Why the study that showed taking vitamins don't work, is wrong.

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  • TheDevastator
    TheDevastator Posts: 1,626 Member
    I only take calcium with vitamin D and I'm not even sure if that is going to make that much difference in my old lady bones.

    @SherryTeach I read a blog post just now by Aaron E. Carroll (about this study) and thought you'd be interested:

    What the hell are we doing? – Vitamin D edition

    I just recently started taking a calcium /vitD supplement on advice of my mums doctor. My mum has a slight case of osteoarthritis, as did her mum. So her doc told her that myself and my sister should start taking it now to hopefully prevent osteoarthritis in the future...

    I honestly don't know who to believe anymore...
    You are missing magnesium which helps transport calcium to the proper parts of the body. Or else you may end up with bone spurs or calcified organs.
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
    A single glass of orange juice alreay has more than 1.5 times the RDA in vitamin C.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    I only take calcium with vitamin D and I'm not even sure if that is going to make that much difference in my old lady bones.

    @SherryTeach I read a blog post just now by Aaron E. Carroll (about this study) and thought you'd be interested:

    What the hell are we doing? – Vitamin D edition

    I just recently started taking a calcium /vitD supplement on advice of my mums doctor. My mum has a slight case of osteoarthritis, as did her mum. So her doc told her that myself and my sister should start taking it now to hopefully prevent osteoarthritis in the future...

    I honestly don't know who to believe anymore...
    You are missing magnesium which helps transport calcium to the proper parts of the body. Or else you may end up with bone spurs or calcified organs.

    yes, I take magnesium most nights.

    As for vitamin C , because of years of smoking. My dentist/periodontist has me on 20g vit C daily, which is a mega dose!

  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,373 MFP Moderator
    psulemon wrote: »
    So if your blood work comes back with no deficiencies, do you think there is a benefit of taking a multivitamin?
    What are the vitamins that blood work shows? D and B12? any others?
    It won't show if you are lacking vitamin C or niacin, thiamin, riboflavin, E, K etc.

    For men and women it's generally different. Women, they tend to look at potassium, magnesium, and iron as well as what you mentioned.
  • Pinkranger626
    Pinkranger626 Posts: 460 Member
    edited August 2015
    OK, so I tried watching the first video, made it about 1:30 into it before I had to turn it off. If you read the words on the right of the screen as she's talking she uses phrases like omg, burns me up like a hot pepper in the sahara desert etc. How am I supposed to take your research seriously if you're also trying to talk to me like I'm in high school?

    As for whether I take supplements. I take a multivitamin with iron, fish oil, and glucosamine and chondroitin. The multi with iron helped when I was finding that I was lacking reaching my iron goals from food, and made me feel less exhausted every day, so I will continue to take it.

    I was having a lot of joint pain in my sacral area so I tried taking the glucosamine and chondroitin, I've found that made that pain go away when nothing else seemed to make a difference and if I stop taking it after a couple days the pain comes back. So I will also continue to take that. The fish oil was suggested to me by a pharmacist due to it supporting the glucosamine and chondroitin, and I figure it can't hurt.
  • vlovell24
    vlovell24 Posts: 61 Member
    I have pernicious anemia, and my hematology doc has given me a script for a daily multivitamin. I also have to take massive doses of b12, and iron. I feel better when I take the multivitamin, so honestly, it depends. If your body has gone stupid for some reason, then they can benifit you. I also recall an experiment by a college kid, who made a vitamin "mixture" that he called soyent green. He lived off of it for quite a long time with no ill effects.
  • stealthq
    stealthq Posts: 4,298 Member
    Horrorfox wrote: »
    What are you talking about, there is no 50k pledge on her patreon. The highest you can donate on there is $1500 a year. And no one is forcing anyone to do it. How liberal are you that you are against anyone trying to produce income to invest in her research? Holy *kitten*.

    That's how much she gets total in a year from patreon. $46,505.40 to be exact as of this writing.

    can someone educate me as to why a legitimate researcher would be using crowdfunding as a source to fund research vs. the traditional methods of finding a grant? I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to how research studies are funded.

