The Complete Book of Vitamins

This book made available by the Internet Archive.
vi CONTENTS
20. The Number One Anti-Cancer Vitamin 113
The B Vitamins
21. Reap the Rewards of Nutritional Teamwork 119
22. The Thiamine Thief
May Be Stealing Your Health 124
23. Make Up Your Mind—Eat More Thiamine 130
24. Keep in the Pink with Riboflavin 138
25. Riboflavin Is Ready to Help 144
26. Niacin for Brighter Moods
and Better Memory 151
27. Why This Epidemic
of Vitamin B^ Deficiency? 159
28. Vitamin B^ for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome 165
29. B6—Maybe the Answer to Heart Disease 171
30. Bft for Common and Uncommon Ailments 179
31. Bi2—More than Anemia Protection 183
32. B,2 for Healthy Nerves and Blood 189
33. Unsuspected B,2 Deficiencies 193
34. Folate, the Gold in the Cooking Water 198
35. Folate: A Woman's Best Friend 208
36. Pantothenate—The Anti-Stress Vitamin 215
37. Tan without Burning with PABA 222
38. Biotin—The Little-Known Lifesaver 225
39. Choline for a Sharper Memory 232

40. Vitamin B15—Miracle or Hoax? 236
Vitamin C and the Bioflavonoids
41. Brimming with Health (and Vitamin C!) 239
42. Vitamin C: Changing Your Body
for the Better 244
43. Vitamin C, Super Healer 254
44. insulate Your Health with Vitamin C 259
45. Keep Cool with Vitamin C 263
46. Make Vitamin C Your Shield against
Pollution 267
47. Clean Chlorine from Your Water with
CONTENTS vii
48. C Is for Cholesterol—And Its Control 276
49. Vitamin C, Pectin and Heart Disease 282
50. Can Vitamin C Prevent the Common Cancer? 287
51. Using Cortisone Drugs? Better Check
Your Vitamin C! 295
52. Vitamin C and Heroin Addiction 299
53. Bioflavonoids for Healthy Capillaries 303
54. Healing with Bioflavonoids 310
Vitamin D
55. Don't Let Thin Bones Let You Down 318
56. The Sunshine Vitamin
Can Brighten Your Health 322
Vitamin E
57. Vitamin E—Scientists Say It Works 330
58. Vitamin E—Jack of All Trades,
Master of Most 336
59. Vitamin E Lubricates the Circulation 344
60. Help Your Heart with Vitamin E 353
61. Vitamin E—Strong Medicine
for Rare Diseases 358
62. Nutrition That Starts at Skin Level 365
63. Vitamin E, When It's Sink or Swim 369
64. Vitamin E Helps Protect the Breasts 374
65. CF Kids Require Extra Vitamin E 378
Vitamin K
66. Your Foundation Needs Vitamin K 380
BOOK III—VITAMIN THERAPY FOR DISEASE
Introduction 389
Acne
67. Vitamin A for Acne 390
Aging
68. Antioxidant Vitamins
viii CONTENTS
69. Vitamins for Living Longer 401
70. B Vitamins Can Keep You on the Beam 407
7\. Age with Ease through Wise Nutrition 411
Cancer
72. The Anti-Cancer Vitamin Combination 415

73. Vitamin C against Cancer 419
Cataracts
74. New Hope for Cataract Prevention 427
Colds. Flu and the Immune System
75. Fight Off Flu and Colds the Natural Way 431
76. Vitamins That Perk Up a Sagging Defense 437
77. Boost Your Immunity with Vitamin C 442
Cramps
78. Vitamin E for Those Painful Cramps 446
Crime and Juvenile Delinquency
79. Crime-Buster Vitamins 449
Depression
80. Nutrition: The Silver Lining 455
Fatigue
81. Vitamins for Peak Energy 459
82. Energy Vitamins to Make Life a Breeze 464
Gallstones
83. Cjallstoncs and B,, 469
(jum Problems
84. Keep Your Gums in the Pink 473
Hair Problems
85. Nourishing (and Cherishing) Your Hair 479
Hay 1 ever
CONTENTS IX
Healing Problems
87. Nutrients That Help Your Body Heal Itself 488
Heart Disease
88. Platelets—Little Lifesavers
That Can Kill You 494
Hormone Imbalance
89. Vitamins for a Healthy Hormonal System 501
Infertility
90. Vitamins for Weak Seed 504
Kidney Stones
91. Preventing Kidney Stones the Natural Way 511
Menopause Problems
92. How Vitamins Help Menopause 515
Mental Retardation
93. Can Vitamin Supplements
Reverse Mental Retardation? 520
Pollution
94. Breathe Easier with Vitamins A and E 528
95. A and C: Vitamins for a Toxified World 532
96. Cleansing Internal Pollution
with a Vitamin Brush 539
Schizophrenia
97. Healing Sick Minds with Vitamins 543
Shingles
98. Vitamin Relief for Shingles 548
Skin Problems
99. Vitamins That Team Up for Clear Skin 554
Vision Problems
100. Look to Vitamins for Sharper Vision 559
Vitamin Deficiency
CONTENTS
BOOK IV—THE NUTRITIONAL HEALERS
Introduction 574
Audiologist
102. Muffle Those Bells in Your Ears 575
Chiropractor
103. Dr. Hatfield-McCoy 580
Dermatologist
104. Wanted: A Science of Optimal Health 587
Internist
105. Death's Door or Life's Door? 594
106. How Vitamins Revolutionized My Practice 601
107. Mung Beans and Cotton Swabs 608
Nutritionist
108. The "Healthy Houseboat" Is Making
Waves in Nutrition 613
109. A Thoroughly Modern Nutritionist 618
Opthaimologist
110. Your Eyes Are Windows to Health 627
111. Seeing Better, Feeling Better 635
112. Better Vision Naturally 641

Orthopedic Surgeon
113. A New Breed of Surgeon 647
Osteopath
114. Ihrcc Heart Attacks by 29: A Physician's
Personal Drama 656
Pediatrician
115. The Sugar Generation 662
116. Growing Up Healthy—The Natural Way 671
Pharmacist
117. A Complete Prescription for Better Health 678
Preventive Medicine 1 IS. The Doctor Who Found What He Was Missing 683
CONTENTS XI
119. Make Your Body a Safer Place to Live 691
120. The Medical School Where Nutrition Isn't
a Dirty Word 699
121. The Doctor Who Takes His Own Medicine 705
122. Dr. "Live-Right" 711
Psychiatrist
123. Brain Food—It Really Works 719
Psychologist
124. Psychological Help through Better Diet 727
Vascular Surgeon
125. A Life-Extension Program from a Doctor
Who's Been There 732
BOOK V—VITAMIN-RICH FOODS AND RECIPES

Introduction 740
126. Best Food Sources of Vitamins 741
Vitamin-Rich Recipes
127. Breakfasts 755
128. Appetizers and Hors d'Oeuvres 758
129. Soups 761
130. Eggs 765
131. Main Dishes 768
132. Fish 781
133. Poultry and Liver 785
134. Side Dishes 790
135. Salads 799
136. Beverages 802
137. Desserts and Snacks 804
138. Breads and Muffins 811
xii LIST OF TABLES
List of Tables
Dr. Powers's Diet for Low-Blood-Sugar
Control 667
Best Food Sources of Vitamin A 741
Best Food Sources of Thiamine 742
Best Food Sources of Riboflavin 743
Best Food Sources of Niacin 744
Best Food Sources of Vitamin B6 745
Best Food Sources of Vitamin B12 746

Best Food Sources of Folate 746
Best Food Sources of Pantothenate 747
Best Food Sources of Biotin 748
Best Food Sources of Choline 749
Best Food Sources of Inositol 749
Best Food Sources of Vitamin C 750
Best Food Sources of Vitamin D 751
Best Food Sources of Vitamin E 751
BOOK I
Vitamins
in Your
Daily Life
INTRODUCTION
"A questionable and potentially harmful practice."
That's a quote from researchers at the government's Food and Drug Administration
(FDA). The ''practice" they're talking about isn't voodoo or child beating. It's taking
vitamins.
In a phone survey, the FDA found out that 43 percent of the thousands of people they
talked to used supplements. When they asked them why, "the most frequently cited
benefits of taking supplements were that they made the person feel better and prevented
illness."
What's questionable and harmful about that?
Nothing. At least not to you and me. But some experts in the government and the
medical establishment seem to have a fixation about vitamins. They don't believe you
need to take them. If you do take them, they don't believe they work. (And '\f you say
vitamins work, as those folks on the phone did, they think you're deluding yourself.)
And so TV and magazines are blitzed with programs and articles telling you that, if you
eat a "balanced diet," there's no reason to take a vitamin supplement. And that if you do
take one, you'll probably overdose on it and
VITAMINS IN YOUR DAILY LIFE

kill yourself. Well, book 1—Vitamins in Your Daily Life—is out to debunk those official
myths.
We'll tell you right off the bat why you probably do need food supplements. We'll
investigate the government's Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) of vitamins and
show why they're not set at levels that keep you really healthy. We'll look into the
possibility of overdosing on vitamins and show you why a sensible supplement program
is virtually risk free. (And we'll give you a program suited to your individual needs.)
We'll also describe studies which show that older people could use more vitamins in
their diets. And so could people who live where it's polluted. And people who take
prescription drugs. And people who diet. And people who have surgery. In short, just
about everybody.
So keep up that "practice." It could make your health perfect.
CHAPTER
WHY WE NEED VITAMIN SUPPLEMENTS
The evidence that many people feel better and do better when they take vitamin
supplements (along with a good diet) is so overwhelming that few who have investigated
the subject with an open mind doubt it. Besides all that's been published, millions of
people believe it as a result of personal experience.
Yet, even those of us who are convinced of the wisdom of supplements must stop and
wonder every once in a while why so many people seem to need them. Surely nature
didn't design human beings to gulp down a handful of pills every day in order to be
healthy and strong. Nor is there any famine upon the land: What we see sticking out is
not ribs, but bellies. So why should it be that so many people do so much better with
supplements? W lull's wroni; with plain old food?
Plenty. Probably more than you ever imagined. For instance, you may have asked
yourself why so many people seem to need supplements of vitamin C in order to keep
their resistance at peak levels. Isn't there enough vitamin C in fresh fruits and vegetables
to keep them healthy?
Sure there is, as long as you eat all your fruits and vegetables right in ihc orchard or
garden. If you eat them as most of us do.
at home or in a restaurant, you can run into some unexpected problems.
Take oranges, for instance. The orange peel is nature's nutrition preservative. As soon as
you take it off and begin to fool around with the orange, the vitamin C begins
disappearing.
If you take a fresh orange and juice it yourself, you might think you're getting all the
vitamin C that was in the orange, but you aren't. You're leaving about 30 percent of it
behind in the residue of the section membranes.
Even if you eat the residue, you've still lost nutrition. The simple act of juicing an orange
reduces the vitamin C because vitamin C is very sensitive to oxygen. When you break the
orange segments and let the juice splash around, you start to destroy vitamin C. When
you process oranges (or other C-rich fruits) in a blender, every whirl of the blades
encourages vitamin C destruction.
If you buy your orange juice in a waxed cardboard container, pasteurized, and take it to
a laboratory, they will probably tell you that the juice has lost something on the order of
20 percent of its original vitamin C. But what they probably won't tell you, because they
didn't test it, is that half or more of the vitamin C which is there is biologically inactive—
of no apparent use in maintaining or building health.
One of the most surprising examples of unexpected vitamin C loss was reported by
Israeli scientists who found that, when oranges are blended with bananas (often to make
a fruit mixture for infants), fully 75 to 80 percent of the vitamin C content vanishes—
apparently through a reaction between vitamin C and a factor in the bananas
(International Journal for Vitamin and Nutrition Research).
Vitamin C is so sensitive to human manipulation that, as soon as you put a knife to a

fruit or vegetable, the bruise causes vitamin loss. The finer you chop or shred your food,
the more vitamin C is lost. And the longer you keep it before eating it, the more is lost.
Generally speaking, fruits and vegetables which are processed in the home and kept a
day or two before they're eaten have lost anywhere from 30 to 70 percent of their
vitamin C.
One final example: Potatoes are not that high in vitamin C but, because many people eat
potatoes on a regular basis, they are an extremely important source of that vitamin in
the diet. But today, many people eat potatoes reconstituted from instant mixes or eat
potato chips which have been made by reassembling dehydrated potatoes. How many
consumers realize these products contain no vitamin C whatsoever? According to
Richard H. Barnes, Ph.D., former dean of the graduate school of nutrition at Cornell
University, "We wonder if anyone knows of any values that are realistic in terms of the
ascorbic acid [vitamin C] intake of the American public. It would appear to be
something very, very much less than the values that have been calculated from food
consumption surveys" (Nutrients in Processed Foods).
Government Food Tables May Be Inaccurate
Other people are wondering, too. When Mary K. Head, Ph.D., formerly of the
department of food science at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, investigated
the nutritional content of foods which were actually being served to students at a
cafeteria, she found that the way the food was prepared and served caused considerable
nutrient loss (Journal of the American Dietetic Association). When we compare some of
her figures to those in official government food tables, we find some big differences.
Take thiamine, for instance—needed for emotional health, among other things.
Government tables say that a 3'/2-ounce serving of green beans, even when cooked the
worst possible way—in lots of water and for a long time—contains 0.06 milligram of
thiamine. But the average value found by Dr. Head was only one-third that much!
Govcrnmcnl tables also say that about 7 ounces of spaghetti with sauce contain S
milligrams of vitamin C (from the tomato
sauce), but Dr. Head's figures show that what the students were eating contained a mere
1.2 milUgrams. Eighty-five percent of the vitamin C had dropped out.
The examples of how nutrients are missing or lost in unexpected ways are practically
endless. Some of them are no big secret. A good example is that milling whole grain
products to produce white flour reduces valuable vitamins, minerals and fiber by an
average of 70 to 80 percent. Many also know that boiling vegetables in water for
extended periods of time is nutritional murder. Folate (folic acid) is vital to healthy
blood, energy and a smoothly functioning nervous system. Boil most vegetables in water
until they're done, and you wind up with more folate in the water than you have in the
vegetables! Boil cabbage until it's done, and you have only 25 percent of the vitamin C
you had when you dropped it into the pot.
Canning is another killer. One recent study showed that 44 percent of the vitamin C
originally present in raw peas is lost in the canning process. There was no big surprise in
that, scientists reported. Food composition tables will tell you the same. The surprise,
they said, is that 42 percent of the vitamin C which is left is actually found in the liquid
in which the peas are canned, rather than the peas themselves. So if you want to get the
amount of vitamic C the food tables tell you you're supposed to get, you'll have to eat
your peas with a spoon instead of a fork!
Many people believe that organ meats are rich sources of the B vitamins—and rightly so.
The problem, again, is the difference between theory and practice. When you brown
various organ meats on top of your stove, for instance, you are losing from one-third to
two-thirds of the thiamine (Bi) and about one-third of the riboflavin (vitamin B2). Just
the thaw drip from frozen meats that you are preparing to cook can seriously deplete B
vitamins. Fully one-third of all pantothenate (pantothenic acid) in beefsteak, for
example, literally drips out of your meat before you even cook it—which will, of course,
destroy still more. Vitamin B(, is another nutrient, particularly important to women and
older people, which is destroyed in cooking. While meat is

generally a good source of vitamin B^, if you eat your meat well done, you may lose up
to 70 percent of the Bt in the cooking process.
Cooking methods aside, what's in the water you cook with can also make a difference.
Baking soda added to vegetables causes considerable destruction to thiamine. Japanese
scientists recently demonstrated that, when rice is cooked in water which has been
chlorinated, there is considerably more destruction of thiamine than when it's cooked in
distilled water because chlorine reacts chemically with thiamine {Journal of Nutritional
Science and Vitaminology, vol. 25, no. 4, 1979). And speaking of rice, be aware that, if
you wash your rice before boiling it, you are destroying anywhere from 10 to 25 percent
of the thiamine before you even cook it!
Remember, we aren't even talking about people who need extra nutrients because of
special stress or illness or dieting. We're only talking about how reasonably healthy
people, eating a normal, typical diet, are being shortchanged of nutrition. But even
without special problems, getting the proper nutrition from your food isn't as easy as it's
cracked up to be. The often-heard statement that you can get all the nutrition you need
from a well-balanced diet of "ordinary food" is totally out of touch with reality. Food
may be good enough on paper, but not in real life. It's like getting a salary that's
adequate—until you pay all your taxes and deductions!
Our food is being taxed the very same way. Only many of the taxes are invisible. We
think the food value is there, but it isn't.
And that, in a nutshell, is why so many people who use vitamin supplements as one
method of improving nutrition so often find themselves feeling more alert, energetic and
less bothered by a host of ailments, minor and major. When combined with smarter
food selections and better food preparation, supplements can make a big difference. It's
like giving your health a "raise"!
CHAPTER
SUPPLEMENTS FOR OPTIMAL HEALTH: WHY THE RDAs AREN'T HIGH ENOUGH
Vitamins are powerful substances. We need only microscopic amounts of them in our
diets to stay healthy, but take away those teeny quantities and our bodies soon run into
deep metabolic trouble.
Scientists originally discovered vitamins while examining deficiency diseases—the

devastating medical problems that occur when your diet lacks a particular vitamin. First,
they pinpointed what foods could cure these diseases, and then they isolated the
chemicals in the foods that were the sources of the cure.
The chemicals they discovered function in our bodies as coenzymes. That means they
combine with the body's enzymes to promote the intimate processes that take place in
each of the cells. They act as catalysts. They help vital chemical reactions take place that
could not occur without their presence.
All vitamins are organic. In their natural state, they're all produced by plants or animals
and they find their way into your body when you eat a plant or animal that contains
them. But even though plants and some animals can make vitamins, human
10 VITAMINS IN YOUR DAILY LIFE
bodies generally can't. If you don't take in a vitamin in the food you eat or in a vitamin
supplement, then you don't get it.
RDAs—Health Designed by Committee
Most of us are familiar with the phrase "Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA)." You
often see the RDAs referred to as part of the nutrition information on food labels. Or
else they may be used in an advertising campaign: "One ounce of our cereal contains 75
percent of the Recommended Dietary Allowances of these seven important vitamins."
The RDA is the amount of each nutrient which, according to a panel of nutrition
authorities, is enough to keep the average person healthy.
Most orthodox nutritionists believe that, if your diet contains the RDA for all nutrients,
there is nothing to be gained by taking additional supplements. A growing group of
scientists, doctors and informed laymen disagree. They contend that many people can
benefit from taking some nutrients in amounts greater than the RDAs.
This controversy, which has been brewing for many years, will not be resolved anytime
soon. It is therefore important that anyone interested in nutrition understand what the
RDAs actually mean. How are they determined? To whom do they apply? How should
they be used? What are their limitations?
The Recommended Dietary Allowances are discussed in a book with the same title. This
book is revised about every five years to keep up with new research. It is written by a
panel of scientists considered to be experts in the field of nutrition. None of the well-
known dissenters in the field, however, such as Linus Pauling, Ph.D., Roger Williams,
Ph.D., Carlton Fredericks, Ph.D., or Emanuel Cheraskin, M.D., are members of this
panel.
The RDAs are defined as "the levels of intake of essential nutrients considered, in the
judgment of the Committee on Di-
WHY THE RDAS AREN'T HIGH ENOUGH 11
etary Allowances of the Food and Nutrition Board on the basis of available scientific
knowledge, to be adequate to meet the known nutritional needs of practically all healthy
persons/' This definition seems easy enough to understand, but it is not as
straightforward as it looks. It is a very carefully worded statement which must be just as
carefully interpreted.
What, for example, is meant by the phrase "practically all"? Researchers know that
nutrient requirements vary widely from person to person—some need considerably
more than others. Because of this variation, a small group of research subjects cannot be
reliably used to predict the needs of an entire population. Since it is not possible to
guarantee that everyone will be protected, a level of intake is chosen which the
statistician predicts will cover the needs of 97 percent. In other words, about 3 percent
of the people need more than the RDA for any particular nutrient. There is,
unfortunately, no way of knowing whether you are among the unlucky few who will
develop a deficiency by consuming what the committee has recommended.
You might argue that a 3-percent risk is not great enough to justify taking a bunch of
supplements. That, of course, is an individual choice. But your chances of having a
deficiency are actually much greater than 3 percent. That is because you are taking the
same risk with each of the 40 or so essential nutrients. When you have to take the same
3-percent risk 40 times, your odds do not look very good. A mathematician would tell
you that, if you take in exactly the RDA for each essential nutrient, you will have at least
a 50-50 chance of becoming deficient in one or more nutrients. With those odds, it is not
unreasonable to take out an insurance policy of sorts by consuming more than the
RDAs. While that may or may not improve your health, it is quite unlikely to do any
harm.
Another phrase in the RDA definition that requires explanation is "healthy persons."
The committee clearly points out that the RDAs apply only to those in good health.
"Special needs for nutrients arising from such problems as . . . inherited metabolic
disorders, infections, chronic disease and the use of med-
ications require special dietary and therapeutic measures. These conditions are not
covered by the RDA."
So if you find that increasing your intake of vitamins and minerals relieves the
symptoms of your arthritis (a chronic disease), you should get no argument from
believers in the RDA. Likewise, the vitamin C requirement for the common cold (an
infection) is not included in these nutritional guidelines. If you have developed
unexplained depression after using an oral contraceptive, that drug has probably caused
an unusually large need for vitamin B^. If you have heart disease, diabetes, cancer,
recurrent infections, chronic diarrhea, anemia or other disorders, your nutritional needs
are likely to be increased.
What if you do not have any of these diseases? Does that mean you are healthy? Does
the RDA apply to you? Actually, a case could be made that very few of us are truly
healthy—that we are a nation of chronically ill people. One out of three of us will develop
heart disease; one out of five will die of cancer. Three of ten women will develop severe
thinning of their bones after the reproductive years. Millions of men will suffer from
prostate troubles as they get older. While our bodies are slowly developing these
problems, we should not be considered healthy even though we may fee! well. For if we
were better nourished, the degeneration would probably proceed at a slower pace. It
might even be prevented entirely. The millions who require medication for anxiety,
depression or pain are also chronically ill. Perhaps better nutrition could help these
people, too.
Another large group of people for whom the RDAs may not apply are the elderly. As
people get older, they lose the ability to absorb nutrients efficiently. As a result, nutrient
needs become greater. The committee is aware of these increased needs. But since few
experiments have been done with the elderly, no one is sure how much to recommend.
So there are quite a few people who are not covered by the standards set forth in the
RDAs. But what about those to whom the guidelines do apply? What do the RDAs
mean? How are they determined? The committee answers these questions as follows: ''
For certain nutrients the requirements may be assessed
WHY THE RDAS ARENT HIGH ENOUGH 13
as the amount that will just prevent failure of a specific function or the development of
specific deficiency signs—an amount that may differ greatly from that required to
maintain maximum body stores. Thus, there are differences of opinion about the criteria
that should be used to establish requirements."
In other words, the committee is setting minimal requirements for minimal health. It is
clear they are not interested in the question of whether larger amounts can promote
metabolic excellence or optimal health. But accumulating evidence suggests that better
nutrition can do just that.
Nutritional supplements can help detoxify environmental poisons. They may decrease
the adverse physical and emotional effects of stress, minimize the risk of infections and
promote more healthy skin. The list of possible benefits from optimal nutrition is long.
The goal of promoting excellent health obviously demands different nutritional
standards than the mere desire to avoid serious illness.
We might, therefore, wish to use other criteria than the committee has decided upon.
For example, those with elevated levels of serum cholesterol may need more of the
nutrients that can lower cholesterol, such as niacin, calcium and vitamin C. Another
criterion that could be used is the activity of our blood platelets. Many people have
overactive platelets, which might increase their risk of developing a dangerous blood
clot in an artery or vein. These people may have a greater need for vitamin E, vitamin Bfi
and essential fatty acids, all of which can reduce platelet activity (if you are taking an
anticoagulant medication, consult your doctor before acting on this information).
The requirement for the antioxidant nutrients (selenium, vitamin E, vitamin C and zinc)
might depend on the number of pollutants and cancer-causing agents that are working
at oxidizing your cells. The need for calcium and chromium should vary with the amount
of sugar you consume, since these nutrients are known to be depleted by excess sugar.
When you use criteria such as these to establish nutrient needs, a comprehensive
nutrition program beings to look more sensible than the traditionalists would have you
believe.
Some Misleading Statements from the Food Industry
One additional point to keep in mind is that the RDAs can be used by industry to make a
product appear more nutritious than it really is. For example, a manufacturer might
create a "fruit drink" from sugar, artificial color, artificial flavor, preservatives and
vitamin C. Advertisements for this product would focus on the fact that it contains 100
percent of the RDA for vitamin C. It might not occur to the consumer that this drink has
little else to offer and could even be harmful. Or else consider a cereal made from grain
which has been refined to the point where dozens of different nutrients have been lost. If
a few of these nutrients are added back in the "enriching" process, claims can be made
that the cereal contains 100 percent of the RDA for various vitamins. Do not let these
advertisements persuade you that everything lost in the refining process has been
replaced.
Minimal or Optimal Nutrition?
The RDAs were originally designed to ensure that large segments of the population
would not develop serious nutritional deficiencies. They were first published during
World War II, when there was concern about the adequacy of the K rations being fed to
our troops. For these purposes, the RDAs have provided valuable information. But if you
are trying to do more with nutrition, if you are interested in relieving the suffering of
disease, preventing chronic illness, warding off the effects of stress, increasing your
energy level, relieving anxiety or depression or getting rid of the cramps in your legs or
the numbness and tingling in your fingers, then the RDAs have little to offer.
We are, of course, grateful to the hard-working experts who have spent much time in
producing the Recommended Dietary
WHY THE RDAS ARENT HIGH ENOUGH 15
Allowances. But we must recognize, as they do, the three major limitations of these
guidelines:
1. They apply only to healthy people, a group that is rapidly becoming extinct in our
polluted and stressful environment.
2. Their purpose is to guarantee a minimal, rather than optimal, level of nutrition.
3. There is a high probability that even a totally healthy person looking only for the
minimum will need more than the RDA for some nutrients.
So, when planning your nutrition program, be sure to keep the RDAs in mind. That way
you will not forget to include at least the bare minimum for all the known essential
nutrients. But remember that the ultimate in good health requires more than just the
bare minimum.
CHAPTER
HOW MUCH? A GUIDE TO PERSONAL VITAMIN SUPPLEMENTATION
No one can say what level of supplementation is exactly right for you. With changes
occurring almost continuously in our bodies, our diets and our environments—not to
mention changes in nutritional science itself—it is just not possible to be terribly precise.
Still, we need some general guidelines that will put us in the right church, if not the
exact pew, so far as supplements are concerned. That's what we're trying to provide
here.
Please keep in mind the following:
1. These guidelines are not specific recommendations, but rather general, informational
statements which inevitably reflect a certain degree of personal opinion as well as
current research.
2. For each nutrient, read the paragraph of descriptive statements accompanying the
various amounts. Find the parai>niph which most sounds like you. It is not necessary,
or in some cases even possible, for each sentence in the paragraph to describe you spe-
A GUIDE TO VITAMIN SUPPLEMENTATION 17
cifically. Go with the one that, overall, seems most applicable. 3. Don't try to use the
information here to pinpoint nutritional causes of symptoms. Analyzing serious
symptoms is your doctor's job.
Vitamin A
5,000 international units: Your diet regularly includes liver, carrots, broccoli, apricots,
sweet potatoes and spinach. You are generally in excellent health, your resistance is very
high and the environment in which you live is low in pollutants. Naturally, you are not a
smoker and never have been. Nor are there any smokers in your household. There is
nothing in your family history that makes you particularly concerned about cancer.
10,000 international units: You eat vitamin A-rich foods such as liver, carrots and sweet
potatoes occasionally, but they're not on your menu every day. Your health is better than
average, but you are not invulnerable, and you know that when your resistance gets low
you tend to become ill, perhaps with upper respiratory symptoms. Skin problems are not
unknown to you. You are exposed to an average amount of pollution from various
sources.
25,000 international units: Occasionally, you notice patches of dry, bumpy skin on your
legs or arms. Not dry and flaky, but dry and humpy. Recently, you may have been
involved in a serious health crisis such as surgery, an injury, a burn or another problem
that had you out of circulation for more than just a few days. Your vision, especially at
dusk, is not what it could be. Foods such as liver, spinach and carrots have been known
to appear on your dining room table, but they are hardly fixtures.
(Normally, supplements of vitamin A should not exceed about 40,000 international

units per day. Very large amounts— usually well over 100,000 international units per
day—can cause symptoms of toxicity, such as dry skin and loss of appetite. The
amounts mentioned in this guide, however, are perfectly safe for adults.)
Thiamine (Vitamin Bi)
5 milligrams: You're practically famous for your perpetual good mood and unflagging
energy. Your diet regularly includes brewer's yeast, wheat germ, whole grain products,
nuts, liver and sunflower seeds.
10 milligrams: You're generally a frisky sort, even though you aren't necessarily ready to
conquer the world at the dawn of each and every day. There are times when you wish
your nerves were better behaved, and you sometimes think you drink too much coffee or
tea for your own good. Your diet is average.
25 milligrams: Your nerves are definitely in a state, and you may be suffering from
depression, loss of appetite or similar emotional and neurological problems. Your
energy levels are at best undependable, as is your memory. Possibly, you are in your
retirement years, when absorption of thiamine—as well as other B vitamins—is very
much reduced.
Riboflavin (Vitamin B2)
5 milligrams: You're a great one for dairy foods like milk, cheese and eggs. Almonds,
asparagus, broccoli, liver, wheat germ and other riboflavin-rich foods appear in your
daily fare. Your eyes are clear and bright and the skin around your mouth is perfectly
smooth—except when you smile, which you do frequently.
10 milligrams: Milk and liver you don't care for, cheese and eggs have too much
cholesterol for you, and wild rice and asparagus are too expensive. So you don't get that
much riboflavin in your diet except from your whole grain bread. You are also getting up
there in years.
25 milligrams: if you look in the mirror carefully, you will see small cracks around your
mouth, or your tongue may be
smooth and purplish. Your eyes may burn, itch, be abnormally sensitive to bright light
or simply feel worn out. You may feel depressed. You are no spring chicken.
Niacin
10 milligrams: Your diet regularly includes fish, beans, organ meats, peanuts, poultry,
whole wheat products and brewer's yeast—or at least half of those foods. Your
disposition is strictly blue sky. The only time you are irritable is when enemy tanks
invade your neighborhood.
25 milligrams: Your diet is nothing to brag about, particularly, and occasionally you
wonder if there is some reason why it's becoming so difficult for you to fall asleep or if
your headaches have some peculiar origin.
50 milligrams: Your nerves and your personality are definitely not what they used to be
and not what your friends or family would like them to be. You may have thought about
visiting a psychologist or psychiatrist, and you would be grateful if something could be
done about your insomnia.
Vitamin Be (Pyridoxine)
5 milligrams: You practically radiate good health, and your positive, energetic attitude is
reflected in your intelligently varied diet, which includes wheat germ, brown rice,
salmon, peanuts, liver, bananas and, of course, whole grains.
10 milligrams: You certainly aren't sick, but you sometimes wonder why your skin isn't
better or why your nerves aren't calmer. You may tend to retain a lot of fluid before your
menstrual periods.
50 milligrams: Your monthly periods cause you considerable distress, not only because
of fluid retention, but because of emotional problems at that time—or perhaps all the
time. Possibly, you are on birth control pills. Life is looking more and more like an
ordeal.
Vitamin B12
5 micrograms: You are healthy, energetic, haven't yet reached retirement age, and you
regularly eat animal foods such as meat, fish or chicken.
10 micrograms: You've passed your 60th birthday, and your ability to absorb this
vitamin in a useful form may be on the wane.
25 micrograms: Lately, your energy level, and possibly your nerves, just haven't been up
to snuff. Possibly, you've been ill or had surgery. You may be a strict vegan, one who
avoids all animal-source foods. These symptoms may well be serious enough to suggest
a thorough medical evaluation.
Folate (Folic Acid)
400 micrograms: You eat a lot of raw green vegetables such as broccoli, asparagus and
spinach. You're a liver lover from way back, and you eat it with onions. You are full of
energy, and retirement is something that's far in the future.
400 to 800 micrograms: You must remind yourself that you should eat raw green
vegetables more frequently, and you wish you were able to work out a way to eat beans,
broccoli, asparagus, wheat germ, tempeh and whole wheat products more often than
you do. Your health is about average.
800 to 2,000 micrograms: Lately, you feel as though you've been under considerable
emotional stress, and you haven't been able to handle it as well as you should. Your
nerves in general have been in such a state that you have given serious consideration to
seeking some kind of help, whether medical, psychological or even nutritional. You are
over 70 years of age and your absorption of folate, therefore, is likely to be impaired.
Possibly, you have recently undergone surgery. Your doctor may have reason to believe
you have folate deficiency anemia, which causes, among other things, inflammation of
the tongue, diges-
tive problems and diarrhea. (When taking folate supplements, always take vitamin Bi:
with them.)
Vitamin C
100 milligrams: You can hardly remember the last time you were ill. Your health is
excellent, and your gums are clear, firm and never bleed. Your daily diet includes
generous measures of such vitamin C-rich foods as broccoli, cabbage, melons, citrus
fruits and green peppers.
500 milligrams: You feel that your resistance must be maintained at a high level in order
to keep you feeling your best. There may be some chronic health problem or stress in
your life, such as a bad back, allergies or exposure to cigarette smoke. Your diet is not
bad by a long shot, but it does not supply the amount of vitamin C you feel you should
get.
2,000 milligrams: You are definitely susceptible to stresses such as infection, pain or
skin problems. Possibly, you are recovering from surgery, an injury or any other serious
bout with illness. In the past, you have noticed that injury or surgical incisions seem to
heal very slowly. Your diet could be better, but it is difficult for you to eat raw foods,
high in vitamin C, because they tend to make your gums bleed. You may want to step
down to a lower level of vitamin C supplementation when the health problem or crisis
you are now undergoing disappears.
Vitamin D
0 to 200 international units: You live in an area where the sun shines strong and bright,
such as Florida or southern California. What's more, you move around quite a bit
outdoors, so sunlight strikes your body, causing your system to manufacture its own
vitamin D. If you have a year-round tan, you probably don't need any supplemental
vitamin D at all.
400 international units: You live in an area such as Pennsylvania or Washington state,
where a beautiful sunshiny day is a real event. You are not a big drinker of milk, which is
fortified with vitamin D, usually at the rate of about 400 international units per quart.
Occasionally, however, you do eat fish containing vitamin D, such as herring, mackerel,
salmon, sardines and tuna.
800 international units: You probably live in the northern United States, Canada or
England, where, except for a few weeks in the middle of summer, intense sunshine may
be as rare as rainbows. What's more, for one reason or another, you do not get very
much exercise outdoors. Possibly you have had a problem with your bones, suffering a
fracture or pain. Although a physician may recommend considerably higher
supplements, you should not ordinarily take more than this amount on your own each
day, as vitamin D tends to accumulate in the body, and very large amounts (usually
many thousands of international units) can become toxic.
Vitamin E
100 international units: You are relatively young, in fine health, and you live in an
exceptionally clean area, where there is remarkably little pollution.
400 international units: You may have a health condition which may be prevented or
improved with vitamin E, such as intermittent claudication (cramping of the calf on
walking) or any one of a number of skin problems. The air you breathe, the water you
drink and. possibly, the food you eat contain the usual amount of pollutants found in
our modern world. Your diet contains a substantial amount of polyunsaturated fats such
as corn oil.
600 international units: You may be concerned about a circulation problem and feel that
the beneficial effect of vitamin E on blood elements is something that you want to take
advantage of in full measure.
CHAPTER
GETTING THE MOST FROM YOUR VITAMINS: A PLAN FOR MAXIMAL
ABSORPTION
Even if you're taking all the right vitamin supplements, you may be getting less out of
them than you think you are! But don't despair—nutritional "fuel efficiency" is easy to
achieve if you keep a few simple concepts in mind,
"Generally, vitamins are absorbed best when they are taken with other foods and
minerals," counsels Harold Rosenberg, M.D., past president of the International
Academy of Preventive Medicine, in The Doctor's Book of Vitamin Therapy (G. P.
Putnam's Sons, 1974). "The best time is after meals and as evenly throughout the day as
possible."
This matter of good timing can't be overemphasized either, for taken at the wrong time
—on an empty stomach, in particular—even the most beneficial supplement can pass
through your body with less than optimal results. After all, it's only the nutrients
actually absorbed by your digestive system—this takes place primarily in your small
intestine—that can work their metabolic magic.
Combining supplements with meals, then, is the best way to give nature a helping hand.
"The nutrients were in your food in the first place," Dr. Rosenberg says. "And when
you're eating, tastes and odors—
the entire range of gustatory and sensual factors—stimulate and excite the digestive
enzymes. Primed by even something as simple as a piece of fruit or a slice of whole
wheat bread, these enzymes are ready for the vitamins and minerals."
So you needn't fear your supplements will get lost in a crowd.
"Though everything goes in the kettle at the same time, the body has a fairly broad
tolerance level for unscrambling what we put in in scrambled form," explains Rebecca
Riales, Ph.D., a clinical nutritionist from Parkersburg, West Virginia.
And once unscrambled, many nutrients must form partnerships with other substances
found in food in order to be absorbed fully.
Vitamins That Need Fat
Fat in your meal acts like a chauffeur service for vitamins A, D. E and K, the fat-soluble
vitamins.
"For example, if you take vitamin E on an empty stomach, there's almost no absorption,"
Dr. Riales notes. "And you'll have the same trouble if you take a multivitamin with, say,
a breakfast of skim milk and cold cereal—there's almost no fat in the meal and you'll
wind up absorbing very little of the fat-soluble vitamins."
But drink a glass of whole milk, add a pat of butter to your oatmeal or some vinegar and
oil to your salad, and the increase in nutrient absorption can be "tremendous,"
according to Hugo Gailo-Torres, M.D., Ph.D., senior research physician of the
department of gastroenterology, medical research, at Hoffmann-La Roche,Inc.
"Fat-containing foods may also prolong absorption," he explains, citing a wealth of

recent research from Japan.
But what about the water-soluble vitamins—the B complex and C?
"These are well absorbed with or without food, but taking thcni with a meal can slow the
rate of absorption (although it won't decrease the total amount absorbed)," says Dr.
Riales.
And that can he beneficial.
A PLAN FOR MAXIMAL ABSORPTION 25
Initially, you might absorb more of a B or C supplement on an empty stomach than you
would with a meal. But doses absorbed too quickly are excreted too quickly to have long-
term effects on body concentrations. On the other hand, stretching out the absorption
time as you digest your food will result in increased levels of the nutrient in your blood
over a longer period of time.
It's a case of "slow and steady" winning the race, and it has inspired the suggestion that
you take your supplements in divided doses throughout the day, rather than all at once.
Michael Mayersohn, Ph.D., and his colleagues at the University of Arizona tested this
idea with vitamin C. Working with three people, they gave each a gram (1,000
milligrams) of vitamin C daily for two weeks. One person took the vitamin in a single
dose, the second received the gram in eight small doses and the third also took the entire
dose of the supplement at once, but after eating a high-fat meal.
"The divided dose and after-meal treatments produced a significant increase in AA

