peterants

The first step in extending life expectancy is to cover the basics. Step one, in my opinion, is vitamin and mineral supplementation. Consider the following:

Item 1. A study reported by the AP, and published in the May issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, concluded that Vitamin D supplementation reduced the risk of contracting certain cancers by up to 77%.

—The study used 1179 post menopausal women in apparent good health. It studied them for four years. The study was primarily designed to check the effects of calcium and Vitamin D supplementation on bone health.

—288 women took placebo. 446 got calcium and Vitamin D. The remainder got Vitamin D only. Calcium supplementation was 1400 MG per day. Vitamin D supplementation (in the form of D3) was 1100 IU per day.

—Vitamin D supplement users in this study had an incidence of cancer that was 60% less than the incidence of cancer in the placebo group. When the study authors eliminated the cancers discovered in the first year of the study (which had probably started before supplementation began), the reduction in cancer was an amazing 77%, just from taking an inexpensive and a very well tolerated and safe supplement.

Item 2. A report released this month by the Dietary Supplement Education Alliance (DSEA) concluded that the use of dietary supplements by specific American populations could result in a savings of at least 24 billion in health care costs over a five year period. The current report updates a similar report commissioned by DSEA in 2005 which estimated 5.6 billion dollars in savings over five years.

The report re-emphasizes that supplementing select groups with calcium and vitamin D, folic acid, omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFAs), and lutein with zeaxanthin could have a tremendous impact on health care expenditure. In the summary of the findings, the report states that the use of calcium and vitamin D by postmenopausal women could potentially avoid approximately 776,00 hospitalizations for hip fractures and a significant number of extended nursing facility stays for this group, resulting in a savings of 16.1 billion dollars.

If folic acid were used by the 44 million American women of childbearing age, 600 fewer infants would be born with neural tube defects, resulting in a savings of 1.4 billion dollars over five years. Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation in the amount of 1800 milligrams per day among those over the age of 65 would result in a 3.2 billion dollar savings, and avoidance of 374,301 hospitalizations over the next five years. And just 6 to 10 milligrams lutein with zeaxanthin per day is estimated to save $3.6 billion by preventing 190,927 individuals from losing their independence due to loss of central vision resulting from macular degeneration.

Item 3. In one trial, rats with artificially grown mammary tumors were divided into four groups. One group received tamoxifen, one group received CoQ10, one group received tamoxifen and CoQ10, and the last received a placebo. The tumors in the placebo group were three times heavier at the end of the study. The group receiving tamoxifen and the group receiving CoQ10 had substantially lower tumor growth, and the group receiving the combination therapy had virtually no tumor growth.

In another small study, three women breast cancer patients took 300-390 mg of CoQ10 per day. One patient had complete remission of liver cancer metasteses, another had remission of a tumor that had spread to the chest wall, and the third had no microscopic evidence of remaining tumor.

These are only a few of the multitude of studies that show benefits from supplementation. Centrum or one a day are not sufficient. You need at least 1,000 IU of Vitamin D, 100 MG of Co-enzyme, 400 IU of folic acid, and many other vitamins and minerals.

There are so many things we don’t understand about the interaction of vitamins and minerals, that we need to make sure we get a well balanced universe of vitamins and minerals. Two formulas that I like are Julian Whitaker’s formula and the formula of David Williams. They are both very comprehensive and fairly affordable.