Scientific Update June 2005
Thank you for using Body Language
Vitamin Company's Scientific Formulas
There is an extensive amount
of important information;
please read carefully.
This is a scientific update as I have promised. It is also to thank you for visiting our website and or benefiting from our state of the art nutritional supplements. This update will keep you informed with important new research.
I welcome you to visit our site Body Language Vitamin Co and use our Body Mass Index Calculator and to take our copyrighted health scan. These health tools are free to you and provide important information regarding your wellness. I would also encourage you to pass this update on to all of your friends, family and anyone that you love, like or care about.
Our Educational Resources provides many Word and PowerPoint presentations, that provide important scientific information directly related to improving your health. Check them out!
Comparison of the Atkins,
Ornish, Weight Watchers, and Zone diets for weight loss and heart disease risk
reduction: A randomized trial (Dansinger et al JAMA Jan 2005)
This was a trial of 160 adults from age
22-72 with a body mass index that ranged from 27-42 (see our body mass index
calculator in our educational resources for further description). Weight loss
at 1 year was 4.8 lbs for Atkins; 6.0 lbs for the Zone; 4.9 lbs for Weight
Watchers and 7.3 lbs for the Ornish diet. Each diet significantly reduced the
low density lipoprotein(LDL)/high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol ratio
by ~ 10% with no significant effect on blood sugar or blood pressure. They found that adherence rates to the diets
were low. Cardiac risk factors decrease with decreasing weight.
The moral of this story is that weight
loss is important for everyone who is above their appropriate weight for their
given height. Weight loss reduces the risk of many diseases. Diets are
certainly helpful, but difficult for people to stick with it. Eat right, exercise
daily, eat plenty of fruits and veggies, supplement appropriately (we choose
Body Language Vitamin Co Supplements) and reduce your stress (meditation is
great), take 5 deep breaths after work before you come into the house, you will
be amazed at how this will help you get “centered” and relax.
Fish oils
and Vitamin A good for your eyes or not so good?
There were recently two papers published in Archives of Ophthalmology the titles are as follows: 1.Clinical trial of docosahexaenoic acid in patients with retinitis pigmentosa receiving vitamin A treatment and 2. Further evaluation of docosahexaenoic acid in patients with retinitis pigmentosa receiving vitamin A treatment. (Berson et al Arch Ophthalmol Vol 122 Sept 2004).
The article was extremely confusing to me, so I contacted Dr. Berson, the lead author and we spoke on the telephone for 45 minutes discussing our mutual work.
If you read the first paper the conclusion was the patients with retinitis pigmentosa (this is an autosomal recessive disease (genetic) that cause night blindness initially and progresses to complete blindness) who are taking vitamin A therapy (15,000 i.u./day) plus docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) at 1200 mg/d over a 4 year trial of 221 patients did not slow the course of the disease. Then they wrote the second paper which concluded that it does! Essentially, it required sophisticated additional analysis and what they found, interestingly enough, was that if you were already on vitamin A and started DHA that it could actually expedite the progression of the disease! This has to do with the oil displacing the vitamin A and causing more A to be present in the retina and it essentially became toxic. However, if you were not on Vitamin A and you started both A and DHA simultaneously the progression of the disease was slowed SIGNIFICANTLY.
This is what makes science so very frustrating to everyone. It often time can depend upon how the results are studied. After speaking with Dr. Berson, his recommendation was to eat fish 2 times per week and take vitamin A (if you have retinitis pigmentosa). This really should not be extrapolated to those with health vision, but those studies are on their way.
Moral of the story, you can eat fish (but again be careful about
organochlorine content, PCB, mercury etc) and take vitamin A, or your best way
to get your Omega 3’s would be to use Body Language Vitamin Co’s state of the
art Essential Oils Formula
Don’t drink
the water on a plane, unless it is bottled!
The environmental protection agency conducted
a round of water quality sampling (Nov-Dec 2004) of 169 randomly selected
domestic and international aircraft at 12 national airports. The samples were
obtained from the galley, water taps and the lavatory faucets. They found that
~ 1/6 or 17.2% of the aircraft tested, carried water contaminated with coliform
bacteria (same bacteria found in stool). In the summer of 2004 they found that
12.7% of 158 aircraft sampled were contaminated. For more information see
http://www.epa.gov/airlinewater/.
