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Vitamins are the most widely used supplements worldwide. They are readily available in
multiple formulations and commonly added to food and household products. It has been
widely believed that vitamin supplementation is critical to human health. Much of the
research on vitamin supplements has been funded by the supplement industry where data
comes from trials on animals and humans suffering from immune disorders or malnutrition.
Based on this data, vitamin supplementation can help prevent nutritional deficiencies and
restore health. Thats apparently one side of the story. The other side is not as
complementary.
What that data doesnt tell is that in large dosages,
vitamins can become overwhelmingly toxic, and the
same vitamin treatment that benefits the sick may
actually devastate the healthy. Given the reality that
our society has been getting increasingly addicted to
the habit of popping vitamin pills, its time to put the
record straight and address questions that the
industry doesnt want you to ask.
How did our society become vitamin addict? How the compulsive need to shove in
megadosages of vitamins has been exploited by the industry? And what are the real effects of
vitamin supplementation on the human body?
It is ironic that the health industry has been using military demolition terms such as burning,
killing, busting etc., when dealing with health issues. That may explain the widely held
perception that high potency vitamins have more strength to kill disease than low
potency vitamins (most people today still believe that thats indeed the case).
Even more disturbing is the fact that all high potency vitamins are chemically based. None of
these products is natural. Growing evidence indicate that synthetic vitamin molecules can
cause dependency similar to drugs. Hence, synthetic vitamins are potentially addictive. And if
you stop taking them, you may experience withdrawal symptoms. Yet all that has been largely
overlooked and ignored as our society becomes increasingly dependent on that stuff.
How the compulsive need for megadosages vitamins has been exploited by
the industry?
It has been commonly speculated that due to soil depletion, industrial food processing and
often low accessibility to fresh food, it becomes imperative to supplement the diet with
vitamins and antioxidants. The industry has been spreading reports that promote vitamin
supplementation in high dosages as an essential strategy.
So where is the truth? Are vitamin supplements as essential as claimed? Lets take a look at
the theory behind the usage of synthetic high potency vitamins and check how that theory fits
reality.
Millions of people today are taking vitamin supplements as the only means to prevent
nutritional deficiencies, believing that that protocol actually compensates for poor eating
habits and bad diets. The highest pound for pound vitamin consumers are the sick, the
elderly and fitness consumers, who have been told that their vitamin requirements are higher
than normal and therefore require larger dosages. However, in the midst of all this hype,
vitamins consumers have been failing to acknowledge one fact
There is NO evidence that people who take vitamin supplements are healthier than
those who dont.
In fact, there is growing body of evidence that vitamin supplementation rather increase
susceptibility to disease and even shorten life span. Research shows that vitamin supplements
can turn toxic in the following cases:
if synthetically produced
if taken in unnatural overlyhigh dosages.
What are the real effects of vitamin supplementations on the human body?
The vitamin issue involves lots of misinformation. Data provided by
vitamin manufacturers does not necessarily reflect the truth, certainly
not the whole truth.
Our society has been fooled to believe that popping pills with hundred
of times greater vitamin potencies than those naturally occurring in
food is a smart way to outperform nature. What the public has been
failing to acknowledge is one undisputable fact:
The human body has not evolved for synthetic nutrients, or anything in excess.
This means that your body evolved for utilizing nutrients as they naturally occur in food and
not in any other way. Your body is programmed to utilize these nutrients in the safest most
efficient way, and at exactly the right concentrations. Human biology is ruled by nature, not
by technology.
Your body has the enzymatic capacity to convert naturally occurring food compounds into
bioactive nutrients vitamins, minerals and antioxidants all of which are absorbed and
utilized through a tight feedback control. You can safely utilize naturally occurring plant
carotenes into vitamin A, you can optimize your vitamin E from nuts and seeds, and get your
vitamin D from dairy and marine food or through exposure to UV sunlight, all of which involve
no toxicity risk.
Evolution has not prepared organisms for artificial food. Both humans and animals lack the
capacity to regulate the absorption and utilization of chemicals. Chemicals spell poisoning.
Here is what likely happens to your body when synthetic vitamins are administered.
The chemical molecules bypass your innate enzymatic processing, and while rapidly hitting
your circulation they give your body the signal that its vitamin pool is loaded. Your body is
then tricked to believe that it does not need to utilize more of the same nutrients from food.
Consequently, the enzymes that normally metabolize foods vitamins are inhibited, and your
body thus loses its ability to assimilate real foods nutrients.
