[cmamad id=”19513″ align=”center” tabid=”display-desktop” mobid=”display-desktop” stg=””]
Many multivitamins should be banned…
—–Important Message—–
The weirdest diabetes story you’ve ever heard…
You’ll be shocked about this doctor’s discovery… Did it come in time to save his OWN life?
—————–
Are You Taking Any of These Dangerous Multivitamins?
Multivitamins might be dangerous. In fact many are.
Sure, multivitamin tablets project the image of being healthy for nearly everyone.
Supposedly, they are safe for you…even if you eat right and get enough vitamins from food.
And of course, television commercials, glossy magazine advertisements, and “green” packaging logos are all designed to give this impression of safety.
But multivitamins contain hidden hazards…
Most contain nutrients such as retinol and iron.
Although essential, these nutrients have very narrow U-shaped curves…
The body’s stores of iron and vitamin A have low turnover rates, and exceeding their RDAs can lead to bioaccumulation.
There are some even issues surrounding supplementing niacin and folic acid, two water-soluble B-vitamins that are always in multivitamins.
Although these vitamins never build up within the body, taking them in high amounts every day can lead to problems.
[cmamad id=”19514″ align=”center” tabid=”display-desktop” mobid=”display-desktop” stg=””]
The excipients and pigments they contain can also be an issue.
Titanium dioxide nanoparticles are always added for color…
But after these ingredients are absorbed they cannot be metabolized by the body.
So, in addition to being a waste of money for people who already consume adequate nutrients from food, multivitamins can actually be dangerous for some people…
Perhaps for all people.
Nobody can say outright that some people don’t benefit from multivitamins…
But the epidemiological evidence implies that they are, on average, essentially worthless:
In 2013, these researchers analyzed data from 21 published articles that covered 91,074 subjects in total (with 8,794 deaths).
After they compiled the data, it became clear that all associations were non-existent – making it impossible to generally state whether or not multivitamins are actually “good.”
They noted the same thing when they analyzed cardiovascular disease and cancer outcomes separately.
So what could account for these strange results?
Maybe it is reasonable to assume that multivitamins are beneficial for people who would otherwise be deficient – while being risky for people who do get plenty of nutrients from food.
Or maybe a specific brand could be beneficial for one population, in one country, but harmful to other people elsewhere.
Besides being sampled across regions, these studies also varied across time.
The composition of multivitamins has been inconsistent since they first came out.
Here are some of the things that reduce year-to-year and brand-to-brand consistency:
- Changes in the pills’ formulation arising from more efficient chemical synthesis techniques
- Trace toxins coming from different sources
- Revisions in the official recommended daily allowance (RDA)
- The use of new nanoscale pigments
For these reasons, it might be better to analyze the sub-studies individually.
Although this would necessarily include fewer people in total, focusing on just one population and time period could provide more useful information.
“Conclusion: Multivitamin-multimineral treatment has no effect on mortality risk.”
But even then, the exact brands that people take are never reported.
On top of all this, there are some sociological confounders in all of these studies – and they might explain certain results and sets of data.
Remember, these are points of argument that can be used to skew conclusions. They are not known facts:
- “Sick people” tend to buy more multivitamins
- “Responsible people” tend to buy more multivitamins
So it’s possible that the best approach is to analyze the problematic components individually, and then infer whether or not a multivitamin would be beneficial for a specific person.
We’ll use Centrum Silver® as a typical multivitamin:
Alpha-tocopherol
Alpha-tocopherol is in Centrum Silver at 60 IU (international units). This represents a convenient figure of 200% RDA.
While alpha-tocopherol can certainly protect cell membranes against oxygen-based free radicals – one of its classic functions – it also can displace gamma-tocopherol.
This is the only subtype that protects against reactive nitrogen species.
In studies, gamma-tocopherol consistently and very significantly protects against cancer.
And high amounts of alpha-tocopherol have been shown to be capable of inhibiting the transport of gamma-tocopherol.
We really need a balance between all vitamin E subtypes (or mixed tocopherols), but Centrum Silver contains only alpha-tocopherol.
Alpha-tocopherol was given priority among vitamin E subtypes merely because it was found to be slightly more potent in rat fetal absorption assays conducted in the 1940s.
Gamma-tocopherol adducts with reactive nitrogen species (highly associated with cancer) and safely removes them from the body.
Again, alpha-tocopherol displaces gamma-tocopherol, and maybe that is why it’s almost the only antioxidant shown to actually increase cancer incidence…
The other one is beta-carotene, which does so on account of becoming vitamin A.
Vitamin A
Vitamin A is often classified as a vitamin-hormone.
Retinoic acid, the fully-active form, works on cell nucleus receptors to transcribe DNA.