[ascorbic acid, i.e., vitamin C] absorption compared to the corresponding control
experiment, 72 percent and 69 percent increase, respectively," they wrote {Life Sciences,
vol. 28, no. 22, 1981).
"From a practical point of view, efficiency of AA absorption may be improved by either

dividing up a daily dose into several smaller doses taken during the day or by ingesting
the vitamin after a meal."
Dr. Rosenberg mentions that the B vitamins are also best taken throughout the day.
"Every requirement of the human body operates on a twenty-four-hour cycle. Your cells
do not go to sleep when you do, nor can they survive without continuous oxygen and
nutrients."
Nutrient Interactions
Some nutrients just naturally go together, practicing a kind of vitamin-and-mineral

teamwork when it comes to maximizing absorption.
Take calcium, for example.
Divided doses of the mineral teamed with vitamin C can increase the percentage of
calcium absorbed, notes Dr. Riales. And combining vitamin C with calcium is
"worthwhile—especially if you're older. Vitamin C's acidity seems to help calcium
remain soluble and hence available for absorption.''
And, of course, there's the team of vitamin D—the "sunshine vitamin"—and calcium.
This vitamin regulates how much of the bone-building mineral is absorbed through your
intestine, so you'll want both on your team.
There are many other examples of nutrient teamwork, but most of them take place after
absorption.
But that's not so with vitamin C and iron.
If you're a woman eating less red meat and gaining more of your protein from plant
sources, this vitamin-mineral pair's teamwork is especially important.
The iron in plants plays "hard to get," but vitamin C can overcome that and make a
sizable portion of the mineral ready, willing and able when it comes to intestinal
absorption, according to Sean Lynch, M.D., of the department of medicine at the
University of Kansas.
"But you have to take the vitamin with your meals," he emphasizes.
And again, taking the C in divided doses—say, with each meal—makes that much more
iron available from your food.
Zinc Helps Folate Absorption
If you want maximum folate (folic acid) absorption from your food or vitamin
supplements, it's a good idea to take zinc along with it.
Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley found that, when healthy

volunteers were put on a diet that depleted their reserves of zinc, the absorption of folate
dropped sharply. Why? The folate-containing compounds in foods, polyglutamyl
A PLAN FOR MAXIMAL ABSORPTION 27
folates, must be split by an enzyme before folate can be absorbed. And this enzyme, they
suggested, requires zinc (FASi^B Proceedings).
While you're making sure your diet has all the nutrients essential for healthy absorption,
you might also consider the negative effect of nonessentials like additives. According to
one study, the common preservative EDTA can reduce the absorption of iron.
Nutrient Absorption Declines with Age
In general, the older you are, the greater the chance yoifll run into absorption problems.
A decline of secretions of stomach acid and digestive enzymes means poorer absorption
of iron and protein.
Less and less of the B vitamins and such minerals as calcium, too, make it out of your
digestive tract and into your bloodstream. This is one reason why older people are so
ofien beset with nutritional ills. Poor absorption means poor nutrition, which will impair
absorption further—starting a cycle that is difficult to stop. Is this inevitable?
"There are widespread differences in the ability to absorb nutrients," says Mark Tager,
M.D., who practices wellness-oriented medicine in Oregon. "At least part is rooted in
individual history—how a person has used or abused his digestive tract during his
lifetime.'' The continual use of stimulants, like caffeine, may take its toll over time. So
can years of neglected stomach and bowel problems.
By the same token, attention to those things that promote healthy digestion and
absorption pays a double bonus: now and in the future. Making mealtime (and the hours
afterward) relaxed and pleasant is more than just a civilized idea for this reason. "I'd
suggest a quiet period surrounding digestion," says Dr. Tager. "It does little good to
throw in good food and then damage digestion by stress."
Exercise will give your digestive system the same benefits it gives the rest of your body.
"Individuals who don't exercise, who don't get enough oxygen to the cells, tend to have
poor absorption patterns," Dr. Tager says. ''Yoga exercises that aim at using stomach
and intestinal muscles can do particular good."
But where digestion and absorption are concerned, the main thing, appropriately
enough, is food. Dr. Tager emphasizes the virtues of raw foods, whole grains and
vegetables. Many people may want to add vitamin and mineral supplements to sound
diets based on whole, natural foods, to ensure an adequate supply of all the nutrients
necessary for efficient absorption. What it comes down to is this: A high-quality diet will
help your body get from your food all the good things that nature put into it.
And that logic is hard to question.

CHAPTER
DO YOU HAVE "HIDDEN HUNGER"?
Suppose for a moment that you were usually so dog tired you couldn't even get out of
your chair to do your household chores. Or suppose you couldn't sleep at night. Or you
were so cranky most of the time that you felt like snapping everyone's head off. Or you
were just getting sick much too often.
If this sounds like you, then your body may be telling you it has a "hidden hunger" for
the proper levels of vitamins.
Technically, such hidden hunger is called subclinical, or marginal, malnutrition. "If a

person has a subclinical nutritional deficiency, he or she might appear perfectly
normal," says Frank Beaudet, an instructor at the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology,
University of Southern California. "There will be no obvious symptoms that anything is
wrong nutritionally. But when the person is under physical or emotional stress, then we
will see the full impact of marginal levels of nutrition."
A person with hidden hunger sounds like an accident waiting to happen. "In many ways
that's true," Beaudet says. "Subclinical malnutrition can lead to, among other things, an
increased susceptibility to disease and a longer recovery time from
surgery. It could even lead to an adverse reaction to a flu vaccination due to lowered
immune response/'
Is subclinical malnutrition something new? ''Not really," says Beaudet. "But it has only
been recognized within about the past five years. Our knowledge of, and ability to
recognize, subclinical malnutrition have developed along with the renaissance in
nutrition, in general, and, geriatric nutrition, in particular."
Is the problem very widespread? "Malnutrition itself is not an epidemic among older
adults," Beaudet says. "But countless numbers suffer from subclinical malnutrition—and
may not even be aware of it."
Your body may have a hidden hunger for one or more vitamins. "In the United States
today, we rarely see cases of classical vitamin deficiency, such as scurvy and pellagra,"
says Richard Rivlin, M.D., of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and New
York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, New York City. "But we are now beginning to
recognize a vast new series of marginal deficiencies related to disease and therapy. . . .
Marginal deficiency, it now appears, may be a surprisingly common phenomenon."
In a paper presented to the Vitamin Nutrition Issues Symposium in Boca Raton, Florida,
in October, 1979, Dr. Rivlin used riboflavin (vitamin BO to illustrate his point. He noted
that animal studies have shown that, when your body is low in riboflavin, the production
of an enzyme that the body needs to use the riboflavin in the first place is inhibited. "The
less [riboflavin] you have," said Dr. Rivlin, "the less you are able to utilize; once the body
gets sick, it gets sicker, because it lacks the enzyme and therefore cannot utilize what
little vitamin there is in the diet. . . . The important concept is that deficiency itself
produces changes in the ability to utilize that same vitamin.
"Riboflavin is important in blood formation, in the brain, in fat metabolism, in

degrading drugs and foreign substances and in maintaining the skin. And because one
vitamin is involved in the metabolism of another, the effects of one deficiency are
compounded by effects upon others."
DO YOU HAVE "HIDDEN HUNGER"? 31
Several other factors also can create a hidden hunger for riboflavin. ''Boric acid, for
example, which is present in some 400 home products such as mouth washes,
suppositories and imported foods, claws onto the sugar portion of the riboflavin, binds it
and takes it out in the urine. The amount of boric acid ingested by the population is
obviously variable; but if individuals are taking boric acid over a long period of time in
low amounts, they may be at risk for gradually getting a degree of vitamin depletion.""
Dr. Rivlin pointed out that drugs such as the tranquilizer chlorpromazine, if taken over a
long period of time, can also cause a riboflavin deficiency. "The same principle is true for
other nutrients,'' he said. "Drugs and hormones may act as antagonists or enhancers,
and one should really look at nutrition not only from the standpoint of diet, but also
from the standpoint of metabolism.
"While there are many challenging problems that lie ahead in nutrition, we are very
much concerned with the fact that marginal deficiencies due to drugs or hormones may
be a very common problem. We are actively pursuing these problems, and I think this is
the type of thing that one will be hearing much more about in future years."
Guarding against Hidden Hunger
Subclinical malnutrition is a complex problem and one whose seriousness is only now
being fully recognized. Although the answers aren't all in, health professionals do
recommend various steps you can take to make sure you don't have hidden hunger.
Arnold Schaefer, Ph.D., executive director of the Swanson Center for Nutrition in
Omaha, Nebraska, says that drug-induced vitamin and mineral deficiencies can be
avoided if you take high-potency nutritional supplements.
Frank Beaudet points out that, since our taste perception decreases with age, many
older people do not eat properly be-

cause their food seems relatively tasteless. "We should increase the amount of seasoning
in our food as we grow older," says Beaudet. "That means using more of such green
herbs as basil and tarragon and using more garlic or onion for a more flavorful diet.
"The best recommendation 1 can make for older people is to try to eat a diet with foods
as high in nutrient density as possible." Beaudet says, "That means foods with high
nutrition per calorie. Foods with low nutrient density, like pastry, should be avoided.
"Older people are regularly under emotional and physical stresses, and proper nutrition
can cushion the effects of those stresses. No older person should have to suffer from the
effects of subclinical malnutrition."
CHAPTER
NUTRIENTS FOR THE CRITICAL YEARS
We all know there are often health problems and pain involved in aging. We know that
drugs can relieve pain and sometimes correct the causes of it. But drugs very seldom act
on the body in one single, beneficial way. There is generally a mixed bag of effects, and
the bag gets larger the more drugs you take.
The really disturbing thing about this situation is that the medications the elderly take
can often deplete nutritional stores that are already dangerously low. A host of
prescription and nonprescription drugs, everything from aspirin to glucocorticoids, have
been shown to rob the body of essential nutrients. Many of those drugs are routinely
taken by older people for years, to counter the effects of chronic illnesses.
At the same time, as people get older, their bodies change. They make changes in the
way they live, including their meal patterns. Often the result is a system denied the
nutrients it needs to handle the stresses of old age, including the stress of increased
medication.
Large segments of the elderly population of the United States are suffering from
multiple nutritional deficiencies. A survey of
older Missouri residents found that half of the women and one-fifth of the men were
getting less than 67 percent of the Recommended Dietary Allowance for one or more
nutrients (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).
A government survey of low-income districts in ten states discovered that at least half of
the elderly women and a third of the elderly men were getting inadequate amounts of
niacin in their diets. Thirty percent of the elderly people in that survey had unacceptably
low levels of protein in their blood.
Nearly all of the subjects of a survey of older people in Montgomery County, Virginia,
reported that they took in less than the recommended allowance for vitamin 65
(Nutrition Reports International).
Drugs That Destroy Vitamins
And the elderly are the people who consume more prescription drugs than any other
group in the country. People 65 or over, although just one-tenth of the U.S. population,
consume nearly a quarter of all drugs prescribed. The average elderly American takes 13
different drugs in the course of a single year. That means that the people nutritionally
least equipped to cope with the stress of medication receive the most of it.
For example, there is evidence that barbiturates, prescribed as tranquilizers and

sleeping aids, may lower the amount of calcium in the blood by disrupting the
metabolism of vitamin D. Vitamin D is necessary for the proper absorption and
utilization of calcium. Phenobarbital, a barbiturate that in high doses is used to prevent
epileptic seizures, has been linked to altered vitamin D metabolism and resulting cases
of osteomalacia, a softening of the bone caused by a lack of calcium.
In other research, scientists have found that barbiturates increase the excretion of
vitamin C from the body, as well.
Glucocorticoids—the family of anti-inflammatory drugs used to relieve the symptoms of

arthritis—can also play havoc with the body's nutritional balance. Glucocorticoid
treatment can cause
NUTRIENTS FOR THE CRITICAL YEARS 35
a form of osteoporosis, a classic deficiency disease in which bone density drops as a

result of a lack of calcium. Children receiving long-term glucocorticoid therapy for
kidney disease have been shown to have low blood levels of the most active metabolic
product of vitamin D (Lancet). Scientists believe the action of the glucocortocoids
against vitamin D produces low levels of calcium in the blood, which, in turn, can cause
bone-weakening osteoporosis. Treatment with the same drugs may also lead to
potassium deficiency and can have a similar effect on vitamin C levels.
Older people receiving treatment for heart ailments are up against an array of drugs
which can undermine their nutritional defenses.
Digitalis, for example, can increase the body's requirements for thiamine. Hydralazine, a
drug used to treat hypertension, can cause vitamin Bf, deficiency.
Diuretics administered to counter high blood pressure can flush enough potassium out
of the system to cause a deficiency. The diuretic triamterene works without depleting the
body's potassium, but, unfortunately, it interferes with the utilization of folate (folic
acid), an essential member of the B vitamin group. Like other diuretics, it can also
produce excessive excretion of calcium.
The Problem with Mineral Oil
Nutritional problems may crop up even in the course of treatment of minor ailments like
headaches and constipation. Mineral oil and phenolphthalein, used as laxatives, can
block normal absorption in the digestive tract. Mineral oil dissolves the naturally
occurring source of vitamin A, carotene, and it slips untouched through the stomach and
intestine. Mineral oil interferes with the absorption of all the fat-soluble vitamins—A, D,
E and K—and chronic use, the kind that older people with chronic constipation would
practice, may cause deficiencies in all those vitamins.
Headache relief can be just as costly in nutritional terms. Aspirin depletes body tissues
of vitamin C; even a small dose can cause the excretion of C from the body to increase
threefold. Aspirin also disrupts the body's utilization of folate.
The more you look at this situation, the more you are struck by the way the problem acts
to make itself worse. You keep finding vicious circles in which problems turn back in on
themselves or pile up on top of each other in ways that can be very discouraging.
For instance, several drugs, including barbiturates, glucocorticoids and aspirin, act to
deplete vitamin C. Vitamin C, in turn, is important for the proper metabolism of drugs
in the body. If drugs are not metabolized at the correct rate, their effects can be
prolonged or their possible toxic side effects increased. And so you have one drug side
effect, the depletion of vitamin C, making the dangers of other side effects even worse.
That puts older people, who are often being treated for a number of conditions at once,
in a scary position. "Multiple pathology often leads to multiple pharmacy with the
increased risk of interactions between drugs and increased toxicity of drugs due to a
decreased ability to metabolize them," John Dickerson, Ph.D., professor of nutrition at
England's University of Surrey, warned (Royal Society of Health Journal).
"Superimposed on this is the fact that illness in the elderly predisposes them to
nutritional deficiencies which may be induced by the drugs and also further exacerbate
their toxicity."
It's no wonder the number of adverse drug reactions skyrockets with age: The frequency
in people age 70 to 79 is seven times that in people age 20 to 29.
Vicious Cycles
Similar vicious cycles are at work in other aspects of the ciderly's nutritional problems.
Folate deficiency, for example, is common in older people. One study found that 40
percent of

elderly subjects had low levels of folate in their blood. A team of scientists led by
Herman Baker, Ph.D., of the New Jersey Medical School school of nutrition, showed
that older people absorb much less folate from natural sources than younger people
(Journal of the American Geriatrics Society). Dr. Baker suggested that the resulting
folate deficiency may make the problem even worse by hindering the secretion of an
enzyme crucial to the proper breakdown of folate from food.
A vicious cycle is thus begun, according to Dr. Baker. "Aging leads to small-bowel
enzyme impairment, which in turn leads to less folate utilization from food, and this
intensifies folate depletion.'' The result: "Because of an inability to utilize food folates,
deficiency becomes, if not inevitable, at least common in the elderly."
Life style can also affect nutritional status, particularly in your later years.
In a journal article, Dr. Masud Anwar, consultant physician in geriatric medicine at a

hospital in England, described a case history of vitamin D deficiency he had observed
(Journal of the American Geriatrics Society). An 80-year-old woman was admitted to
the hospital with a history of arthritis that had plagued her for several years. She
suffered from swelling of the legs and feet, to the point that she was unable to walk
properly, and was chronically depressed. Since she was unable to stand long enough to
do any cooking, she lived off canned food, and because of her depression, she often
skipped meals altogether.
X rays revealed skeletal structure with low mineral content, and it was apparent from
questioning that the woman was getting almost no vitamin D in her diet. She never ate
liver, kidney, fish or eggs. She seldom got outside and thus received little vitamin D from
natural exposure to sunlight.
The doctors prescribed vitamin D and calcium supplements, and within six months her
condition improved markedly. Her bone pains disappeared and she was able to get
about on her own, even without the aid of a cane. She became fully independent, able to
cook nutritious meals for herself and do her own
housework, and she took pride in her independence. Her depression disappeared
without any action by the doctors. Physical well-being was obviously the best therapy
possible.
"This patient believed that the pain in her thighs was caused by arthritis of the hips."
according to Dr. Anwar, "which she considered was due to aging. She did not want to
trouble her own doctor. She was afraid to go out, because of inability to walk and lack of
confidence, thus depriving herself of exposure to sunlight. Loneliness made her
depressed and she lost interest in eating. Thus loneliness, depression and poor eating
habits became a vicious cycle which was broken only by admission to the hospital."
The object of the game is to break out of this cycle before you end up in the hospital. It
has been estimated that eight million elderly Americans suffer from malnutrition. They
are struggling with problems caused by drugs, problems caused by life style, problems
caused by changes in the way their bodies work. The sense of taste declines with age, so
you want to eat less. The efficiency of digestion declines, so you absorb less of what you
eat and need to take in more than a younger person to get the same nutritional benefits.
Modern Diets Are "Diluted"
The peculiarities of the modern diet are no help to older people struggling with all this.
Ruth B. Weg, Ph.D., of the Andrus Gerontology Center at the University of Southern
California, believes the "dilution" of nutrition in the modern diet poses particular
problems for the elderly. In her book. Nutrition and the Later Years (USC Press, 1978),
she writes, "With the refining and processing of more and more foods, the character of
nutrient intake has changed: usually with more sodium than needed, and less
potassium, zinc, selenium, chromium, silicon and nickel. Too many extra calorics
(usually through the addition of sugar and fats) dilute the diet, particularly in relation to
minerals and vitamins."
This may have something to do with the fact that, while older people are generally
judged to take in fewer calories than the recommended allowance, they are often
plagued with obesity. One study found more than 40 percent of its aged subjects to be
overweight. The elderly use inefficient digestive systems to consume inefficient fuel.
"Empty calories" are especially dangerous for people who must make the most of
everything they eat to stay in decent condition. "Older persons require food intake with
higher concentration of micronutrients per calorie than younger individuals," Dr. Weg
concludes. "This is especially true as the caloric intake decreases."
So the way out of the malnutrition syndrome is clear. Consume enough calories, but
make sure they are nutrient-rich calories. That means the kind of diet that includes fresh
fruit, vegetables and low-fat protein like chicken and fish—and an "insurance plan" of
supplemental vitamins and minerals to fill in any gaps.
CHAPTER
BEATING THE VITAMIN BANDITS
Frank is a middle-aged investment banker, a man whose job is to help people protect
their savings against all the things that deplete them in complicated, secret ways. He's
very good at what he does, and proud of it. He also is concerned about his health
because lately it hasn't been the greatest.
Today he gets up exactly at seven, dresses nattily and goes downstairs for breakfast,
ready to conquer inflation. If he only knew the number of ways his health is going to be
robbed today. . . . Well, he might even crawl back into bed.
He pours himself a big, cold glass of orange juice to make sure he takes enough vitamin
C. A panel on the carton assures him he's getting plenty. But what it doesn't say is that as
much as 40 percent of that vitamin C may be in a form that is of no use at all to his body.
Unfortunately, Frank didn't read the study that showed fresh-squeezed orange juice
provides up to twice as much hioloi^'ically active vitamin C as pasteurized, carton juice
—though total vitamin C levels in the two juices may be the very same (Journal of the
American Medical Association).
BEATING THE VITAMIN BANDITS 41
Frank has been robbed even before he has opened his mouth.
Next, he pops a sHce of whole wheat bread in the toaster, for protein and B vitamins. He
doesn't know some of the B vitamins are destroyed by heat and that toasting steals
thiamine (vitamin Bi)—the darker the toast, the more you lose—as well as making
certain amino acids unavailable to the body. (Actually, 15 to 30 percent of the thiamine
originally present in bread dough has been destroyed already by baking.)
Frank's been trying to beat the coffee habit (with middling success), so he pours himself
a cup of steaming black tea. It charges his blood—but it also makes off with still more
thiamine and iron.
Tannin—the stuff that gives tea its astringent, puckery taste— is believed to be the
bandit that steals thiamine. In one study, a thiamine solution was mixed with black tea
and allowed to stand for 90 minutes at 86°F. It was discovered that 22 percent of the
thiamine was either destroyed or inactivated (Food Chemistry, vol. 6, no. 2, 1980-1981).
A report in the New England Journal of Medicine (January 4, 1979) suggested that,
because of its ability to inhibit the body's absorption of iron, tea might be used to help
treat certain anemias in which iron overload is the main cause of death.
Poor Frank! He's so proud of himself for drinking orange juice, eating whole wheat toast
and avoiding coffee that he treats himself to a sugar-covered doughnut. Bad move, fella.
Refined carbohydrates such as white sugar and flour have most of the B vitamins wrung
out of them during the milling process. But because thiamine and others in the B
complex are needed to make an enzyme used in the burning of carbohydrates, these
vitamins have to be stolen from the liver or other storage places to properly metabolize
Frank's doughnut. His little reward is not only deficient in the B complex, it's actually a
B-complex thief! (Whole, natural carbohydrates come equipped with their own B
vitamin supply, so they don't pilfer the body's store.)
Frank is quite pleased with himself as he strides briskly off

into his day. The only trouble is he's got confectioner's sugar on his chin—and a small
army of vitamin bandits are already plundering the breakfast in his stomach.
Chemicals That Steal Vitamins
Vitamin antagonists, as they are officially known, are the James Gang of the nutritional
world. In one way or another, they either destroy vitamins directly or alter them in a way
that makes them useless to your health.
An antagonist may interfere with the conversion of a vitamin to its active, or coenzyme,
form—often because the antagonist is so closely related to the vitamin itself. The
antagonist may enhance the development of enzymes that destroy certain vitamins. It
may cause excessive elimination of nutrients or impair your body's ability to absorb
them.
In fact, there are so many different ways your body can be burglarized that it's foolish to
think you're actually making use of everything those tidy little nutritional charts
promise.
'Tf we grew all our own vegetables like people did in grandpa's day, we might not have as
many problems using all the vitamins we get," says H. Curtis Wood, Jr., M.D., a
nutrition-oriented Philadelphia doctor who is the author of Overfed but
Undernourished(Expo^'iUon Press, 1959). "But today, there are more than 3,000
chemicals used in the commercial foods we eat. And in one way or another, many of
them can be antagonists."
Insecticide residues and pollutants in the air and water also can raid our vitamin stores.
Dr. Wood told us. Even vitamins can sometimes act as antagonists to other vitamins.
Large amounts of a single B vitamin actually may increase your need for others in the B
complex. Dr. Wood said, so it's best to take the Bs all together.
Life's circumstances also can become antagonists—stress, advanced age, disease,

pregnancy, increased physical activity
or even lack of sleep all can destroy vitamins at a stepped-up pace.
"Everyone has individualized nutritional needs," Dr. Wood points out. "But a single
person may also vary rather widely in his requirements from day to day. depending on
stress, exercise, diet and so on. There are so many things that can act as antagonists, it's
just unrealistic to think the RDAs [Recommended Dietary Allowances] will give you all
the nutrients you need."
Among the most widespread bandits, he says, are drugs.

Drugs Disrupt Your Body's Nutritional Balance
That powerful drugs often cause powerful side effects, altering our metabolism of
nutrients in complicated ways, isn't really too surprising. But even "harmless" drugs can
take their toll.
"Among the drugs shown to cause tissue depletion of ascorbic acid [vitamin C], aspirin
is the most important," writes Daphne A. Roe, M.D., in her book Drug-Induced
Nutritional Deficiencies (AVI Publishing, 1976). Dr. Roe goes on to point out that
diuretics can cause a loss of calcium, meignesium and zinc and that mineral oil,
sometimes used as a laxative, may cause deficiencies of vitamins A, D and K.
Some drugs act as antagonists by interfering with the absorption of nutrients through
the digestive system. They may actually change the microscopic structure of the villi, or
tiny, finger-shaped ridges that line the small intestine. That, in turn, may destroy the
enzymes the villi normally produce to break down and absorb nutrients.
The antibiotic neomycin, for example, was shown to cause structural changes in the
intestinal villi of people within six hours after it was administered. Neomycin, as a
result, interferes with
absorption of potassium, calcium, vitamin B12, iron and other substances.
Other drugs, such as certain laxatives and cathartics, greatly speed up the intestinal
transit time, causing nutrients to pass through the intestines too rapidly to be absorbed
fully.
And some drugs rob your body by binding with nutrients to form a new substance that
the body cannot use. For example, a common antacid, aluminum hydroxide, binds with
phosphates in the intestines, causing the phosphates to be passed—unused— out of the
body. Phosphate depletion, linked with long-term use of these antacids, can be
dangerous because it interferes with proper bone formation.
Oral contraceptives, currently used by an estimated 10 to 18 million American women,

are among the most nutritionally disruptive drugs. In a review of the medical literature,
James L. Webb, Ph.D., reported that contraceptive steroids have been shown to lower
the levels of six nutrients in the body: vitamins Bfi, B|2 and C, riboflavin (82), folate
(folic acid) and zinc {Journal of Reproductive Medicine, October, 1980).
Dr. Webb concludes that "females consuming oral contraceptive agents should pay
particular attention to vitamin and mineral intake and, if warranted, consume . . .
supplements of needed nutrients.''
To which Dr. Wood adds a word of general advice: "Doctors are so drug oriented it's
unbelievable, but the best thing is to take as few drugs as you possibly can. I'd rather
people tried nutritional means [of healing themselves]—calcium or tryptophan instead
of sleeping pills, for example. That's the safest way to avoid the nutritional antagonists
in drugs."
Smoking and Drinking: A Deadly Duo
You may be careful about avoiding unnecessary drugs, but if you smoke or drink, you
are flirting with two of the best-known
vitamin antagonists around. In fact, after a two-year study of alcoholic prisoners in

California, Jery Meduski, M.D., Ph.D., summed up alcoholism in three scary little
words: basic nutritional disaster.
The trouble with alcohol (besides the obvious) is that it provides only "naked" calories,
completely bare of nutritional value. And though it's not a nutrient, alcohol is
metabolized or processed in the body the same way nutrients are and can interfere with
the body's absorption of food.
For example, it has been known for the past 20 years that alcoholism and its offshoot,
cirrhosis of the liver, usually are accompanied by zinc deficiencies, though exactly how
booze flushes zinc out of the system is not understood. ("Zinc before you drink" is the
warning in some circles.)
But zinc isn't the only nutrient drinking destroys. Alcoholics also often show deficiencies
of thiamine, folate, vitamins Bf,, B12, C, A and D, and calcium, iron and magnesium.
"Basic nutritional disaster" is no exaggeration!
But there may be vitamin destroyers awaiting even those who are not long-term heavy
drinkers. A researcher at Ohio State University reports that six or seven drinks a day for
as little as two weeks can throw the digestive system into reverse, causing the small
intestine to begin secreting fluids that flush food from the body before it's used.
Hagop S. Mekhjian, M.D., found that folate supplements could partly correct these
alcohol-induced changes—and quitting drinking stopped them completely (Science
News, March 10, 1979).
To add insult to insult, it appears that heavy drinkers are very often heavy smokers, with
one researcher even suggesting that "heavy cigarette smoking constitutes part of the
syndrome of alcohol addiction." In addition to the nutritional devastation of alcohol,
some researchers warn us, smoking drains your body of vitamin C to the tune of 25
milligrams per cigarette, according to some estimates.
There are hopeful signs, however. Over the past several years, a group of Pennsylvania
researchers has been examining natural

substances that can block a toxic chemical called acetaldehyde, which occurs in cigarette
smoke and is produced in the body when alcohol is consumed.
Herbert Sprince. Ph.D., chief of research biochemistry at the Veterans Administration

Medical Center in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, and his associates describe how they gave
rats lethal doses of acetaldehyde after first administering large doses of certain
nutrients.
The results? A combination of vitamin C, thiamine and an amino acid called cysteine,
plentiful in nuts, eggs, soybeans and brewer's yeast, "gave virtually complete protection''
(Agents and Actions).
The researchers caution that these were animal, and not human, studies, but they go on
to add, ''Our findings point the way to a possible buildup of natural protection against
the chronic body insult of acetaldehyde arising from heavy drinking of alcohol and heavy
smoking of cigarettes."
Life, it seems, is full of "chronic body insults." And the vitamin bandits—hiding just out
of sight in a thousand forms— always stand ready to rob your system of the nutrients
you need to fight back. Watch your vitamin account!
CHAPTER
MEDICINES THAT CREATE MALNUTRITION
Headache, runny nose, sore throat—you're under the weather and decide to go ''over the
counter." But before you visit the shelves packed with fast-rehef formulas, stop and pick
up some vitamin A.
A recent scientific study shows that ingredients used in common over-the-counter

(OTC) pain, cold and allergy remedies lower blood vitamin A levels in animals.
And that could be bad news if the same holds true for humans. Vitamin A protects and
strengthens the mucous membranes lining the nose, throat and lungs. These
membranes shield you against infection. But without enough vitamin A, they can break
down, providing a cozy home for germs and bacteria. The very drugs that are supposed
to help you get rid of a cold may actually prolong it!
The researchers who conducted the study—Phyllis Acosta, Ph.D., a dietitian at Emory
University in Atlanta, and Philip Garry, Ph.D., a nutritionist at the University of New
Mexico in Albuqueruqe—fed rats four common ingredients used in OTC pain, cold and
allergy remedies from Allerest to Vanquish.
Dividing the animals into four groups, they fed each group a different ingredient. But
not all of the rats were fed the same
dose levels. Some were fed one-half, some normal and some two times the normal doses
suggested for children. After three weeks, the levels of vitamin A in all four of the groups
were tested.
All four ingredients at all dose levels caused a decrease in vitamin A in the blood.
Some of the decreases were over 40 percent, and the average decrease was almost 30
percent.
Dr. Acosta reported her study at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Federation of
American Societies for Experimental Biology. She told us that future research will show
if these four OTC drug ingredients decrease vitamin A levels in the blood of people, too.
But there's already plenty of other research that shows drugs can play nasty tricks on a
person's nutrients.
All of us take medicine at some time or another, and all of us know that medicine has
side effects. Antihistamines can make you drowsy. Aspirin can upset your stomach. But
what few people realize (and that includes doctors) is that a side effect of a wide array of
drugs is a nutritional deficiency.
That's right, a nutritional deficiency—even if your diet is carefully planned to give you
plenty of every vitamin and mineral.
Many drugs either stop the absorption of nutrients or interfere with the cells' ability to
use them. That means a drug can cause a nutritional deficiency "even when the diet is
adequate," says Daphne A. Roe, M.D., author of Drug-Induced Nutritional Deficiencies
(AVI Publishing, 1976).
How to protect yourself? Well, the first step is to find out which drugs rob the body of
nutrients and what these nutrients are. You already know that aspirin steals vitamin A.
But its thievery doesn't stop there.
Aspirin Axes Vitamin C
There's another nutritional reason for keeping aspirin way out of the reach of children—
and adults. A study has shown that
MEDICINES THAT CREATE MALNUTRITION 49
even a small dose of aspirin can triple the amount of vitamin C the body excretes
(Journal of Human Nutrition).
As you probably know, vitamin C is a powerful cold fighter, and researchers have
suggested that it be used to treat—and prevent—infections of all kinds. But vitamin C
does more than fight colds—a lot more.
If cells are the bricks that hold your body together, collagen is the mortar. But without
vitamin C to promote the formation of collagen, your body would be a shambles.
Vitamin C protects you against stress. It's essential to the health of the adrenal gland,
the organ which produces the hormones that keep you alert and full of energy.
Vitamin C aids the body in healing. It detoxifies poisons from food and air, such as lead
and cadmium. And it's essential for the metabolism of other nutrients: iron, calcium and
the vitamin B complex.
So think twice before you take two aspirin.
But sometimes pain can cloud better judgment and taking aspirin may seem like a good
idea. Aspirin for a headache. Aspirin for a backache. Or aspirin for aching joints—the
searing pain of arthritis or rheumatism. If you're taking aspirin to douse fiery joint pain,
take care. Aspirin depletes not only vitamin C, but folate (folic acid) as well. Researchers
have found that the routine use of aspirin can lead to a folate deficiency.
Folate is one of the vitamin B complex. Concentrated in the spinal fluid, it's a must for
calm nerves and clear thinking. In a study of 51 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, 71
percent had low levels of folate in their blood. All 71 percent were taking aspirin (Drug
Therapy).
The Pill: Preventing the Birth of Health
The Pill is a synthetic hormone. It's powerful: It convinces a woman's body that she's
pregnant. But the Pill is a reaper of
your body's nutrients. It attacks folate and vitamin C, B^ and B|2 levels within the body.
The evidence shows that the Pill is very bitter.
An editorial in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association reports that half of all
Pill users have low levels of vitamin 8,2 in their blood. That could be making these
women nervous. B,2—like all the vitamin B complex—helps maintain a well-functioning
nervous system.
Frequently, women on the Pill are depressed. Many researchers believe this symptom is
a result of vitamin B^ deficiency. In two studies, depression in Pill users cleared up after
they took B(, supplements. But B6 made these women happy in more ways than one.
Without B^, digestion of protein would go on the blink. A Bf, deficiency can also lower
your resistance to infection, and high levels of B(, help you cope better with stress.
In a study of Pill users and vitamin C, 63 women took the Pill for at least a year and 63
did not. During that time, both groups got the same amount of vitamin C in their diets.
But, at the end of the year, the average vitamin C levels in the white blood cells of the
women who took the Pill were much lower than the vitamin C levels in the women who
did not {American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).
Fighting Side Effects
But all scientific research on drugs and nutrition isn't aimed at finding out which
nutrients a drug destroys. A recent study shows that vitamin E can stop the destructive
side effects of a drug.
The drug is Adriamycin, an antibiotic. It's also the most commonly used anti-cancer
drug, capable of treating at least ten forms of cancer. Trouble is, it can have a
devastating side effect: the gradual destruction of the heart muscle.
But a team of scientists at the National Cancer Institute drew up a model of how the
drug might damage the heart and theorized that vitamin E could shield the muscle.
MEDICINES THAT CREATE MALNUTRITION 51
To test their theory, they gave two groups of mice huge injections of the drug. One
group, however, received vitamin E before the injection (Science). In the group on
Adriamycin alone, 85 percent of the mice died within a month. But in the vitamin E
group, only 15 percent died.
In a longer study, mice were given Adriamycin once a week for five weeks. Every mouse
died. But in a group of mice who got vitamin E along with their weekly Adriamycin, only
60 percent died.
William McGuire, M.D., author of the study, told us that more research is needed before
vitamin E can be given to cancer patients on Adriamycin.
But research already shows that vitamin C may protect people—particularly older people
—against the toxic effects of drugs.
A group of ten older people who were deficient in vitamin C were metabolizing the
painkiller antipyrine very slowly. When eight of these people were given supplements of
vitamin C for two weeks, their metabolism of the drug sped up.
"It seems clear that a vitamin C deficiency in man causes a small but demonstrable
impairment in drug metabolism that can be reversed by correction of the deficiency,"
writes the study's author in the British Medical Journal.
And another study warns, "Ascorbic acid [vitamin C] deficiency may contribute to the
adverse drug reactions found in the elderly" (Journal of Human Nutrition).
Taking extra vitamin C may be one way to guard your body against the side effects of
drugs in general. But that leaves the problem of nutritional deficiency. Which, of course,
can be remedied.
"A drug-induced nutrient deficiency can be corrected only by giving large enough doses
of the deficient nutrient to compensate for the loss caused by the drug," writes Dr. Roe.
But, she continues, "Nutritional side effects are preventable. Most of them occur because
physicians are unaware they exist." But you aren't.
CHAPTER
NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS DIETERS NEED
At some time in life, just about everybody decides to go on a diet. Young or old, men or
women, there comes a point when we aspire to be slimmer or trimmer—if not for life,
then at least for a special occasion. The goal may be to lose 5 pounds or 50 pounds, to
look better or simply feel better. But always we begin in the same way: by eating less.
Depending on how you go about it, dieting can be either a health-building or a health-
destroying process. The important thing to remember is that, while cutting back on your
total food intake, you must still be sure to include all the essential protein, vitamins,
minerals and other nutrients your body needs to maintain well-being. Wise food
selection is imperative, but dietary supplements can also help bridge the gap and
provide nutritional insurance.
High-Protein Diets Deficient in Vitamins
Dieting extremes can lead to serious nutrient deficiencies and health problems. In a
study conducted by Bonnie S. Wor-
SUPPLEMENTS DIETERS NEED 53
thington, Ph.D., and Lynda E. Taylor while at the University of Washington, 20