    Oh nevermind upon further reading it appears she's using that money to continue to disseminate her information to the public and continue making articles and possible find time to write a book. Appears it is not to actually produce any research.

    Meh...still seems hokey to me

    Considering that the grant approval rates for the NIH have dropped to below 4% last year, the approval rates for NSF were below 3% last time I checked, and many researchers I know are now looking to the DOD (horrors!) for funding, I'm kind of surprised that there hasn't been more of an interest in crowdfunding for research. I'd think it'd be particularly useful for research into rare diseases. That has a tough time getting funding from either government or pharma sources.

    Maybe it's the amount of money that would be needed that's the roadblock. Tens of thousands just doesn't cut it these days.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    edited August 2015
    No matter how good your diet is, you can't get the full rdas of all the vitamins in a single day unless you go way over on calories on standard grocery store food.

    If that is true, then the RDAs are by definition too high.
  • j75j75
    j75j75 Posts: 854 Member
    The New York Attorney General did a study earlier this year that found 4 out of 5 supplements do not contain the ingredients that are listed on the nutrition label. The supplements they tested were from GNC, Walgreens, CVS, etc
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,373 MFP Moderator
    j75j75 wrote: »
    The New York Attorney General did a study earlier this year that found 4 out of 5 supplements do not contain the ingredients that are listed on the nutrition label. The supplements they tested were from GNC, Walgreens, CVS, etc
    And that is the inherent problem as well. Since there is little regulation and manufacturing is mainly in China, it's almost guaranteed you aren't getting what you paid for, unless you get one that is certified by the USP. And its even worse when there are proprietary blends involved.
  • conqueringsquidlette
    conqueringsquidlette Posts: 383 Member
    edited August 2015
    vlovell24 wrote: »
    I have pernicious anemia, and my hematology doc has given me a script for a daily multivitamin. I also have to take massive doses of b12, and iron. I feel better when I take the multivitamin, so honestly, it depends. If your body has gone stupid for some reason, then they can benifit you. I also recall an experiment by a college kid, who made a vitamin "mixture" that he called soyent green. He lived off of it for quite a long time with no ill effects.

    It's just called soylent. And you can buy it now! Not that I would. lol

    https://www.soylent.com/
    stealthq wrote: »
    Considering that the grant approval rates for the NIH have dropped to below 4% last year, the approval rates for NSF were below 3% last time I checked, and many researchers I know are now looking to the DOD (horrors!) for funding, I'm kind of surprised that there hasn't been more of an interest in crowdfunding for research. I'd think it'd be particularly useful for research into rare diseases. That has a tough time getting funding from either government or pharma sources.

    Maybe it's the amount of money that would be needed that's the roadblock. Tens of thousands just doesn't cut it these days.

    I had this same thought a while back and had a hard time getting it across in a way that made anybody think I was serious. I was talking about crowdfunding space projects at the very least. +10
  • Horrorfox
    Horrorfox Posts: 204 Member
    I had gotten caught up in trying to defend the original videos and the author, that I never got a word in about discussing vitamins itself.

    Yes, I wholeheartedly think you need to get blood work done. For Vitamin D, the RDA is 600 IU per day, but many researchers are saying that it should be more like 2-4000 IU. As stated in one of the OP videos, Vitamin D controls over 1000 different processes in your body. You should be taking enough so that your blood work shows that you have about 30 ng/ml. If you are deficient, you should be supplementing with more until you get to those levels.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,373 MFP Moderator
    Horrorfox wrote: »
    I had gotten caught up in trying to defend the original videos and the author, that I never got a word in about discussing vitamins itself.

    Yes, I wholeheartedly think you need to get blood work done. For Vitamin D, the RDA is 600 IU per day, but many researchers are saying that it should be more like 2-4000 IU. As stated in one of the OP videos, Vitamin D controls over 1000 different processes in your body. You should be taking enough so that your blood work shows that you have about 30 ng/ml. If you are deficient, you should be supplementing with more until you get to those levels.

    No one is disputing the bold. But not everyone needs to supplement. This is why blood test are effective.

  • LKArgh
    LKArgh Posts: 5,179 Member
    Horrorfox wrote: »
    I had gotten caught up in trying to defend the original videos and the author, that I never got a word in about discussing vitamins itself.