Homocysteine
and fracture prevention (J.van Meurs and Uitterlinden JAMA Mar 2005)
It has been identified that high
homocysteine levels will significantly increase your risk for heart disease,
stroke, and cognitive impairment. This
new paper has shown a correlation with high levels of homocysteine and
fractures. Sato et al 2005 showed that
high homocysteine leads to an increase of fractures. They based their original hypothesis on the
observation that patients with an inherited disorder that leads to elevated
homocysteine leads to a greater degree of osteoporosis. This study provides that first evidence of
increase fracture rates in patients with high homocysteine. Also in Jan 2005 it was shown that increasing
your folate intake will lower your blood pressure, this was noted in two
prospective studies of 93,803 women aged 27-44 and another group of 62,260
women aged 43-70.
What
you can do: Eat plenty of green leafy vegetables and be
sure you are getting at least 400 micrograms (mcg) (note not milligrams-mg) of
folic acid (folate) each day. In
patients with heart disease and elevated homocysteine levels Physicians often
recommend 800-2400 mcg of folic acid each day. Folic acid has been shown to
lower homocysteine levels. This effect can be facilitated by increasing the
amount of B vitamins that you ingest each day.
Note: When you take Body Language Vitamin Co nutritional supplements you
get 800 mcg of folic acid and a significant amount of the essential B-vitamins
each day (400 from the MVI and 400 from the Antioxidant formula)
Magnesium
intake in relation to risk of colorectal cancer in women (Larsson et al JAMA
Jan 2005)
This was a study that evaluated a group
of 61,433 women ages 40-75 years without a cancer history. These women were
part of the Swedish Mammography Cohort.
The findings of the study showed an
inverse association of magnesium intake with the risk of colorectal cancer. The
study suggests that when you consume foods or supplements with magnesium that
you reduce your risk of colorectal cancer. Quality sources of magnesium include
spinach, bananas, oatmeal, whole grains, beans and you guessed it Body Language
Vitamin Co supplements!
New
Dietary Guidelines are a daunting challenge for the public: (Kuehn, JAMA Feb 2005)
The recommendations are out! It used to be advised that we should consume
five helpings of fruits and veggies each day (a serving is ½ cup). The latest
guidelines suggest 9 servings of fruits and veggies each day, and the American
Heart Association and the American Cancer Association suggests we consume ten
helpings each day.
Moral of this story is head outside and
start grazing immediately! It is difficult at best to follow these guidelines
particularly when one realizes that the average American has less than one
helping of fruits or veggies each day. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that we
need to consume more greenery and colorful fruits and veggies each day and
reduce the amount of dairy and meat products consumed if we are going to lead a
more healthy life.
Dietary
folate might decrease cognition?
Dietary
Folate and Vitamin B12 Intake and Cognitive Decline Among Community-Dwelling
Older Persons (Morris et al Arch Neurol Vol 62, Apr 2005)
Findings:
High intake of folic acid (folate) MAY be
associated with cognitive decline in older persons. They studied 7813 individuals from the
They found that those in the HIGH INTAKE of
total folate (from food and supplements) tended to have a MORE favorable risk
profile for cognitive change than persons with low intake.
They found that those in the HIGHER intake
(fifth quintile) had a MARGINALLY significant faster rate of cognitive decline.
They found that those who took B12 above
the RDA had a SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER risk of cognitive decline.
Concerns/limitations of this study:
1.The study was an observational study
based solely on a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), this significantly limits
their conclusions.
2. The results show MARGINAL faster decline
in pts in the highest quintile of folate ingestion.
3. They did NOT measure blood levels of
folate (a big problem) and used only the FFQ as the sole measure of folate
intake.
4. Observational studies (such as this one)
have a very high rate for spurious association and the authors themselves
acknowledge "we must caution against a causal interpretation of the
findings" ie no definitive link
here.
5. We must also consider the fact that a
single supplement alone can have potentially deleterious effects (that is why I
recommend a diverse range of supplements). Specifically, it is well known that
high intake of folate ALONE can mask unrecognized vitamin B12 deficiency (Which
is highly associated with cognitive decline!).
6. There are more than 10-15 OTHER studies
demonstrating that high folate lowers homocysteine levels and REDUCES your risk
of Alzheimer's and cognitive decline
MORAL OF THE STORY: This is
one study, with multiple concerns and the authors at least recognize the
potential pitfalls. The newspapers, got ahold of the title and published it
without looking at the details.