overweight women, age 19 to 53, were placed on one of two popular reducing diets. Ten
followed the so-called quick-weight-loss diet—a high-protein, low-carbohydrate
regimen. The other women were served a more balanced diet. Each group was receiving
less than 1,200 calories a day.
As the researchers reported in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, both
diets were deficient in certain important nutrients. The first diet, which relied almost
exclusively on lean meats, fish, eggs and cottage cheese, failed to supply enough vitamin
A, vitamin C, calcium and iron. Vitamin A intake (2,655 international units) was only
about half of the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA). The vitamin C content of the
diet was a paltry 11 milligrams.
The calcium intake of 308 milligrams fell far short of the RDA of 800 milligrams. Iron
intake was only 14 milligrams, yet most of the women needed 18 milligrams daily.
The authors concluded, 'Tt is clear that individuals using such a dietary plan should
supplement their food intake with appropriate sources of vitamin A, ascorbic acid
[vitamin C], iron and calcium."
Even the more balanced reducing diet followed by the other ten women failed to supply
enough calcium (only 570 milligrams) or iron (10.9 milligrams). And the supply of
important B vitamins—thiamine, riboflavin and niacin—was really only marginally
adequate.
There were other problems. ''Mild dizziness, headaches and nausea were experienced by
four subjects on the high-protein diet and by only one on the balanced low-calorie
regimen," the authors noted.
One serious drawback of the high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet that might account for
the above symptoms is that it actually forces the body to break down its own protein
stores in a frantic effort to keep up levels of glucose, or sugar, circulating in the
bloodstream. Especially when combined with moderate alcohol intake, such a diet can
lead to hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, with accompanying dizziness and fatigue.
But any low-calorie diet can cause problems, particularly
when it dips below the 1,200 calorie per day level. At that point, you're just not taking in
enough food to guarantee an adequate supply of all the nutrients your body needs.
The sensible and safe way to diet is to cut back moderately on your food intake while
making every effort to make every calorie count.
One way to do that is to rely on lean meats like chicken, turkey and veal, fish, lots of
salads, cooked vegetables, cottage cheese and fresh fruit.
If you're including eggs, you might want to eat only the whites. That way you'll be getting
high-quality protein but with fewer calories or fat. The yolk of one extra-large egg
contains 66 calories and 5.8 grams of fat. But the white of the same egg contains only 19
calories and a mere trace of fat.
Following such a sensible slimming diet, you'll be getting adequate protein from the
meat and eggs as well as necessary carbohydrates from the fruit and cooked vegetables.
The fruit and vegetables will also supply good levels of potassium and vitamin A. For
example, 3'/: ounces of romaine lettuce contain only 18 calories but provide nearly
2,000 international units of vitamin A and 264 milligrams of potassium. All those
greens will also keep you supplied with much of the folate (folic acid) you'll need.
Vitamin C will be provided by the fruits and fresh vegetables, at least at high enough
levels to prevent scurvy and meet the RDA. But for larger amounts—200 or 300
milligrams, for instance—you'll have to rely on supplements.
Getting enough of certain other nutrients with such a diet could be even more of a
problem, however. For some, you'll definitely need to turn to supplements.
Vitamins for Dieters
If your reducing diet tends to down-play cereals, rice, bread and other baked goods,
obtaining adequate amounts of thiamine, niacin, riboflavin and vitamin Bf, could be a
problem. Normally,
SUPPLEMENTS DIETERS NEED 55
a super food like wheat germ could help out in this department. Wheat germ is a richly
concentrated source of B vitamins and other important nutrients. But wheat germ is also
relatively high in calories (although those calories are far from empty), more than 360
calories per 3'/2-ounce serving. So many dieters may not want to eat much wheat germ.
A B-complex supplement seems like the best bet here, especially when you consider that
minor nervous aggravation and irritability too often crop up to plague people while they
are dieting. The B vitamins, especially thiamine, are important in maintaining sound
nerves and good morale.
To sum up, it is possible to successfully take off unwanted pounds with a sensible dieting
plan. But the challenge of selecting a balanced and nutritious diet—a challenge we all
face every day even when we're not dieting—is even greater when you start cutting
calories. You still need the same amounts of nutrients you always did, but you have to
obtain them from less food. Careful food selection can help up to a point, but daily
supplementation with key nutrients is the best protection.
CHAPTER
VITAMINS BEFORE AND AFTER SURGERY
Sooner or later, say the statistics, it's almost inevitable that your doctor will suggest for
you a surgical solution for some problem. At least 25 million operations are performed
on Americans each year, so odds are pretty good that, in the long run, one of those
procedures will involve you.
It may be as relatively routine as the removal of wisdom teeth, plantar warts or a

gallbladder. Or it could be much more involved and, as surgeons would say, traumatic.
Open-heart surgery comes immediately to mind.
In any event, after you've sought a second opinion—and it's confirmed the first—take
care that your very normal anxiety doesn't ambush your healthy life style!
The best thing you can do for yourself prior to going into the hospital is beef up your
body's nutritional front lines so you'll be on the fast track of the road to recovery.
Fortunately, the majority of us are more than halfway there.
"Most patients have to do nothing special," explains James L. Mullen, M.D., of the
hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. "Good nutrition—meat, vegetables, fruits—is
impor-
VITAMINS BEFORE AND AFTER SURGERY 57
tant," he says. "Stabilize your weight—lose some if you're too heavy. Keep your muscles
active and strong. Don't smoke."
George Blackburn, M.D., Ph.D., at the New England Deaconess Hospital of the Harvard
medical school, heartily concurs and stresses the importance of both physical fitness and
diet.
Give Your Body the Nutrients It Needs
"Our bodies have evolved to hold a supply of calories and micronutrients in reserve,"
explains Dr. Blackburn. "And long before special diets, the body drew on its stored
nutrients to heal itself."
Understanding the healing process helps ensure you'll have your "shelves" stocked with
the proper supplies, should the need ever arise.
"When the body is injured, it sets off an alarm system of stress-related chemicals," Dr.
Blackburn continues. "In turn, the white corpuscles react to create a fever. If you want to
speed up frying an egg, you turn up the heat, right? In much the same manner, fever
makes enzymatic processes associated with healing work faster. At the wound site, a clot
is created to seal off the open blood vessels, and from it comes collagen, the wound-
healing tissue."
The protein to make collagen is derived from several sources. Diet is one, but the body
can draw on other connective tissues, as well as muscle, if need be. Of course, breaking
down one area to rebuild another leaves a net imbalance. Normally, that is corrected
during the "get well" stage.
The other point worthy of mention is that healing takes extra energy, which is usually
available in the body's "warehouse" of stored sugars.
So far, so good—you are what you eat, and you arc going to heal well.

But if you're a victim of nutritional deficiencies of various kinds, you could be heading
for trouble.
"Recent surveys have demonstrated an alarming incidence of malnutrition in hospital

patients. Numerous studies have demonstrated a positive correlation between
abnormalities in various objective measures of nutritional status and increased
operative morbidity and mortality in surgical patients/' writes Dr. Mullen {Annals of
Surgery, November, 1980).
Vitamins Critical to Healing
Of the vitamins, C plays the best-understood role, for it is critical to the formation of
collagen and also helps the body resist infection.
"There is no convincing evidence that wound healing is accelerated by administration of

vitamin C when tissue levels of it are normal," says Sheldon Pollack, M.D., chief of
dermato-logic surgery of the Duke Unversity School of Medicine. "However, seriously ill
or injured patients may develop ascorbic acid [vitamin C] deficiency rapidly because
ascorbic acid is not stored in appreciable amounts" {Journal of Dermatologic Surgery
and Oncology, August, 1979).
Dr. Pollack also mentions vitamin A as important for collagen formation and strength. It
also exerts a suppressive action on certain infections.
Vitamin E deficiency results in abnormally fast blood platelet aggregation. Such

clumping of cells has been implicated in thrombosis (clot formation), a problem that
sometimes arises after surgery, according to Peter Thurlow, M.D., and John Grant,
M.D., of the department of surgery at the Duke University medical center {Surgical
Forum, vol. 31, 1980).
And it goes without saying that, while there are certain nutrients that play key roles, all
vitamins are doubly important when you're facing the extra stress of surgery—so
exercise and eat doubly well.
Not only can such measures help deliver a complication-
VITAMINS BEFORE AND AFTER SURGERY 59
free convalescence, they can give you the strength necessary to handle some of the
toughest hospital procedures.
Nutrition Promotes Turnabout
Dwight Harken, M.D., of the Harvard medical school, reports that some malnourished
cardiac patients progressively worsened after surgery. ''The analogy to 'running out of
gas' may be appropriate—they are patients who behave as if they are running out of
energy reserves" (Geriatrics).
Augmenting their nutrition built up protein and muscle, and brought about a
"conspicuous improvement" in their appearance, attitude and ability to withstand stress
—including major heart surgery.
For cancer patients, having a proper supply of nutritional weapons helps in the fight
against that disease and reduces surgical complications.
"Nutritionally replenished patients better tolerate chemotherapy and may have a better
chemotherapy response rate," reported Edward Copeland, M.D., and his co-workers at
the University of Texas medical school (Cancer, May, 1979).
Clearly then, eating right is your best medicine before going into the hospital.
And afterwards, good nutrition is healing insurance and infection protection.
CHAPTER
IF YOU MUST SMOKE, AT LEAST TAKE THESE VITAMINS
No one really knows what it is in a cigarette that causes disease. But that cigarette
smoking does cause disease is a well-estabhshed scientific fact. In the 70s, the World
Health Organization Expert Committee on Smoking and Its Effects on Health met to
reconsider the evidence linking cigarette smoking with ill health.
Their verdict?
"Evidence from many countries implicates tobacco smoking as an important causative

factor in lung cancer, chronic bronchitis and emphysema, ischemic heart disease, and
obstructive peripheral vascular disease, it also shows that smoking plays a part in the
causation of cancer of the tongue, larynx, esophagus, pancreas, and bladder; abortion,
still-birth, and neonatal death, and gastroduodenal ulcer"" (WHO Chronicle).
If you smoke, you probably know these facts and want to stop. But you"re caught
between ad campaigns telling you to come "alive with pleasure"" and scare-tactic
statistics proving that it"s more likely that you"ll be dead with cancer; caught between a
will that wants to say "no"" and a nicotine need that is screaming "yes""; caught between
tonight's solemn vows and
SMOKERS, TAKE THESE VITAMINS 61
tomorrow morning's humiliating search for butts—well, you're caught in the jaws of an
addiction that is chewing up your life piece by piece.
"Three out of four smokers either wish to or have tried to stop smoking, yet only about
one in four ever succeeds in becoming a permanent ex-smoker. Thus most people smoke
not because they wish to, but because they cannot easily stop." That is the sad
pronouncement of M. A. H. Russell of the addiction research unit, institute of
psychiatry, Maudsley Hospital, London (Lancet).
Is it also your eulogy?
Maybe. But you can do more than start praying for yourself, and you can do it with the
right vitamins.
Keeping Your Arteries Clean with Vitamin E
One disease which may be caused or complicated by cigarette smoking is atherosclerosis

—a narrowing or blockage within the arteries. And the arteries of the heart, tiny pipes
thin as the lead in a pencil, are easily rusted shut by atherosclerosis. So it's no wonder
that smokers have a habit of having heart attacks.
And it's the nicotine in cigarette smoke that does the dirty work. For nicotine speeds up
a bodily mechanism—platelet aggregation—which may trigger the formation of a nasty
blood clot called a thrombus.
An article in the New York State Journal of Medicine, exploring previous research in
Circulation magazine, discusses the link between cigarette smoking, platelet aggregation
and arterial disease.
"After smoking a single cigarette, patients demonstrated a marked increase in platelet

aggregation, compared to no significant effect after smoking a lettuce leaf filled
cigarette. This increase in platelet function could be observed as early as 10 minutes
after smoking."
The article concludes, "The data presented a suggestive possible direct causative
association between cigarette smoking and arterial thrombotic disease/'
But if nicotine is an arterial killer, it just might have met its match in vitamin E.
Two researchers, Manfred Steiner,-M.D., Ph.D., and his assistant, John Anastasi, found
that vitamin E decreases platelet aggregation: the exact opposite of cigarette smoking's
effect on platelets.
In his study. Dr. Steiner collected blood samples from several normal, healthy
volunteers. He then mixed a test-tube brew: the blood samples, various chemical agents
known to trigger rapid platelet aggregation—and vitamin E.
The results?
The more vitamin E that was added to the blood samples, the greater was the reduction
in platelet aggregation.
Then Dr. Steiner focused his attention on the "test tube" of the human body. Five
healthy men and women were given 1,200 to 2,400 international units of vitamin E with
their meals. And again, the more vitamin E given, the less the platelets stuck together.
At the level of 1,800 international units, platelet aggregation was cut down by about
half. Yet, at 1,800 international units, the platelets also stopped absorbing vitamin E—
no more reduction in aggregation took place even when larger doses of the vitamin were
given. It was as if a natural mechanism made sure that enough platelet stickiness
remained to avert any dangerous hemorrhaging (Journal oj Clinical Investigation).
So if you must smoke, it's wise to protect your arteries. And vitamin E seems to be just
the protection you need.
Vitamin C Is Highly Protective
But nicotine isn't the only villain in this medical melodrama. Carbon monoxide—or, in
its chemical abbreviation, CO—the gas of garage-suicide fame, plays a star role in the
harassment of your heart, and its effect on hemoglobin is what puts it under the
spotlight.
Hemoglobin is the beast of burden for oxygen in the blood, hauHng that life-giving gas
to every cell in the body. But hemoglobin actually takes a fancy to the deadly CO. The
affinity of hemoglobin for CO is 200 times greater than that for oxygen. So when carbon
monoxide is sucked into the circulation during smoking, it chases a lot of oxygen out of
the bloodstream.
If you're a smoker, you know the result of this mix-up: shortness of breath, an inability
to perform strenuous exercise— perhaps even to climb stairs—without gasping. Day
after day, month after month, year after year, you're poisoning yourself with CO.
Is there any antidote?
Yes—vitamin C.
"Very little medical research has been done for finding a simple means of increasing the
resistance of the human organism to the irritating, toxic, and carcinogenic constituents
of cigarette smoke and detoxicating these constituents in vivo lin the body]. This
physiological approach to the smoking problem has been virtually completely
neglected."
These are the words of Irwin Stone, D.Sc, a biochemist and author of The Healing
Factor: "Vitamin C" against Disease (Grosset and Dunlap, 1972), who has devoted much
of his life's work to the study and research of vitamin C. It was Dr. Stone who first
suggested to Linus Pauling that he begin taking vitamin C, a suggestion that eventually
led Pauling to champion vitamin C as a simple and effective means of preventing the
common cold. Dr. Stone, writing in The Journal of Orthomolecular Psychiatry, suggests
that vitamin C can help shield your body against the lethal onslaught of cigarette
poisons.
Cleaning Up Tobacco's Act
Dr. Stone explains that, in laboratory tests on guinea pigs, a cancer-causing agent found
in cigarettes, called benzpyrene, was detoxified in the liver by hydroxylation, a process
in which the oxygen content of a chemical compound is increased, rendering it
harmless. And it is vitamin C that activates this hy-
droxylation. In guinea pigs with a vitamin C deficiency, the detoxification rate was only
10 percent of that in guinea pigs receiving an adequate supply of vitamin C.
But Dr. Stone, a veteran scientist, does not base his opinion on one lone study of guinea
pigs. ''An important function of ascorbate [vitamin C] in the mammalian organism is the
detoxification of poisons, carcinogens, and toxins," he says.
Dr. Stone then cites studies in which vitamin C detoxified carbon monoxide, arsenic
compounds and cyanide—all constituents of cigarette smoke. Vitamin C also cleaned up
mercury, lead, ozone, nitrates and strychnine. Dr. Stone concludes, "While this is only a
small segment of the literature, it is clearly evident that ascorbate is a wide-spectrum
detoxicant. . . ."
And Dr. Stone offers sound advice to smokers—take vitamin C: "All this evidence can be
used to formulate a simple and inexpensive megascorbic preventive medical regime for
the practical use by smokers to inhibit or delay or even possibly prevent the eventual
disease consequences of the chronic exposure to high concentrations of the irritating
and toxic constituents of tobacco smoke. This regime would comprise . . . the daily
intake of sufficient ascorbate. ..."
But what is "sufficient" vitamin C for a nonsmoker is probably not sufficient for the
smoker. For in addition to all its other ills, smoking depletes vitamin C.
So when we learn that vitamin C protects us against smok-ing's poisons, and that
smoking depletes vitamin C, it becomes almost suicidal for a smoker not to supplement
his diet with vitamin C.
The Special Combination
Acetaldehyde is another killer chemical in cigarette smoke. Herbert Sprince, Ph.D., chief
of research biochemistry at the Veterans Administration Hospital, Coatesville,
Pennsylvania, and his associates describe how they gave rats lethal doses of
acetaldehyde and then tested the protective value of various nu-

trients and combinations of nutrients. The winning combination—vitamin C, thiamine
(vitamin B|) and an amino acid called cysteine—gave "complete protection (zero %
lethality) for 72 hours in the 30 rats tested," the authors write {Agents and Actions).
"To the best of our knowledge," they add, "our findings demonstrate for the first time
that direct protective action against acetaldehyde toxicity and lethality can be obtained
with certain naturally occurring metabolites, namely L-ascorbic acid [vitamin C], L-
cysteine, and thiamine, preferably in combination at reduced dose levels."
And although the researchers caution that the findings must be "further evaluated"
before they can be extrapolated for human use, they have no qualms in asserting that
these laboratory results could "point the way to a possible buildup of natural protection
against the chronic body insult of acetaldehyde arising from . . . heavy smoking of
cigarettes."
Supplements of vitamin C and thiamine are, of course, readily available. And any good
diet including nuts, eggs, soybeans and brewer's yeast will supply the cysteine.
And while you're taking your vitamins, try again to quit smoking. Your supplements will
do you a lot more good if they don't have to exhaust themselves fighting smoke.
CHAPTER
VITAMIN SUPPLEMENTS: HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?
Nutritional therapy is, in many cases, an attractive alternative to conventional medical

treatments. One of the main advantages of nutrition is the relative safety with which it
can be used. Experimenting with drugs can be hazardous, but it is usually not dangerous
to try different nutrients at various doses.
It is a shame that more health professionals are not interested in or well trained in
nutrition. Many people have been forced to treat themselves, using what they have
learned from books, magazines and friends. It is a testimony to the power of nutrition
that millions, even without professional guidance, have been able to improve their
health greatly.
On the other hand, it is a mistake to assume that nutritional therapy is totally safe all of
the time. Though adverse effects are rare, they can occur. We should be well informed
about potential problems with supplements so that we can make better choices about
which nutrients to take and in what doses.
The possible hazards of nutritional therapy can be divided into three categories:
1. Self-diagnosis may be overemphasized instead of competent professional advice being

sought.
SUPPLEMENTS: HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH? 67
2. Certain nutrients have the abiHty to change the results of some diagnostic laboratory
tests.
3. Some nutrients can have harmful effects themselves.
Let's look at the self-diagnosis hazard first. You may be staying away from the doctor's
office because you have no faith in modern medicine. Or else you may fear being
ridiculed for taking vitamins and minerals. With all of the popular health books and
magazines on the market, it is tempting to try figuring out what is causing your
problems and to prescribe your own treatment. Unfortunately, the diagnosis will
frequently be wrong, no matter how classic your symptoms appear to be. As a result, a
potentially serious but easily treatable disease may be overlooked.
The solution to this problem is easy: Before starting your own nutrition program, get
checked out by your doctor to make sure nothing serious is being missed. If some
disease is found and you wish to treat it by nutritional means, get the OK from your
doctor. Ask him or her to monitor the progress of your disease. In some situations, the
benefits of orthodox medicine might outweigh the risks. If your nutrition program is not
working, drugs or surgery might be necessary and helpful.
Test Results Altered by Vitamins
Doctors often perform laboratory tests to help them find out what is wrong with their
patients. If you are taking large amounts of folate (folic acid) or vitamin C, some of these
tests may give incorrect results. You may therefore be treated for a problem that you
really do not have. Or else a truly abnormal condition may test normal. It is important
that your doctor be aware of these supplements so that no errors are made in diagnosis.
Folate: One type of anemia with serious consequences is called pernicious anemia.
Caused by faulty absorption of vitamin Bi2, it can lead to central-nervous-system
damage. Pernicious anemia is easy to discover if the doctor is alerted by a low
hematocrit (a measure of red blood cells), which occurs in all
anemias. However, if you are taking folate, your hematocrit could be normal even
though the B12 deficiency might be getting worse. Fortunately, pernicious anemia does
not occur often. However, any time your doctor orders a hematocrit, you should inform
him if you are taking folate, either by itself or in a B-complex supplement.
Vitamin C: Diabetics who test their urine for sugar may get incorrect results if there is a
lot of vitamin C in the urine. Your doctor or pharmacist can recommend a urine testing
kit that is not affected by vitamin C.
Doctors frequently do a simple test to look for small amounts of blood in the stool. A
positive test suggests bleeding from the bowel, which may occur from cancer or other
gastrointestinal diseases. If there is a lot of vitamin C in the stool, the test might not
detect the presence of blood.
Toxic Effects of Nutrients
The side effects discussed below are uncommon and usually (but not always) mild. Each
person must weigh the risks and benefits in deciding on the proper supplements.
Vitamin A: Since this nutrient is stored in the liver, harmful effects can build up
gradually. However, it is extremely unlikely that any problems would occur unless you
are taking 50,000 international units or more a day. Even at the 50,000 unit level, you
would probably have to continue that dose every day for months to reach a possibly toxic
level. Some people can tolerate more. Most people, though, probably take 10,000 to
25,000 international units a day, and at that level there should be no problem at all.
Serious side effects of vitamin A can be prevented by heeding early warning signs. These
include fatigue, abdominal discomfort, bone and joint pain, throbbing headache,
insomnia, restlessness, sweating, hair loss, brittle nails, constipation, menstrual
irregularities and swelling of the ankles. If these symptoms
are caused by too much vitamin A, then stopping the vitamin will relieve the symptoms.
If you take large amounts of carotene, the vegetal form of vitamin A, which is found in
carrots and nonanimal foods, your skin may turn orange. That does not appear to be a
toxic effect. The skin change will go away as carotene is stopped.
Vitamin B complex: Because of the many interactions between the B vitamins, large
doses of one can lead to deficiencies of the others. When taking a single B vitamin, it is
wise to back it up with the entire B complex.
Thiamine (vitamin B,): Some people become drowsy after taking 500 milligrams or
more. But that is an extremely high and unusual dose. No serious side effects have been
reported.
Niacin or niacinamide: Niacin may produce an uncomfortable warmth and flushing of

the skin when taken in doses higher than 75 to 100 milligrams a day. That is not
dangerous. Niacinamide, a form of niacin, will not cause the skin to flush, but it may
produce nausea. The dose should be reduced if nausea occurs.
Prolonged use of several grams (a gram is equal to 1,000 milligrams) per day of niacin
or niacinamide may cause elevations of blood sugar, uric acid or liver function test
results. It is not certain whether these changes are dangerous. However, a few patients
have developed yellow jaundice and liver disease after taking 3 or more grams of niacin
for a long time.
PABA: This nutrient is safe, but it may interfere with the function of some sulfa drugs.
Folate (folic acid): If you take Dilantin or another anti-epilepsy medication, folate may
interfere with it. Check with your doctor.
Vitamin Bf,(pyndoxine): Large doses (200 to 600 milligrams per day) may decrease
milk production in nursing mothers. It is unlikely that smaller amounts (10 to 25
milligrams) would cause this problem. However, even small doses of B^, can interfere
with the drug L-dopa (used for Parkinson's disease). There is a substitute for L-dopa
which is not affected by vitamin B^,.
Vitamin C: The most common side effects are upset stomach and diarrhea. Usually, that
does not occur at levels under several
thousand milligrams a day. That can be prevented by decreasing the dose or by taking
the vitamin with meals or in the form of sodium ascorbate and calcium ascorbate
instead of ascorbic acid.
Past claims that vitamin C destroyed vitamin B,2 were apparently based on inaccurate
measurements of vitamin B,:.
Since vitamin C can increase the amount of oxalate in the urine, there is (in theory) a
slightly increased risk of developing oxalate kidney stones. Physicians who use large
doses of vitamin C in their practice have not yet reported any kidney stones. Vitamin 86
(25 milligrams or more) seems to prevent vitamin C from increasing the oxalate in the
urine. The small risk of kidney stones may, therefore, be reduced even more by taking
B(,.
Vitamin C also helps the body get rid of uric acid. In the long run, that may be helpful,
since excess uric acid is associated with gout and heart disease. However, in the short
run, shifts in the body's uric acid levels can occasionally trigger an attack of gout. That is
sometimes seen when drugs are prescribed to lower uric acid. There is no proof yet that
vitamin C has caused an attack of gout. If you have a history of gout, though, it is a good
idea to build up your vitamin C slowly, rather than taking a large dose from the
beginning.
Some scientists believe that large amounts of vitamin C can interfere with pregnancy or
fertility. Others disagree.
Vitamin D: In large doses, this nutrient can cause a dangerous elevation of calcium in
the blood. At lower doses, vitamin D may increase cholesterol. Some prevention-minded
scientists are concerned that too much vitamin D may increase the risk of
atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). As a general rule, one should not take more
than 1,000 international units per day without medical advice.
Vitamin E: This widely used vitamin is usually very safe. However, if you have a vitamin
K deficiency, large doses of vitamin E could make it worse. That could impair normal
blood clotting. Fortunately, vitamin K deficiency does not occur very often. But if you
take an anticoagulant or do not eat vegetables, you might have a deficiency of vitamin K.
Wilfrid Shute, M.D., of the Shute Institute in Ontario, Canada, cautions that those with
high blood pressure or rheumatic heart disease should begin vitamin E carefully (about
100 international units per day) and increase gradually (add no more than 100
international units every six weeks). Other doctors, however, have found no problems
here.
Diabetes
Some nutrients will improve glucose tolerance; that is helpful for diabetics. However, if
you take insulin, you must carefully monitor how much is needed. If good nutrition
decreases your insulin requirement and you do not decrease the dose, a low-blood-sugar
reaction may result. Supplements to be most aware of are brewer's yeast, chromium,
and vitamins E, C and B^.
All of this is not meant to scare you out of taking supplements.
Nutrients are usually very safe. However, by becoming aware of potential risks, you may
develop a better and safer nutritional program.
CHAPTER
EVEN "WASTED" VITAMINS HELP PROTECT US
"I can't understand what good it does to take all those high-priced vitamins and
minerals," say the nutrition skeptics. "All they do is go right through you. The body
hangs onto what it needs and excretes the rest. The only thing you get from taking more
than you need is the most expensive urine in town."
You'll hear that type of argument a lot. It's a source of confusion to people who know
they feel better after taking vitamin supplements. And it raises serious doubts, too: "Am
I really popping a bunch of unnecessary pills—and wasting a lot of money, to boot?"
It's true that, when you take a nutritional supplement, some part of it ends up in your
urine and is excreted. But that it ends up in the urine isn't bad. There are at least two
ways a nutrient can be beneficial to the body even though it eventually gets excreted:
1. Its presence in the urine may promote good health in the bladder and kidneys.
2. The nutrient may perform a useful function somewhere else in the body before it's
excreted.
"WASTED" VITAMINS PROTECT US 73
How can nutrients in the urine help your bladder and kidneys? Because there are certain
ways that urine can harm them. Urine is a body fluid, just like blood or spinal fluid, and
bacteria can grow in it and cause infections of the bladder or kidneys. Also, certain
compounds in the urine may produce painful kidney stones. And some cancer-causing
chemicals you're exposed to pass out of the body through the urine. Since those
chemicals come in contact with the bladder, they probably increase risk of bladder
cancer.
But there are nutrients that may protect you against each of those problems.
Bladder and Kidney Protection
Vitamin C can kill some bacteria, including Escherichia coli (E. coli), the most common
cause of urinary tract infections. That killing power is especially strong at the uniquely
high vitamin C levels that are possible in the concentrated fluid of urine. Doctors have
used vitamin C for years to prevent urinary tract infections in people likely to develop
them. It's generally assumed that the vitamin works by producing an acid urine which
inhibits the growth of bacteria. In fact, vitamin C does a poor job of acidifying the urine.
The effectiveness of the vitamin is more likely related to a direct bactericidal (bacteria-
killing) action.
The prevention of kidney stones depends in part on the presence of magnesium in the
urine. Most kidney stones occur when calcium dissolved in the urine doesn't stay
dissolved but forms little pellets made of calcium salts. Any substance that helps keep
calcium dissolved will help prevent kidney stones. Magnesium does just that. Edwin
Prien. Sr., M.D., emeritus member of the Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Massachusetts,
and Stanley Gershoff, Ph.D., director of the nutrition institute. Tufts University,
Massachusetts, report that patients with recurrent kidney stones who were given
magnesium as part of their therapy had about 90 percent fewer stones.
The kidneys rid the body of various waste products and
environmental poisons, and urine contains a wide range of toxic chemicals, some of
which have the potential to cause cancer. However, a few of those chemicals don't
become cancer causers until they undergo a chemical reaction called oxidation. A
nutrient that could prevent oxidation—an antioxidant—should lessen the number of
cancer-causing chemicals the bladder is exposed to. Vitamin C is an antioxidant. It's
been shown to prevent the development of bladder cancer in animals exposed to a
cancer-causing compound that's often found in human urine. And Jorgen Schlegel,
M.D., former chief of staff at the Tulane University medical center, believes that vitamin
C may be effective in preventing human cancer, too.
But you have to take enough vitamin C to make sure some of it spills over into the urine.
For most people, 300 milligrams a day would do the trick. But people with an increased
need for vitamin C—smokers, diabetics, the elderly, the stressed, the allergic and
persons taking certain drugs—need more. Other nutrients such as vitamin E, zinc and
selenium are also antioxidants and might help prevent bladder cancer.
"Alright,'' says the skeptic.'' Expensive urine may have some value. But most people
don't take vitamins and minerals to make healthy urine. They take them in such large
amounts to help their nerves, their arthritis, their skin, or any other health problem
that's fashionable. And most of what they take ends up down the drain. It seems to me
that, if those nutrients just go in one end and out the other, they can't have much effect
on the body."
But the skeptic is wrong to believe that any excreted nutrients are excesses the body
doesn't need. A simple example will prove the point.
Penicillin Excreted, Too
Doctors often prescribe penicillin for various infections. The goal of therapy is to keep
an effective level in the blood and tissues at all times. The larger and more frequent the
dose, the more penicillin will be in the body at any one time. On the other hand, the
drug is rapidly excreted by the kidneys. In fact, 60 to
"WASTED" VITAMINS PROTECT US 75
90 percent of a given dose will be in the urine within one hour. But doctors don't believe
that that penicillin is wasted. They know that high excretion rates can't be helped and
that they have to give enough penicillin to stay ahead of losses. The situation is like the
water level in a sink with an open drain. If the level is high, the water runs out of the
drain faster than if the level is low. To keep the water level high, you need to run the
water faster.
As with penicillin therapy, the goal of nutritional therapy is to provide the tissues with
effective levels of nutrients at all times. Because of disease, genetic differences, or a
chronically poor diet or environment, the body may need nutrient concentrations higher
than what is usually considered adequate. And, like penicillin, the only way to achieve
those high levels is to take nutrients frequently and in relatively large amounts. That
type of supplementation will also stay ahead of the unavoidable urinary losses. For
example, when healthy people take 100 to 800 international units of vitamin E over a
period of years, blood levels of the vitamin remain higher than normal, even though
urinary excretion presumably increases.
There's some confusion in orthodox medical thinking over this point. It's known that the
body conserves nutrients in the face of a deficiency—when necessary, the kidneys reduce
urinary losses to near zero. So some assume that any nutrient excretion means the body
has all it needs. What is not well understood is that the kidneys are designed only to
prevent severe deficiency from progressing to death. When there is only a mild
deficiency, the kidneys are more like a sink with an open drain than one where the drain
is sealed off. So when trying for optimal nutrition, you can't expect the kidneys to do
much of a conservation job. It becomes a matter of turning on the faucet strong enough
to keep the nutrient levels at the amount you want.
The ''expensive urine" argument isn't a good reason to reject the thousands of reports
about the value of nutritional therapy. Nutrients in the urine may be valuable in their
own right, or they may be a reflection of important work being done elsewhere in the
body. Yes, vitamins come in and go out. But, as with life itself, it's what happens in
between that counts.
CHAPTER
VITAMINS: WILL THE SKEPTICS EVER BE CONVINCED?
"Ever since I started taking my vitamins," says the nutrition enthusiast, "1 have had
much more energy. Whenever I stop taking them, I get tired again. 1 definitely think my
supplements have improved my health."
A physician, skeptical about nutrition, remarks, "A patient begged me for a vitamin Bi:
shot, swearing it gives her more energy. I knew she was not deficient in B12, but it
seemed she had a psychological need for an injection of any kind. So I gave her a shot of
salt water and told her it was vitamin B12. As expected, the 'vitamin" shot gave her lots
of energy.""
Another nutrition advocate tells of the pain which followed an injury. His lower back
hurt so much that he could barely get out of bed. Because he had read that vitamin C is
helpful for disk problems, he increased his vitamin C intake. Within a week, the pain
had nearly disappeared, and he was able to lift heavy boxes again.
The skeptic replies that pains from most injuries go away after a week or two, regardless
of whether or not any treatment is given. The vitamin C probably had nothing to do with
it.
These examples illustrate how difficult it is to prove that any treatment works.
WILL THE SKEPTICS EVER BE CONVINCED? 77
It is well known that, if a person is using a remedy in which he beheves strongly, his
condition will improve even if the remedy is worthless. That is called the placebo effect,
the remarkable influence that mind has over body. Anxiety, depression, chest pain,
psoriasis and a host of other disorders are subject to the placebo effect. If the patient has
faith in the doctor, he will often get better, even if the doctor's "therapy'' is just an inert
sugar pill.
In addition, most problems gradually get better by themselves. If this improvement
occurs while the patient is following a nutrition program, there is no way to know how
much of the benefit was actually due to good nutrition. That uncertainty is why, despite
thousands of studies and millions of testimonials, most doctors remain unconvinced
about the benefits of nutrition.
Double-Blind Trials:
Why Vitamins Get a Hung Jury
For a therapy to be accepted by the pure scientist, research must prove that results are
better than one would expect from a placebo effect.
The most convincing way to do that is to perform what is called a controlled, double-
blind experiment. In this type of study, half the patients are given the treatment being
tested, and the other half (the control group) receive a fake (placebo). To avoid
psychological factors, no one knows (until the study is over) who is getting the active
ingredient and who is getting the placebo. It is called douhlc-hlind because neither the
patients nor the attending physicians know who is getting what. When the experiment is
completed, a statistician compares the results in the two groups and decides whether the
treatment has value.
Opponents of nutrition argue that most nutrition studies have not been done in the
acceptable double-blind fashion. They assume, therefore, that most reported benefits
are nothing more than a placebo effect. Until these studies are done "correctly," they
say, nutrition cannot be taken seriously.
The fact is that there have been many well-controlled, double-blind studies in the field
of nutrition. These include the use of zinc for rheumatoid arthritis, acne, stomach ulcers
and leg ulcers; vitamin B^, for the carpal tunnel syndrome and for one type of
depression; vitamin B12 for tiredness; niacinamide (a form of niacin) for acute
schizophrenia; vitamin C for the common cold, other viral infections and some
psychiatric problems; and vitamin E for intermittent claudication (leg pains associated
with hardening of the arteries). And as interest in nutrition increases, the number of
well-controlled studies continues to grow.
But what should we do about the thousands of studies that were less well controlled?
Should we, as the orthodox suggest, forget them all and wait for double-blind reports to
appear? It is true that most nutritional therapy has not been proven conclusively to be
effective. But that does not mean claims should automatically be discounted. To reject
nutrition is to ignore a half century of experience and accumulated wisdom, to abandon
an approach that many nutritionists know is effective. For a number of reasons, it is
unrealistic to expect or demand that every piece of nutrition information be studied by
the double-blind method.
To begin with, that demand has never been placed upon may of the traditional medical
treatments. The use of digitalis, morphine, L-dopa, INH (for tuberculosis) and other
drugs is based on the same type of studies that are often rejected in the field of nutrition.
Because of years of experience with these drugs, doctors are convinced that they work.
The fact that they have not been studied in the ''correct" manner has not prevented these
drugs from being used widely. If uncontrolled studies are acceptable for potentially toxic
drugs, then experiences with relatively safe nutrients should also be taken seriously.
Why has no one demanded that these drugs be submitted for double-blind tests?
Doctors argue that it is unethical to do such studies if you already know your treatment
works. How can you take a group of heart patients that need digitalis and give half of
them a placebo? To perform such a study would
deprive half the patients of the best available treatment. And all that would be
accomplished would be to prove something that everyone already knows.
The same argument holds for nutrition. If, for example, you are certain that niacinamide
helps some types of arthritis, how can you withold it from a patient in pain? Only
nutrition skeptics can ethically do a controlled study of niacinamide. They would have
no moral objection to withholding the nutrient from half the patients because they do
not believe it has any value. But during the 40 years that nutritionists have been using
niacinamide for arthritis, none of the skeptics have been interested in doing a controlled
study.
The Problems of Designing a Proper Vitamin Experiment
There are more than just ethical factors preventing doctors from doing controlled
studies. In many situations, it is literally impossible to design the proper experiment.
Suppose you wanted to prove that bed rest is good for back injuries. You would need a
group of patients, half of whom receive bed rest and half of whom do not. But, to avoid
psychological factors, no one could be permitted to know whether or not he was in bed.
Even to consider such a study is absurd.
Or suppose you wanted to study a new drug for the treatment of cancer. To make sure
no one knew if he was getting the real drug, you would have to design a placebo which
caused nausea, vomiting, hair loss and possibly death.
With nutrition, as well, there are often major difficulties in designing a placebo. For
example, the nutritional approach to diabetes might involve a low-sugar, high-fiber diet,
with careful attention to detecting any food allergies. Brewer's yeast, vitamins A, B, C,
and E and a number of minerals might also be used. But how, for example, could any
scientist fake the high-fiber diet? Or the yeast? And what diabetic would volunteer for
such a complicated program, knowing there was a 50-50 chance he would be getting a
worthless therapy?
The Cost Is Too Great to Test Vitamins
Even if the patients can be found and the experiment can be set up, there is another
major stumbling block: the enormous cost.
For the results of statistical studies to have meaning, a large number of patients must
participate (smaller studies tend to overlook small improvements, which could lead to
incorrect conclusions). These large studies cost a lot of money. Researchers recently
spent $30 million to find out that aspirin does not prevent heart attacks. Must we design
an expensive study to answer each of the many nutritional questions that should be
asked? Does thiamine relieve anxiety? How about niacin? Or vitamin Bft? Or folate? Are
thiamine and niacin better than thiamine alone? Is the result affected by the amount of
protein in the diet? The amount of fat? The number of possible studies is endless, and
the cost is unimaginable.
Even if the money were available to do all those studies, there would still be difficulties.
Double-blind studies are best suited to testing one nutrient at a time. But nutrients work
as a team; individual nutrients do not usually produce dramatic effects. The best results
are achieved by a comprehensive nutritional program. Since controlled studies are
usually designed to test individual portions of a complete program, they would tend to
underestimate the importance of nutrition.
Finally, therapeutic nutrition is based on the understanding that every individual is