    Yes, I wholeheartedly think you need to get blood work done. For Vitamin D, the RDA is 600 IU per day, but many researchers are saying that it should be more like 2-4000 IU. As stated in one of the OP videos, Vitamin D controls over 1000 different processes in your body. You should be taking enough so that your blood work shows that you have about 30 ng/ml. If you are deficient, you should be supplementing with more until you get to those levels.

    These guys disagree: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3046611/

    " Moreover, existing evidence suggests that nearly all individuals meet their needs at intake levels (RDAs) provided in this report and, for vitamin D, at 25OHD levels of at least 20 ng/ml (50 nmol/liter) even under conditions of minimal sun exposure. Furthermore, higher levels have not been shown consistently to confer greater benefits, challenging the concept that “more is better.” The Committee finds that the prevalence of vitamin D inadequacy in the North American population has been overestimated by some groups due to the use of inappropriate cut-points that greatly exceed the levels identified in this report. Serum concentrations of 25OHD above 30 ng/ml (75 nmol/liter) are not consistently associated with increased benefit, and risks have been identified for some outcomes at 25OHD levels above 50 ng/ml (125 nmol/liter). "
  • Horrorfox
    Horrorfox Posts: 204 Member
    But there isn't a consensus, as they finish their conclusion with
    Additional research, including large-scale, randomized clinical trials, is needed. In the meantime, however, we believe that there is an urgent clinical and public health need for consensus cut-points for serum 25OHD inadequacy to avoid problems of both undertreatment and overtreatment.

    And when it comes to Vitamin D deficiency, this article from the Mayo clinic states:
    Even so, 25% to 50% or more of patients commonly encountered in clinical practice are deficient in vitamin D. Recent advances in biochemical assessment, therapeutic goals for vitamin D nutrition for optimal bone health, and the association of vitamin D deficiency with nonskeletal disease have revived interest in this hormone.

    And in one of the recent publications by the OP video author, in regards to Vitamin D regulating Seratonin synthesis, they cite that 70% of Americans are deficient.

    Following up with how Vitamin D effects Telomere length. Telomeres are caps at the end of your chromosomes that protect your dna from damage. And this study says the sweet spot seems to be between 40-60ng/ml

  • glovepuppet
    glovepuppet Posts: 1,713 Member
    That would make too much sense. It's a vitamin you should be getting it every day.
    but not necessarily in the same doses.

    again, it is added to so much of what typical westerners already eat, and is naturally present in so much else, that I doubt many require a supplement. at least until I see the studies showing evidence for a high dose maintenance level.
  • TheDevastator
    TheDevastator Posts: 1,626 Member
    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    No matter how good your diet is, you can't get the full rdas of all the vitamins in a single day unless you go way over on calories on standard grocery store food.

    If that is true, then the RDAs are by definition too high.
    RDAs are how much they estimate you need of a vitamin not how much you can get from food. Most vitamin experts say they are actually too low.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    No matter how good your diet is, you can't get the full rdas of all the vitamins in a single day unless you go way over on calories on standard grocery store food.

    If that is true, then the RDAs are by definition too high.
    RDAs are how much they estimate you need of a vitamin not how much you can get from food. Most vitamin experts say they are actually too low.

    Any RDA that concludes we need more than can be obtained from a reasonable diet is by definition wrong.
  • TheDevastator
    TheDevastator Posts: 1,626 Member
    That would make too much sense. It's a vitamin you should be getting it every day.
    but not necessarily in the same doses.

    again, it is added to so much of what typical westerners already eat, and is naturally present in so much else, that I doubt many require a supplement. at least until I see the studies showing evidence for a high dose maintenance level.

    The dose should be the same based on your weight unless you are sick and or stressed then certain vitamin requirements go up.
  • TheDevastator
    TheDevastator Posts: 1,626 Member
    yes, I take magnesium most nights.

    As for vitamin C , because of years of smoking. My dentist/periodontist has me on 20g vit C daily, which is a mega dose!
    Your dentist/periodontist is smart. I doubt most U.S. dentists would recommend vitamins.