Dermatologists know that retinoids can double the skin turnover rate. And osteologists know that too much can thin the bones.
Vitamin A is a possible explanation for higher levels of osteoporosis in the Nordic countries, an area where excessive vitamin A fortification was once common.
Our bodies store vitamin A in the liver, sometimes to a pathological extent.
Autopsy liver concentrations vary substantially, ranging from undetectable levels to toxic amounts.
Despite highly variably liver stores, plasma levels remain within a strikingly narrow range – and that would make anybody question whether there is any benefit at all to taking it.
Since vitamin A or its precursors are found in nearly all natural foods, it makes little sense to store it in your liver unless you are heading off on a long expedition.
Other than populations in some developing nations, everyone gets enough vitamin A. Even homeless people in America are probably getting sufficient vitamin A.
Iron
Iron is also stored in the liver, often to a pathological extent.
In addition to heme iron being historically associated with colon cancer, the total body burden of iron is also correlated.
This is also a very consistent finding, and subclinical iron overload should be actively prevented.
The chemical mechanism underlying iron’s carcinogenicity is its ability to catalyze the production of oxygen free radicals and also hydrogen peroxide.
This catalytic effect increases lipid peroxidation. And the free radicals that are produced increase the amount of antioxidants needed.
While it’s true that Centrum Silver contains plenty of antioxidants, the fact that alpha-tocopherol is not balanced with gamma-tocopherol should preclude its routine use.
Folic acid
Folic acid is added to Centrum Silver at 300 micrograms per pill.
They use this unnatural molecule because it’s easier to synthesize than natural folates, and it will partially convert to them within the body.
Scientists and nutritionists initially believed that folic acid is exclusively converted into natural folates after consumption, but this has since been proven false.
Unnatural folates inhibit the brain’s ability to uptake natural folates and also the enzymes that require them.
Besides being a biomarker for other artificial folates, unmetabolized folic acid also competes with natural folates.
Unmetabolized folic acid has been correlated with reduced IQ – a surprising finding because, theoretically, folates should increase IQ.
But this makes more sense when you realize that folic acid and many of its metabolites are actually folate inhibitors – or veritable antifolate drugs.
Niacin
Niacin is technically not even a vitamin since it is routinely made in the body from tryptophan.
For this reason, consuming niacin effectively spares tryptophan and thus increases serotonin – tryptophan’s other main product.
While this could make a person happy, there are reasons to limit this.
Niacin also adducts with labile methyl groups within the body, forming N1-methylnicotinamide and lowering the body’s methyl pool.
This decreases methionine while increasing plasma homocysteine, a dangerous molecule on account of its reactivity.
Homocysteine can form a stable free radical that is also lipid-soluble. And maybe that is why it’s been so highly correlated with cerebrospinal fluid lipid peroxidation.
This homocysteine-raising effect of niacin is a classic finding.
Niacin has also been shown to reduce other methylated metabolites such as adrenaline and metanephrine.
Titanium dioxide
Titanium dioxide is a pigment added to Centrum Silver pills to give them a whiter color. So it’s not even pretending to be a nutrient.
Due to its reflective nature, titanium dioxide becomes a better pigment the smaller the particles are made.
Food-grade titanium dioxide particles are sold on the nanoscale and have been shown to be absorbed in laboratory animals.
Titanium dioxide has been detected in the liver, kidneys, and brain after oral consumption, and this is a difficult pigment to metabolize.
Other vitamins
All other vitamins in a multivitamin should be beneficial, but the formulation can certainly be improved upon.
Not only are some of them dangerous, but many others are also only conditionally helpful.
Since a one-size-fits-all approach has epidemiologically been shown to be worthless on average, a better strategy might be to buy individual supplements to complement your particular diet.
Due to the presence of the titanium dioxide nanoparticles, multivitamins were obviously not designed with the consumer in mind.
The suspiciously rounded off doses give the impression they were chosen nonchalantly. And the presence of some of the ingredients is justified only by antiquated science.
—–Important Message—–
“What happened to you?” she said, “I want you inside me NOW”
It was one of my finest moments, that’s for sure…
So what happened was this:
I went from being too limp to perform…
…to shocking my girlfriend with my new raging hard erection.
I went from avoiding women altogether…
And wondering if I would ever have sex again…
…to being able to give it to her good whenever she wanted, with more confidence than ever before.
At one point, it really looked like the end of my relationship with my cute, sexy, younger girlfriend who wanted me so bad…
Because I couldn’t give her what she wanted… not with my limp noodle…
But then I discovered something… something REALLY good…
…something that helped me when I was in my darkest days…
Click here to find out what I discovered…
—————–
Leave a Reply