biochemically different, with different nutritional needs. Double-blind studies, on the
other hand, require that everyone (except those in the control group) receive the same
treatment. One cannot expect impressive results from a treatment that may be correct
for only a small percentage of the patients.
Results We Can't Ignore
Reasonable people should recognize that some studies are important even if there is no
placebo control group. For example, James Isaacs, M.D., reported on his use of
vitamins, minerals and hormones in the treatment of severe heart disease at the Texas
Heart Institute Symposium on Coronary Artery Medicine and Surgery, Houston, Texas.
The results were dramatic and far better than anyone else had achieved with a similar
group of patients. But the medical community has rejected Dr. Isaacs' work because
there was no control group. The experience of other doctors using traditional methods is
a built-in control group, however, which can be used at least for rough comparisons.
When such a comparison is made. Dr. Isaacs' results are so much better than usual that
they cannot be reasonably ignored.
It would certainly be nice if all therapeutic claims were supported by double-blind
studies. As research techniques improve and more money becomes available for
nutrition research, more such studies will be done.
Knowledge of the value of nutrition will continue to spread until it reaches the
mainstream of American medicine. That will occur for a very simple reason: Nutrition
works.
BOOK II
A Guide
to the
Individual
Vitamins
INTRODUCTION
Vitamins are designer nutrients.
Sure, they're mass-produced by Mother Nature, Inc. But each "brand" is special,
distinctive. Vitamin A helps prevent cancer. Thiamine is a must for good digestion. 65
specializes in health concerns unique to women. Vitamin C zeros in on your immune
system, vitamin D on your bones.
So even though it's best to get all the vitamins, it's a good idea to know how each one fits
into your health plan. (After all, you wouldn't wear pajamas to work or show up at a
black-tie affair in a swimsuit.)
That's where book 2—A Guide to the Individual Vitamins— comes in. In it, we'll tell you
all you need to know about vitamins—from A to K. And once you've learned that
alphabet, you'll be able to spell "health."
VITAMIN A CHAPTER
VITAMIN A: A FEAST FOR THE SENSES
It's only fitting that vitamin A should come first alphabetically in the long list of
necessary nutrients that science discovered. For no other vitamin or mineral is a more
basic building block of good health.
Vitamin A is the foremost example of the awesome versatility nature has packed into
vitamins. For, unlike drugs that do just a few specialized things, vitamin A helps to
regulate and maintain a whole range of essential functions inside our bodies.
You need vitamin A for smooth, healthy looking skin. And vitamin A helps build
resistance to colds. But there's a whole lot more. Vitamin A keeps moist the mucous
membranes that line your mouth, respiratory passages and urinary tract—thus ensuring
resistance to infection. This nutrient also bolsters your body's natural immunity, which
may help the body safeguard itself against cancer. Vitamin A also helps counter the
damaging effects of stress and aids in wound healing and detoxifying certain poisonous
chemicals.
It's even involved in sexual functioning: A shortage can lead to female problems such as
excessive menstruation and also male problems of infertility.
86 VITAMIN A
Researchers are continuously expanding our understanding of how vitamin A works and
the many ways it helps preserve health. For example, take the housekeeping role vitamin
A plays in our ears.
Richard A Chole, M.D., Ph.D., an ear, nose and throat researcher at the University of
California at Davis, who in the past has investigated vitamin A's impact on our ability to
hear, recently found evidence that vitamin A is necessary for the normal function in the
middle ear. Without A, middle ear infection (otitis media) may develop. He also found
that cystlike masses of debris, called cholesteatomas, may develop in severely vitamin A-
deficient rats.
"Under normal conditions," Dr. Chole told us, "mucus in the ear automatically traps dirt
and bacteria and flushes it down the eustachian tube into the throat, where it is
swallowed. This is how the ear cleans itself. In a vitamin A deficiency, not enough mucus
is produced, and it doesn't get to the right places."
In experiments with rats, Dr. Chole found that depriving them of vitamin A resulted in
breakdown of the epithelium—the moist protective layer of cells which lines all body
tissues, inside and out—in the middle ear. The epithelium became scaly, stopped
producing mucus and lost its ability to flush the ear clean. The result was an ear
infection.
"It is reasonable to speculate," reports Dr. Chole, "that the human middle ear undergoes
similar changes to those described above [in the rat] during vitamin A deficiency. If this
is the case, vitamin A deficiency may be a significant factor in the genesis of otitis
media" {Western Journal of Medicine, 1980).
In the past. Dr. Chole has shown that vitamin A does much more than perform janitorial
services in the ear. In studies with guinea pigs, he has found that the cochlea, the spiral
horn in the inner ear, contains vitamin A in concentrations ten times those in most other
body tissues. He has gone on to show that sensory receptor cells in the ear, similar to
those in the eye that rely on vitamin A, depend on the nutrient for their hearing
function.
As Dr. Chole indicates, however, vitamin A's usefulness to the senses is by no means
limited to hearing. He cites cases
FEAST FOR THE SENSES 87
where people regained their sense of smell after taking vitamin A. And researchers at
Cornell University have demonstrated that animals deprived of this nutrient lose the
ability to differentiate between quinine-flavored, salted and plain water. "These results
indicate that vitamin A is required for normal taste function/' they note (Society for
Experimental Biology and Medicine).
A's Influence on the Eyes
But nowhere is vitamin A's influence on our perceptions more spectacularly evident
than in the eyes.
"If the Mights go out' for a child when dusk approaches, it's quite possible he's suffering
from severe vitamin A deficiency . . . ," says Myron Winick, M.D., director of Columbia
University's institute of human nutrition. "The primary effect of vitamin A deficiency is
damage to the patient's eyes, with problems ranging from night blindness in some cases
to irreversible corneal scarring in others" (Modern Medicine).
According to Dr. Winick, prolonged deficiency—which leads to a condition of abnormal

dryness of the eye, called xerophthalmia—is the leading cause of blindness in
underdeveloped nations. And "although severe manifestations are quite rare in the
United States, milder effects are frequently encountered, especially among children."
Another group at special risk for eye damage are heavy drinkers, since alcohol seems to
interfere with the liver's ability to store and mobilize vitamin A. And without enough
vitamin A being delivered to the retina, the eye can't produce enough of a substance
called visual purple, which is necessary for seeing at night.
In one group of 26 patients hospitalized with alcohol-associated cirrhosis of the liver, 14

had problems in adapting their vision to darkness. Daily supplementation with vitamin
A helped 8 of those patients overcome night blindness within two to four weeks (Annals
of Internal Medicine).
Similar results were reported by a trio of Boston researchers. In one case, a 55-year-old
man had a five-year history of
88 VITAMIN A
progressive night blindness so severe he needed a flashHght to see at dusk. He had been
a heavy beer drinker for 25 years. After taking extra vitamin A daily for four weeks, this
man regained normal night vision (American Journal of Ophthalmology).
In those rare cases where vitamin A alone fails to help eyesight, extra zinc also may be
called for. As Stanley Morrison, M.D.. of Baltimore, Maryland, reports, two patients who
initially failed to respond to 10,000 international units of vitamin A daily recovered
rapidly after taking 90 milligrams of zinc daily (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).
Poor dark adaptation may be considered more of a nuisance than a serious threat,
although it can cause traffic accidents when the affected person attempts to drive at
night. A much more serious problem is glaucoma, a condition of increased pressure and
fluid buildup inside the eyeball that can lead to total blindness. But here, again, there is
evidence that vitamin A may have a protective effect.
Controlling Glaucoma
"In Europe the incidence of primary glaucoma is in the order of 1.5 percent of patients
seen in an average ophthalmic practice. ... In West Africa, the incidence is some 30
times that in Europe," says Dr. Stanley C. Evans of Ibadan, Nigeria (Nutritional
Metabolism).
"Whereas in Europe glaucoma does not usually occur below the age of 40 years," he
continues, "in West Africa it occurs at all age levels from children of eight years
upwards. This evidently is due to the fact that in West Africa the nutritional deficiencies
responsible for glaucoma are worse than in Europe, so that not only does it occur in the
younger age groups but its progress in development is also very much more rapid."
Although many factors are involved. Dr. Evans says, "Usually the precipitating cause of
many eye disorders, including primary glaucoma, is a vitamin A deficiency." When he
gave nutritional supplements, including large doses of A, to a group
of patients suffering from restricted vision, blind spots and eye pain, their glaucoma was
controlled just as effectively as with conventional drug therapies. This was verified by
periodic measurements of the pressure inside the eye.
Protector of the Bowel
The epithelial lining of the intestines also needs vitamin A, and physicians in Sweden
and Boston think the vitamin might be useful in treating Crohn's disease, a stubborn,
unexplained deterioration of the bowel.
At a hospital in Linkoping, Sweden, a 31-year-old woman suffering from Crohn's disease

was given large amounts of vitamin A for her psoriasis. The psoriasis began to clear but,
surprisingly, so did the chronic diarrhea caused by the Crohn's disease. "The most
striking effect was a return to normal bowel function," report the Swedish doctors.
''Soon after starting the new treatment the patient found she could eat any food, even
plums, without ill effects and with no diarrhea" {Lancet, April 5, 1980).
This news from Sweden attracted the attention of Ann Dvorak, M.D., a research
pathologist at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. She had taken electron microscope
photographs showing intestinal epithelium damaged by Crohn's disease. The photos
offered a possible explanation for vitamin A's success with the woman in Sweden.
Crohn's patients. Dr. Dvorak says, have holes in their intestines. As a result, they might
absorb bacteria and food impurities that are normally excreted, and they fail to absorb
nutrients, including vitamin A, that they should absorb. When the holes become large
enough, the damaged section of the bowel must be removed surgically. She thinks
vitamin A might keep tiny holes from becoming big ones by bolstering the epithelium.
"In the past," Dr. Dvork told us, "we thought that the holes were always large enough to
see on an X ray. Now we're finding out that the large holes start as microscopic defects
in the epi-
90 VITAMIN A
thelium. I feel very strongly that, if Crohn's patients took vitamin A after their first
operation, they might not need so many operations later on."
The Swedish doctors seem to agree. 'Tt could be that vitamin A restored some previously
impaired intestinal-barrier function," they concluded. ''If so, and if, as is suspected, the
essential abnormality in Crohn's disease is impaired function of the intestinal barrier,
other Crohn's patients might benefit from vitamin A."
But vitamin A may do more than reinforce our barriers against disease. Eli Seifter,
Ph.D., a professor of biochemistry and surgery at the Albert Einstein College of
Medicine in New York, believes vitamin A mobilizes our infection-fighting white blood
cells.
In one of his experiments. Dr. Seifter told us, two groups of lab animals, one fed an
adequate amount of vitamin A and the other fed ten times that amount, were exposed to
gamma radiation. The highly supplemented animals held up better. 'The radiation
destroys most, but not all, of the animals' white blood cells," he says. "The vitamin A
stimulates the rate at which the animals regain a normal number of white blood cells,
thereby increasing the rate of survival. The highly supplemented animals are able to
recoup in a couple of weeks."
In a second group of experiments. Dr. Seifter's fellow researchers removed the thymus, a
glandlike organ that influences production of some kinds of white blood cells, from both
groups. Only the highly supplemented animals maintained a near-normal white blood
cell count, demonstrating. Dr. Seifter says, that, in the event of injury or infection,
vitamin A can reinforce the body's immune response.
Building Healthy Teeth
At the University of Alabama's institute of dental research, two researchers, Juan Navia,
Ph.D.. and Susan S. Harris, Ph.D., have been investigating the role of vitamin A in the
formation
of teeth. They've found that infant teeth are prone to decay if they lack vitamin A while
they are forming within the gum.
"We're at the very beginning of looking at the possibility that nutrition during tooth
formation can affect the development or increase the susceptibility of teeth to decay,"
Dr. Navia told us.
In the normal construction of teeth, vitamin A is essential for the formation of a

scaffolding made up partly of carbohydrates called mucopolysaccharides. If that
framework is properly built, calcium and phosphorus lock into place and the result is a
healthy tooth.
Without enough vitamin A, however, there will be chinks in the new tooth and bacteria
will seep in like rain through a leaky roof.
"Caries [decay] initiated at the enamel surface," Drs. Navia and Harris report, "would
meet a less effective barrier at the enamel-dentine [the two outermost layers of the
tooth] junction, leading to development of severe, deeply penetrating lesions" {Archives
of Oral Biology, vol. 25, no. 6, 1980).
CHAPTER
VITAMIN A— INSURANCE AGAINST CIRCULATORY PROBLEMS
Medical researchers are forever warning about the bad effects certain dietary factors can
have on our health. We're told that too much fat in our diets can cause heart disease or
even cancer, too much salt raises blood pressure and too much refined sugar may
promote cavities, not to mention diabetes.
But what about the ^'ood things we can add to our diets which actually promote health?
A major study shows that the amount of vitamin A in our diets may have a profound
effect on whether or not we fall prey to heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke or
peptic ulcer.
The study, conducted in Israel by Aviva Palgi, Ph.D., analyzed 28 years worth of data in
order to determine the cumulative effects of dietary changes on specific disease
mortality rates.
Dr. Palgi, who has conducted research in nutrition at the Harvard Medical school and is
now at the American Health Foundation in New York City, found that, between 1949
and 1977, the death rate from heart disease in Israel more than doubled while the death
rates from high blood pressure, stroke and peptic ulcer also increased significantly.
Meanwhile, during that
INSURANCE AGAINST CIRCULATORY PROBLEMS 93
same time, the Israelis had changed their eating habits. By the 1970s, they were
consuming 52 percent more fat than in previous years. What's more, they had decreased
the amount of calories coming from complex carbohydrates (such as grains) while
almost doubling their intake of simple carbohydrates (refined sugars).
But what makes this study special is that Dr. Palgi not only looked at the obvious dietary
factors like fats and carbohydrates, she also examined how specific vitamins and
minerals can directly affect those same diseases.
And that's where the exciting news about vitamin A comes in.
"Vitamin A," says Dr. Palgi, "consistently had a significant negative association with
mortality rates." This means that the more vitamin A individuals in the study consumed,
the less likely they were to suffer from heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and
peptic ulcer.
Apparently, while some Israelis were eating more fats, others were enjoying lots of
fruits, vegetables and other foods high in vitamin A. And those who ate those foods
stayed healthier than those who didn't.
In fact. Dr. Palgi's study concludes by suggesting that reduced total fat intake and
increased vitamin A consumption (through fruits and vegetables) may prove beneficial
in reducing death rates due to heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and peptic ulcer
{American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, August, 1981).
"We are just beginning to see the benefits of vitamin A in the diet," Dr. Palgi says, "and
it's very exciting. My study merely emphasizes how much research still needs to be done
— especially clinical experiments with human volunteers.
"Right now, we know that 5,000 international units of vitamin A daily is an absolute
requirement for health. But for people in a predisease state, more may be needed. I
know that in view of the results of my study I am more conscious of my diet, and I try to
eat plenty of vitamin A-rich foods while also keeping my total fat intake as low as
possible."
94 VITAMIN A
Just how vitamin A exerts its protective influence is something scientists are still looking
into.
"There have been several studies in the past which have shown vitamin A to be helpful in
lowering cholesterol levels, and this may help explain why it aids against heart disease,"
Dr. Palgi told us. "In one experiment, the vitamin was found to lower blood cholesterol
levels in atherosclerotic patients but had no effect on patients whose cholesterol levels
were already normal. And another study showed a decreased incidence of cardiovascular
disease in patients given vitamins A and D. Still," cautions Dr. Palgi, "vitamin A is not a
magic wand."
Maybe it's not a magic wand, but vitamin A is still a valuable diet resource, readily
available to anyone willing to invest a little time and thought in planning his diet. The
complete form of vitamin A is found only in foods of animal origin, and one of the
richest sources is liver. Vitamin A, like vitamins D and E, is a fat-soluble vitamin, which
means it is not excreted in the urine, like the water-soluble vitamins, but stored in the
body for further use. Vitamin A is stored mainly in the liver, which is why beef liver is
rich in the vitamin.
You could easily fulfill your body's need for vitamin A even if you ate nothing but
vegetables, though. Substances called carotenes, which are abundant in many
vegetables, are readily converted into vitamin A in the human body. Yellow fruits and
vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes, apricots, pumpkins and cantaloupes are rich in
carotenes, as are deep-green leafy vegetables like spinach, dandelion greens, beet
greens, chard, chicory, turnip greens and kale.
There are a few special tricks you can use to maximize your intake of vitamin A from
vegetables.
Researchers have found that the more orange the carrots and sweet potatoes you buy,
the more vitamin A they contain. Plant breeding that was originally undertaken to
improve the looks of carrots has resulted in strains that are richer in vitamin A. Vitamin
A stands up well to cooking, but that's light cooking—if you cook too much, you destroy
the carotene by oxidation.
INSURANCE AGAINST CIRCULATORY PROBLEMS 95
Deficiency Is More Common than Overdose
Newspaper articles pointing out the toxicity of vitamin A appear from time to time. One
article told of a three-year-old girl given 200,000 international units of vitamin A a day.
This is clearly excessive. For adults, a daily intake of 4,000 to 25,000 international units
is considered reasonable by the National Academy of Sciences.
But the real problem is a lack of vitamin A in our diets, not an oversupply.
"The 1965 household survey of diets showed that one diet in every four failed to supply
the recommended allowances [of vitamin A] and that one diet in every 10 supplied less
than two-thirds of the recommended allowances,*" cites one nutritionist {Normal and
Therapeutic Nutrition, Macmillan, 1977). "Deficiency of vitamin A is not only a major
nutritional problem in many developing countries but also in countries such as the
United States and Canada,'' says a National Institutes of Health researcher {Lung, vol.
157, no. 4, 1980). Both infants and the elderly are known to have a decreased ability to
absorb vitamin A from their diets.
CHAPTER
VITAMIN A FOR HEAVY MENSTRUAL BLEEDING
No one likes to get cut up. Yet, more than 670,000 women rushed into hysterectomies in
a recent year. What's the hurry?
Well, take the widowed mother of four for an example. As the sole supporter of her
family, she can't afford to stay off her feet and miss a couple of days at work every month
because of an extremely heavy menstrual flow. Besides, she's been feeling too wiped out
lately to give her children the attention they need.
Or what about the young woman who kept her monthly interruptions to a minimum
while she was on oral contraceptives. But since she's given up the Pill, she's sacrificed
additional days of freedom. Her periods never extended beyond six days, she cries to her
gynecologist. Now she's strapped for nine or ten.
Undoubtedly, there are thousands more silent sufferers who face such unpleasant
confrontations with their femininity each month—tolerating excessive menstrual
bleeding and extended bouts with their periods.
In desperation, some will eventually elect surgery as the "ultimate out." Who's to say
they made the wrong choice? Certainly not their physicians, who will quickly point to
the serious complications of this condition.
FOR HEAVY MENSTRUAL BLEEDING 97
Menorrhagia—the medical term for either excessive daily bleeding during menstruation,
prolonged menstrual flow or both— may lead to anemia, gynecologists warn. Granted.
But with complications of its own, surgery is a high price to pay for recovery—
particularly when relief can sometimes be had for the cost of a bottle of vitamin A
supplements.
According to a study published in the South African Medical Journal, menorrhagia may
be caused by a vitamin A deficiency. Women who experience heavy menstruation and
have lower than normal vitamin A levels in their blood can enjoy alleviation of their
symptoms with moderately high doses of the vitamin, the investigators report.
The effect of a vitamin A deficiency on the reproductive system of women has never
been clearly documented. But it stands to reason that such a deficiency could alter the
menstrual cycle. After all, vitamin A is crucial to the development of the ovaries in
animals. In animal tests, a laboratory-induced deficiency of this vitamin can decrease
hormone production and suspend the menstrual cycle.
Earlier studies put that theory into human terms when researchers demonstrated that
vitamin A levels in women fluctuate in a cyclic pattern during the menstrual cycle. They
suggest a strong correlation between vitamin A levels and female hormones.
Keeping these findings in mind, Drs. M. Lithgow and W. M. Politzer, of the

Johannesburg General Hospital in South Africa, decided to find out whether vitamin A
deficiency causes menorrhagia and whether giving vitamin A would cure the condition.
To do this, they tested the vitamin A levels in 71 patients suffering from menorrhagia.
These figures were then compared to those obtained from blood tests of 191 healthy
women between the ages of 13 and 55.
The results clearly indicated that women with particular menstrual dysfunction have
relatively low levels of vitamin A in their bloodstreams. In fact, the women tested had,
on the average, only 67 international units of the vitamin per 100 milliliters of blood. In
contrast, the women with normal menstrual periods
98 VITAMIN A
had about 166 international units per 100 milliliters—almost 2'/2 times the amount
measured in the first group!
To define more precisely the role of a vitamin A deficiency in menstrual dysfunction, the
records of 103 patients who presented a wider spectrum of the causes of menorrhagia
were combined with those of the original group. A vitamin A deficiency was still found to
be the primary cause of the menorrhagia in almost 44 percent of the total 174 cases
studied. In addition, almost 68 percent of this combined group had lower than average
levels of vitamin A in their blood, indicating that a shortage of this vitamin might be a
contributing cause of the abnormal bleeding.
A Successful Treatment
Now that the researchers were assured of the cause of the problem, they followed
through with treatment using vitamin A supplements. Fifty-two menorrhagia patients
were instructed to take 60,000 international units of vitamin A daily for 35 days.
Although a few of these women were lost to follow-up treatment, of the 40 who returned
for evaluation one month later, 23 were completely cured. And 14 noted a substantially
diminished menstrual flow or a reduction in the duration of their periods. All told, the
researchers claimed that close to 93 percent were either cured or helped with vitamin A
therapy.
If you've been losing a lot of blood during your menses, you too may gain by increasing
your intake of vitamin A. However, the daily dosage of 60,000 international units
prescribed by the South African physicians may be more than you'll need. You might
want to stick with the amount found in many multivitamins, which is 10,000
international units.
Should you find that the extra boost of A isn't enough to alleviate the heavy or prolonged
menstrual bleeding, don't up your intake beyond the suggested amount. Instead, add
vitamin E to your nutrition checklist. This vitamin helps improve vitamin A storage and
utilization. Or try zinc. An essential mineral, zinc
FOR HEAVY MENSTRUAL BLEEDING 99
is required to move vitamin A from the large liver reserve to the bloodstream.
The Link with Vasectomy
Interestingly enough, this information may be invaluable to you if you're involved with
family planning.
"A syndrome of menorrhagia is now being seen in women whose husbands have had
vasectomies," said Dr. Dennis G. Bonham, head of the Auckland University
postgraduate school of obstetrics and gynaecology in New Zealand, in Ob. Gyn. News.
"Like the post-tubal ligation syndrome, the post-vasectomy syndrome appears to be
primarily a result of stopping oral contraceptives. ..." And that, it seems, may be a direct
result of a depletion of vitamin A.
For some time now, researchers have suspected that the hormones found in oral
contraceptives alter the vitamin A levels in the blood. To test this theory, vitamin A
levels in two groups of healthy college women were measured. The first group consisted
of 11 women with regular menstrual cycles who had never taken the Pill. The other
group consisted of 7 women who had been on the Pill for various lengths of time ranging
from two months to slightly over two years (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).
Invariably, the women taking the oral contraceptives had higher levels of vitamin A in
their blood than nonusers. This may be due to a stepped-up mobilization of the vitamin
stored in the liver. The theory is confirmed by animal experimentation. Rats given oral
contraceptives experience a faster liver vitamin A depletion, indicating a higher vitamin
A requirement.
Of course, no one knows for sure, but this may explain why women who stop taking the
Pill suddenly begin menstruating heavily. While they are taking the Pill, their
bloodstreams are pumped full of vitamin A, which assures them a short and uneventful
menstrual period. But should they stop taking the Pill, the vitamin A supply in their
blood is cut short. The liver reserve
100 VITAMIN A
which would be called on under normal conditions has become sharply depleted.
So, should you consider giving up the Pill for whatever reason (and there are many),
supplement your stores with extra doses of vitamin A. It could protect you from that
extreme course of action—hysterectomy.
CHAPTER
VITAMIN A CUSHIONS US AGAINST STRESS
We remember when, every August, busloads of city kids would head up north for two
weeks of the country life. They came face to face with animals they'd never seen at the
city zoo, and they learned that the swimmin' hole was more than a wrench and a fire
hydrant. Sending those kids to the country was kind of like hanging sheets out to dry.
They could flap around all over the place, and the fresh air did them good.
Today, you wonder how far you'd have to travel to find unpolluted air and water.
Chemicals originally designed to improve our lives are doing just the opposite. They're
everywhere, but living in wet suits and gas masks is no answer. Eli Seifter, Ph.D., a
nutritional biochemist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, has been doing research
on vitamin A and believes the vitamin will help guard against a variety of environmental
hazards and stresses.
Chemical hazards in the work place attracted national attention during the last decade.
In the mid I97()s, workers in plants manufacturing DBCP, a soil fumigant used to
control nematodes, began to complain of sterility and other reproductive deficiencies.
Subsequent laboratory studies indicated that exposure to
102 VITAMIN A
relatively low doses of DBCP could reduce sperm counts enough to cause sterility. When
data on the effects on humans were released in 1977, some U.S. manufacturers stopped
making it.
Despite efforts by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the
Environmental Protection Agency to reduce the use of DBCP in the environment, data
gathered show unexpectedly high levels of the chemical in drinking water near farming
areas. And a lawsuit has been filed by DBCP workers in California who claim that their
sons' defective reproductive organs resulted from the workers' exposure to the chemical.
The list of chemicals posing health hazards for both male and female workers has
expanded, prompting one labor leader to dub the 1980s the "decade of genetic
confrontation."
Even if people aren't working in chemical plants, they are caught in the onslaught. If
home is near the freeway or in a highly industrialized area, car exhaust and other
pollutants lace the air and water. People also are cleaning their houses, spraying their
gardens, refinishing furniture and cooking with chemicals every day.
In a presentation before an American Chemical Society meeting in Houston, Dr. Seifter

illustrated how the toxicity of a substance is influenced by the nutritional and the
general health status of an animal and how those findings relate to humans in the work
place.
Many harmful stimuli, whether physical injury, chemical poisoning or some other
factor, will elicit a common response called stress, says Dr. Seifter. Stress causes adrenal
gland enlargement, a shrinking of the thymus gland and body weight loss. It also can
cause stomach ulceration.
In one experiment. Dr. Seifter and his colleagues studied the effects of vitamin A on the
toxic compound toluene diamine (TDA). The chemical causes stomach ulceration, which
leads to stomach perforation. Death can occur from peritonitis following a leakage from
the stomach.
TDA ingestion causes blood to withdraw from the stomach (humans may identify it as a
queasy feeling) and from the skin (similar to people turning pale after a type of stress
response). The condition is called ischemia, which means a loss of circu-
A CUSHION AGAINST STRESS 103
lating blood that causes blanching or whitening. Ischemia is an early event leading to
stress ulceration and delaying healing of the ulcer.
In animals given only TDA, blanching of the stomach occurred. Animals that received
both TDA and vitamin A did not show a blanching effect.
Eventually, the animals on TDA alone developed certain stomach ulcerations, while the
animals whose TDA intake was supplemented with vitamin A did not have the stomach
ulcerations.
A toxic compound's ability to produce duodenal and stomach ulcers after diminishing
blood supply to those parts of the gastrointestinal tract can be overcome by feeding
vitamin A, Dr. Seifter told his audience.
He says that TDA and some other chemicals either directly or indirectly constrict blood
vessels to certain organs, like the stomach and skin, while opening up blood vessels
elsewhere, especially in muscle. That mimics the fight-or-flight syndrome which
prepares the body for intense physical activity or running away. In that instance, blood
is diverted from the soft tissues and goes into the muscles. Dr. Seifter and his colleagues
speculate that vitamin A prevents that alteration in blood flow pattern from taking
place.
Stressed adrenals also become large and swollen and tend to bleed. Vitamin A prevents
the swelling and hemorrhage, says Dr. Seifter.
The researchers also have investigated vitamin A in relation to alkylating agents, which,
according to Dr. Seifter, are "important agents in industry today, and they affect our
health.'' One of the alkylating agents they looked at, cyclophosphamide, is widely used as
an antitumor compound in chemotherapy. The chemical is radiationlike and is known as
a radiomimetic chemical.
Cancer Drug Better Tolerated with Vitamin A
"Sick people (and sick animals) cannot take as high doses of some medications as a well
person can," Dr. Seifter told us.
104 VITAMIN A
"The irony is that it's the sick person who needs the medication. If you give a certain
amount of cyclophosphamide to a heahhy animal, the animal may not lose weight. Give
it to a sick animal, and it may kill him."
The researchers discovered that, if a stressed animal (one that is subjected to

experimental surgery, for instance) is given vitamin A along with the cyclophosphamide,
it tolerates the drug better. "Vitamin A makes the difference between whether or not the
animal survives toxic doses of cyclophosphamide when the animal has some other
sickness—and that other sickness can be stress or an implanted tumor," Dr. Seifter told
us.
That discovery may be of some importance to employees working with those toxic
substances. Alkylating agents are used to combat tumors because they inhibit cell
division in the tissues that are turning over most rapidly, like the cancer cells in a tumor,
he says.
"In the body, normally among those tissues that are turning over most rapidly are
mucosal cells and white blood cells and sperm. And you can be sure ... if workers are
showing low sperm counts, due to working with alkylating agents, they're also showing
low counts of certain white blood cells."
Under the stress of a toxicant like cyclophosphamide, mice experience weight loss or a
prevention of weight gain, says Dr. Seifter. With vitamin A intake, a good share of that
weight loss is avoided.
Protecting the Thymus Gland
One site of immune activity in the body, the thymus gland, reacts to a toxicant like
cyclophosphamide by becoming very small or involuted. Part of that involution can be
blocked also by giving vitamin A, he says.
Researchers cannot assay the human thymus without causing damage, so they must
analyze the blood. "When the thymus is hurt, those circulating blood cells that are
influenced by the thymus are also hurt. These are the lymphocytes," Dr. Seifter
told US. Lymphocytes that normally constitute more than 20 percent of our circulating
white blood cells will drop to 5 or 10 percent and be less active when the thymus is in
trouble.
Other Common Stresses
Dr. Seifter maintains that certain jobs are stressful enough to the worker's body to
heighten his or her nutritional requirements. He says that, just as society now accepts
the idea that people like steelworkers, who perspire heavily on the job, need higher
intakes of calories, salt and water, it will in time accept the idea that other jobs increase
other nutrient requirements.
"The requirements for other nutrients are dependent on the toxic compounds that we
are exposed to. I think the time will come when we'll not only learn that nutrient
requirements are increased, but we'll make use of specific nutrients to overcome the
toxicity of certain industrial hazards," Dr. Seifter told the American Chemical Society.
There also may come a time when vitamin A will be used to arm someone against
another kind of hazard—radiation.
Dr. Seifter and his colleagues discovered that, when X ray treatments were administered
to the hind legs of mice, the classic stress responses were recorded. The mice lost weight,
their adrenals enlarged, their thymus glands shrank and their white cell counts dropped
precipitously.
Mice supplemented with vitamin A fared much better with the radiation treatment.
They lost less weight, and their adrenals did not get as large. Perhaps most important,
with vitamin A, the thymus gland did not shrink significantly in size. The white cell
count remained relatively high, and that's a very good sign, says Dr. Seifter. It's not
unusual for a patient who has undergone radiation treatments to develop serious
infections, and some of these are fatal. Radiation normally decreases the number of
white blood cells, thereby depressing the patient's immune state. Both the tumor and
the radiation are immunosuppressive, he says. Vitamin A appears to change some of
that.
106 VITAMIN A
Animals given vitamin A in advance of the radiation treatment may have had a sHght
edge over those given the supplement afterward. "What's clearisgivingit at all is better
than not giving it," Dr. Seifter told us.
''We think that, for people who receive radiotherapy [radiation treatments], vitamin A
will contribute to their overall health without decreasing the efficacy of the radiotherapy
against the tumor. In fact, vitamin A may increase the efficacy of the radiotherapy. The
healthier an animal is—the healthier a person is—the better he can withstand
radiotherapy and the better the chance that he will get effective radiation therapy," Dr.
Seifter explains.
Some people refuse to believe that something as simple as vitamin A could do so much.
But the National Institutes of Health (NIH), for instance, support the use of a kind of
vitamin A acid, a synthetic compound for certain clinical uses. Dr. Seifter says. The NIH
supports studies involving the use of this analog of vitamin A for tumor prevention, he
says, adding that high doses of vitamin A acid are far more toxic than vitamin A.
Although they claim they are using vitamin A acid for its vitamin A activity, he explains,
they are actually using it in much the same way as they are other toxic agents that cause
tumors to decrease in size.
Avoiding "Injury Therapy
9?
"Practically all of the tumor therapies that we have today are based upon injury . . .
injuring both the host and the tumor. People say we've got to blast the hell out of the
tumor, but you're also blasting the hell out of the body," says Dr. Seifter. "They tend to
favor vitamin A acid because it causes the tumor to get smaller. But the animal gets very
sick, and it gets smaller, too. Maybe he'll lose 25 percent or greater of the body weight.
Now most people cannot tolerate a 30 percent loss of body weight. That's lethal."
Dr. Seifter believes that it may be unnecessary to totally rid the body of the tumor to
obtain survival and a good quality of
life. While some tumor cells may live in the body for years, many of them are destroyed
by the body's immune system, he says. "No one is really talking about fully eradicating
tumors. That's not a realistic aim at present. The aim is to decrease the tumor cell
population size by surgery or other therapy so the body can deal with it. And dealing
with it doesn't necessarily mean getting rid of it. If the tumor doesn't get any bigger and
doesn't start sending out branches, that would be acceptable."
A Natural Protective Agent
The rift over whether to use vitamin A acid or vitamin A remains unresolved. In 1974,
Dr. Seifter proposed to the NIH that studies be initiated to determine if moderate
increases in vitamin A given to residents living in an area known as "Cancer Alley" in
New Jersey would reduce the incidence of tumors in the high-risk population. The NIH
rejected the proposal two years in a row. One of their reasons was that vitamin A was a
"toxic substance," says Dr. Seifter. But afterward, research workers at the NIH
announced that vitamin A acid would be preferable to use instead of vitamin A for
studies of tumor prevention.
Dr. Seifter labels the action "just political," the politics of cancer and cancer research.
He does not promote the use of huge doses of any kind except during extraordinary
circumstances. Besides normal supplements, people can get vitamin A by eating organ
meats like liver, kidney and spleen, or they can eat foods rich in carotene. Vegetables
like squash, carrots, spinach and all greens contain carotene, which the body converts
into vitamin as needed.
Whether you choose to get the nutrient through organ meats, vegetables or
supplements, vitamin A may cushion you against any number of life's stress-producing
elements.
CHAPTER
VITAMIN A: A KIND OF INTERNAL GAS MASK
You are surrounded by enemies—ruthless, destructive and invisible as air. Your every
breath lays you open to attack by this sinister crew—automobile exhaust, industrial
smog, poisonous clouds emitted by smokers who care even less about your health than
about their own, tiny particles too small to see, viruses and bacteria.
Individually, they are vicious. Working together, this terrifying pack of marauders can
do more to rough up your body than any gang of Central Park muggers. They can lay you
low with infection, emphysema, cancer. They can kill you. A black belt in karate won't
help you defend yourself against them. And a gas mask is just a bit impractical.
You aren't unarmed against this sea of troubles, though. Deep in your lungs, a complex,
highly efficient defense system is always in action to drive out invading chemicals,
particles and microorganisms and swiftly undo the damage they cause.
For this, you can thank a special kind of tissue called epithelium, which lines the entire
respiratory tract. Some epithelial cells secrete mucus, a thick substance that traps
particles and bacteria. Other epithelial cells come equipped with microscopic
A KIND OF INTERNAL GAS MASK 109
hairs, called cilia, which constantly sweep invaders up and out of the body.
Most important, this tissue has the ability to repair itself. Every day, epithelial cells are
killed by bacteria, poisonous gases and other airborne enemies, and every day they grow
back, literally as good as new. Without this power to regenerate, your lungs wouldn't last
long in the chemical soup that passes for air in modern cities.
How well your lungs can hold their own in the face of unrelenting assault means the
difference between health and very serious disease, so it's natural to wonder if there's
anything you can do to strengthen the fortress. In fact, a growing list of studies point to
something that can help—vitamin A.
For over 50 years, doctors and scientists have recognized that vitamin A has a special
role to play in maintaining the health of epithelial tissue (the skin is largely composed of
epithelial cells; this is one reason why vitamin A is so essential for healthy skin).
Without enough vitamin A, epithelial tissues become hardened and take abnormal
forms. They cannot repair themselves when they are damaged. Abundant vitamin A, on
the other hand, promotes the production of healthy new tissue.
With this power, mounting evidence affirms, vitamin A can help lungs protect
themselves against the airborne battalions that modern life sends in against them.
Some of the most impressive evidence of this protective ability comes from a study that
brought vitamin A into action against a particularly destructive enemy of lung health—a
noxious gas called nitrogen dioxide (NO^) iJonnuil of Applied Nutrition).
The Pollutant That Makes Smog Brown
If you've ever noticed a brownish cast to the smog that seems to be smothering your city,
you've seen NO:. More likely,
110 VITAMIN A
you've inhaled one lungful after another without even knowing it's there. Automobile
exhaust contributes this poisonous chemical to the air you breathe, and so do industrial
wastes. It is contained in cigarette smoke and produced when coal or natural gas is
burned for heat.
Laboratory tests have shown that NO2 can damage lung tissue, producing the
deteriorated state associated with emphysema. After exposure to NO2, it has been
found, animals are more susceptible to infections of the lung. (In human beings, air
pollution in general has been linked to high rates of respiratory infections.) Through a
chain of reactions within the body, NO2 can form nitrosamines, potent cancer-causing
chemicals.
What kind of protection can vitamin A offer against this poison gas? At the Delta
Regional Primate Research Center of Tulane University, James C. S. Kim, D.V.M., Sc.D.,
exposed three groups of hamsters to NO2 for five-hour periods once a week for eight
weeks. The conditions, he told us, were "comparable not only to industrial pollution
found in an urban-suburban environment, but also to the exposure of the respiratory
tract of a habitual smoker."
The first group of hamsters received a diet lacking in vitamin A. The second ate what Dr.
Kim called a "vitamin A-adequate" diet. The third was fed a "vitamin A-high" diet—twice
what the second group received. After eight weeks of exposure and observation, the
hamsters were killed and their lung tissues examined.
The vitamin A-deficient animals. Dr. Kim noted, responded poorly to NO2 exposure:
"Rapid and often labored breathing appeared immediately and continued throughout
the five hours. Recovery was slow." By the fifth week of the experiment, they had started
to decline visibly. When they were killed, "all exposed animals without exception were in
poor condition."
Microscopic examination of their lung tissues revealed severe damage. The epithelial
lining, it was found, had degenerated badly. The cilia, so necessary for defense against
bacteria, had been impaired, in some cases destroyed. Cells in the alveoli (the little sacs
where oxygen passes from the air into the bloodstream)
A KIND OF INTERNAL GAS MASK HI
had hardened and were unable to function properly. In many animals, there were signs
of pneumonia. And instances of abnormal cell growth—the kind that is associated with
the development of cancer—were widespread.
The hamsters that received a vitamin A-adequate diet fared a good deal better. NO2
made them breathe rapidly, but they showed no signs of distress, and afterward their
breathing quickly returned to normal. They remained in good condition throughout the
eight weeks of the experiment and were "healthy and alert" at its end.
When the lungs of these animals were examined, there were no signs of pneumonia or
the severe inflammation that had afflicted the deficient group. The gas had caused
damage, certainly, but normal lung tissue had apparently grown back to repair it. "There
appeared to be an increase in cell regeneration in animals supplemented with vitamin A,
in contrast with those not supplemented," Dr. Kim noted. The epithelial lining, for the
most part, was intact, and there were few abnormal cells.
The animals that received double doses of vitamin A survived their polluted
environment equally well. Observation and microscopic examination showed them to be
much like the vitamin A-adequate group (Environmental Research).
How A Protects the Lungs
In a telephone interview. Dr. Kim summed up the significant implications of his

