Nutrition Science Update - B Vitamins (Part Six of
Ten)
There can be no doubt that the field of nutrition has come of age. More than 80 years have passed since the first vitamin was discovered. Today the speed at which laboratory and clinical findings are released is so accelerated that an individual's understanding of nutrition is seriously out-dated if he or she is not abreast of the findings published within even the past year.
This special Nutrition Science Update takes the guesswork out of keeping up-to-date on important nutritional breakthroughs by presenting the following summations of all the most important research released over the past year.
Key Concepts in B Vitamin
Research:
Elevated levels of homocysteine is a newly recognized risk factor for heart disease, while the B vitamins, and folic acid in particular, effectively reduce homocysteine levels.
A recent meta-analysis conducted at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University found that if folic acid intakes were increased to 400 mcg. daily (twice the RDA) it would prevent "13,500 deaths annually from coronary artery disease." (Russell, R.M., et al., Journal of the American Medical Association, 1996;275(23):1828-1829.)
Vitamin B6 appears to be effective in reducing the severity of nausea in early pregnancy, according to a study of 343 pregnant women supplementing with 30 mg. daily of vitamin B6 or a placebo. Vitamin B6 should be thought of as a first-line treatment for nausea and vomiting from pregnancy. (Vutyavanich, T., American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 1995;173:881-884).
Choline, a B vitamin-like compound, in combination with lithium, is reported by the Harvard Bipolar Research Program at Harvard Medical School to be an effective treatment for bipolar disorder, or manic/ depressive disorder as it is sometimes called. (Stoll, A.L., et al., Biological Psychiatry, 1996;40:382-388.)
"It is well established that most carcinogens act via an attack on DNA," writes R.P. Webster in Cancer Letters (1996;98:129-135). Rats supplemented with the B vitamin riboflavin are better able to repair DNA damage, which suggests "a potential chemopreventive role of this vitamin."
"About 50% of geriatric outpatients in this study had low plasma thiamin levels," said Marianne E Chen, Sc.D. from the University of South Florida College of Medicine (Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 1996;15(3):231-236). Low levels of the B vitamin thiamin have been implicated in cognitive impairment in older populations.
By Victoria Dolby - Vitamin Retailer / February 1997
Courtesy of
A-Z Your Health &
More
Your complete one-stop Fine Health & Sports Nutrition Store plus Health
Resource Center.
Don't miss Part Seven - Hormones in this Ten Part series
