Guest guest Posted August 28, 2004 Report Share Posted August 28, 2004 JAMA REVERSAL Take multivitamins, AMA urges in policy reversal By Ronald Kotulak Chicago Tribune CHICAGO Reversing a long-standing anti-vitamin policy, The Journal of the American Medical Association today is advising all adults to take at least one multivitamin pill each day. Scientists' understanding of the bene fits of vitamins has rapidly advanced, and it now appears that people who ge t enough vitamins may be able to prevent such common chronic illnesses as ca ncer, heart disease and osteoporosis, according to Drs. Robert Fletcher and Kathleen Fairfield of Harvard University, who wrote the new guidelines. The last time JAMA made a comprehensive review of vitamins, about 20 years ago, it concluded people of normal health shouldn't take multivitamins because th ey were a waste of time and money. People can get all the nutrients they nee d from their diet, JAMA advised, adding that only pregnant women and chronic ally sick people may need certain vitamins. That was at a time when knowledg e about vitamins was just beginning to expand. The role that low levels of f olate, or folic acid, play in neural tube defects, for instance, was not kno wn, nor was its role as a major risk factor for heart disease. Researchers h ope JAMA's endorsement will encourage more people to reap health benefits of a daily multivitamin. Health experts are increasingly worried that most Ame rican adults do not consume healthy amounts of vitamins in their diet, altho ugh they may be getting enough to ward off such vitamin-deficiency disorders as scurvy, beriberi and pellagra. Almost 80 percent of Americans do not eat at least five helpings of fruits and vegetables a day, the recommended mini mum amount believed to provide sufficient essential nutrients. Humans do not make their own vitamins, except for some vitamin D, and they must get them from an outside source to prevent metabolic disorders. " It's nice to see thi s change in philosophy that's saying we can make public-health recommendatio ns based on this really compelling set of data, " said Dr. Jeffrey Blumberg, chief of antioxidant research at Tufts University's Jean Mayer USDA Human Nu trition Research Center on Aging. Blumberg said the JAMA recommendations und erscore a growing concern among nutrition experts that the recommended daily allowances, or RDAs, for many vitamins are set too low. RDAs essentially we re established to prevent symptoms of vitamin-deficiency disorders, he said. But evidence is growing that higher levels of many vitamins are necessary t o achieve optimum health, he said. The National Academy of Sciences, which s ets RDAs, is revising its recommendations based on the new evidence. Even pe ople who eat five daily servings of fruits and vegetables may not get enough of certain vitamins for optimum health, Fletcher said. Most people, for ins tance, cannot get the healthiest levels of folate and vitamins D and E from recommended diets, he said. " All of us grew up believing that if we ate a re asonable diet, that would take care of our vitamin needs, " Fletcher said. " B ut the new evidence, much of it in the last couple of years, is that vitamin s also prevent the usual diseases we deal with every day heart dis ease, cancer, osteoporosis and birth defects. " Because foods contain thousan ds of vitaminlike compounds many not yet identified that may be important for good health, vitamin supplements should not be a subst itute for a wholesome diet, Blumberg said. In another matter, the AMA yester day urged researchers to study whether financial payments would ease the nat ion's critical shortage of transplant organs. Its policymaking House of Dele gates voted at its annual meeting to adopt the measure against the recommend ation of a committee, which heard from doctors Sunday who called such paymen ts unethical and said that even studying them would cheapen the value of org an donation. The measure involves organs from cadavers, not living donors, a nd supports research into payments such as reimbursement for funeral expense s. http://www.bolenreport.com/articles/bsardi.html#JAMA Find local movie times and trailers on Movies. http://au.movies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.