I
have heard that too much vitamin E might not be good for you, is this true?
Ever since the report by Miller et al in Jan 2005, I am asked this question two times or more a day! I addressed this topic in our last scientific update, but I felt that it was important to revisit the subject again. There is always controversy in scientific endeavors and I feel compelled to say that the only thing constant is change. Thus, what we know today may be disproved tomorrow and vis versa.
Is it
possible to get sufficient quantities of nutrients from a healthy diet? To
answer that question, we have used vitamin E as an example.
Since it appears to be difficult – at best -- to get a beneficial amount of vitamin E from food, what should the supplement dosage be? There have been numerous studies to show that an increased intake of antioxidants, such as vitamin E, reduces heart disease and the risk of stroke, Alzheimer’s and cancer. Vitamin E has also been shown to increase immune function and reduce exercise-related free radical damage. When it comes to precise dosage, however, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. The DRI recommends 30 IU, a figure considered too low by many health experts. Indeed, some clinical trials suggest 800 to 1,200 IU may be required to affect cardiovascular health, particularly in patients who already have the disease. With Alzheimer’s there are reports that 2400 i.u. is safe to have an affect on Alzheimer’s disease (see our detailed powerpoint presentation on Alzheimer’s and alternatives for an in-depth discussion).
This leads us to the recent meta-analysis by researchers at Johns Hopkins, which reviewed 19 previously published articles involving 135,967 patients, suggests that consuming more than 400 IU of vitamin E per day may increase the risk of dying by 6 percent (Miller et al Jan 4, 2005 Ann of IM vol 142 No1). While the media pounced on the “bad news” aspect of the story, the truth is the research had significant shortcomings. First, it consisted largely of older individuals who were already suffering chronic illness of one sort or another, including heart disease, hypertension, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, kidney disease requiring dialysis, as well as a group of smokers. It’s difficult to imagine that vitamin E alone could improve the health of these individuals. Second, the supplements used were synthetic, and there are studies to show that the natural forms are possibly more effective. Third, from a statistician’s viewpoint, mixing such a wide assortment of studies together can produce meaningless results. Finally, they eliminated 12 trials that had fewer than 10 deaths! This introduces a very serious selection bias against the benefit of vitamin E. Essentially they randomly eliminated 12 studies where the death rate was very low!
As an aside, for our protection and safety, Body Language Vitamin Co. only uses mixed tocopherols, so it is an all-natural group of tocopherols, not just the d-alpha tocopherol. There have been several studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of using mixed tocopherols and tocotrienols, which is precisely what we do at BLV Co.
Millions of people continue to use vitamin E at doses that range from 400-2400i.u./day in a safe and effective manner. I continue to recommend taking between 400-800 i.u./day for my family, patients and to those that I teach on a national/international level. The 400-800 i.u is for healthy individuals, if you have specific diseases that number may need to be increased further.
Dr. Seidmans Upcoming Lectures
(feel free to come!)
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Remember, we have nine outstanding patented or proprietary formulations designed
to improve your overall wellness and quality of life: Under our product
information we have many details of how/why the supplements work and why they
are important. Additionally, if you scroll to the bottom of each supplement you
will see a link to "Claims Information" or "data", where
additional details regarding actual scientifically validated claims can be
found. Our current supplements include:
1. Anti-age Energy formula (patented)
2. Antioxidant Formula (proprietary)
3. Multivitamin (and mineral) formula (proprietary)
4. Phytokids formula (proprietary)
5. Cold and Flu formula (proprietary)
6. Anti-cholesterol formula (proprietary)
7. Menopause support formula (proprietary)
8. PMS formula (proprietary)
9. Essential oils formula (proprietary)
Body Language Vitamin Company’s mission is to promote your health and wellness through responsible lifestyle choices and appropriate supplementation.
I hope you have found this information valuable and helpful. Please feel free to contact me with any questions. I answer all of my emails; please allow 24-72 hours as we get many questions. You can also find many other interesting studies and articles by clicking on Educational Resources (A task bar on the left) at Body Language Vitamin Company
Michael D. Seidman, MD., FACS
B.S. Human Nutrition
CEO-Body Language Vitamin Co
Director of Otologic/Neurotologic Surgery/Henry Ford Health System
Director of Complementary/Integrative Medicine Henry Ford Health System
Office: 248-661-7211 (Henry Ford Health System)
Body Language Office (voice mail) 877-LIVE-FIT
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