The accumulated effect of synthetic vitamins on your body could be overwhelming. Recent
reports indicate that supplementation with synthetic vitamins disrupt cellular redox and
diminish the bodys capacity to respond to stress.
Simply put, synthetic vitamins induce a drug-like effect, and similar to drugs they not only
cause dependency, they disrupt normal metabolic functions often with devastating side
effects.
Vitamins toxicity
Up until recently, it has been commonly assumed that only fat soluble vitamins
can turn toxic in high dosages. That has to do with the fact that fat soluble
vitamins (A, E, and K) are stored by the body and can accumulate in overly high
toxic levels if taken in large dosages.
Toxicity Side Effects of Excess Fat Soluble Vitamins
Vitamin A:
abdominal pain, vomiting, headache, lethargy, eczema, patchy hair loss, edema, anemia,
respiratory tract infection, chronic liver disease
Vitamin E:
allergic reaction, breathing impairments, swelling of the tongue, fatigue, headache, nausea,
blurred vision, excessive bleeding (anticoagulation due to inhibition of vitamin K), increased
oxidative stress, increased hypertension, decreased life span
Vitamin K:
supplementation with a synthetic form of vitamin K Menadione has been associated with liver
damage. Some reports indicate a significant association between high intramuscular levels of
vitamin K and cancer.
As for water soluble vitamins, it has been largely presumed that since theyre excreted via the
urine and cannot accumulate into toxic levels, they should be regarded safe. But how safe are
they? Lets start with the one considered the safest of all vitamin C.
Following is a review of recent research data on the effects of synthetic ascorbate on animals
and humans.
Ascorbic acid supplementation impairs muscles mitochondrial function and
adaptability to exercise.
A recent human study featured in the American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition (Vol. 87, No. 1, 142-149, January 2008),
revealed that supplementation with synthetic vitamin C
ascorbate shattered muscle performance in young men,
causing impairment in mitochondrial function, loss of
endurance, and inhibition of the antioxidant enzymes
superoxide dimutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxide (GPX).
Other related experiments were designed to examine the
effect of vitamin C on training efficiency in animals. The
researchers were aware that ascorbic acid supplementation
is
highly popular among exercise practitioners for the simple
reason that intense exercise increases oxidative stress in the muscle. It has been assumed
then that administration of vitamin C ascorbate may help protect the muscle from oxidative
damage.
But again, the findings left no place for a doubt: ascorbic acid supplementation caused the
opposite effects than expected.
Ascorbic acid impaired muscle performance by increasing oxidative stress and
suppressing critical cellular mechanisms of adaptation to exercise.
Starvation Resistance
Starvation resistance is one of the most important evolutionary
traits linked to longevity. This feature has been attributed to a
certain genetic phenotype which likely evolved to increase
organisms survivability during times of nutritional scarcity or
famine.
Note that food shortage existed in the past and still exists
today. But here is the paradox: though it presents a survival
risk, it has been shown to benefit human survivability. Food
shortage has been forcing human civilizations to keep
innovating and improving agricultural means for yielding more
food and better distribution.
The real problem today is not shortage of food but rather excess of food. Excess food seems
to violate human biology and sabotage human health.
Consider this, as the human body evolved for food scarcity, it also evolved for utilizing
maximum nutrients from minimum food. This enabled our species overcome cycles of famine
which were common factors of life millenniums ago. Lets face the facts
The human body is not programmed for excess nutrients let alone overfeeding.
So how is your body designed to accept vitamins? And how do vitamin supplements affect
your survivability?
Check where your vitamins are coming from. A truly natural food based vitamin product
should indicate the exact natural source from which the vitamins are obtained. Note that
sources for synthetic vitamins manufacturing include petrochemicals, coal tar, chemically
manipulated sugar and inorganic minerals.
Final Note
It may take another decade or perhaps a century for scientists to fully elucidate the magnitude
of benefits we get from whole foods nutrients vs. the harmful effects we get from synthetic
nutrients, and accordingly establish indisputable principles upon which human nutrition
should be based.
Until then, you need to rely on available data on human biology. Biology means logic of life.
In todays world you must know how to recognize and use that logic to better survive.
For more information, please visit
http://www.defensenutrition.com
Warrior Vitamin C
Natural vitamin C is required for protecting cells and tissues from
oxidative free radicals. Vitamin C also plays important roles in collagen
formation, brain neurotransmitters production, and adrenal function.
Unlike synthetic vitamin C, which is devoid of nutritional cofactors, and
has shown to cause undesirable side effects, Vitamin C from Amla
Berries is a natural complex of vitamin C and cofactors, received by the
body as whole food and causes no adverse side effect.
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