cereal that contains high doses of folic acid every day, it is not hard to exceed 1,000 mcg a day.  If you take a multivitamin, avoid cereals, energy bars, and other foods or supplements that contain 400 mcg of folic acid per serving.

            Selenium. (RDI: 55 mcg/d; upper level 400 mcg/d) In a large National Cancer Institute trial, men who took 200 mcg of selenium – about four times the recommended level – every day for five years had no lower risk of prostate cancer than men who took a placebo.

            It may have increased their risk of being diagnosed with diabetes.  An earlier trial showed that men and women who took 200 mcg of selenium every day for eight years were nearly three times as likely to report having diabetes as those who took a placebo. That led the American College of Physicians to warn that long-term selenium supplementation should not be viewed as harmless.  It is recommended that you should not take a multivitamin with more than 100 mcg of selenium.

Iron.  The link between supplemental iron intake and death risk was strongest with iron in women over 62 years of age (note: RDI reduced for all women over 50) according to a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Nutrition Action Healthletter, 09/11, USA Today 9/11/11.

(Multivitamins and supplements have been shown to help improve health in many instances when there is not a good variety of foods and nutrients in the daily diet. It is okay to take a multivitamin if you are not eating a balanced diet as long as the total amounts of vitamins and mineral supplements are equal or less than the RDI and not close to the upper limits. Christine Kline RD, CNSD)

CUTTING FOOD CRAVINGS - smell is important when it comes to eating. When we walk into a movie theater, our sense of smell is why we're instantly dying for some popcorn — preferably drenched in butter. It's why Cinnabons are so hard to resist as their seductive scent wafts through malls and airports. 

            There may be a scent that has the opposite effect – peppermint. A study by Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia showed that volunteers who sniffed peppermint scent every two hours were not as hungry as non-sniffers and — even better — they ate 2,800 fewer calories in a week. That's enough to lose close to a pound.
            Peppermint, according to the study’s author, "is distracting you from your hunger pains, and you don't feel as inclined to eat as much." (Eating peppermint candy or chewing peppermint gum doesn't work as well.)  Earlier studies showed that athletes perform better if they sniff peppermint. They were able to go longer at the gym, able to push themselves, were more motivated, less fatigued and felt like they had more energy.
           The study also concluded "another implication would be that peppermint scent could be used to curb individuals' false hunger cravings, i.e. emotional eating."
Peppermint oil is available online and can be dabbed on a wristband, for example, for easy sniffing. The study used packaged peppermint inhalers available in nutrition stores or for $9.99 at sportsinhaler.com.  Journal of American Dietetics Association, 10/19/2011.

Ginger Extract.  Whole ginger extract has promising cancer-preventing activity in prostate cancer. Ginger extract had significant effects in stopping the growth of cancer cells and inducing cell death in a spectrum of prostate cancer cells. Animal studies revealed the extract did not show significant toxicity to normal tissues, such as bone marrow. Research showed tumor regression up to 60 percent. Humans would have to consume about 3 1/2 ounces of whole ginger extract a day to get the benefits. British Journal of Nutrition, 08/ 2011.

Exercise: Good Reasons. Exercise reduces vulnerability to various cardiac dysrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms), improves the likelihood of survival from a myocardial infarction (heart attack), and helps overcome jet lag. Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health, 1996.