Know Your Vitamins

   There are many “experts” in the health care industry that do not advocate the use of multi-vitamin & mineral supplements. They claim that we can get everything we need from food. Theoretically, yes this is true. But let’s be realistic. IN today’s modern world, the change that you get the RDA, let alone an amount great enough to support the demands of your busy and stressful life are slim to none.  I think it is important to remember just what the RDA is. It was established to prevent the onset of general disease. It was not designed to promote optimal health or prevent serious genetic mutations, like cancers. The RDA for vitamin C, for example, is 60mg. This amount was found to be just enough to prevent scurvy. It does not take into account it’s ability as an antioxidant or it multi-facetted roll in immune function. Secondly with all of the food processing and treatment, it is estimated that foods of today contain about half of what they did forty years ago. The take home message here is, if you get out of bed, you need to take a multi-vitamin.

    The second argument is that our body gets its minerals better from food. Again, this is true. However, that statement is only half of the story. Many people fail to ask the question, “WHY?” Well the answer is simple, but complex. If you were to pick up 3 different bottles of a multi-vitamin, you would notice that the minerals all come in different forms. Iron, for example can come in, Ferrous Fumerate, Iron Oxide, and Iron aspartate to name a few. One that doesn’t show up often is Iron Chelate. Rarely do over the counter vitamin and mineral supplements offer the majority of minerals in a chelated form. If they do, they tend to be expensive and most people will pass them by.  Un-be-known to most, the chelated form of most minerals is the most bio-available, meaning it is the easiest for our body to absorb and use. Now, getting back to the original argument that we get things better from “food”. What most experts, dietitians, or doctors won’t tell you is that most plants present their minerals in this chelated form. So when you compare that to the atypical multi-vitamin and mineral supplement, yes that is a true statement, but it doesn’t hold a drop of water if you do your homework.

    What is Chelation, you ask? Well this is the complex part. Minerals by nature are considered “Inorganic”. This means that they do not contain any carbon. Chelation is a process in which minerals are bound to an organic molecule (usually an amino acid), and is then considered to be “organic( it now contains carbon).  Humans are classified as organic because every last cell in our body is largely made from carbon molecules. Now the amino acids that are bound to the minerals are actively transported in the small intestine. Say what? Well imagine that a mineral is like a football. A Running back is an amino acid, and the offensive and defensive lines are like the lining of your intestine. Once, the back (the amino acid) gets handed the ball (the mineral) it is now chelated and the offensive line (the intestinal lining) opens up a hole and the back plows through with the mineral tight in hand (Or at least we hope!).  Now the back is running down the field (your blood stream) and makes it easily into the end zone (a cell) and spikes the ball the mineral is split from the amino acid).  Now the mineral is free to do what it needs to do and the amino acid can do its thing. The major exception to this mineral – amino acid marriage is calcium. Calcium is a different article in it self, but I’ll keep it simple. The most bio-available forms of calcium are calcium carbonate and calcium citrate.

    How much is too much? Have no fear! When was the last time you heard of anyone dying of a vitamin overdose?  The only minerals that may cause a problem are iron, lead and the vitamin A( not to be confused with beta-carotene). Most vitamins will contain pretty small amounts of these and are not of major concern. In fact, women tend to be deficient in iron more often than not.  I recommend taking what is called a “Mega-vitamin”. These guys are often referred to as high potency and contain 1000’s of % of certain vitamins. Recent research[1]  has come to the conclusion that use of these bad boys can play a significant roll in the prevention of those genetic mutations that cause various diseases, like cancer. 

    There are a couple general guidelines you should take note of when starting a vitamin & mineral supplement. First, look at the label and check for those Chelated minerals. Second, pick a high potency multi-vitamin. Third, do NOT pick a “time released” vitamin. This is exactly what you don’t want. That defeats the purpose of taking vitamins. And even if they could figure out a way to do it, you have to ask yourself how they do it. With so many vitamins and minerals how do they determine which of them is released in what quantity and at what rate? Its impossible. Lastly, remember that humans do not store many vitamins or minerals. So in that respect there is no such thing as a One-A-Day vitamin. I recommend taking one with breakfast and one in the evening with your last meal of the night.

 1. Bruce N Ames, Ilan Elson-Schwab, and Eli A Silver High-dose vitamin therapy stimulates variant enzymes with decreased coenzyme binding affinity (increased Km): relevance to genetic disease and polymorphisms Am J Clin Nutr 2002 75: 616-658