experiment: "High concentrations of NO2 destroy the epithelial lining. With enough (or
a little more than enough) vitamin A, regeneration of the lung is rapid and successful.
But with a low dose, this protective response is retarded—and the animal suffers."
Too little vitamin A in the face of NO2 exposure can raise the risk of disease, he
explained. "Without vitamin A, ciliated epithelium doesn't form. Instead, you get
squamous cells— precarcinoma-type cells. You get abnormal mucous cells, which
112 VITAMIN A
mean clogging in the respiratory tract and danger of infection. If the epithehum doesn't
form properly, it can lead to emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
His findings should be of special interest to commuters. Dr. Kim says, because they
subject themselves to conditions much like those of his experiment. ''If you commute,
you have intermittent exposure to NO2. You may be exposed to urban pollution for five
hours, eight hours, then you come back to your house in the suburbs, where the air is
cleaner. The next day you go back to the city. The epithelium in the lung has to repair
itself accordingly, after each exposure."
Vitamin A can help the lungs adapt to this less-than-perfect world. Dr. Kim says. "But a
commuter who doesn't get enough vitamin A is going to suffer."
In general, the effects he observed in his lab led Dr. Kim to regard vitamin A highly as a
preventive measure for safeguarding lung health. Even the lung problems that we
associate with old age, like emphysema, may be forestalled with the early, regular use of
vitamin A supplements, he speculates.
CHAPTER
THE NUMBER ONE ANTI-CANCER VITAMIN
The evidence has been piHng up higher than a bumper crop of corn in August. Eating
green and yellow vegetables just may be your buffer against cancer.
Actually, it's not so much the vegetables as what's in them that seems to be doing the
trick. The good guy's name is beta-carotene, a natural pigment found in these vegetables
and even some fruits. Once inside our bodies, beta-carotene is converted to usable
vitamin A. Carrots, sweet potatoes, dark leafy greens, apricots, cantaloupe and winter
squash are excellent sources of this important nutrient.
While all this may seem like a mouthful in itself, there are reams of research to indicate
that those who eat carotene-rich foods on a routine basis are a lot more successful at
avoiding cancer or beating it down than those who don't.
The evidence is so impressive, in fact, that the conservative National Research Council,
convinced that there's a link between diet and cancer, has gone public with a list of
dietary recommendations designed to reduce the risks of developing cancers, especially
those that attack the lungs, stomach, throat, skin, bowel and bladder. The council
recommends that all Amer-
114 VITAMIN A
icans significantly reduce consumption of fats, fat-laden meats and dairy products: eat
less cured, pickled and smoked foods; convert to whole grains on a daily basis; and eat
plenty of vitamin C and foods rich in beta-carotene.
And that's not all. The news about beta-carotene is so promising that the National
Institutes of Health are now funding what is believed to be the biggest population study
ever undertaken to test the hypothesis that beta-carotene, known also by the name
provitamin A, does prevent cancer. The two-pronged study (the other half deals with
aspirin and heart disease) is being conducted by the Harvard medical school and
involves approximately 25,000 physicians throughout the country. The doctors are
taking either a beta-carotene supplement or a placebo (dummy pill) every other day.
Questionnaires concerning their dietary intake and current health status are being
tallied at six-month intervals. At the end of the five-year study, the incidence of cancer
in both the placebo and supplement groups will be measured.
"We hope the Harvard study will show exactly how important beta-carotene is in
preventing cancer," Micheline Mathews-Roth, M.D., the beta-carotene consultant for
the study, told us. "The studies to date show that there is something in beta-carotene-
rich foods that has an effect on cancer. But whether it's the beta-carotene or some other
component of the vegetables isn't known for sure yet."
That doesn't mean you have to get rabid about rabbit food, either. 'The studies to date
show that those who benefited from the beta-carotene in fighting cancer weren't eating
huge amounts of vegetables," says Dr. Mathews-Roth, whose own studies have found a
link between beta-carotene and skin cancer. "What it does show is that people aren't
even eating the 3 ounces a day or so that they should be getting."
Eat Your Vegetables
So the bottom line is that it's a good idea, in fact a wise idea, to get your full allowance of
those wholesome greens and
THE ANTI-CANCER VITAMIN 115
yellows each and every day. "We think it is prudent for all apparently healthy adults to
include in the daily diet one or two servings of the vegetables or fruits that are rich in
beta-carotene," says Richard B. Shekelle, Ph.D., an eminent researcher in diet and
health at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago. 'The weight of
evidence at this time suggests that people who eat these kinds of foods on a regular basis
run a lower risk of getting cancer than those who don't."
Dr. Shekelle sent the cancer research community into a spin with the results of his long-
term study on beta-carotene and its effects on the deadliest of malignancies to man—
lung cancer.
Dr. Shekelle's study actually began as a long-term investigation into coronary heart
disease on 2,107 workers of a Chicago-based plant of the Western Electric Company.
One aspect of the study was to take dietary records of the participants. When it came to
plotting vitamin A intake. Dr. Shekelle and his colleagues decided to divide the vitamin
intake into that which came from animal sources (whole milk, liver, cream, butter and
cheese) and that which came from beta-carotene-rich fruits and vegetables.
Over the next 19 years, 33 of the men developed lung cancer— all positively related to
cigarette smoking. However, Dr. Shekelle and his colleagues noticed something else very
significant in those who developed lung cancer. The rate was highest in those who ate
the least amount of beta-carotene foods and lowest in those who ate the greatest
amount. The result: an eight-to-one difference in risk between the lowest and highest
carotene-intake groups {Lancet, November 28, 1981).
Also of major significance is the work of Eli Seifter, Ph.D., Guiseppi Rettura, Ph.D.,
Jacques Padawer, Ph.D., and Stanley Levenson, M.D., of Albert Einstein College of
Medicine in New York City, who have published studies pinpointing the benefits of beta-
carotene and vitamin A in fighting cancer in animals.
"Our studies show that, if you inoculate mice with low doses of tumor cells, about 50
percent of them will develop tumors. However, in those pretreated with beta-carotene
supplements, only 10 percent develop tumors," Dr. Seifter told us. "We also did a study
in which we let the tumors grow to a certain size
116 VITAMIN A
before we started beta-carotene supplementation. With beta-carotene, the tumors grew

more slowly than normal and the animals survived longer/'
Vitamin A Strengthens Cancer Therapy
Perhaps the team's most dramatic experiment is a two-year study concerning the effects
of radiation therapy, beta-carotene and vitamin A supplementation on induced cancer in
mice. The mice were inoculated in the leg with cancer cells, which were permitted to
grow. The mice were then divided into six treatment groups. Dr. Seifter explains:
"The radiation dose we used was comparable to the dose used in many cancer patients.
That is, it was enough to reduce the tumor but not make it disappear. The dosage
needed for that is too powerful. In the case of our mice, it would have burned off the leg.
'The first group got no diet therapy and no radiation therapy. The tumors grew and the
animals died in 41 days. The second group got vitamin A but no radiation therapy and
died in 60 days. The third group got beta-carotene and no radiation therapy and died in
61 days. And the fourth group got radiation therapy and no dietary supplementation and
survived 83 days.
"So far, radiation therapy proved to be the best of the single treatments, but when it was
combined with dietary supplementation, life expectancy was much geater.
"in the group that received radiation and vitamin A therapy, the tumors got smaller to
the point where you couldn't feel them any more. Only one animal regrew the tumor and
died. The others lived out the first year. The same results were found in mice given
radiation therapy and beta-carotene."
The benefits of beta-carotene became even more obvious in the second year when these
survivors were again divided into groups. "Of the animals kept on vitamin A, none
redeveloped
THE ANTI-CANCER VITAMIN 117
their tumors and they lived a normal mouse life of two years. However, five of the six
taken off of vitamin A regrew their tumors and died.
"In the beta-carotene group, those kept on the supplements also remained tumor free.
And of those in which the beta-carotene was held back, only two redeveloped their
cancers. And this is where the significance lies. The vitamin A-deprived mice got their
tumors back in 66 days. But it took the beta-carotene-deprived mice 204 days to regrow
their tumors." Even after developing cancer twice, they managed to survive 654 days—
the natural life span of a mouse.
"It appears that the beta-carotene-fed mice retained a sufficient supply in their bodies to
protect them from cancer even after they stopped taking the supplements," says Dr.
Seifter.
There is also a human element in the chemotherapy-vitamin A cancer connection. This

was found at the Wisconsin Cancer Center in Madison during a study of 37 women with
breast cancer who were scheduled to undergo chemotherapy.
The study showed that 36 percent of the patients with low vitamin A levels improved
with treatment, compared with 83 percent of those with normal or high vitamin A levels.
Twenty-four percent of the patients in the low-vitamin A group remained stable and 40
percent worsened, while only 17 percent of the patients with normal or high vitamin A
levels were listed as stable. What's more, none of these women grew worse {Proceedings
of American Association for Cancer Research, 1981).
These studies come on the heels of other research, from such diverse sites as Norway,
Japan, Singapore and Great Britain, that shows a correlation between foods rich in
vitamin A or beta-carotene and a low cancer rate.
In many cultures, a particular plant or group of plants accounts for a large share of the
people's dietary intake. In Japan, yellow and green vegetables are a mainstay of the diet.
In West Africa, people eat a lot of red palm oil, the richest source of beta-carotene. In
Singapore, it's dark green leafy vegetables. And North Americans are known to like their
carrots.
One of the largest population studies to date was a five-year
118 VITAMIN A
look into the smoking and eating habits of 8,278 Norwegians. Researchers found that, of
the smokers, those who ate the least amount of beta-carotene had more than twice as
great a chance of getting cancer as those who ate more (International Journal of
Cancer).
While the evidence strongly suggests that beta-carotene may be a safeguard against
cancer, the final decision is still pending— at least until the Harvard study results are in.
In the meantime, it's good to keep up your stock of beta-carotene.
''I think that beta-carotene, like vitamin E, is a good measure of what you're eating," says
Dr. Seifter. "If you're not eating much, you're not getting enough. In terms of
measurements, daily intake should be from 5 to 10 milligrams." That's equivalent to
8,375 to 16,750 international units of vitamin A a day.
But you needn't stop there if you don't want to. And that's the great thing about beta-
carotene. Although it converts into beneficial vitamin A in the body, it doesn't lead to the
side effects that taking too much vitamin A can produce. Most people know that taking
too much vitamin A, more than 50,000 international units a day, can be toxic. Not so
with beta-carotene.
Sure, you can get too much. A warning indication would likely be a coloring of the skin,
like that of the 50 orange-faced people who were diagnosed in 1942 as having severe
carotenemia after consuming 5 to 8 pounds of carrots a day! Getting over that required
their getting off beta-carotene.
The other nice thing about beta-carotene is that finding the vegetables and fruits rich in
it is simple. Spinach; dandelion, beet and collard greens; cantaloupe; broccoli and
squash are just a slim picking of the edibles that are rich in beta-carotene. And they're
the very things you can easily grow in your own back yard.
So remember the name beta-carotene. It's a friend you just might want to keep close to
home.
THE B VITAMINS CHAPTER
REAP THE REWARDS OF NUTRITIONAL TEAMWORK
Teamwork is something special.
It's a cooperative magic that happens when talented individuals get together and bring
out the best in each other. No doubt you can come up with countless examples, from a
major league baseball club to your favorite singing group. Regardless of your choice, you
know that the team wouldn't work as well— it might not work at all—if someone decided
to take the day off.
Just like the B vitamins.
Thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, vitamins Bf, and B12 and folate (folic acid), along with the
lesser-known, but still vital, nutrients biotin, pantothenate (pantothenic acid), para-
aminobenzoic acid (PABA), inositol and choline—there's the roster of a winning
nutritional team.
Roger Williams, Ph.D., D.Sc, a University of Texas chemist and pioneer vitamin
researcher, places special emphasis on the teamwork principle.
"Each B vitamin fits into different parts of the metabolic machinery of every living cell.
And like cogs on a wheel, each has a specialized function," he told us.
But to prevent or cure disease. Dr. Williams explains, nutrients must also work
cooperatively.
120 THE B VITAMINS
"When human beings are fortunate enough to maintain health by consuming

wholesome food, this is accomplished by reason of the fact that they consume regularly
every one of about 40 nutritional essentials. . . . We utilize in our bodies all nutritional
elements simultaneously every day/" a paper coauthored by Dr. Williams points out
(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).
Unfortunately, try as we might, many of us can't meet all our B vitamin needs from food
alone. So when we look for a helping hand. Dr. Williams notes, the way to "follow in
nature's footsteps" is to choose a supplement containing each member of the B team.
"That way, they can work together," he says.
An Ideal Supplement
But how much of each is enough?
"In the body, B vitamins function as coenzymes," says Rebecca Riales, Ph.D., nutrition
consultant from Parkersburg, West Virginia. Coenzymes are keys that unlock an
enzyme's effectiveness and allow it to take part in a biological reaction.
Dr. Riales explains that very small amounts of the B vitamins are stored in the body, and
what isn't used is soon excreted.
"The ideal B-complex supplement is one that provides the Recommended Dietary
Allowance of all the vitamins. That way, you're covered in the event that you
occasionally don't eat right," Dr. Riales told us.
As a good, natural B vitamin source, many people swear by brewer's yeast (although
they may have less than lofty things to say about its taste), and Dr. Riales concurs.
"As a supplement, brewer's yeast provides a nice mix of B vitamins," she says, "but
remember, all yeasts are not the same. Natural products can vary, so you have to read
labels. For example, unless the yeast is enriched, folate may not be present. Even with
the most gentle processing, this vitamin is very easily lost."
NUTRITIONAL TEAMWORK 121
Dr. Riales points out that the RDAs for B vitamins can change at different times in an
individual's life.
Pregnancy, of course, has its own special demands, and people under constant stress
may have increased requirements.
"Anyone on long-term drug therapy should talk to the doctor or a good dietitian to find
out if what they're taking may bring on a deficiency," she adds.
Because biochemical individuality is a fact of life, a number of doctors recommend

taking many times the amounts suggested by Dr. Riales.
'The basic B complex is a foundation," says Harold Rosenberg, M.D., a New York
physician who often prescribes megadoses of nutrients to help his patients cope with the
stress of high-pressure living. "We can build on it to meet individual needs."
But might there be a problem with nutritional imbalances brought on by too much of a
good thing?
Dr. Rosenberg doubts it and talks instead about the body's "wisdom."
"We find our own physiological balance," he says. "The body takes what it needs, stores
what it can and throws the rest away."
So what's the ideal B vitamin supplement?
We know the cast of characters, but beyond the sometimes shifting RDAs, the jury's still
out on the optimal amount of each nutrient required to ensure high-level health.
However, there's no doubt about the wide-ranging consequences of B vitamin

insufficiency.
"The biological reactions dependent on the vitamin B complex are numerous," William
Shive, Ph.D., researcher at the Clayton Foundation Biochemical Institute of the
University of Texas, told us.
As an example, he described just one part of the amazingly intricate process by which
our bodies utilize carbohydrates.
"This particular series of reactions requires five of the B vitamins. And it's a case of the
chain being only as strong as its weakest link."
122 THE B VITAMINS
If one of the nutrients isn't in the proper place at the proper time, the work stops—Mke a
construction project that suddenly finds itself short of mortgage money.
''We can now explain and treat a number of conditions that baffled us because we were
used to thinking in terms of single nutrient deficiences," says Howerde E. Sauberlich,
Ph.D., chief of the division of nutrition technology at California's Letterman Army
Institute of Research.
"Pellagra, for instance, is usually thought of as a niacin-deficiency disorder," says Dr.

Sauberlich, ''but the disease may not be due directly to a lack of this one nutrient. You
see, the manufacture of niacin by the body requires the concerted action of riboflavin
and vitamin Be."
If any of these players don't make it to the field, the biological ball game could be over.
Pellagra, though now quite rare, is often fatal. B vitamins team up in other ways, too.
A riboflavin deficiency may rear its ugly head in the form of mouth lesions, but Dr.
Sauberlich writes that treatment with that one vitamin alone may not do the trick.
"Patients . . . [may] require supplementation with vitamin Bft or other B-complex

vitamins," he states {Micronuthent Interactions: Vitamins, Minerals, and Hazardous
Elements, New York Academy of Sciences, 1980).
In the same paper. Dr. Sauberlich lists a number of other interacting partnerships vital
to your well-being, including vitamin Bf, and B12, B12 and folate, and biotin and
pantothenate.
Is the Modern Diet Inadequate?
A deficiency of all members of the team is undoubtedly very rare, but because of their
interaction, it's vital that every one fills its proper position.
Before modern food processing, it was reasonably possible to eat hearty and satisfy your
B vitamin needs. But when white bread became the staff of life, the nutrient team came
up short on a number of key players.
NUTRITIONAL TEAMWORK 123
"Milling removes a significant portion of wheat's B vitamins," Paul LaChance, Ph.D.,

professor of nutrition at Rutgers University, told us. "What gets added back and what
gets left behind depend both on federal regulation and company policy."
He explains that niacin and thiamine are restored to roughly the same amount as would
be found in whole wheat. And enriched white flour actually has more riboflavin in it
than does the original grain.
"Enrichment helped eradicate beriberi and pellagra," notes Dr. LaChance. "The public
health benefits have been very real."
But he admits that white-as-the-driven-snow refined flour is but a pale echo of the
whole wheat original. Depending on the degree of refinement, significant amounts of
Bf,, folate, pantothenate and other nutrients may be lost—and not restored.
"I'm not against enriched products in one sense—they're gap fillers and certainly better
than a lot of meals people throw together on the run."
But since enrichment is partial at best, it offers a false sense of security. Better by far
would be a diet rich in complete B vitamin sources.
Liver, milk products, whole grains, lean meats and many vegetables are tasty ways to eat
your way to vitamin self-sufficiency.
And add a B-complex supplement as a kind of nutritional insurance.
You might be interested to know our astronauts bank on a supplement despite a well-
thought-out menu. "They're free to eat what they want along certain lines—they can
exchange items on the menu for other things they like. But remember, there's no fresh
fruit, meat or vegetables in space—it's all thermosta-bilized or freeze-dried," explains
Rita Rapp, dietitian and food-system coordinator at the Johnson Space Center in
Houston. "Some of our pilots feel they can't survive without that multiple vitamin to
supplement their meals!"
CHAPTER
THE THIAMINE THIEF MAY BE STEALING YOUR HEALTH
It's been said that good nutrition is like money in the bank. And to those of us who are in
the know, it may seem a relatively easy matter to balance our nutritional ''deposits'' and
so have a healthy personal economy.
But suppose for a moment that your bank has unknowingly hired a rather sneaky teller
who has found a way to embezzle thiamine (vitamin B|) from your account. In fact, this
guy is so clever that he can skim your thiamine deposits without your being the wiser.
Even the bank examiner—in this case, your doctor—might not detect the shenanigans of
this underhanded teller.
Then one day comes the crunch. Suddenly you're having a little trouble sleeping, or
you've lost your appetite. Maybe you're itching to pick a fight with your spouse. Maybe
your chest hurts and you're scared that your heart's acting up.
What's going on? This: You've overdrawn your thiamine account, and your checks are
bouncing all over the place.
If you think this sounds a bit farfetched—if you think it couldn't happen to you—maybe
it's time to think again. Scientific evidence is mounting that an alarming number of
people,
THE THIAMINE THIEF 125
both young and old, are to one degree or another deficient in thiamine. Consider:
• A 1979 New Jersey study showed that 25 percent of 146 elderly people living at home
were deficient in thiamine {Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, October, 1979).
• In a 1980 Irish study, up to 35 percent of the elderly surveyed had a thiamine

deficiency (Irish Journal of Medicine, vol. 149, no. 3, 1980).
• In Australia, "thiamine status determined by biochemical assay was abnormal in one in

five apparently healthy . . . blood donors'" {Medical Journal of Australia, May, 1980).
• In a California study, Joseph D. Walters, M.D., and Richard P. Huemer, M.D., found
that "the most common vitamin deficiences in our series were low serum Bi and D,"
each of which occurred in 32 percent of their patients. Drs. Walters and Huemer
conclude, "subclinical, but biochemically significant, vitamin deficiencies occur quite
commonly [and] may be significant elements . . . that contribute to a disease state"
(Journal of the International Academy of Preventive Medicine).
We Need Only a Little Thiamine
In light of the fact that thiamine was the first member of the vitamin B complex to be
identified chemically and is thus so well known, it is somewhat ironic that so many
people are deficient in it. Perhaps doubly ironic is the fact that the human need for the
vitamin is relatively low. The National Research Council recommends only 0.5
milligram of thiamine per every 1,000 calories that we take in. The daily Recommended
Dietary Allow-
126 THE B VITAMINS
ance is set at 1.0 milligram for most women and between 1.2 and 1.4 milligrams for most
men.
If the vitamin is so well known and our daily requirement for it apparently so low, why
are so many deficient in it?
Part of the problem lies in the very nature of thiamine. Like vitamin C, thiamine is one
of the water-soluble vitamins, which means that we can't store it in our bodies. We have
to make new thiamine "deposits" every day because we are continually writing checks
against our account.
Another part of the problem, according to Sue Rodwell Williams, M.P.H., author of
Nutrition and Diet Therapy (C. V. Mosby, 1973), is the fact that ''thiamine is less widely
distributed in food than some other vitamins." To be sure, thiamine is available in fairly
high quantities in such foods as pork, beef, liver, whole grains and legumes, but many
people do not eat these foods regularly, and thiamine is hard to come by in other foods.
"Therefore," says Mrs. Williams, "a deficiency in thiamine is a distinct possibility in the
average diet."
But the big rub with thiamine gets back to that weasel of a bank teller. He takes every
opportunity to snitch some thiamine, and all sorts of factors give him just the
opportunity he needs.
Age: A number of dietary studies have suggested that our requirements for certain
nutrients increase with age. In the case of thiamine, one study indicates that this may be
due not to any malabsorption of the vitamin but to our inability, as we get older, to
utilize what we do absorb, in effect raising our daily requirements {Journal of the
American Geriatrics Society, October, 1979).
Eating foods with empty calories: Thiamine is essential for metabolizing sugar, and
eating too much sugar-laden food and beverages not only depletes the thiamine we do
have, but adds no new thiamine to our diet.
Unknowingly eating foods low in thiamine: In one study, 25 volunteers were allowed to
continue their normal diets with a few seemingly minor exceptions: They were to eat no
pork (high in thiamine but, unfortunately, high in fat as well) or vitamin-enriched
cereal, bread or breakfast drinks. Even such mild re-
strictions produced a "significant fall" in thiamine in only 14 days {Importance of

Vitamins to Human Health, University Park Press, 1979).
Overcooking foods: Thiamine is fragile, and too much heat or prolonged cooking can
reduce or even destroy the vitamin.
Drinking alcoholic beverages: This can destroy thiamine or reduce the amount the body
can absorb.
Dieting to reduce weight: With dieting or any reduced intake of food, your thiamine
supply may fall 40 percent.
No Symptoms—At First
Now, none of the above would probably result in a big-time, clinical thiamine-deficiency
disease such as beriberi. No, what we are talking about here is not Bonnie and Clyde
knocking over your bank, but just a teller with a mean streak who is stealing a little too
much of your thiamine each day.
Such a condition is called a subclinical deficiency. That means it's serious enough to be
concerned about, not serious enough to kill you, and perhaps most important, so well
hidden that neither you nor your doctor may suspect that anything is abnormal.
The hidden nature of subclinical deficiencies was vividly demonstrated in a recent study
in which 19 medical students volunteered to go on a partially thiamine-restricted diet.
Using chemical analysis of urine samples, the investigators could easily identify students
who were low in thiamine. But every other commonly used method of diagnosing the
deficiency was considered a failure. Those methods included asking the students how
they felt, psychological testing, nerve conduction studies and work performance studies
{American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, April, 1980).
As the researchers themselves put it, their study "casts some doubt on the long-held
belief that certain subjective signs and symptoms herald early thiamine deficiency." In
other words, lots of people are walking around with subclinical thiamine deficiencies
and don't know it. And it might not take too much
128 THE B VITAMINS
more of a deficiency to push them into a category where they'd know it more than they'd
like to.
One step below subclinical is chronic, mild deficiency of thiamine. The problem here is
that, although the condition is no longer hidden, it's nonetheless very hard to diagnose.
Why? Because the symptoms are so general and vague. Lack of appetite, indigestion,
nausea, severe constipation—do those sound like symptoms of chronic, mild thiamine
deficiency? Well, they are but a few, and they might even cause you to eat less, which
would only aggravate the deficiency!
How a Deficiency Affects the Nervous System
Other, more serious thiamine-deficiency problems can be heart muscle weakness and
edema (an abnormal accumulation of body fluids). Also, thiamine deficiency can cause
neuropathy, a degeneration of the nerves that can lead to paralysis.
But perhaps the most noteworthy instances of mild, chronic thiamine deficiency have to
do with a symptom not normally associated with it: neurotic behavior.
In a study of 65 patients found to have neurosis, the subjects were tested for thiamine
deficiency. The researchers concluded that the "neurosis was associated with thiamine
deficiency and with consumption of foods poor or practically lacking in this vitamin."
Unfortunately, the researchers did not give the patients thiamine to see if it would cure
or lessen their neurosis {Nutrition Reports International).
However, in another study, thiamine was administered— with surprising results.
In a remarkable case, 20 patients with such symptoms as sleep disturbances, personality

changes (sometimes hostile), fevers of unknown cause, intermittent diarrhea and lack of
appetite were studied. As the researchers point out, many of these symptoms "would
represent a trap for the unwary physician since he
would be unable to find any objective physical sign other than variations of normal,
which would be easily classed as the effects of a chronic state of anxiety. Thus some of
the physical signs that [were] observed were the classical signs which have generally
become associated with 'neurotic tension.' " Of course, these symptoms were not life
threatening, but they were "nevertheless debilitating and extremely frustrating since
many of [the patients] had already received conventional therapy unsuccessfully"
(American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, February, 1980).
Could low thiamine be the culprit here? Apparently so, for the researchers report that
"all of the 20 patients noticed marked symptomatic improvement or lost their symptoms
completely after thiamine supplement." It's also interesting that many of the patients
had been consuming large quantities of junk foods, notably soft drinks.
Fortunately, after thiamine therapy, "some patients lost their craving for sweet-tasting
foods and beverages."
As you can see, even a mild thiamine deficiency can have important consequences, and
that scoundrel of a bank teller is going to keep on embezzling his share. But you can
keep ahead of the little rascal by keeping up your thiamine balance. That way, you'll
never have to worry about getting a check returned for insufficient funds.
CHAPTER
MAKE UP YOUR MIND EAT MORE THIAMINE
Thiamine might have saved her.
An elderly woman was admitted to the hospital from a nursing home. Her body was
dehydrated. Her mind, too, was seared and desertlike, empty of life. Given fluids, she
became more alert. But still too lethargic and confused to drink anything herself, she
was fed intravenously. Four weeks later, she was well enough to go back to the nursing
home—but she never went back to solid foods.
At the home, they hooked her up to an intravenous solution of sugar, salt and water and
spoon-fed her clear liquids. Two months passed. Then, she lapsed into a stupor. Taken
to the hospital, she died in four days.
An autopsy showed the causes of death. A major cause was Wernicke's disease—a brain
disease caused by a severe lack of thiamine.
Without thiamine—vitamin Bi—the brain and nervous system collapse. Arms and legs
lose their coordination. Eye muscles freeze in paralysis. The mind blackens into
amnesia, coma, death. But even a slight deficiency of thiamine wounds the brain. Ir-
EAT MORE THIAMINE 131
ritability, depression, lack of initiative, insomnia, inability to concentrate: Those are the
symptoms of a mild thiamine deficiency, symptoms too often diagnosed as senility or
neurosis.
Improving a Too-Short Memory
Working with rats, Japanese researchers have found, for example, that thiamine
deficiency erases memory. They took two groups of animals—one maintained on a
thiamine-supple-mented diet and the other on a diet deficient in thiamine—and timed
them individually in an enclosed alley maze. After 20 days, those deprived of thiamine
appeared to forget the pattern that would lead them out the other side. They groped
around the maze and made repeated wrong turns so that it took them an average of 55
seconds to get through the maze, compared to 20 seconds for those on a thiamine-rich
diet. It wasn't until they were put back on a high-thiamine diet that their memory and
timing improved {Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology).
And this seems to be one finding that's not limited to animals. Mounting evidence
suggests that the loss of memory—as well as other symptoms normally associated with
senility—may in fact be a result of a thiamine deficiency.
One such study, published in the International Journal of Vitamin and Nutrition
Research, tested 18 geriatric patients, suffering from dementia, irritability and loss of
appetite, for possible vitamin deficiencies. Fifteen of the 18 oldsters were rated deficient
in thiamine.
Who knows how many more miserable grandmothers and grandfathers are hopelessly
condemned to mind-boggling drugs and disrespect when all they may need is a daily
dose of thiamine? The problem is, vague symptoms of an early deficiency— including
poor memory, unsteadiness, alterations in blood pressure and pulse rate, and heart
complaints—are easily overlooked and may be misdiagnosed.
132 THE B VITAMINS
Lack of Thiamine Causes Mental Problems
In a study of the thiamine levels of 154 psychiatric patients, researchers found more
thiamine deficiencies among those patients with severe disorders (such as
schizophrenia) than among those with milder illnesses {British Journal of Psychiatry,
September, 1979).
How can a physical lack, a lack of a vitamin, cause mental problems?
Thiamine is central to carbohydrate digestion. Carbohydrates break down into simple

sugars, such as the glucose which fuels the brain. Missing thiamine, the body fails to
churn out enough blood sugar, and intelligence fades. Also, when blood sugar
metabolism goes awry, acids build up in the blood and irritate the nervous system.
But that explanation, while based on the facts of thiamine metabolism, is still only a
theory.
Some researchers believe that a thiamine deficiency causes mental problems by cutting
down the availability of serotonin, a chemical in the brain that helps regulate emotions.
In a study investigating that theory, researchers from the Mount Sinai School of
Medicine in New York City divided rats into separate groups. They fed one group a diet
containing pyr-ithiamine, a chemical that drains the body of thiamine. Another group
got a normal diet. During the study, the researchers took samples from the brains of
both groups and measured them for serotonin.
Turning Seizures On and Off
For the first eight days of the study, the pyrithiamine rats had no change in either their
behavior or their average serotonin
level. Then the rats began to have "dramatic behavioral changes"—they went into
spasms and convulsions and had little or no coordination—and their serotonin levels
dropped 60 percent below the level of the normally fed rats. But when the pyrithiamine
rats were given massive doses of thiamine, their seizures stopped within 24 hours and
their serotonin levels returned to normal {Neurology).
Millions of human beings weren't as lucky as those rats. When they lost their
coordination, when their arms and legs were paralyzed, no scientist replaced the
thiamine in their diets. They were the victims of beriberi, a disease once epidemic in
Asia, where polished rice—stripped of its thiamine-rich bran—was the dietary staple.
But those millions didn't die of paralysis. They died of heart failure. In the final stages of
beriberi, the heart swells, stretches—and stops.
Few Americans die of beriberi heart disease. But many Americans have a heart problem
—a problem they might solve if they upped their intake of thiamine.
When researchers measured the thiamine blood levels of over 125 elderly people, they
found that 32 percent were deficient in thiamine—and that heart pain was more
common among those with a deficiency {Nutrition and Metabolism).
In another study, researchers from the University of Alabama medical center in

Birmingham measured the daily thiamine intake of 74 people and then had them fill out
a questionnaire in which they listed their cardiovascular (heart and circulatory system)
complaints.
Dividing the people into a high-intake and a low-intake group, they found that those
with a low intake of thiamine had almost twice as many cardiovascular complaints
{Journal of the American Geriatrics Society).
In a third study, researchers compared the levels of thiamine in the heart muscles of 12
patients who died of heart disease to the levels of 10 patients who died of other causes.
They found that the heart patients had an average thiamine level 57 percent lower than
the other patients (Nutrition Reviews}.
134 THE B VITAMINS

Fewer Heart Spasms with Thiamine
A study from Japan provides more proof that thiamine strengthens the heart. There, in
the 10 days before their open heart surgery, a group of 25 patients received thiamine
while another group of patients did not. When their hearts were artificially stopped to
perform the operation, only 10 percent of the thiamine group had abnormal heart
spasms, compared to 30 percent of the other group. And when their hearts were revived
at the end of the operation, 30 percent of the thiamine group had heart spasms,
compared to 95 percent of the other group (Medical Tribune).
The body's two most important organs—the heart and the brain—need thiamine. But the
rest of the body demands a fair share, too. If the system lacks thiamine, any part can
rebel: Studies link many diseases to a thiamine deficiency. One of them is cancer.
Thiamine against Cancer
Scientists from the University of Surrey in England studied a group of 17 people with
breast cancer and 25 people with bronchial cancer. Sixty-five percent of those with
breast cancer and 52 percent of those with bronchial cancer had a thiamine deficiency—
compared with only 13 percent of a group without cancer (Oncology).
That a lack of thiamine causes cancer has yet to be proved. But that an abundance of
thiamine treats the disease—at least in laboratory animals—is a fact.
Tumors, transplanted into laboratory animals, were treated with an anti-cancer

substance. When the animals received thiamine, the ''antitumor activity" of the
substance increased (Cancer Research}. In other animals with cancer, the growth of
tumors slowed in those receiving yeast, and a researcher theorized
that "the effectiveness of the yeast could well be due to its content of thiamine"
{European Journal of Cancer).
Eye problems have also been linked to thiamine deficiency.
Measuring the thiamine blood levels in 38 patients with glaucoma, an eye disease that
can lead to blindness, researchers found the glaucoma patients had a "significantly
lower" average level than 12 healthy people (Annals of Ophthalmology, July, 1979).
Two children who developed severe eye problems while being treated for seizures were
given 50 milligrams of thiamine a day for six weeks. Their vision returned to normal
{British Journal of Ophthalmology, March, 1979).
Beneficial in Liver Disease
Studies show that thiamine deficiency may complicate liver disease.

