While I am in favor of natural health care, I do realize that others favor the medical and pharmaceutical approach. I also realize that from time to time very poorly constructed studies confirm a preconceived outcome and get press coverage much more often than good studies. This is much more common today, and certainly increasingly common, when it comes to publicizing and demonizing the therapeutic benefits of nutrients.
One does not need to be a licensed medical provider of any sort to be able to ascertain or locate good information about how supplements help your health.
In the interim, I'd like to offer some counter-information about some recent reports vilifying selenium and other vitamins.
Recently, Maria Cone of Environmental Health News wanted readers to believe that selenium is the cause of diabetes and it should be banned, according to her "experts", from vitamins in the US.
What makes this worse is that this story is making the rounds faster than a jackrabbit on hot tar.
It seems terribly imperative to these folks penning junk science to convince you that you need only to eat food to get all the vitamins and minerals you need for health. Now, if that were the case, given the sad state of food in the US, the level of health would be the highest in the world.
To dieticians who know little about how nutrients work in the human body and to everyone one else engaged in the promulgation of false data, here are a few facts about selenium. Oh, yes, boron and vitamin E are also required to make selenium useful to health. As one learns from an important article about selenium from Acres USA -
"A measure of any multivitamin should be its source of selenium...Look for the salt form and do a retreat. The body simply cannot utilize sodium selenite or convert it to the usable selenomethionine, and you'll have avoided selenium toxicity."
What about the misinformation being spread about vitamins A, C, E and beta-carotene? The fact is that these researchers failed to understand the issue of the inability of beta-carotene to convert to vitamin A when used alone. Beta-carotene and vitamin A work together.
In the touted studies with C and E, the doses were so low they could not be considered therapeutic.
And if anyone knows how to do the research, and knows where to go to read good, independent studies, they find the outcomes are very different.
Using vitamin E for example, it is known to prevent and cure cardiovascular disease, thin the blood, prevent hair loss when undergoing chemo and prevent diabetic neuropathy, just for starters.
Health writer Bill Sardi has this to say –
"It is becoming more obvious that misinformation about vitamins, minerals and herbal products is being planted in the news media and published in medical journals in a calculated fashion. The reason is that more and more Americans are taking health care into their own hands and relying less and less on doctors and drugs to cure their ills. The big secret is that the biological action of virtually every prescription drug can be duplicated with nutritional supplements at far less cost and with fewer side effects. The only way to counter the growing demand for natural remedies is to confuse the public with misinformation."
If you'd like to know some good resources you can contact me and ask.
Gayle Eversole, DHom, PhD, MH, NP, ND, is a natural health educator and advocate. Celebrating 50+ years blending science and the natural healing arts. Visit: http://www.leaflady.org/
This article is for educational and informational purposes only and does not take the place of a consultation with a qualified health care professional. Always consult a physician or other qualified health care professional before taking any herbs or applying any therapies. The reader must assume full responsibility for verifying any information or therapies with a qualified physician or health care professional.
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