DR KAPLAN'S WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
An informative and occasionally humorous look at recent medical news
The Issue of Food Supplements
There has been a tremendous amount of discussion in the news about food supplements over the past few years. What are they? Do we need them? Should we be taking them? Are they safe? Are they a rip-off?
I've expressed my opinion many times on this issue and it can be summarised briefly as follows: In an ideal world we don't need supplements. In an ideal world we would all eat fresh, healthy organic food that would contain all the vitamins and minerals we need. The newsletter Informed points out the only two notable exceptions to this general rule.
1. Women planning on getting pregnant should supplement their diet with folic acid while trying to conceive and for the first 3 months of pregnancy.
2. People who don't have any exposure to sunlight need to take supplements of Vitamin D.
These are cases where we really should take supplements but the case can also be made that we do not live in an ideal world and our food may well not contain everything our bodies require. Thus I see it quite reasonable to take a broad-spectrum multivitamin and multivitamin complex in a very conservative way, eg. one a day or even one every alternate day.
This is not the way many supplements are recommended though. Large doses of all sorts of vitamins and minerals have been advocated for various conditions, usually without any proof that they are useful. If a supplement is harmless but unproven to be of any health benefit, it should be up to the customer to decide whether to take it or not. However, if a supplement is potentially harmful in certain doses, then the customer must be protected from inadvertently damaging his health.
Fortunately there is an organization called the Food Standards Agency (FSA) that tries to do this for us. A comprehensive report published by the FSA examined whether there was any danger in any of 34 common over-the-counter (OTC) supplements. The report, (which can be seen in full on www.foodstandards.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/vitmin2003.pdf) gives useful guidelines on the safe upper limits of 8 food supplements and general advice on 23 others.
Some examples:
1. High doses of Vitamin C and Iron can cause abdominal discomfort and diarrhoea.
2. Overdosing with Vitamin A can 'increase the risk of bone disease' and potential harm babies in utero.
3. In people who smoke or who have been exposed to asbestos, Beta-carotene can increase the risk of lung cancer. (Paradoxically it is prescribed generally as an anti-oxidant which aim to help prevent cancers)
Bottom line: If you're uncertain about a food supplement, have a look at this report or speak to your doctor about it.
Homeopathic Tip:
Homeopathy is often understood to be synonymous with 'natural medicine'. This is not true. Food supplements are simply not homeopathic medicines. Homeopathic medicines are dilute substances made from a variety of materials and prescribed on the following basis. Substances able to cause symptoms in large doses, when given in very low dilutions can help people with similar sets of symptoms. Therefore no homeopathic remedy should be taken daily as a 'supplement'. They may be relatively safe, but all medicines deserve respect.
Dr Kaplan's personal website is: www.drkaplan.co.uk and his practice website is www.140harleystreet.co.uk and he can be contacted on (020) 7487 3416
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