Measuring the thiamine levels of patients with chronic liver disease, doctors found that
58 percent of the patients had a deficiency of thiamine. When they supplemented the
patients' diets with 200 milligrams of thiamine a day for one week, the disease
improved.
"High doses of thiamine," the doctors wrote, "should be included in the routine
nutritional management of patients with severe chronic liver disease" (Scandinavian
Journal of Gastroenterology).
A Common Deficiency
But it's not only sick people who need more thiamine. Measuring the thiamine levels of
diabetic patients and healthy people, researchers found that many people in both groups
had low levels of thiamine. "Fifty percent both of our control subjects and
136 THE B VITAMINS
patients would benefit from increasing their intake of thiamine," said the researchers
(American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).
Fifty percent. Either you or your spouse? A thiamine deficiency is one of the most
widespread of nutritional problems, particularly among the elderly.
When researchers from Colorado State University measured the blood levels of various
nutrients in 70 older women, they found that a lack of thiamine was the most common
deficiency (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).
In a study measuring the thiamine levels of 35 older men, more than 25 percent were
found to have a deficiency (New Zealand Medical Journal).
Not only older people lack thiamine, however. When the daily thiamine intake of a
group of college women was calculated, it was found that 75 percent had an intake below
the government's Recommended Dietary Allowance (Journal of the American Dietetic
Association). Pregnant women, too, run the risk of a deficiency. A study showed that 25
to 30 percent of pregnant women were "thiamine depleted'' (American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition).
But a thiamine deficiency is easy to correct. Measuring the thiamine levels of 153 men
and women, researchers found that 23 percent had a deficiency. Giving them 20
milligrams of thiamine a day for 12 days brought their levels up to normal (Clinica Chi
mica Acta).
But why is a thiamine deficiency so common? Why are supplements necessary? Can't
you get enough of the nutrient from your diet?
Thiamine Is Destroyed by Chlorine
You can. But it's not easy, especially if you use tap water.
Most people do, of course—tap water that contains chlorine. And recent evidence
indicates that chlorine destroys thiamine. Researchers cooked rice in either chlorinated
tap water or distilled water and then measured the amount of thiamine in the
rice. The rice cooked in tap water had 36 percent less thiamine. When the researchers
added more chlorine to the tap water, rice cooked in it contained even less thiamine
(Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology, August, 1979).
It's hard to avoid chlorine. It's even harder to avoid poly-chlorinated biphenyl (PCB), a
chemical pollutant that has contaminated the globe. Researchers from Kyoto University
in Japan have unfortunately found that, when rats are given PCB, the chemical destroys
much of the thiamine in their bodies. "Administration of PCB," they write, ''resulted in a
thiamine deficiency, even when dietary thiamine levels were normal" (Journal of
Environmental Pathology and Toxicology, March, 1979).
Chlorine and PCB—two strikes against thiamine. Do you drink coffee? Strike three.
In a study on coffee and thiamine, volunteers drank seven cups of coffee in three hours.
Eight days later, they drank the same amount of water. On both days, researchers
measured the amount of thiamine excreted in the volunteers' urine. The amount was 45
percent less on the coffee day than on the water day— good evidence, say the
researchers, that coffee destroys thiamine in the body (International Journal of Vitamin
and Nutrition Research). And decaffeinated coffee is no way out. It's not caffeine that
destroys thiamine, but another coffee ingredient, chloro-genic acid. Should coffee lovers
switch to tea? Just as bad.
Volunteers drank four to six cups of tea a day for a few weeks. And even though they ate
a diet designed to provide enough thiamine, all of them developed a deficiency within a
week (Federation Proceedings).
You may be able to have your tea and drink it too, however. Researchers have discovered
that the ingredient in tea that causes a thiamine deficiency is tannic acid but that
vitamin C protects the body against tannic acid, allowing absorption of thiamine
(American Journal of Clinical Nutrition). If you must drink tea. drink it with a squeeze
of vitamin C-rich lemon, or take a small amount of vitamin C with each cup.
CHAPTER
KEEP IN THE PINK WITH RIBOFLAVIN
It may be bad form to stick out your tongue—but a good idea. This organ of speech, even
when silent, can tell many a tale about your nutritional status.
It might clue you in on whether you need more riboflavin (vitamin B:). a deficiency of
which can open the door to a host of problems (like cataracts, conjunctivitis, fatigue,
dermatitis, birth defects and even, according to some researchers, the most dreaded of
all diseases—cancer).
If your tongue is pink and velvety, chances are you are well supplied with B vitamins,
including riboflavin.
But if your tongue has a purplish cast, more like fuchsia or magenta than pink roses,
then, indeed, you may need more riboflavin.
Maybe you also have lines radiating from your lips, oily hair, blurred vision in poor light,
a tendency to whip out your sunglasses at the first ray of golden sun, frequent tearing of
the eyes, red inflamed eyelids or flaky areas around your nose, eyebrows or hairline.
Many of these conditions respond to riboflavin and are due to a dietary deficiency of this
nutrient, according to
KEEP IN THE PINK WITH RIBOFLAVIN 139
a survey of the scientific literature {Progress in Food and Nutrition Science).
In the United States, where there is plenty of meat and milk (two primary sources of
riboflavin) and where bread is enriched with this vitamin, there are, nevertheless,
shortages. As many as one family out of every seven has a diet deficient in riboflavin,
according to a World Health Organization Report.
You may consume what you think is a well-balanced diet and still suffer a deficiency of
riboflavin. In your food, this water-soluble nutrient is quickly destroyed by light. In your
body, drugs like oral contraceptives and tranquilizers inhibit absorption. As an enzyme
activator, riboflavin is so busy that it is sometimes completely used up before it has
completed its metabolic chores. And that's too bad because, as a part of coenzymes and
enzymes necessary for the transport of oxygen, riboflavin participates in the respiration
of every single cell.
Defense against Cancer
That makes riboflavin a very important member of the nutritional team that can help
you build a better defense against cancer. As Nobel prize winner Otto Warburg, a
biochemist who was director of the Max Planck Institute for Cell Physiology in Berlin,
explained to the Nobel laureates at Lindau in 1966, though there are hundreds, perhaps
thousands of secondary causes that stimulate cancer growth, there is only one primary
cause, and that is replacement of the respiration of oxygen (energy for normal cells) by a
fermentation of sugar (energy for cancer cells).
Therefore, Dr. Warburg continued, what we need in order to have the best possible
chance of avoiding cancer are those factors that are involved in the health of cell
respiration. Those factors are iron and three of the B vitamins—riboflavin, niacin and
pantothenate (pantothenic acid)—found in brewer's yeast and liver.
140 THE B VITAMINS
Earlier studies reported by the late Boris Sokoloff, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Southern
Bio-Research Institute, Florida Southern College, Lakeland, revealed that, when
riboflavin is added to a diet that includes cancer-causing chemicals, it reduces the
incidence of cancer in laboratory animals. Other vitamins of the B family used singly
had no noticeable effects {Cancer — New Approaches, Nen- Hope, Devin-Adair, 1952).
This does not mean that the other members of the B family are not helpful when used
with riboflavin. They help each other.
But it is riboflavin which takes part in cell respiration, providing oxygen for the cell to
breathe and go about the business of duplicating itself in a normal, orderly fashion.
Without riboflavin, the oxygen supply is reduced.
As little as a 35 percent reduction in the available supply, according to Dr. Warburg,

causes the cell, in its efforts to stay alive, to make a metabolic switch. Since it can no
longer derive energy from the oxidation, or burning, of food, it turns for energy to an
alternate process that requires no oxygen, thus initiating the uncontrolled growth
process we know as cancer.
Dr. Warburg believed so strongly that the B vitamins and iron would enhance the body's
defenses that he went so far as to suggest that, following surgery for cancer, a sufficient
supply of these nutrients would help prevent the spread or recurrence of malignant
growths.
Laboratory research seems to justify Dr. Warburg's faith in the efficacy of the B vitamins
—especially riboflavin.
For instance, Lionel A. Poirier, formerly of the National Cancer Institute, reported at the
American Chemical Society national meeting that riboflavin inhibits the production of
liver cancer in laboratory animals injected with cancer-causing chemicals.
Henry Foy and Athena Kondi of the National Public Health Laboratory Service, Nairobi.
Kenya, point out in a letter to the editor of the British Medical Journal the important
role of riboflavin in maintaining the integrity of the epithelial, or body-lining, tissue—
particularly in the esophagus. They suggest that riboflavin should be considered—along
with vitamin A—as a
nutrient whose deficiency may lead to precancerous conditions. They base their
conclusions on a study involving eight baboons fed a diet deficient in riboflavin. Even
though the baboons received an otherwise adequate diet completely balanced with
protein, as well as vitamins A and D and all the members of the B family except
riboflavin, they developed, after 160 to 300 days, profound changes in the skin of the
face, hands, legs and feet as well as more sinister changes in the esophagus.
Very Important in Pregnancy

Along with her prayers for a normal healthy child, every expectant mother should
include a good riboflavin source such as brewer's yeast or desiccated liver in her daily
routine.
Laboratory experiments have indeed shown that a deficiency of riboflavin in pregnant

mammals causes malformations in their offspring. When Bruce Mackler. M.D., and
colleagues at the school of medicine of the University of Washington, Seattle, created
riboflavin deficiencies in pregnant rats, a very large proportion of the fetuses—greater
than 95 percent—developed malformations (Pediatrics).
Most of the defects. Dr. Mackler reports, were skeletal— abnormal development of the
bones. The most common problems were incomplete development of the bones of the
extremities. Dr. Mackler also mentions cleft palate as an example of "a wide number of
other anomalies" that have been produced in the fetuses of rats with riboflavin
deficiency.
Since the effects of riboflavin deficiency are similar to. but less severe than, those
produced by the drug thalidomide, it has been postulated by investigators that the drug
may be a riboflavin antagonist, either causing a deficiency of riboflavin or preventing its
metabolism.
Adequate amounts of riboflavin are essential for the mind as well as the body. They may
not ensure that your child will be an Einstein but, "a number of important enzymes in
the brain require riboflavin to function," says Richard S. Rivlin, M.D.,
142 THE B VITAMINS
chief of nutrition service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. ''It is
likely, therefore, that a deficiency of riboflavin during a critical period of time probably
would impair the normal development of the brain to some extent."
The Sensitive Nutrient
Riboflavin is found in a variety of foods including yeast, liver, wheat germ, eggs, milk
and green leafy vegetables, but it's often tough to get your family to eat these foods.
Then, too, we've seen that riboflavin is as sensitive as a prima donna. It is easily
destroyed by exposure to light, as when milk is stored in glass jars, for example. It can
also be destroyed in cooking because it is water soluble.
How can you be sure of a good supply of this vitally important nutrient? If the milkman
leaves milk in bottles on your doorstep, make sure he sets them in an opaque, covered
container. Bottled milk loses up to 70 percent of its riboflavin in four hours when
exposed to sunlight.
Cover your pots when cooking. Exposure of food to light during cooking causes even
greater riboflavin losses than heat. And be sure to use all your pot liquor left after
cooking—it's rich in B vitamins. If you soak seeds and grains for sprouting, use the soak
water in soups or to cook vegetables. It's another good source of B vitamins.
Remember that you lose some riboflavin when you soak vegetables or fruits in large
quantities of water. You also lose some during cold storage, whether in supermarkets
and warehouses or in your own refrigerator or freezer. In addition, frozen meat develops
a ''drip' when thawed which contains approximately 9 percent of the protein, 12 percent
of the thiamine, 10 percent of the riboflavin and 15 percent of the niacin. So repeated
freezing and thawing may result in considerable losses of the original nutrient content—
not to mention flavor.
How much riboflavin do you need?
The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) is 1.6 milligrams for an average adult male
and 1.2 for a female. The need is higher in pregnant and nursing women. Because
riboflavin participates in the metabolism of protein, the need is also higher when the
diet is high in protein.
Since riboflavin is so vital, and because it is rarely toxic, it would be nutritional wisdom
to get even more than the RDA. How? A convenient source is brewer's yeast, which
contains a minimum of 0.3 milligrams of riboflavin per tablespoon. And don't say you
can't stand the taste. Shop around till you find some that is to your liking. Then use it in
soups, stews, casseroles, or mix it with flour to thicken gravy. In baked goods, add two
tablespoons to every cup of flour and no one will know it's there—except your body's
cells, which will probably stand up and cheer.
Some people start the day with a yeasty tomato shake—a glass of tomato juice, 1 or 2
tablespoons of brewer's yeast and a dash of basil, nicely blended. Take a yeast break
instead of a coffee break for a lift without a letdown.
Liver, kidney and heart are all excellent sources of riboflavin, but you can't expect your
family to eat them every day. So are milk, cheese, eggs, green leafy vegetables and whole
grains.
Make an effort to step up your intake of riboflavin. You'll be ensuring yourself a steady
supply of the nutrient that can help keep not only your tongue, but your whole body, in
the pink.
CHAPTER
RIBOFLAVIN IS READY TO HELP
Just before her second birthday, a very ill little girl named Christina was brought to the
Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. For no apparent reason, the child seemed to be
losing her abilities to see, hear and walk, and she had life-threatening anemia. She was
put in the care of three doctors: Patricia Hart-lage, M.D., Dorothy Hahn, M.D., and
Robert Leshner, M.D.
The doctors were puzzled. In spite of an adequate diet and even a daily multivitamin
with iron, Christina's anemia wouldn't quit. "We were keeping her alive with
transfusions," Dr. Hart-lage told us. "She was a pretty sick little girl."
Searching for an effective treatment for the anemia, the doctors turned to B vitamins.
Under the microscope. Christina's red blood cells were disfigured by funny little bubbles
called vacuoles; B vitamins are known to promote the production of healthy red blood
cells.
The doctors narrowed the choices down to vitamin B,, (pyr-idoxine), thiamine (B|) and
riboflavin (B:) and decided to give Christina high doses of each of them, alone, for one
month. They tried vitamin B,, and thiamine, but neither had any effect. Then, almost as
a last resort, they gave her riboflavin. Five days later,
RIBOFLAVIN IS READY TO HELP 145
"Whammo!" recalls Dr. Hartlage. "Christina started to produce healthy red blood cells."
"We just happened to try riboflavin last," Dr. Hahn told us. "We gave her the vitamins in
sequence. Riboflavin was the last we tried, and lo and behold, she responded to it. If we
had tried riboflavin first, we would never have known whether thiamine or pyridoxine
[vitamin B^,] would have worked or not."
Even more amazingly, riboflavin began to reverse the neurological damage done to
Christina's eyesight and hearing. Riboflavin deficiency is known to affect the blood and
skin, but not the nervous system in humans. "We haven't been able to find any similar
reports in the medical literature," Dr. Hahn said. "We've talked to hematologists,
neurologists and pediatricians."
Christina's illness is an extreme and unique case. Her diet contained all the riboflavin
most of us would need, but she has a rare need for large amounts of it. Her response to
riboflavin, and riboflavin alone, however, shows that the vitamin has what Dr. Leshner
calls a "niche of its own" among the B vitamins. For various reasons, riboflavin has not
received much attention in the past. "We know a lot about the other vitamins," Dr.
Hartlage told us, "but there's not a lot on riboflavin."
A Clue to Cataracts?
Not that there isn't a lot of interesting work on riboflavin going on. Two researchers at
the University of Alabama, Harold W. Skalka, M.D., and Josef Prchal, M.D., are
pursuing a scientific lead that might make some of the 400,000 cataract operations
performed in the United States every year unnecessary.
"Riboflavin might not prevent cataracts," Dr. Skalka told us, "but it may be able to help
retard their formation. That is, instead of a person developing cataracts at 50, you could
hold it back to age 60 or 70 or 80 in some cases."
In a study of 173 patients at the Eye Foundation hospital in Birmingham, Alabama, the
two doctors found that 20 percent of a group of cataract patients under age 50 were
deficient in ri-
146 THE B VITAMINS
boflavin, and 34 percent of a group of cataract patients over 50 were deficient in the
vitamin. On the other hand, all 16 of a group of people over 50 with normal vision and
clear lenses had high levels of riboflavin—higher, even, than the levels in young, healthy
people who served as controls in the experiment.
The doctors did not conclude from this evidence that riboflavin can prevent cataracts.
But they were intrigued—and totally surprised—by the fact that the older people with
good eyes all had a lot of riboflavin in their systems.
"What is perhaps surprising is the lack of any riboflavin deficiency in our older clinic
patients with clear lenses. The possibility that dietary riboflavin supplementation
(beyond current recommended levels) may be useful in retarding the formation of senile
cataracts is currently under investigation," the researchers reported {Metabolic and
Pediatric Ophthalmology, vol 5, no. 1, 1981).
The vitamin is believed to help protect the eye through an intricate chain of chemical
reactions, culminating in the release of a substance called glutathione, which apparently
shields the proteins in the lens of the eye from the kind of damage that causes cataracts.
"There are so few good, solid leads in the treatment of cataracts, which are a major
public health problem in the United States,'' Dr. Skalka told us, "that anything is worth
investigating. In this case, riboflavin therapy makes sense theoretically and there are
also some laboratory suggestions that it will work."
Dr. Skalka and Dr. Prchal are starting experiments with animals to test their idea. They
are optimistic. "In 5 to 15 years," they say, "we may have several ways to slow down the
development of cataracts."
Riboflavin Builds Healthy Blood
There has also been some significant research into riboflavin's beneficial effects on the
blood, including some that might explain why riboflavin helped little Christina in
Georgia. Ribo-
flavin lengthens the lives of red blood cells and boosts the action of folate (folic acid,
another B vitamin) in the production of new red blood cells in bone marrow. The
vitamin also seems to help maintain a high level of iron in red blood cells.
In London, two researchers found that riboflavin protects red blood cells the same way it
protects proteins in the lens of the eye—by promoting the release of glutathione. Their
findings are important because an estimated 30 percent of Britons over age 65 who live
in their own homes are mildly riboflavin deficient (British Journal of Nutrition,
September, 1981).
The researchers found that red blood cells in riboflavin-deficient people have a shorter
life span. The deficiency in each cell seems to weaken its ability to resist damage from
highly reactive oxidants. The cells die before their time and are filtered out of the blood.
A researcher from the University of Ghana in West Africa— where diets are commonly
low in riboflavin—found a special relationship between riboflavin and folate. Knowing
that folate is responsible for the production of red blood cells, the professor found that
folate works much better if it's reinforced by a dose of riboflavin. "Riboflavin may be
exerting its effect through its involvement in folate metabolism," he notes
{InternationalJour-nal for Vitamin and Nutrition Research, vol. 50, no. 3, 1980).
The researcher also found that, by a separate process, "riboflavin is involved in the
absorption and utilization of dietary iron" in the blood. He suggests that riboflavin
supplements should accompany iron therapy, adding that "in pregnancy, iron and folate
deficiencies are common and the addition of riboflavin to iron and folate used in
treatment may be advisable."
Deficiency—How Common?
Clearly, we all need riboflavin. But how much do we need, and under what conditions
may our requirements be higher?
Jack M. Cooperman, Ph.D., director of nutritional education at New York Medical

College in Valhalla, has studied riboflavin
148 THE B VITAMINS
levels in several groups of Americans. He says, "In this country, 60 percent of our
riboflavin intake comes from milk or skim milk and other dairy products such as yogurt
and cheese." He has found that people who don't consume much milk—such as urban
teenagers—tend to be deficient in riboflavin.
In a study of 210 white, Hispanic American and black youths between the ages of 13 and
19 in New York City, Dr. Cooperman found that 26 percent were deficient in riboflavin.
The teenagers with the highest levels were those who drank the most milk— up to three
cups a day—and those with the lowest vitamin levels drank the least—one cup a week.
He found that black youths were especially susceptible to riboflavin deficiency. As a
group, they often get cramps or diarrhea from milk and tend to avoid it {American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition, June, 1980).
Few people are seriously short of riboflavin. Dr. Cooperman told us, but many may be
marginally deficient and may suffer subtly. "With a marginal deficiency, no one knows
exactly what the symptoms might be,'" he says. "Children may fail to grow properly.
Adults may feel slightly ill. They might not be able to do a full day's work. They'll be
mildly anemic and lackadaisical. That's all we know right now."
Diabetics, women using oral contraceptives and infants are other high-risk riboflavin-
deficiency groups Dr. Cooperman has studied. He told us that it has been only ten years
since a reliable test has been available for measuring riboflavin levels in people. It was
developed in Switzerland and is usually called EGR for short.
And that test had found that a program of vigorous physical exercise may increase a
person's riboflavin needs. Daphne Roe, M.D., of Cornell University, says that the
recommended daily intake of 0.6 milligrams for every 1,000 calories in the diet, which
was set in 1943, may be obsolete for today's active women.
Using the EGR test. Dr. Roe studied a group of women age 21 to 32 and found that they
needed 0.7 milligrams of riboflavin per 1,000 calories to replenish themselves. (A
normal diet contains 2,000 to 3,000 calories per day.)
Affected by Drugs
There are other factors that can affect riboflavin levels. Richard RivHn, M.D., editor of
the book Riboflavin (Plenum Press, 1975), says hormone levels and drugs also make an
impact.
"A riboflavin-deficient state physiologically may result not only from inadequate dietary
intake of this vitamin, but also from disturbances in endocrine control and as sequelae
of treatment with certain pharmacological agents," he writes (Nutrition Reviews,
August, 1979).
In particular, Dr. Rivlin says, people with either hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism

may need extra riboflavin, based on findings in experimental animals. In
hyperthyroidism, the body processes so much riboflavin that it becomes hungry for
more, and in hypothyroidism, it processes too little.
John Pinto, Ph.D., Yee Ping Huang and Dr. Rivlin, all of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center, have shown that chlorpromazine, imipramine and amitriptyline, all
psychiatric drugs, can block the action of riboflavin in animals. Dr. Rivlin also suspects
that pregnant women and women using oral contraceptives need more of the vitamin.
''Inasmuch as riboflavin deficiency may occur with considerable frequency in pregnant
patients," he says, "and shortage of this vitamin causes congenital malformations, at
least in experimental animals, a reasonable case can be made for administration of
riboflavin supplements in pregnancy."
Boric acid may also drain riboflavin from the system. "Boric acid, which is present in
some 400 home products, such as mouth washes, suppositories and a number of
imported foods, claws onto the sugar portion of riboflavin, binds it, and takes it out into
the urine," he writes.
Insidiously, a riboflavin deficiency feeds on itself. "When there is an inadequate amount

of riboflavin in the diet, you may lose that ability to utilize what you have. It's a vicious
circle," Dr. Rivlin wrote in a paper presented to the Vitamin Nutrition
150 THE B VITAMINS
Issues Symposium in Boca Raton, Florida, in October, 1979. "The less you have, the less
you are able to utilize; once the body gets sick, it gets sicker, because it lacks this enzyme
and therefore cannot utilize what little vitamin there is in the diet."
Large as some people's riboflavin deficiencies might be, the needs of little Christina in
Georgia are much higher. (By comparison, the adult Recommended Dietary Allowance
ranges from 1.0 to 1.7 milligrams, depending on age and sex.) Her riboflavin therapy
started at a massive 75 milligrams per day. At four years old, she used only 25
milligrams per day, but her doctors didn't know whether she still needed so much of the
vitamin or not.
"Someday I'll be gutsy enough to take her off the supplements," Dr. Hartlage says.
Christina's doctors are excited by the idea that their breakthrough might help other
children who may be suffering from the same riboflavin-dependency disease without
knowing it and that the problem could be averted entirely in future cases. "This is the
first documented case, as far as I know, of a non-experimentally-induced riboflavin-
dependency disease in a human," Dr. Leshner told us. "I'd like to believe it could be
diagnosed earlier and prevented."
"I'm very anxious that people know about this," added Dr. Hartlage, who is particularly
optimistic about Christina's recovery, though it is still far from complete. "She has not
failed to show progress," Dr. Hartlage said. "We thought her deafness was irreversible,
but her hearing is slowly coming back. And her eyesight is coming back. She was just in
today for physical therapy, and she gets better every time."
CHAPTER
NIACIN FOR BRIGHTER MOODS AND BETTER MEMORY
Are you a lame brain?
Sorry for the insult. But before you turn the page in a huff, turn the other cheek instead
and let us ask you a few more questions about your brain—and the B vitamin niacin.
Is your first hour or so in bed at night ever a "witching hour," with your thoughts
cackling out a spell to keep you tossing and turning? Insomnia can be a symptom of
niacin deficiency.
Are you ever so far down in the dumps that the whole world looks like a junkyard?
Depression can be a symptom of niacin deficiency.
When you want to take a stroll down memory lane, do you sometimes find yourself
falling flat on your face? Forgetfulness can be a symptom of niacin deficiency.
Or are you irritable? Anxious? Easily distracted? Yes, all of them can be symptoms of
niacin deficiency.
The brain—as psychiatrists and psychologists too often forget—is part of the body, the
crown of the central nervous system. And just as a calcium deficiency can make a bone
so fragile that it breaks with the slightest bump, so a deficiency of niacin can
152 THE B VITAMINS
make your brain so 'lame" that thoughts are weak and emotions shaky.
Way back in 1947, Tom Spies, M.D., in his pioneering book Rehabilitation through
Better Nutrition (W. B. Saunders), detailed the many mental problems that can
accompany, not an out-and-out deficiency of niacin, but merely an inadequate intake.
The list of symptoms he compiled reads like a passage out of a neurotic's diary:
irritability, depression, memory loss, insomnia, nervousness, distractibility,
apprehension, morbid fears, mental confusion and forgetfulness.
And if a lack of niacin in the diet can make you fall apart, it follows that extra niacin can
help you keep it all together.
That thought occurred to Abram Hoffer, Ph.D., M.D., president of the Huxley Institute
for Biosocial Research in New York City. In his book Niacin Therapy in Psychiatry
(Charles C. Thomas, 1962), Dr. Hoffer describes how he and his colleagues gave large
doses of nicotinic acid (a form of niacin) to 15 middle-aged and elderly people.
''Perhaps,'' wrote Dr. Hoffer, "if it was given early enough, it would stop senile changes
from occurring or slow them down greatly."
Of ten people suffering from senility who got niacin, five "recovered," and two had
"marked improvement." Three others did not benefit from the niacin. Four people who
were normal when the therapy began remained well.
One middle-aged woman spoke enthusiastically of niacin's many benefits:
"Since we began taking 12 nicotinic acid tablets daily, we have noticed a decided
improvement in sleeping. We have more energy and find we can do a good day's work
without undue fatigue. Prior to taking the tablets, Martin was subject to headaches and
took aspirin nearly every day. Now, he very seldom complains of a headache. I never
have one. Our outlook on life seems to be much more optimistic and we have cheerful,
happy dispositions."
So it seems that niacin can spark the brain back into working order. And when we say
spark, we mean it.
NIACIN: BRIGHT MOODS. BETTER MEMORY 153
The Spark of Life
Oxygen-laden red blood cells have a "spark"—a negative electrical charge. Like the
negative poles of two magnets, two red blood cells will repel each other. They have to—to
carry their oxygen to the brain's tissues, they must crawl single file through tiny blood
vessels called capillaries. But if—because of disease or old age—the red blood cells lose
their charge and bunch up, a microscopic traffic jam is created. The brain gets less
oxygen. Senility—or any of a dozen other varieties of dullness and irritability—can set in.
But niacin restores the red blood cells' electrical charge. Your brain can take a breath of
fresh air.
But not only your brain. Your heart, too.
The late Edwin Boyle, M.D., a clinical professor at the Medical University of South
Carolina, Charleston, was called "North America's foremost expert on niacin and heart
disease." For good reason. Dr. Boyle treated heart disease with niacin for over 20 years.
In a telephone interview several years ago. Dr. Boyle told us that a five-year study of
over 8,000 men revealed that those who took niacin regularly—1,000 men—had 25
percent fewer nonfatal heart attacks.
Doctors have long known that niacin can help lower the level of blood fats like
cholesterol and triglycerides that can muck up arteries and cause heart attacks. In his
practice. Dr. Boyle used niacin to help those who had very high levels of blood fats.
Not only did niacin lower their cholesterol levels, but it eliminated sludi^ing —the
bunching up of red blood cells that we mentioned earlier. Once sludging was gone. Dr.
Boyle prescribed proper diet and moderate exercise to restore a heart patient's health.
"There is a proper sequence of treatment, and niacin fits into that sequence," he told us.
"People with elevated cholesterol and clinical vascular disease do as well with niacin,
diet and exercise as with any other regimen," he said.
154 THE B VITAMINS
A Prescription for Good Moods
Though using vitamins marks a doctor as unconventional. Dr. Boyle was hardly alone in
prescribing niacin. William Kaufman, M.D., Ph.D., a retired doctor living in Bridgeport,
Connecticut, treated many of his patients with niacinamide, the chemical that niacin
changes into before it goes to work in the body.
"When 1 began practicing in 1941, I found it striking that patient after patient came in
with a group of symptoms which were quite similar. They might have other symptoms
besides, but in these certain symptoms, such as the lack of ability to concentrate,
depression, irritability, joint complaints, excessive fatigue, bloating and intestinal
complaints, there was fingerprint similarity. Many patients were so easily startled they
jumped when the phone rang. A number had black and blue marks on their bodies
where they had bumped into things, since their sense of balance was far off.
"T began tabulating symptoms and physical abnormalities and very soon recognized
that this strange syndrome was probably a form of pellagra, or niacin deficiency, that
had not yet reached the degree of severity to cause the classic combination of skin rash,
diarrhea and dementia. I reasoned that if this was a form of pellagra, then niacinamide—
which had just been discovered as a preventative—might provide useful treatment.
I administered 100 milligrams of niacinamide as a test dose. If the patient had no

adverse reactions to the test dose, I prescribed 100 milligrams three to four times a day.
Male and female patients would return a few days later and ... 1 didn't believe it! They
looked different. They acted different. They told me that their symptoms had vanished,
they felt a new zest for life. I decided to test it. 1 gave a few of these improved patients
calcium tablets instead of niacinamide. They were unaware of the change. At the end
often days they were right back to where they had been when they first saw me. When
they resumed niacinamide treatment, they once again improved.
NIACIN: BRIGHT MOODS, BETTER MEMORY 155
"But even though I had good therapeutic results with this group of patients, I wasn't
satisfied with this. I wanted to have a way of measuring improvements objectively. I
needed some new standards of measurement. So I designed some simple instruments I
could use to measure joint mobility and adapted other instruments for measuring
muscle strength and working capacity. With these devices I could show, for example,
how niacinamide properly used was enabling people to turn their heads further, as well
as move their other joints through wider ranges of motion."
'The 100 milligram per day dose of niacinamide would be ineffective in producing
sustained results, though. The daily dose I prescribed since 1944 ranged from 900 to
4,000 milligrams a day in divided doses. These amounts were calculated by taking
special measurements of patients' joints to test their mobility and are not recomended
for individual treatment without a doctor's supervision."
Fatigue and Stiffness Helped
One of the many people Dr. Kaufman helped with niacinamide was a 78-year-old
woman. "When I first saw her, she was feeble, exhausted all the time. When she wasn't
in bed, she sat in her rocker. To make matters worse, her joints were stiff and painful.
She was too tired to go anywhere or do anything. She was downhearted all the time,
weepy and looking forward to dying as her only release. After more than a year of
continuous treatment with high doses of niacinamide, her joints greatly improved and
she was virtually free from pain and stiffness.
"The measurement of her joint mobility showed that she now had the ranges of joint
movement that one would expect in an 11- to 15-year-old girl. Her strength had
increased markedly, too, more than double what it was a year earlier. She no longer felt
feeble. Her state of mind also greatly improved. She felt much happier and once more
enjoyed living. She looked forward to going out and to the doings of the next day. And,
of course.
156 THE B VITAMINS
she continued taking niacinamide in the doses I prescribed for her.''
Dr. Kaufman doesn't put much stock in statements that most people get all the vitamins
they need from their food. "You know, people aren't getting as much of the vitamins in
their diets as they think they are. Processing, cooking and storage can destroy a high
percentage of many of the vitamins originally present. For this reason alone, for many
people just having meals that seem to supply the 'minimum daily requirement' is not
enough. Generally, my patients could be termed middle or upper class economically and
educationally. They had no problems with money as far as food was concerned. They
were getting enough food, without a doubt. Still, the vitamins I prescribed helped them."
But you don't want to wait until you find yourself in the waiting room of a general
practitioner (or a psychiatrist) before you begin making sure you're getting enough
niacin. How much is enough? The Recommended Dietary Allowance—a level set by the
government's National Academy of Sciences, aimed at suggesting a healthful intake for
the "average" person—is 13 to 19 milligrams of niacin a day.
OK. Let's say for a moment that 19 milligrams a day is enough. Could you get this much
from an "average" diet? Probably not.
"I think the fact that the American public has gone from eating 7 or 8 pounds of refined
sugar a year to 175 pounds is causing a tremendous rash of ill health," Dr. Boyle
asserted, "part of which could be attributed to the lessened intake of niacin and
chromium. People have replaced the calories that would have come from whole grain
cereals, a rich source of niacin, with sugar's empty calories.
"1 think there is ample reason to believe that the amount of niacin a person should be
getting for good health is not the amount most Americans are getting on a so-called
normal diet. Ihe diet is greatly shortchanged on all the water-soluble vitamins, and
niacin is one of the most important."
As Dr. Boyle pointed out, replacing high-niacin foods with low-niacin foods like sugar is
a raw deal for your health. But
NIACIN: BRIGHT MOODS, BETTER MEMORY 157
sugar gets you in double trouble. Niacin fuels digestion. Carbohydrates such as whole
wheat bread and brown rice contain niacin; even as they are digested they put more fuel
on the digestive fire. But sugar is almost nothing but sucrose. It uses up niacin but puts
none back. The result: a niacin deficiency.
That's a health problem you don't need. But how much niacin do you need to stay
healthy, really healthy?
That depends—on what you eat, on what you do and on your personal history. In a
telephone interview. Dr. Hoffer, whose study of senility we talked about earlier, told us a
dramatic story of prisoners of war rescued, not by lightening-strike missions, but by
niacin.
"Most of those who were POWs in Japan or in Vietnam are still sick—except for those
who are taking large quantities of niacin. Niacin has healed the ravages of months of
severe malnutrition and mistreatment.
"Every year in captivity can hasten senility by five years. Fifty-year-old men are blind,
senile and arthritic with severe psychotic problems. Niacin can stop this from
happening."
Well, that's one end of the spectrum. At the other, says Dr. Hoffer, are people who are
eating a sugar-free, high-fiber diet. Chances are they won't need any niacin supplements
to feel at their best.
Probably you're somewhere in between. Maybe you need to take two or three times the
RDA to keep your chin up and a smile on your face.
But if you do need niacin and you take as much as 100 milligrams of it, you may have an
unusual side effect—frightening, perhaps, but harmless: flushing. Your skin will tingle
and turn red, as if you had an instant sunburn. Dr. Boyle described this reaction as the
"initiation ceremony." But unlike sunburn, flushing fades rather quickly. Both Drs.
Hoffer and Boyle pointed out that flushing, caused by the release of histamine and
heparin into the bloodstream, is no cause for concern.
And Dr. Boyle added that if you take niacin regularly—four times a day—flushing will
eventually disappear. Niacin, said Dr. Boyle, is preferable to niacinamide (which does
not cause flush-
158 THE B VITAMINS
ing) because niacinamide is not effective in lowering the level of fats in the blood.
Dr. Hoffer agrees that niacin is one up on niacinamide and suggests, 'Taking 50
milligrams twice a day will seldom cause flushing." He suggests that the best time to
take niacin is after meals. But the niacin you "take" during meals is important, too.
Inviting Niacin to Dinner

Niacin is part of the vitamin B complex. And the B complex likes to hang out together.
So most of the foods rich in other B vitamins will also be rich in niacin. One such food is
liver. A typical serving supplies 14 milligrams of niacin.
Other meats are good sources, too. And so are shelled, roasted peanuts. One-quarter cup
has a whopping 6.2 milligrams of niacin. Other nuts and seeds are also good sources.
But if you're a dieter and those peanuts have you worrying about putting on the pounds,
skip them. Eat plenty of tuna, a dieter's delight, instead. Tuna has 21 milligrams of
niacin in every cup.
Whole grains are also good sources. Peas and beans are fair. And the king of the B-
complex foods, brewer's yeast, supplies a hearty 3 milligrams of niacin in every
tablespoon.
Scientists often tell us the brain is like a computer. Niacin may keep your computer
programmed for happiness.
CHAPTER
WHY THIS EPIDEMIC OF VITAMIN B6 DEFICIENCY?
Until recently, vitamin B^, (pyridoxine) was considered something of a second-line

vitamin. Unlike niacin, thiamine and vitamin C, which can dramatically cure certain life-
threatening deficiency diseases, Bf, has never attained the status of ''magic bullet."
Of course, even nutrition skeptics know that vitamin Bf, can help a few rare genetic
disorders of metabolism and an uncommon type of anemia. They are also aware that
this vitamin can prevent some of the side effects of a few prescription drugs, including
oral contraceptives. But aside from these uses, traditionalists do not believe B,,
supplementation has much value.
Research over the past decade has been forcing a change in this opinion. Numerous
reports indicate that vitamin Bf, can be beneficial in a wide range of apparently
unrelated medical conditions. Furthermore, a substantial percentage even of healthy
people are now believed to be low in this nutrient.
Nutrition-oriented doctors have begun using B^ in the treatment of hyperactive

children, asthma, diabetes mellitus, so-called autoimmune diseases, infertility, recurrent
calcium oxalate kidney stones and for prevention and treatment of toxemia during
160 THE B VITAMINS
pregnancy. In addition, according to an editorial in the prestigious journal Lancet, B^

may benefit heart patients by reducing the tendency of their blood to form dangerous
clots.
Carpal tunnel syndrome, a nerve disorder that produces numbness, tingling, pain and
weakness in the hands and some fingers, is a problem of particular interest. For while
vitamin 85 is only one part of a comprehensive treatment program for the above
maladies, carpal tunnel syndrome is usually controlled by Bft alone.
Why should 85, nearly a half century after its discovery, suddenly become such a
versatile therapeutic weapon? The obvious explanation is that modern scientists have
made discoveries that were overlooked in earlier research. In other words, 65 has always
been valuable; it's just that no one realized it.
Be Deficiency: A New Problem?
That explanation, however, is not entirely satisfactory. Our predecessors in nutritional

science were too good to have missed the boat so badly on vitamin Be. They were shrewd
observers with fertile minds. For example, 25 years before Linus Pauling, Ph.D., wrote
his book on the subject, they recognized that vitamin C might help the common cold.
They advocated allergy elimination diets for the treatment of migraine headaches 50
years before this method was "discovered" by modern scientists. They knew that
essential fatty acids could improve eczema before most modern nutrition doctors were
even born. And they discovered countless other nutritional pearls that are only now
coming back into vogue. But about vitamin B^, there was hardly a word.
If we accept that scientists of yesteryear were good at what they did, we are forced to
conclude that Bf, deficiency was not much of a problem back in their time. The reason
that B(, has only recently become so useful must be that widespread deficiency of this
vitamin is a new problem.
Is this logic farfetched? Not really. Consider carpal tunnel syndrome: It is caused by
pressure on a nerve that passes down
AN EPIDEMIC OF B, DEFICIENCY 161
the arm, through a structure at the wrist called the carpal tunnel and into the hand.
Vitamin Bf, somehow relieves this pressure and the symptoms that go with it. Even
George Phalen, M.D., the man who discovered this syndrome, now believes that 85
therapy may soon replace the more widely used hand surgery.
But what does this have to do with a new epidemic of vitamin 65 deficiency? The fact is
that carpal tunnel syndrome appears to be a new disease. When Dr. Phalen presented
his first 11 cases in 1950 at the 99th Annual Meeting of the American Medical
Association, he noted that very few of the doctors attending that meeting were familiar
with this syndrome. Today, however, most doctors see it frequently.
So carpal tunnel syndrome is a new disease, becoming prominent in the past 30 years. It
is a disease that usually can be traced to lack of sufficient vitamin B^. It stands to
reason, then, that Bf, deficiency has also emerged in our population during the last three
decades.
Inadequate B^ can manifest itself not only as carpal tunnel syndrome, but as a
contributing factor in many cases of asthma, diabetes, hyperactivity, heart disease and
other problems. And, as mentioned, B^ deficiency is a time bomb that may be ticking in
many healthy individuals.
What has happened since World War II that could have caused so many of us to become
low in this important nutrient? Is our overrefined, overcooked diet doing us in? If you
analyze our modern food supply, you indeed find that many of us are getting the
Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for vitamin Bfi. On the other hand, a sugar-
laden, nutrient-depleted diet has been with us for quite some time, and marginal B^
intake is nothing new. If we are eating less B(, than we did 50 years ago, the difference
could not be much more than few tenths of a milligram.
Could such a small change in dietary Bf, be the straw that broke the camel's back,
plunging millions of us into a state of deficiency? That is an unlikely explanation,
because the epidemic of Bf, deficiency looks like something more than just a simple
dietary shortage. The RDA for vitamin Bf, is only 2 milligrams per day. If all we are
doing with Bf, therapy is correcting a
162 THE B VITAMINS
deficient diet, then a few milligrams daily should do the job. But some doctors are
prescribing extremely large doses: anywhere from 20 to 500 times the RDA.
These amounts cannot possibly be obtained from food alone, even if you consume the
most well-balanced, nutrient-rich diet imaginable. Smaller doses, however, don't seem
to work—so it's not that we are getting less Bf, than before. What has apparently
happened is that many of us have come to need a lot more of this vitamin than our
grandparents did.
An increased need for a vitamin could occur because of either a genetic mutation or
exposure to some chemical that interferes with the function of that vitamin. The genetic
theory is unlikely, since mutations take thousands or millions of years to have a major
impact on the human race. There may, therefore, exist some antivitamin to which we are
being exposed, a substance which might either prevent us from absorbing our vitamin
Bfi, destroy it in our bodies or in some way prevent it from carrying out its usual tasks. If
there is such a chemical, then we would need to increase our B,, intake in order to
counteract its effects.
Such antipyridoxine compounds do indeed exist, and we have been exposed to them in
increasing amounts during the past 30 to 40 years. These vitamin Bf, antagonist belong
to a class of chemicals called hydrazines.
Bela Toth, Ph.D., of the University of Nebraska, who has studied hydrazines extensively,
points out that the high chemical reactivity of these substances makes them ideal for a
very wide range of uses.
"In agriculture," Dr. Toth writes, "many of these compounds are used as plant growth
regulators and herbicides. Numerous hydrazines are extensively used in medicine as
pharmaceutical agents for a broad variety of diseases. They are used industrially in high
energy fuels ... as antioxidants in the petroleum industry and as plating materials and
antitarnish agents, etc., in metal manufacturing."
The first indication that hydrazines interfered with vitamin Bf, was the discovery that an
antituberculosis drug, isonicotinic
AN EPIDEMIC OF B^ DEFICIENCY 163
acid hydrazine (INH), could produce a disorder which is similar to carpal tunnel
syndrome. But large amounts of Be, given along with INH, can prevent this disorder.
Later on, two other hydrazine medications, hydralazine and phenelzine, also were found
to be vitamin Bf, inhibitors. Dr. Toth studied numerous other hydrazine compounds and
found that most of them greatly increased the need for B^. F. Buffoni, an Italian
researcher, extended the list of Bf, antagonists even further and suggested that most, if
not all, hydrazine compounds are capable of interfering with vitamin Be.
Unfortunately, the story doesn't end there. Not only must we deal with the hydrazines,
we must also face other chemicals that our bodies can convert to hydrazines. The
chemical of greatest concern in this regard is tartrazine, also known as FD&C Yellow No.
5. This widely used coloring agent is added to hundreds of different foods and
medications. In 1970, 21 years after its patent was approved, nearly a million pounds of
tartrazine were being used annually.
Although tartrazine is not itself a hydrazine, at least 30 percent of it is converted by the

body into a hydrazine compound. So it's likely that this food dye is another vitamin Bf,
inhibitor— and we cannot rule out the possibility that other food additives of similar
structure may also be converted by the body into hydrazine.
Is it possible, then, that more and more people need more and more Bf, because Bf,
antagonists are sprayed on our food, spewed into the air and used widely in
manufacturing?
Ways to Avoid Exposure to Hydrazine
It can be depressing to think about the many environmental chemicals that may be
interfering with the normal functioning of our bodies. Nevertheless, rather than throw
our hands up in despair, there are a few things we can do to try to deal with the
164 THE B VITAMINS
hydrazine problem. One is to minimize avoidable exposures to these chemicals. If you

can find produce that has not been chemically treated, by all means use it. If no such
food is available to you, then at least wash your fruits and vegetables thoroughly. Try to
avoid unnecessary exposure to food dyes. There are lists available that tell you which
foods and medications contain FD&C Yellow No. 5.
Another positive step you can take is to stay away from foods that have been fried at
high temperatures. When vegetable oils are exposed to high temperatures in the
presence of air, toxic by-products are created, and these by-products are known to
increase the need for vitamin B^,.
Of course, it's not possible to avoid all hydrazine compounds completely. For this
reason, it's a good idea to make sure you're getting enough vitamin B(, in the first place.
At present, unfortunately, there is no way to determine exactly how much Bfi the
average healthy person should use. But since B6 is a vitamin with very little risk of
toxicity, it would probably be better to err on the side of too much rather than too little.
A conservative, rough estimate is that the average, healthy person might be wise to
ingest 10 to 20 milligrams daily. (Amounts over 50 milligrams should only be taken
under a doctor's supervision.)
If you have some disorder that might be helped by vitamin Bfi, then larger amounts
should be used. Of course, before undertaking a program of vitamin therapy, you should
obtain the approval of your doctor. In a few special situations, notably insulin-
dependent diabetes and Parkinson's disease, Bf, therapy should be monitored by
someone familiar with its effects. In addition, nursing mothers should be careful with
Bft, since massive doses may cut off the milk supply.
CHAPTER
VITAMIN Be FOR CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME
Ask a traditional doctor about vitamin C deficiency, and the topic of scurvy will surely
come up. Niacin will summon a response about pellagra, and thiamine will be linked
with beriberi. In fact, if a vitamin doesn't have its very own specific deficiency disease,
the vitamin's importance and its Recommended Dietary Allowance may be hotly
disputed.
Of course, there are those who know that vitamins do more than just cure one particular
ailment. They know that vitamins are intimately involved in any number of the
enzymatic and metabolic workings of our bodies.
But if a specific disease is needed to wake up the traditionalists to the wonders of a

vitamin, then we've got some news about one of our favorites, vitamin B^,, or
pyridoxine.
Even though some researchers have suspected for years that there is indeed a specific
disease associated with B^ deficiency, only recently has hard scientific data been able to
back up that suspicion. That's what Karl Folkers, Ph.D., says and, since he conducted the
experiments, he should know. Dr. Folkers, director of the institute for biomedical
research at the University of Texas at Austin, announced his findings at a symposium
honoring his contributions to medical science.
166 THE B VITAMINS
Dr. Folkers told the conference held at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,
that biochemical research conducted over the last five to six years has led to the
conclusion that a human vitamin Bf,-deficiency disease does in fact exist. The disease is
a neurological disorder commonly known as carpal tunnel syndrome. (We talked about
this disease in the last chapter, but here we'll discuss it in a little more depth.) Carpus is
the medical term for your wrist. The bones and ligaments in your wrist form a tunnel
through which pass the tendons and the nerve that make it possible for you to move
your fingers and that control your sense of touch.
"When the disease strikes, an accumulation of fluid inside the carpal tunnel puts
pressure on the nerve," explains Dr. Folkers. "This, in turn, leads to numbness and
tingling in the tips of the fingers. Sometimes patients will tell me that at night their arms
or hands 'fall asleep.' It's true that they may have, indeed, been sleeping on their arm,
but I suspect that a more likely explanation is that they have carpal tunnel syndrome."
Because the nerve is being compressed, other, more serious symptoms may also develop
—painful elbows or shoulders and very weak handgrips, to name a few. Somtimes
symptoms are so severe that patients have to quit their jobs.
For years, patients with this disorder were routinely subjected to hand surgery to relieve
compression on the nerve. But it's no secret that the surgery may be only partially
successful and that any relief gained is likely to be lost in a few short months.
Now, permanent relief of carpal tunnel syndrome is perhaps only a B<s supplement
away, thanks to the research efforts of Dr. Folkers and his associates. They were able to
reach that conclusion by using a new and better blood test which can detect and
accurately measure deficiences of vitamin B^, on a patient-by-patient basis. Working in
conjunction with John Ellis, M.D., of Mt. Pleasant, Texas, the doctors discovered, for the
first time, that patients with carpal tunnel syndrome actually had a previously
unrecognized severe deficiency of vitamin B^,. What's more, Bfi supplements always
corrected the deficiency and led to disappearance of the signs and symptoms.
B, FOR CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME 167
Their next step was to repeat this research, using the highly respected double-blind
crossover technique. That means neither the patients nor the doctors conducting the
experiments know which patients receive the actual vitamin and which receive a
nontherapeutic, look-alike placebo pill—until the testing is completed.
Results? Patients responded well to the B^, and not at all to the placebo. But when the
patients on the placebo were given Bfi, they, too, showed the same marked
improvement.
''We've gotten as far as relating the disease to a B^ deficiency and showing that the
disease, if it hasn't progressed to the point of atrophy [wasting away], responds well to
B(,," Dr. Folkers told us. "And what I think is almost unbelievable (but seems to be true)
is that individuals who have had symptoms for years—a decade, even 15 years—show
such remarkable reversal and improvement of their condition. 1 don't mean to say that
the symptoms are 100 percent reversed, but they are improved so much that the
patients do not need orthopedic surgery for their hands."
RDA Is "Far Too Low
99
"It doesn't even take huge doses of B^,, either," Dr. Folkers assured us. "However, I am
convinced that the Recommended Dietary Allowance [RDA] of 2 milligrams is far too
low. Our research shows that a very high percentage of the population in this country
appears to have a deficiency of B^,. I believe that an effective RDA would be around 25
milligrams or possibly even 35 milligrams. That means a supplement of B,, will be
needed to ensure health. In fact, the risk to health in not taking a Bg supplement is far
greater than the risk of taking it. Besides, it's virtually impossible to get that much B,, in
your daily diet"— even if you eat foods rich in this nutrient, such as bananas, salmon,
chicken, liver and sunflower seeds.
But that's not all the interesting news about B^.
168 THE B VITAMINS
Be and "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome"
Maybe you've heard of the notorious "Chinese restaurant syndrome." It comes on about
20 minutes after eating a meal spiced heavily with monosodium glutamate (MSG).
Headache, feverish flush and a detached or distant feeling overcome those who are
susceptible.
According to Dr. Folkers, it is people deficient in B^, that develop Chinese restaurant
syndrome. He proved his theory by showing that supplemental B^, could effectively
prevent a recurrence of the MSG reaction, whereas a placebo had no effect.
Because of that study, Dr. Folkers began to wonder if those with carpal tunnel syndrome
might also be sensitive to MSG since they, too. have a B^, deficiency. An opportunity to
test such a correlation became available in the case of a student who was known to be
severely affected by carpal tunnel syndrome and extremely deficient in B^,.
Dr. Folkers was afraid the student might overreact to the 8.5 grams of MSG usually
given in the test, so he cut the dosage to 4 grams, even though 4 grams rarely produced a
response with other volunteers. Neveretheless, after 20 minutes, the predictable signs of
Chinese restaurant syndrome appeared.
"The carpal tunnel syndrome reveals a vitamin Bf, deficiency over months and years,"
says Dr. Folkers, "but the Chinese restaurant syndrome reveals a deficiency over a
period of 20 to 60 minutes. In principle, the underlying cause of both syndromes
appears identical."
Be and Kidney Stones
Even though vitamin B,, can now claim exclusive rights to its own deficiency disease, we
don't want its other newly found benefits to go by without at least a little fanfare. That's
why we
B^ FOR CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME 169
want to tell you it can also help people who suffer from recurrent kidney stone
formation, especially of stones that are composed mainly of oxalates. So say doctors at
St. Peter's Hospitals and Institute of Urology in London. They tried 200 milligrams of
Be twice a day on one man who had been plagued with kidney stones for years. He took
the vitamin for five months during 1977 and hasn't had a stone since.
The same success story can also be told for another patient. She was passing an average
of one stone every month until Be was started. Now she has been free of stones for
almost three years. 'These two patients did not relapse, even after long periods of time,"
write the researchers, who say the patients have ''an apparently permanent remission on
pyridoxine LBe]" {British Medical Journal, June 27, 1981).
You may be wondering how Bf, can have an effect on kidney stone formation. Well,
you're not alone. In fact, doctors at the University of California at Los Angeles school of
medicine think they may have a possible explanation.
Since both magnesium and Bf, had been reported as successful in preventing kidney
stones in susceptible patients, the scientists felt that B^ might in some way mimic the
effects of magnesium. They weren't sure how, but they suspected that Bf, increased the
utilization of magnesium by aiding the transport of this mineral across cell membranes.
To prove this theory, they gave nine volunteers 100 milligrams of Bf, twice a day for one
month and then compared their magnesium levels after treatment to their levels before
the experiment.
The results thoroughly supported their ideas. Following vitamin Be administration, the
magnesium levels were significantly elevated in all the volunteers, with more than a
doubling of the levels after four weeks of therapy {Annals of Clinical and Laboratory
Science, July-August. 1981).
Vitamin Bf, seems to be one of those vitamins that's especially versatile. It can cure
carpal tunnel syndrome, help keep blood clots at bay and may even stop kidney stones
from making
170 THE B VITAMINS

encore appearances. Now doctors are saying that B^, which is also known for keeping
the immune system healthy, may even help keep cancer from recurring.
In research done at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories in London,

patients undergoing treatment for breast cancer were studied to determine the
likelihood that their cancer would return. What the doctors did was analyze the patients'
urine for a by-product of vitamin Bf, metabolism known as 4-PA. Low urinary amounts
of 4-PA reflect a vitamin Be deficiency, and the results of the study showed that patients
who excreted lower levels of 4-PA had a significantly greater probability of recurrence of
breast cancer than patients who excreted higher levels {European Journal of Cancer,
February, 1980).
So, to help keep your health from becoming "bad news," just remember all the good
news about B^—and that it makes more sense than ever to make sure you're getting
enough.
CHAPTER
Be—MAYBE THE ANSWER TO HEART DISEASE
What causes arteriosclerosis?
Is it cholesterol, a high-fat diet, hypertension, stress, smoking?
All of those factors do play a role.
But according to a theory put forth by Kilmer McCully, M.D., former professor of
pathology at the Harvard medical school, not one of them is the cause. They are all risk
factors, true. But not one of those risk factors is responsible for the initial injury in the
artery which ultimately escalates to a blocked artery.
Every disease must have a prime cause, one that is found in every case of the disease.
Until now, scientists have assembled quite a few risk factors associated with
arteriosclerosis but have never been able to pinpoint one basic chemical cause.
Dr. McCully, on the basis of extensive laboratory studies and many years of studying the
scientific literature, is convinced that the original injury (or lesion, as scientists call it) in
the arteries is caused by a series of events initiated by a deficiency of our old friend
vitamin B(, (pyridoxine).
We know that B^ is a very special member of the family of B vitamins, that a deficiency
can cause anemia, kidney stones, convulsions, neuritis, skin problems and even mental
illness.
172 THE B VITAMINS
Could it be that vitamin B(, is the missing element in the causation of the disease that
kills twice as many people as cancer? We considered this theory so important, we invited
Dr. McCully to discuss it with us.
Question: If it isn't cholesterol or any of the other risk factors which initiates the disease,
what is the cause?
Dr. McCully: The original lesion in the arteries is caused by a toxic substance,
homocysteine, which is a breakdown product of the amino acid methionine. But when
pyridoxine [vitamin Bft] is present, homocysteine is unable to do its destructive work.
Bf,, acting as a coenzyme, facilitates the enzyme reaction, which quickly converts
homocysteine to cystathionine, which is not toxic and is safely used by the body in other
pathways.
Since pyridoxine is necessary to prevent the buildup of homocysteine in the blood, this
vitamin can do much to prevent the original lesion leading to arteriosclerosis and to
atherosclerosis, the advanced form of the disease.
Q: In what way does homocysteine initiate the process?
Dr. McCully: Homocysteine, which is formed in metabolism from methionine, is a toxic

amino acid which causes the cells lining the artery to degenerate and slough off. The
artery responds to this damage by synthesizing new cells and new connective tissue
substance which accumulate lipids, especially cholesterol and triglycerides. Now we
have what is known as an atheroma. An atheroma is something like a cyst. It is
composed of connective tissue cells, fibers and lipoproteins which are deposited from
the blood. We now have an impediment, a sort of roadblock in the artery which slows
down the flow of blood. When the blood flow is severely restricted, the tissues beyond
the blocked area die from lack of oxygen. The result here could be a heart attack or
stroke.
When the same process affects the renal arteries supplying the kidneys, then the kidneys
react by releasing renin, a hormone which reacts on the blood plasma to form
angiotensin, a vasoconstrictor which raises the blood pressure.
Q: Then high blood pressure may be a consequence of the initial lesion, rather than the
cause. What role does cholesterol play?
B^—THE ANSWER TO HEART DISEASE? 173
Dr. McCully: Another consequence sometimes associated with the increased blood
pressure is a rise in blood cholesterol. The original theory was that cholesterol somehow
caused the damage to the artery. Because of the association of high blood cholesterol
with arteriosclerosis, it has been hypothesized for many years that somehow cholesterol,
or the lipoproteins which carry the cholesterol, damage the artery walls. But this has
never been proven. As a matter of fact, there are many experiments in which
investigators have injected lipoprotein directly into the arterial wall and it is
immediately cleared without any sign of damage. There's never been any proof that
cholesterol, as it is carried in the blood, actually initiates the lesion.
However, once the lesion is initiated by homocysteine damage, then the blood
cholesterol tends to increase.
Q: Then cholesterol and hypertension are associated with the disease as a result of the
initial lesion, but are not the cause of the lesion?
Dr. McCully: Right. Arteriosclerosis is not an overnight phenomenon. It is a long-term

process that could begin in childhood. Arteriosclerosis may be the first clinical sign of a
marginal Bf, deficiency. Very careful studies have been done in Israel of the different
populations. The bedouin tribes have very little arteriosclerosis, and their children have
practically no arteriosclerotic lesions. However, the populations that come from Eastern
Europe have a high incidence of arteriosclerosis, and their children show early
arteriosclerotic lesions.
Q: What is the difference in their diets that contributes to this difference?
Dr. McCully: The difference is in both animal protein and animal fats. The bedouin diet
is practically pure vegetarian, relatively few animal products. Being pure vegetarian, it
would be high in B^ and comparatively low in the amino acid methionine. Animal
protein eaten by the Ashkenazi Jews has two to three times as much methionine as plant
protein, on a weight basis, and it is relatively lower in pyridoxine. One of the reasons
that it has less pyridoxine is that it is rich in fats. Pyridoxine is a water-soluble vitamin;
the more fat in the diet, the less pyridoxine one consumes.
174 THE B VITAMINS
Food processing destroys vitamin B^,. In a diet that is rich in fats and contains
processed foods, there is a very poor intake of pyridoxine to protect against the large
quantities of methionine that are eaten with the animal products.
Q: What about sugar? Does it contribute to arteriosclerosis?
Dr. McCully: It might. Dr. John Yudkin about 15 years ago came out with a very
important series of epidemiological studies in which he showed that arteriosclerosis and
coronary heart disease are highly correlated with the consumption of sugar and refined
carbohydrates. Yudkin felt that somehow sugar was causing the disease. But one could
also interpret it in another way, that populations which consume much of their caloric
intake in the form of sugar are depriving themselves of pyridoxine.
Q; Is there any laboratory evidence linking homocysteine to the original lesion?
Dr. McCully: There are several studies revealing that arteriosclerosis develops in
animals when they are treated with homocysteine or methionine. We did some studies
in 1970 showing that injecting homocysteine into rabbits produces arteriosclerotic
lesions.
Then later. Marker and Ross at the University of Washington in Seattle showed that
intravenous infusion of homocysteine into baboons also produces arteriosclerosis.
The relationship between pyridoxine deficiency and arteriosclerosis was discovered by

Rinehart and Greenberg in the late 40s, when they showed that monkeys made deficient
in vitamin Bf, rapidly develop atherosclerosis.
Monkeys made deficient in other B vitamins did not develop it.
At that time, it was not appreciated how significant their work was because they could
not say what the biochemical steps and the intermediate pathways were which lead to
arteriosclerosis. What 1 am doing is building on their observations. I'm showing, and
published studies have indicated, that the monkeys deficient in pyridoxine maintained
by Rinehart and Greenberg probably developed arteriosclerosis because they
accumulated homocysteine. And it has been found more recently, both in
B^—THE ANSWER TO HEART DISEASE? 175
human volunteers and in animals, that a vitamin B^, deficiency leads to homocysteine
accumulation when large doses of methionine are given.
Q: Could Bf, help reverse the damage to the artery?
Dr. McCully: It is possible. Moses M. Suzman of Johannesburg, South Africa, carried out
a study on 17 patients with coronary artery disease. Animal protein was reduced to
approximately one-quarter to one-half of their customary intake and each patient
received 100 milligrams pyridoxine daily with a potent preparation of vitamin B
complex. The patients were observed for an average of 13 months. All patients claimed a
notable increase in exercise tolerance with complete or partial relief of angina, a gain in
energy and a heightened sense of well-being. Glucose tolerance increased to almost
normal in two of the patients who were diabetic. This study suggests that the lesions
may be partially reversible with B^,.
Q: Does Bf, have any effect on cholesterol levels?
Dr. McCully: Yes, it does. Rinehart and Greenberg observed that monkeys supplemented
with B^, had lower levels of cholesterol. It has also been shown by other investigators,
using rabbits and other models, that vitamin Bf, deficiency tends to elevate the blood
cholesterol. The other point is that fat metabolism is impaired by B(, deficiency so that
an animal or a person who is deficient in B^, is less able to metabolize fats, which then
accumulate in the plasma. So this gives you a direct correlation. It begins to explain why
persons with arteriosclerosis have elevated blood cholesterol and other lipids, including
triglycerides. Pyridoxine appears to be necessary for the normal metabolism of these
lipids.
Q: Does stress play an important role in the disease?
Dr. McCully: Stress is not a major factor in arteriosclerosis. Diet is by far the most
important factor. An argument against stress as a major factor is that Japan, a crowded
and highly industrialized nation, has a very low incidence of the disease, while Finland,
a quiet, peaceful, rural community, has the highest incidence in the world. During both
World Wars, when the population of Europe was coping with stressful wartime
176 THE B VITAMINS
conditions, meat was scarce, vitamins were not refined out of the flour and there was a
dramatic decrease in arteriosclerosis.
Q: What about physical exercise?
Dr. McCully: There is conflicting evidence about the importance of a sedentary life style
and physical conditioning. These are minor factors which may contribute to decreased
or increased survival but do not by themselves explain the cause of the disease.
Q: What about smoking?
Dr. McCully: Cigarette smoking is associated with a twofold to threefold increase in the
risk of arteriosclerosis. Nicotine and carbon monoxide, which are among the 600 to
1,000 toxic components of cigarette smoke, are probably the atherogenic substances. It
is highly possible, though it has never been proven, that some of the toxic elements in
tobacco may be 85 antagonists. Many drugs are known to interfere with the utilization of
B^,. The birth control pill is one, and it has been shown that women who smoke and
take the Pill place themselves in double jeopardy.
Q: Bft is found in a great many foods. Why don't we get enough in our diets to prevent
homocysteine damage?
Dr. McCully: B^ is sensitive to heat and is water soluble. It is destroyed by the cook, the
canner and the food processor. It is removed from most grains in the refining process.
Even though this vitamin is widely distributed in a variety of foods, the amount
consumed by a weight-conscious population may be marginal. Foods such as beans,
peas, nuts, grains, bananas and avocados contain reasonable amounts of this vitamin.
Meats, eggs and milk are also good sources, but they contain high levels of methionine.
Hence, someone eating a high-protein diet, while he needs more of the vitamin to
prevent homocysteine formation, is actually getting less.
Q: Have you made any changes in your own diet as a result of these findings?
Dr. McCully: Oh, yes. We have cut down considerably on meat and increased
consumption of vegetables, grains and beans. Grains have half as much methionine as
meat. Beans have one-third as much methionine as meat.
Bft—THE ANSWER TO HEART DISEASE? 177

Bear in mind that methionine is a necessary amino acid, especially important to growth.
We can't live without it. What we must do is strike a good balance between methionine-
containing foods and foods rich in Bf,.
Q: Why do so many older people suffer from arteriosclerosis?
Dr. McCulIy: For some reason, there is a clear decline of Bft with age. Also a dramatic
decline of Bf, in diabetes, a disease frequently complicated by arteriosclerosis. This may
be due to inadequate intake, though this has not been proven.
Q: With this theory, many pieces of the cholesterol puzzle begin to fall into place. For
want of a nail, the battle was lost. Do we have a parallel here?
Dr. McCulIy: The theory illustrates how interdependent all these processes are—
nutrition, physiology, biochemistry— and that, if the first event in a cascading series of
changes is prevented, then the whole disease can be prevented. The theory predicts that
if one prevents the initial lesion due to homocysteine effect in the cells of the arteries,
one can prevent all the consequences and complications of the disease.
178 THE B VITAMINS
Rating Foods for Heart Health: The McCully Thesis
Both vitamin B(, and the amino acid methionine are essential elements in the diet, and a
good balance between the two may be the answer to preventing arteriosclerosis,
according to Dr. McCully. That balance can be expressed as the ratio of 85 to
methionine. A ratio of 15, for instance, means the food has 15 times more B^, than
methionine. Foods with a high ratio contain a desirably high level of Bf, with a low level
of methionine. Here are the levels of some common foods.
Food
Ratio
Food
Ratio
Bananas 46
Carrots 15
Onions 10
Kale 9
Spinach 7
Sweet 7 potatoes
Asparagus 5
Cauliflower 5 Turnip greens 5
Broccoli 4
Brewer's 3 yeast
Lentils 3
Peas 3
Sunflower 3 seeds
Toasted wheat 3 germ
Beef liver 2
Chick-peas 2
Corn 2
Peanuts 2
Soybeans 2
Walnuts 2
Chicken 1
Salmon 1
Beef 0.9
Mushrooms 0.7
Cod 0.5
CHAPTER
Be FOR COMMON AND UNCOMMON AILMENTS
Every vitamin has its limitations. Vitamin Bf, will not walk the dog, chauffeur the kids or
do windows. But scientists aic finding that B^,—pyridoxine—may do a lot of other things
that might previously have been considered impossible. Research indicates that vitamin
B^ is not only tackling some common medical ailments, but some extraordinarily
uncommon maladies as well.
Gyrate atrophy is about as rare as a disease can get. It is a hereditary eye disease that
may start as tunnel vision when the cells in the eye begin to degenerate and die. Night
blindness can follow, and cataracts may occur in mid life between the ages of 40 and 60.
The disease has been considered incurable, and eventually blindness ensues.
"Probably no more than 20 cases of gyrate atrophy have existed in the United States,
and maybe only 50 cases have appeared in the world's literature," says Richard Weleber,
M.D., at the University of Oregon health sciences center in Portland. "But by studying
rare diseases, we better understand how the body works, and we get information on how
to help people with more common problems, too."
180 THE B VITAMINS
Together with biochemist Nancy Kennaway, Ph.D., and pediatrician Neil Buist, M.D.,
Dr. Weleber has observed a star-tUng discovery about gyrate atrophy. The scientists
have seen that patients with the curious malady may respond favorably to high doses of
vitamin B^,. Three of their four patients with the disease have done so.
"Our patients with gyrate atrophy do not have a vitamin Be deficiency," says Dr.
Kennaway. 'They have a vitamin B^ dependency, which means they have inherited
defects of the biochemical process which may be modified by large doses of vitamin Be."
Patients with gyrate atrophy all have elevated levels of the amino acid ornithine in their
blood. That elevation occurs because an enzyme which normally converts ornithine to
glutamate is not working. Dr. Kennaway explains. So the patients' ornithine levels are
high. Vitamin B^ is a cofactor which works with the enzyme. Before it can change
ornithine into glutamate, the enzyme needs small amounts of B^ in healthy individuals.
But small amounts of B^ just won't do in some patients with gyrate atrophy. They need
much larger doses of the vitamin before the enzyme is jolted into action.
Why a Little Bg Isn't Enough
"It's like saying you can't open the door unless you push very hard," Dr. Buist told us. "A
goodly number of enzymes within the body require a vitamin cofactor to work. That
vitamin cofactor plugs itself into a very special hole of the protein enzyme in order for
the enzyme to do its job. If, because of a hereditary defect, the hole is distorted or
misshapen, teensy amounts of the vitamin, which normally would be sufficient, are not
enough. Therefore, if we flood the system with the vitamin, we may be able to get the
enzyme to work better."
While some gyrate atrophy patients apparently respond to vitamin B^ therapy, not all of
them do. So patients are broken down into two categories: B^, responsive and B(,
nonresponsive.
B. FOR COMMON AND UNCOMMON AILMENTS 181

Even when patients are Bf, responsive, they do not return entirely to normal. "But we
are certain that vitamin B(, is helping biochemically," Dr. Weleber continues. "After
taking B^,, their low levels of lysine, an amino acid in the body, return to normal, and
their high levels of ornithine are cut by half."
"Right now, one can only assume that if the biochemical abnormality can be corrected,
the eye damage may be arrested or slowed," adds Dr. Buist, but it will take several years
before that is known for sure.
"The fact that we have a genetic disease that may be treatable in some instances by
vitamin 65 is encouraging," says Dr. Weleber. "It is the best kind of medicine we could
hope to find for treating that kind of disease."
Curing a Rare Disorder
But gyrate atrophy is not the only rare disease that seems to need large doses of the
cofactor vitamin Bf,. Homocystinuria is a biochemical disorder which is inherited from
both parents. The rare disorder has a number of clinical signs which may include mental
retardation, thrombosis, or clotting, in the arteries and a weakening of the walls of the
big arteries to the extent that they sometimes explode or burst. Homocystinuria also is
associated with osteoporosis, or loss of bone, liver damage and defective collagen
(connective tissue). The collagen abnormality often surfaces when the lenses of the eyes
flop out of place because of weak ligaments, says Dr. Buist. Again, the Oregon
researchers, like others before them, have observed that some patients with the disease
respond to vitamin Bf, treatment.
"Methionine is an amino acid in the body that is broken down into homocysteine," Dr.
Kennaway explains. "In order for homocysteine to be changed into something else,
another enzyme has to go to work. But the enzyme is not working normally in patients
with homocystinuria. So their homocysteine levels start to build up. Their methionine
levels escalate, too. That is another example of an enzyme that needs its cofactor.
182 THE B VITAMINS
vitamin B^, in order to be active. By giving our homocystinuria patients larger doses of
B^, the enzyme apparently works better. Homocysteine levels drop and, biochemically,
some patients seem to improve."
While it may be encouraging to think that vitamin B(, may someday control certain rare,
genetic disorders, it is not being examined solely for that purpose. Scientists around the
globe are linking vitamin B^ therapy to many more common ailments which may arise
for a variety of reasons, including a vitamin Be-deficient diet.
A researcher from the Netherlands, O. P. van Bijsterveld, M.D., Ph.D., has found that
vitamin Bf, may be an important nutritional factor in conjunctivitis, an infection of the
delicate membrane which lines the eyelids and covers the eyeballs. Dr. van Bijsterveld
discovered that organisms known to cause conjunctivitis survived from 30 to 37 percent
longer on the conjunctiva of animals deficient in vitamin Bf,. His research revealed that
the Bf,-deficient animals had a reduced tear flow. Dr. van Bijsterveld said that the longer
survival rate for the infectious organisms was the result of a decreased tear flow. And the
reduction in tear flow was due to a deficiency of vitamin B6 (Ophthalmologica).
CHAPTER
B12—MORE THAN ANEMIA PROTECTION
Looking for an excuse?
"It's Monday!'' doesn't explain why you're pooped before you pop out of bed every day of
the week.
'Too many things on my mind" doesn't excuse you from forgetting half of them.
''I don't know where he came from" won't stand up in court—especially when your
fender looks like you didn't look before darting across the intersection.
"Guess we're just not trying hard enough" may not be the real reason why your family
planning isn't going according to plan.
Maybe, instead of looking for an excuse, you should be looking for an extra boost of B12.
A superstar in the medical scene, B,2 has had dramatic effects in the treatment of
various nerve-related disorders—even in instances where conventional drugs and
therapy have failed.
Unfortunately, the value of vitamin B12 has been sadly shot down by some members of
the medical establishment.
Touted as a treatment for tiredness, B12 was criticized as being nothing more than a
placebo for the well-but-worried hy-
184 THE B VITAMINS
pochondriac. If B12 did pep up the tuckered out, they charged, it did so purely through
the power of suggestion.
Tell that to George Richards Minot, M.D., and William Parry Murphy, M.D.
The Lifesaving Supplement
In 1934, these two Harvard physicians won the Nobel prize for discovering the lifesaving
properties of vitamin Bi:. Actually, it wasn't until years later that B12 was isolated. But
these men found that, by eating large amounts of liver—a food that is particularly high
in B12—formerly hopeless patients with pernicious anemia could be saved. Their
findings spared some 10,000 lives each year in the United States alone!
And just look at the symptoms associated with this deadly disease; fatigue, weakness,
unsteadiness, numbness and needle-and-pin sensations in the legs, breathing
difficulties, weight loss, loss of memory, inflammation of the tongue, abdominal
discomfort, chest pains. It's hard to believe that a deficiency of one vitamin can cause all
these symptoms. But when you consider what an important part 8,2 plays in the role of
the central nervous system—and what an intricate part the nerves play in total body
function—then it's easy to understand what B12 means to our health and well-being.
What's more, a report in the Journal of Nutrition indicates that a B12 deficiency can
induce a thiamine (vitamin B|) deficiency even when dietary thiamine levels are normal.
And since thiamine is another key nerve vitamin, it's doubly important to keep up our
intake of B12.
After all, your deficiency may not be serious enough to put you 6 feet under—but it may
be just enough to keep you down in the dumps.
In Orthomolecular Psychiatry for example, H. L. Newbold, M.D., a New York City

psychiatrist, describes one case in which a 33-year-old patient came to him complaining
of lethargy and depression. The young man was concerned because he was unable to
complete work on his Ph.D.
B,:—MORE THAN ANEMIA PROTECTION 185
He had trouble dragging himself out of bed and to class in the morning. In class, he
couldn't bring himself to participate in group discussions. And it was becoming
increasingly impossible for him to comprehend or remember what he read.
Worst of all, he felt lonely, insecure and isolated. Two years earlier, he had had a
nervous breakdown which resulted in marital problems. And since that time, he had
been subsisting on Thorazine, a powerful and commonly used drug in the treatment of
psychiatric problems.
After running a series of laboratory tests, Dr. Newbold started the young man on
injections of vitamin B12. Two injections— and two weeks—later, the patient returned
markedly improved. He commented that his memory was much better and that he was
learning well.
In fact, for the first time in two years, he was hard at work writing his Ph.D. thesis.
Back from Insanity
Dr. Newbold isn't the only one who believes that in certain cases B|2 may take the place
of the psychiatrist's couch. Two Canadian physicians associated with McGill University
and Jewish General Hospital in Montreal report dramatic results with B|2 in the
treatment of a severely psychotic 35-year-old patient (Diseases of the Nervous System).
The patient's problems apparently began two years before hospitalization with severe
depression, decreased sexual drive and slowed reflexes. In time, his symptoms
progressed to the point where he couldn't sleep or remember relatively recent events. He
hallucinated voices. And he displayed generally manic-depressive behavior.
Thorazine, and even electroconvulsive therapy, did not produce very encouraging
results.
The next line of attack was nutritional.
Nine years earlier, the patient had undergone stomach surgery, a situation which
frequently leads to a vitamin 8,2 deficiency due to malabsorption. So the physicians
tested for nu-
186 THE B VITAMINS
tritional deficiencies. Surprisingly, his B12 level fell in the normal range. But with no
other game plan in mind, they decided to give it a try anyway.
The results were even better than anyone had hoped for. Eight days after B12 therapy
had begun, the patient was released from the hospital with complete remission of his
symptoms.
Striking a nerve with a vitamin B12 deficiency doesn't necessarily mean you'll be looking
for a psychiatrist. You could be seeing an ophthalmologist.
According to Dwight Stambolian, M.D., and Myles Beh-rens, M.D., of Columbia

University, the optic nerve can also be adversely affected by a deficiency of this
important vitamin.
A 17-year-old boy had difficulty reading for three weeks. He also had trouble making out
approaching cars. He had no headache or pain and no apparent neurological symptoms.
But new glasses failed to relieve his problem.
Upon closer examination, the physicians noticed an old surgical scar on his abdomen.
Apparently, the boy had had a portion of his small intestine removed when he was four
weeks old— again the type of surgical procedure which predisposes to a B12 deficiency.
So no one was really surprised when a series of B12 shots and the addition of B complex
to his daily diet managed to reverse the boy's visual defect (American Journal of
Ophthalmology).
B12 Shortage Reduces Fertility
Interestingly enough, B12 has made headlines in an area which at first doesn't seem to
have any relation to the central nervous system—fertility.
Speaking at a conference on nutrition and reproduction, held at the National Institutes

of Health in Bcthesda, Maryland. Jo Anne Brasel, M.D., noted that some women who
cannot conceive—and for whom no medical reason can be found—may be deficient in
vitamin Bn.
Moreover, documented evidence has shown that conception leading to the birth of a
normal infant may occur within a few short months of B12 therapy.
Dr. Brasel, who is the former director of the division of growth and development at the
College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, discovered repeated
references to this link while researching the impact of malnutrition on reproduction.
These studies—many of which have been published in British medical journals—do not
explain why 6,2 has such an effect on fertility. ''But," says Dr. Brasel, "it is interesting
that the infertility may precede, by years, overt clinical evidence of pernicious anemia."
And this bit of information is not for women only. "Furthermore," she adds, "semen and
sperm abnormalities have been noted in males with pernicious anemia. There is one
spectacular case in which B12 therapy led to return to active participation in sheep
shearing by one 73-year-old Australian sheep herder—and pregnancy in his 37-year-old
wife."
An Indian study supports this idea. Semen samples taken from vegetarians (the
avoidance of all meat and animal products can lead to a B12 deficiency) and
nonvegetarians were tested for B12 levels and sperm count.
Not surprisingly, the semen samples that lacked sperm had much lower B12 levels than
those samples with normal sperm counts {Andrologia).
But just how common is a vitamin B12 deficiency?
And how safe is the medicated American? Various studies have demonstrated that low
blood concentrations of B12 can result from treatment with a number of drugs—
including the ever-popular birth control pill.
The 48-year-old executive who had to undergo stomach surgery to take care of a
bleeding ulcer falls into a similar category. Physicians have long recognized that
stomach or intestinal surgery often interferes with the body's production of stomach
juices.
It is in these gastric secretions that the intrinsic factor exists which combines with B,2 to
aid its absorption. Without the intrinsic factor, a B12 deficiency can develop despite a
meaty diet.
188 THE B VITAMINS
Now, it seems, surgical patients aren't the only ones who are lacking the intrinsic factor.
Myron Winick, M.D., director of the institute of human nutrition, college of physicians
and surgeons, at Columbia University, has warned that as we get older we may all face
the same threat.
The Older We Get, the Greater Our Need
Aging causes changes in the gastrointestinal system which include a reduction of

hydrochloric acid secretions. Dr. Winick explains.
''Since hydrochloric acid in the stomach may not be secreted properly and the intrinsic
factor may be low, the elderly may be more prone to anemia because of poor iron
absorption and poor absorption of vitamin B12," the noted authority comments (Journal
of the American Pharmaceutical Association).
In the more serious cases of vitamin B12 deficiency— like pernicious anemia—B12
injections are preferred over oral supplementation. That way the vitamin bypasses the
malabsorption problem in the stomach and goes directly to the depleted body tissues.
However, in most cases, a B12 deficiency can be offset— and a low B12 level boosted
back up to par—with a high dietary intake of the vitamin.
Don't make excuses for missing out on your share of B12. It could save you from making
a lot of excuses concerning your health.
CHAPTER
Bi2 FOR HEALTHY NERVES AND BLOOD
Something was terribly wrong.
About a month earher, she'd begun to notice the first disturbing signs: a growing
numbness in both legs, especially the left one, and a tendency to stumble to the left. She
just couldn't walk straight. She'd developed an embarrassing, ducklike waddle, with her
legs spread wide, because if she didn't waddle she'd lose her balance.
What on earth was the matter? Searching for an answer, she scoured her memory, again,
for a clue. But there wasn't any! She was in good health, 35 years old, not taking any
medications, and had not other physical problems at all. She'd had no serious illnesses
in her life, and no operations.
What worried her most was that it seemed to be getting worse.
When she was examined by doctors at a nearby hospital, they seemed equally perplexed.
Her muscle strength, tone and reflexes were normal. Her cranial nerves, brain scan,
cerebrospinal fluid and chest X ray were normal. Blood tests also seemed normal.
So what was wrong with her? Was she crazy? She didn't think so, yet her condition
continued to worsen after that first visit to the doctor. She seemed to be losing control of
her legs. She started having spasms in her thighs.
Then, two weeks after her first visit, her doctors tried something else. They tested a
blood sample for levels of folate (folic acid) and vitamin B12. And at last they found
something that wasn't normal: Her B12 levels were depleted severely.
The young woman was given an injection of vitamin B12— 1,000 micrograms—and for
the first time since it all started, she began to feel better. In a week, she felt much better.
Two months later, after receiving injections totaling 3,000 micrograms of vitamin B12,
all her symptoms had vanished.
The young woman's story, later reported in the South African MedicalJournal (AprW,
1981), illustrates some of the thankless but essential chores vitamin B,2 is forever
performing inside our bodies, chores we rarely notice until they're left undone. B12
works tirelessly keeping our nerves and blood in shape, maintaining healthy growth and
even playing a role in the synthesis of DNA, the genetic blueprint you pass along to your
children.
The abnormalities in her blood and the neurological signs— the numbness, unsteadiness
and muscle spasms—had made the woman's doctors begin to suspect that a B12
deficiency might be the key.
They knew that, because of its role in building the protein sheath that surrounds the
nerve fibers and the spinal cord, a B12 deficiency can result in a slow deterioration of the
nervous tissue. And that begins to show up as numbness or prickly sensations in the
extremities, burning feet, forgetfulness, depression and other mental problems. The
doctors noted why adequate supplies of B|2 are so important: "The peripheral nerves
may recover completely (from the deficiency), but the spinal cord is slow to regress and
residual damage may persist."
B|2 is also a supervisor in the red blood cell production department, which has to keep
them rolling off the assembly line at about 200 million a minute. A 6,2 shortage there
results in
B,. FOR HEALTHY NERVES AND BLOOD 191
bloated, misshapen cells, unable to carry oxygen (their main job in life), so you wind up
getting pale, tired and anemic.
Alan Gaby, M.D., a nutrition-oriented doctor, points out that Bi2 injections have been
used to treat fatigue, pains that follow shingles, hepatitis, nerve damage associated with
diabetes, bursitis of the shoulder and a host of psychiatric problems. Adds Robert
Donaldson, M.D., professor of medicine at Yale University and chief of medical services
at Westhaven Veterans Administration Hospital in Connecticut, 'it's well known that
many deficient patients get B12 injections because it seems to make them feel better,
and it has no adverse side effects.''
Vitamin B12 and its chemical cousins, known to scientists as cobalamins because they
contain tiny amounts of the metal cobalt, are remarkable substances indeed. But if B12
is such a hot ticket, how come you don't hear all that much about it?
For one thing, the body needs only the tiniest amounts of vitamin B12 to function
properly: The Recommended Dietary Allowance is 3 micrograms a day, or {hree-
niillionths of a gram. For another, most people have up to a thousand times that amount
squirreled away in their bodies.
So what's the problem? For most people, there isn't one. But, warns Michael F. Murphy,
M.D.,ofSt. Bartholomew's Hospital in London, ''As the public becomes more concerned
with diet and the numbers of vegans [those who eat no food of animal origin—not even
eggs or dairy products] and other vegetarians seem to be increasing, it is most important
that the risk of vitamin B|2 deficiency is recognized and complications of deficiency be
prevented" (Annals of Internal Medicine, January, 1981).
The reason for Dr. Murphy's concern is that, with a few exceptions, vitamin B12 occurs
only in foods that come from animals. It's one of nature's little mysteries: Though the
cobalamins are among the most complex molecules found anywhere in nature, the only
creatures who have figured out how to make them are bacteria and other lowly
microorganisms. Animals, in various ingenious ways, can absorb B12 from them. But
plants can't.
192 THE B VITAMINS
Most vegetarians can get around the problem by including milk, cheese or eggs in their
diets, but strict vegans can get into real trouble if they're not careful. (There are some
nonanimal B|2 sources, such as tempeh, a fermented soybean food that's inoculated
with a B|2-brewing mold.)
Strangely enough, vast colonies of busy, cobalamin-producing bacteria live right in your
digestive tract; they're probably whipping up B12 from your last meal right now. Trouble
is, there's only one spot in that whole maze that can absorb B12— and it's in the small
intestine, upstream from the place where the vitamin is manufactured. So, as a result, all
the home-brewed vitamin your body produces is swept out with the trash. You've got to
obtain it somewhere else.
Beef liver is the single best source of cobalamin, as it is for so many other things. Other
good source are fish (such as mackerel, haddock and salmon) and dairy products.
CHAPTER
UNSUSPECTED Bi2 DEFICIENCIES
This is a fictitious story, yet it has happened a thousand times. We're telHng it in hopes
that you or any of your family will not become case number 1,001.
Mrs. Martin's daugnter was worried. Her mother seemed to have aged 10 years in the
last 18 months. When she was 75, most people took her to be a well-weathered but
healthy 65. Now, she was 77 going on 87.
"I hate to say it, but my mother's mind seems to be slipping. It's like . . . she's somebody
else, somebody strange," the daughter told the internist. She went on to describe the
personality deterioration her mother had experienced recently, the moodiness,
forgetfulness, gradual withdrawal and sometimes even moments of irrational fear.
"What's happening? Is it senility? She seemed so alert, so healthy just a couple of years
ago. Could her age be catching up with her so suddenly?"
The internist carried out a careful examination of the mother and found nothing very
remarkable except that Mrs. Martin seemed to be free of any major physical disease.
Emotionally, though, she was apparently going through a kind of depression. And there
are drugs, of course, for that.
194 THE B VITAMINS
Her daughter timidly brought up the question of vitamins, particularly vitamin B12.
Wasn't there something special, she wanted to know, about vitamin B12 for older
people?
The doctor brushed aside her question with a remark about the general uselessness of
vitamins and said she should be grateful that her mother was not suffering from
circulatory or kidney disease, the way so many other older people were.
Finally, on the daughter's insistence, the internist agreed to run a test of Mrs. Martin's
B12 status. Results? ''Absolutely normal. A little below the average, but nowhere near
deficiency. You can do whatever you want, of course, but you'll be wasting your money.
And I think your mother's medical bills are high enough already, don't you?"
Mrs. Martin's daughter could only sigh and shake her head. For a while, she had been so
hopeful that 8,2 might help. Her own daughter, a nurse, had showed her a textbook
describing some of the symptoms of B12 deficiency, and several of them had seemed so
close to her mother's: mood changes, forgetful-ness, mental confusion, depression. But
then, she realized that many things could cause such symptoms. And the text did say
that B|2 deficiency was usually found in people following strict vegetarian diets,
alcoholics and people with histories of stomach or gastrointestinal surgery. Her mother
fit none of those categories, so it seemed that the only thing to do was to accept the fact
that her problem had nothing to do with vitamin B12—^just as the test had indicated.
And there the story ends, just as it has for thousands of other ailing people who have
been given vitamin B12 tests and told that their levels of the vitamin—so crucial for
maintaining a healthy nervous system—were normal.
The big news that must now be shouted out from the rooftops of medical centers,
nursing homes and mental institutions is that the test most often given for B,. deficiency
has been revealed to have about as much diagnostic reliability as a carnival fortune
teller.
Actually, serious suspicions about the test, known as the radiodilulion assay method for
measuring for B12 levels, arose
some years ago. The trouble is that, in our blood along with true vitamin B12 which, of
course, is biologically active, there are a number of extremely similar substances or
analogs which have little or no value when it comes to protecting the nervous system
and building healthy blood cells. The commercial B12 test, unfortunately, can't tell the
difference between real vitamin B12 and the "wooden nickel" versions. It lumps them all
together and reports relative wealth where nutritional poverty exists. To make matters
worse, in the early stages of vitamin 3,2 deficiency, only the true vitamin B12 falls while
the analogs may still be relatively high, making it almost impossible for this test to alert
physicians to imminent danger.
What's really new in the B12 story is not that the test lacks reliability, but that the lack is
extensive. In the words of words of two physicians reporting in the Journal of the
American Medical Association (October 24, 1980), the test is "totally ineffective."
Kenneth L. Cohen, M.D., and Robert M. Donaldson, Jr., M.D., of the Yale University
school of medicine and the West Haven, Connecticut, Veterans Administration Hospital,
screened 352 patients using the standard commercial vitamin B12 test. None of the
patients were reported by the test to have a vitamin B12 deficiency. Realizing only too
well that they had not uncovered an epidemic of health, the doctors selected 52 persons
whose B12 measurements were in the lower half of the normal range and were able to
get 42 of them to come in for retesting. Of this group, 36 percent were found to have
abnormally low vitamin B|2 levels when the standard test was modified!
Dr. Donaldson told us there is currently available a test (a bioassay measurement) which
is considered quite reliable in testing for B12. The trouble is that it is expensive and
impractical. He and Dr. Cohen, however, modified the radiodilution test to make it more
reliable. Both doctors advise their colleagues to find out what kind of test is going to be
performed on blood samples they send out for B12 testing. If the commercial kit is being
used, they should carefully review all cases of nervous-system and mental disturbance,
as well as anemia, unless they are sure the cause is something other than vitamin B12
deficiency.
196 THE B VITAMINS
Although there is a popular notion that B12 is a "pep vitamin," deficiency of the vitamin
can cause serious, even irreversible, damage including death from pernicious anemia.
Failing to detect a deficiency is serious business. Consider this example from J. Fred
Kolhouse, M.D., and colleagues at the University of Colorado medical center. Dr.
Kolhouse pioneered in the discovery of the shortcomings of B12 tests.
A 44-year-old woman entered the hospital with a four-month history of pain in her
knees and elbows and tingling sensations in her hands and feet.
Although her mental state was considered normal, tests revealed nerve problems in her
hands and feet. Such nerve problems are one symptom of B12 deficiency. However,
when a deficiency test was run, her B12 seemed to be perfectly normal. So instead of
taking the nutritional approach, surgery was performed on her hands. The surgery
turned out to be perfectly useless.
Seven months later, the women entered the hospital again, this time on the verge of
being a vegetable. She couldn't walk and had no control over her bowels and bladder.
She was in a constant stupor and did not know where she was. Again the same Bi2-
deficiency test was given. Again it said "no problem." A few days later, the doctor
discovered that the woman had a form of anemia associated with B12 deficiency.
Further studies with a different kind of B12 deficiency test confirmed the diagnosis.
Injections were begun immediately, and she improved slightly. But six months later, she
still needed a walker to get around, and her intellect and memory were still impaired.
There is a good chance, doctors noted, that the nerve damage created by the B12
deficiency will never be overcome (New England Journal of Medicine).
Not every nervous disorder can be treated with B12, but we know that many such
patients become human guinea pigs for an almost endless series of tests, psychiatric
treatments, drugs and shock therapy. So why shouldn't vitamin B12 (as well as other B
vitamins, since they're all important to the nerves and mind) be tried along with all the
other experiments? Some doctors
UNSUSPECTED B,. DEFICIENCIES 197
object to giving multiple vitamin supplements because it's "shotgun therapy/' But
shotgun therapy is preferable to '"machine-gun therapy"—which is what one drug after
another is. And a number of drugs also interfere with B12 absorption, including certain
medications for high blood pressure, tuberculosis, Parkinson's disease, gout and excess
cholesterol. Alcohol also adversely affects B12 absorption, just as it does the absorption
of other B vitamins.
If you have a history of stomach surgery or are taking drugs and have any reason to
suspect a B12 deficiency, you should certainly discuss that situation with your physician.
In general, though, older people are the ones most likely to be deficient.
Because the most widely used Bi2-deficiency test is so unreliable, it's difficult to say how
many older people are actually deficient or on the verge of being deficient. But we can
get some indication from a study published by three doctors from Denmark (Acta
Medica Scandinavica). These doctors used a very reliable microbiological B12 test to
measure levels of the vitamin in 349 patients admitted to a geriatric center. Low values
of vitamin B|2 were found in one out of every three of these patients. Dr. L. Elsborg and
colleagues urged other physicians to study B12 levels in older patients much more
frequently than it is now done and to treat deficiencies before they have turned into
major medical problems.
If you rarely eat meat, don't like liver and eat a lot of noodles, rice, potatoes and
vegetables, you should do something to protect your B12 status.
One common-sense step is to make sure your vitamin B supplement contains B12. Since
it is inexpensive and safe, there is almost no need to worry about taking too much. The
important thing about B12 is to be sure.
CHAPTER
FOLATE, THE GOLD IN i THE COOKING WATER
Vegetables are the most important dietary source of folate (folic acid), a member of the
B-complex family of vitamins. Folate is essential for a host of functions inside our
bodies, including maintaining the integrity of the blood and the nervous system. Yet,
you'll find precious little of it in meat or in fish or eggs or milk and other dairy products.
So there's a lot of wisdom in that old entreaty "eat your vegetables"! Ironically, though,
there's evidence that mother's best efforts to nourish us may have been compromised,
depending on how long and how hard she cooked those vegetables.
Fresh cauliflower cooked for as little as 10 minutes in vigorously boiling water loses 84
percent of its folate, Joseph Leichter, Ph.D., and two co-workers at the University of
British Columbia's division of human nutrition in Vancouver report. Other vegetables
fared little better, with substantial portions of their folate content leaching into the
cooking water. Broccoli lost 69 percent of its folate, spinach 65 percent and cabbage 57
percent. Only asparagus and Brussels sprouts came through the cooking experience
relatively unscathed, parting with just 22 and 28 percent of the folate, respectively
FOLATE, THE GOLD IN THE COOKING WATER 199
"The boiling of vegetables for 10 minutes in a salt solution was chosen because it is close
to the usual circumstances of food preparation and consumption at home/' the
Canadian researchers note. "With the exception of asparagus and Brussels sprouts, the
cooking water contained more folate than the cooked vegetables. This and other studies
indicate that the loss of folate from vegetables during cooking is caused by extraction of
the vitamin into the cooking water rather than by destruction."
What about microwave cooking? A recent study indicates that folate losses are even
greater—an ominous finding given the ever-increasing trend toward microwave heating,
both in restaurants and at home.
According to Rayna G. Cooper, R.D., various forms of folate are destroyed at markedly
different rates during microwave heating. But one of the forms found in high
concentration in foods (and, interestingly, in human blood also) is the most rapidly
destroyed.
Dietitian Cooper, who was formerly associated with Mira Loma Hospital, Lancaster,
California, found that this form of folate was 90 percent obliterated after 28 minutes
inside a microwave oven set at 212°F, whereas the same destruction required 65 minutes
of conventional heating at the same temperature (Journal of the American Dietetic
Association).
Even microwave heating at a lower temperature (187°F) resulted in quicker destruction

of folate than conventional cooking at 212°F.
So much for folate's ability to squeak past the perils of the kitchen. Now add the fact that
as much as half of ihe folate in a normal diet may not be fully absorbed by our bodies
because of digestive enzyme insufficiency, and you begin to sense the magnitude of the
problem.
Sunlight Destroys Folate
There's even some evidence that oridinary sunshine can deplete our folate stores.
Researchers at the University of Min-
200 THE B VITAMINS
nesota have discovered that, when samples of human blood are exposed to strong
sunlight, they lose 30 to 50 percent of their folate in about an hour (Science).
Of course, in real life we have several layers of skin shielding our insides from the sun.
But that protection appears less than total. The same scientists found that some patients
who had been undergoing lengthy ultraviolet light treatments for skin problems had
unusually depressed levels of folate circulating in their bloodstreams.
The Minnesota researchers point out that many tropical populations suffer a high
incidence of severe anemia, infertility, dangerous birth complications and other folate-
deficiency problems. And excessive sunlight exposure may aggravate that situation.
Those of us in better-fed, more temperate nations don't face those kinds of risks. But
there is evidence that marginal amounts of folate in the diet are catching some people
unawares.
For example, M. I. Botez, M.D., and co-workers at Montreal's Clinical Research Institute
report a number of cases of central-nervous-system abnormalities linked to folate
deficiency (Archives of Neurology).
Folate and the Nervous System
In one instance, a 62-year-old woman was hospitalized because of weakness in both

legs. For the previous 13 years, she had complained of burning feet, cramps and tingling
feelings in her limbs. Examination revealed some loss of sensation and sensitivity to
pain in both legs, which were now partially paralyzed. There was also evidence of spinal-
cord degeneration.
This woman had low blood folate levels, and she admitted that she had not eaten fresh
vegetables for many years. Because of the extremity of her situation, doctors began
giving her 15 milligrams of supplementary folate a day by mouth along with periodic
injections—far in excess of the estimated daily requirement of about 400 micrognxms or
0.4 milligrams. Within two
months, symptoms started to abate. After 12 months, she was almost walking normally.
Another woman, age 76, suffered with lightning stabs of pain along with episodes of
numbness during the night—symptoms which awakened her nightly without fail. She
was unable to walk alone. Supported by two people, she could manage a few steps.
Standing with her eyes closed, she would lose her balance.
Because of allergic migraine headaches, this woman had not eaten fresh vegetables or
fruits since she was 14 years old. Eight weeks after beginning to take daily folate
supplements, she was able to walk alone with the aid of a cane. After nine months, she
didn't need the cane.
No wonder the authors speak of folate's "spectacularly beneficial effect."
Dr. Botez believes there may also be a correlation between lack of folate and a condition
known as the restless legs syndrome in pregnant women. Those afflicted with the
syndrome complain of creeping, irritating sensations in the lower legs, which can often
be relieved by walking or moving.
For one thing, estimates of folate deficiency among expectant mothers run as high as 60
percent. And restless legs often occur in the late stages of pregnancy just when folate
deficiency is most pronounced. When Dr. Botez and an associate examined two groups
of pregnant women, they found that 8 out of 10 not receiving supplemental folate had
restless legs syndrome. But only 1 of 11 taking folate had the problems (Nutrition
Reports International).
When three women with severe restless legs syndrome were given 10 milligrams of
folate daily, their symptoms disappeared after eight days.
Folate Foils Senility
As you may have guessed from its central-nervous-system role, folate is especially
concentrated in the fluid of the spinal
202 THE B VITAMINS
column—the switchboard of the central nervous system that relays messages between
your brain and body.
Dr. Botez has found that many of the signs of approaching senility may actually be
caused by a folate deficiency "short-circuiting" the nervous system.
Speaking to an annual meeting of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of

Canada, the neurologist reported that four of his patients complained of fatigue, weight
loss, insomina and severe constipation. They also had cold, numb legs and poor reflexes.
Testing them. Dr. Botez found that they had low blood levels of folate. He started them
on supplements and injections of this vitamin. After three months of treatment, their
subjective symptoms disappeared, they gradually put on weight and their reflexes
normalized. These improvements coincided with rises in the concentration of folate in
their blood (Clinical Psychiatry News).
These patients, who had been under psychiatric care for an extended period and had
been unresponsive to various medications taken before the study, did not know they
were receiving folate, Dr. Botez told the meeting.
In Scotland, ten elderly patients—five of them diagnosed as senile—had nervous-system

disorders so severe that their spinal cords were thought to have degenerated. Upon
closer investigation, they were found to be folate deficient. Folate treatment led to an
improvement in mood of all of the patients. The condition of two patients with severe
mental illness was "dramatically resolved" (British Medical Journal).
Vital to Newborn
Now let's trace folate back from the nursing home to the nursery. For folate is vital not
only in ensuring the health of an adult's nervous system, but also in protecting the
health of a newborn. To find out why, let's take a look at genes.
Genes are found in every cell and are responsible for passing down physical and
biochemical traits from generation to gen-
eration. Every living thing, from the mighty whale to the tiniest amoeba, is built up from
a blueprint of genes. Tall or short; small-boned or heavyset; blond, brunet or redhead—
genes make us what we are.
And it is folate that makes genes what they are.
When scientists make a diagram of the complex metabolic pathways that create a
chemical substance, such as a gene, out of folate and other nutrients, the drawing often
looks to a layman like a map of the New York City subway system as finger painted by a
two-year-old. So without going into the somewhat mystifying details of how folate helps
to produce a gene, let's just say that it's a critically important contributor to gene
formation. Without folate, the "blueprint" of a gene could not be designed with any
accuracy; the "building" built up from such a blueprint would be a shambles. Tragically,
this sometimes happens.
Scientists examined 805 women in early pregnancy. Low folate levels were found in 135.
Among these women, the frequency of malformations among their offspring was four
times greater than among the 670 women whose blood levels of folate were normal
(South African Medical Journal).
In a study of 35 mothers whose children had birth defects, 23 of the mothers had
abnormal folate metabolism (Lancet).
In a South African study, 57 percent of the children born to mothers who were severely
deficient in folate during pregnancy showed abnormal or delayed development
Lower Resistance
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientist, Paul M. Newberne, D.V.M.,

Ph.D., has suggested that even a marginal deficiency of folate in a mother-to-be could
severely hinder her child's ability to fight off disease later in life. In laboratory tests,
offspring of mother animals fed diets with marginal amounts of folate were less able to
overcome a common food-
204 THE B VITAMINS
poisoning bacterium than rats whose mothers received adequate amounts of folate
{Technoloiiy Review).
Besides causing a greater chance of birth deformities or slower development in the child,
folate deficiency also creates a greater likelihood that the mother will develop:
• toxemia of pregnancy,
• abruptio placentae (premature separation of the placenta from the wall of the uterus),
• anemia.
The most marked symptom of a severe folate deficiency is megaloblastic anemia. In this
anemia, red blood cells become megalohlastoid. They are too large, oddly shaped, and
have a very short life span. Robert L. Gross, M.D., formerly of the department of
nutrition and food science at MIT and currently practicing in San Francisco, found that,
in folate deficiency, the cells responsible for fighting infection also become megaloblas-
toid and lose their ability to defend the body against viruses and bacteria. This inability
is reversed by folate treatment {American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).
But you don't have to be newborn, long ago born or pregnant for a folate problem to hit
you like a ton of bricks, suggest William E. Thornton, M.D., and Bonnie Pray Thornton,
R.N. The Thorntons, formerly associated with the Medical University of South Carolina
in Charleston, report evidence of a relationship between lack of folate and forgetfulness,
apathy, irritability, disturbed sleep, depression and even psychosis {Journal of Clinical
Psychiatry).
The two investigators concluded, after examining the records of 269 patients
hospitalized for psychiatric problems, that the mentally disturbed were more likely to
have low levels of folate than were normal individuals, regardless of sex or age.
Since dietary surveys revealed that the disturbed patients were consuming reasonable
amounts of folate, it may have been that some inner problem of metabolism was
responsible. Such individuals might need folate in extra-large amounts.
Can folate deficiency affect the brain in more subtle ways? To find out. Dr. Botez and
another researcher kept a group of
young rats on a folate-deficient diet for three weeks. Then, one at a time, the animals
were placed in a special box. To avoid being subjected to a mild electric shock, the rats
had to learn to recognize a warning signal (in this case a light) and escape to the safe
corner of the box.
Those animals deprived of folate required significantly more trials than folate-fed rats
before they learned to associate the light with impending shock and take appropriate
action (Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine).
Such results suggest that "folate deficiency could be responsible for a deleterious effect
upon the growing nervous system," the Montreal researchers warn.
Eat Your Vegetables and Save Your Cooking Water
Given folate's well-documented susceptibility to destruction between farm and fork, how
can you still be sure you're getting enough of this essential nutrient?
Vegetables, despite their potential vulnerability to having folate hijacked in the kitchen,
remain the best source—provided you take certain precautions.
Brussels sprouts, you'll recall, come through the cooking process with flying colors as far
as their precious folate cargo is concerned. According to Scottish researcher J. D. Malin
of the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, that's because Brussels sprouts, being dense
and compact, have a relatively small surface area. There's less opportunity for folate to
leach out into the cooking water.
At the same time, Brussels sprouts are exceptionally rich in vitamin C (as much as 140
milligrams in V/2 ounces of sprouts), which protects the folate from oxidative
destruction.
According to Malin, "An average helping of sprouts could provide almost half of the
average daily intake of total folate" for many people {Journal of Food Technology).
206 THE B VITAMINS
If Brussels sprouts are not to your taste, other vegetables can be excellent sources,
provided you don't overcook them. "Cooking vegetables for a shorter time would reduce
folate loss," Dr. Leichter of the University of British Columbia told us. "And using less
water would definitely decrease the amount that leaches out."
A cup of cooked spinach supplies 164 micrograms; a cup of cooked beets 133
micrograms. But be sure to keep cooking water and cooking time to a minimum.
Better still, try eating more vegetables in their raw state. Tables compiled by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) indicate that romaine lettuce, parsley, broccoli and
collard greens all provide more than 100 micrograms of folate per 3'/2-ounce portion
when served raw (Journal of the American Dietetic Association).
Another suggestion: Use your leftover cooking water for steaming rice or, as Dr. Leichter
suggests, add it to soups and stews. That way, whatever folate is leached into the water
will be regained.
Grains in the diet can supply some additional folate, but here wholeness is the key: V/i
ounces of whole wheat flour contain 54 micrograms of folate; the same amount of white
flour contains less than half that amount. Toasted wheat germ is an outstanding source.
A 1-ounce serving provides 120 micrograms.
We mentioned that meat is a poor provider of folate. Liver is an exception to that rule,
however. A 3-ounce serving of cooked liver contains about 123 micrograms.
A real sleeper in the folate sweepstakes is black-eyed peas. USDA scientists consider
them a better source of folate than even liver or wheat germ, since a normal 6-ounce
serving supplies about 230 micrograms (Journal of Food Science).
Probably the surest way to meet your folate requirements on a day-to-day basis would
be to take this vitamin in supplement form. If you're already taking a B-complcx
formula, check the label for folate (or folic acid). Be sure it doesn't skimp. Remember
that the normal adult RDA for folate is 400 micrograms.
One final thing to keep in mind: Researchers at the University of Cahfornia at Berkeley
have found that zinc deficiency interferes with the intestinal absorption of some forms
of folate. Among a group of six healthy male volunteers, such reductions averaged 53
percent (Federation Proceedings). So don't let a zinc oversight undermine your folate
quest.
And if "eat your vegetables'' is a plea you've always ignored, try substituting ''take your
folate." Either way, you'll be helping yourself immeasurably.
CHAPTER
FOLATE: A WOMAN'S BEST FRIEND
"Diamonds," goes the song, "are agirPs best friend." Now, while we're not songwriters,
we respectfully suggest that, if folate were substituted for diamonds, the song might be
even more true.
For folate is a nutrient of extraordinary powers. From your head to your toes—literally—
you need folate to keep you functioning at peak performance, especially if you're a
woman.
As far as your whole body is concerned, a serious folate deficiency could result in severe
anemia. You'd feel weak and weary, and your skin might take on an ashen pallor.
The use of oral contraceptives has been implicated in such folate deficiencies. The case
of a 29-year-old executive illustrates the point. She was admitted to a hospital because
of pounding pulse in her ears, easy bruising, fatigue and a sensation of weakness.
Diagnosed initially as having an inflamed gallbladder and gallstones, she had her
gallbladder removed.
After her operation, she was found to have not only anemia, but also hemorrhages in the
retina of her right eye. Apparently, no one had ever asked if she was taking the Pill, but
finally a physician discovered she had been taking it for three years.
FOLATE: A WOMAN'S BEST FRIEND 209
As the physician in charge noted, "The contraceptive was stopped and the patient was
started on oral fohc acid [folate] .... She was subsequently followed as an outpatient, and
on continued folate therapy her blood counts and morphology have normalized and the
retinal hemorrhages have disappeared'' (Minnesota Medicine).
Your gums may need folate therapy, too. During pregnancy, many women suffer from
inflamed gums—estimates range from as low as 30 to as high as 100 percent of them.
A recent study of 30 women done during their fourth and eighth months of pregnancy
showed that those who rinsed their mouths twice daily for one minute with a folate
mouth wash experienced a "highly significant improvement" in the health of their gums
during the eighth month (Journal of Clinical Perio-dontology, October, 1980).
Link with Depression
Nowadays, too, more and more physicians are looking into folate deficiency as a cause of
depression. A study at McGill University, Montreal, examined the folate levels of three
different groups of patients: those who were depressed, those who were psychiatrically
ill but not depressed and those who were medically ill. Six of the patients were men, 42
were women, and their ages ranged from 20 to 91 years.
The researchers discovered that "serum folic acid [folate] levels were significantly lower
in the depressed patients than in the psychiatric and medical patients .... On the basis of
our results, we believe that folic acid deficiency depression may exist" (Psychosomatics.
November, 1980).
Would folate therapy help clear up depression?
To find out, we spoke to A. Missagh Ghadirian, M.D., of the department of psychiatry,

McGill University, the head researcher in the study. "Based on my clinical observations,
it seems that people whose depressions are purely due to folate deficiency do get better
with folate therapy," Dr. Ghadirian told
210 THE B VITAMINS
US. 'To make absolutely sure, we will have to wait for the results of the second phase of
our study, in which folate therapy is used."
Such positive findings for folate therapy may explain the remarkable case of a young
woman with "baby blues," or post-partam depression. Her pregnancy and the delivery of
her baby were uncomplicated. However, several weeks after delivery, she became
progressively withdrawn and emotionally unstable.
Soon she became disoriented, panicky, and had hallucinations about large, ugly figures
that intended harm to her and her new baby.
Hospitalized in two different psychiatric facilities for a period of 19 months, she received
shock treatments and various tranquilizers. She also tried to commit suicide three times.
According to the physician who saw her as a result of her third suicide attempt, "She was
an attractive but very distressed-appearing young woman who was extremely
frightened, whining and literally withdrawn into the cornerof her hospital room "
(American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecolo^'v). Three blood tests for folate levels
were performed on her, one of which was reported as very low and two of which were
reported as "none detectable."
The doctor's report continues: "She was treated for anemia with five mg. of folic acid
twice a day ... for 10 days [a large therapeutic dose]. On the seventh day of folic acid
treatment, an improvement in the mental status was noted; by the tenth day a complete
remission had occurred. The patient was discharged on one mg. of oral folic acid daily.
"She has been followed for the past IVi years without evidence of any psychiatric
disturbance. She is presently an active student in nursing school and doing very well
academically."
Some scientists now think that it's possible not only to be generally deficient in folate,
but also to have a localized deficiency—a deficiency in a certain spot in the body. One
such scientist is C. E. Butterworth, M.D., professor and chairman of the department of
nutrition sciences at the University of Alabama.
According to Dr. Butterworth, one kind of problem that may be due to a localized folate
deficiency is cervical dysplasia—a
condition in which abnormal cells, thought to be precancerous and identified by Pap

smear, are found in the cervix. In an investigation performed by Dr. Butterworth, 47
young women who were on the Pill and who had mild to moderate cervical dysplasia
were studied. Some of the women received oral supplements of 100 milligrams of folate
daily while the others received placebos.
The results of the study are impressive. The women taking therapeutic doses of folate
improved significantly while the un-supplemented women showed no change.
Furthermore, says Dr. Butterworth, "There were four cases of apparent regression to
normal among subjects receiving folic acid supplementation, but none in the
unsupplemented group." There were four cases of apparent progression to cancer
among the unsupplemented subjects, but none in the group receiving folate
supplementation. "The data is interpreted as indicating that oral folic acid
supplementation may prevent the progression of early cancer to a more severe form and
in some cases promote reversion to normalcy" {Contemponuy Nutrition, December,
1980).
A Very Common Deficiency
How common are folate deficiencies?
One physician has said that "primary folic acid deficiency is probably the most common
vitamin deficiency in man," and, indeed, more and more evidence is piling up that it's
true.
At the Florida Symposium on Micronutrients in Human Nutrition, held at the University

of Florida in February, 1981, several papers were presented that detailed the evidence of
low levels of folate in various groups of people.
Lynn B. Bailey, Ph.D., assistant professor of nutrition. University of Florida, pointed out
that both "folacin [folate] and iron status were less than adequate" in a large group of
adolescents she had studied. And according to Patricia A. Wagner, Ph.D., associate
professor of nutrition. University of Florida, 60 percent of the elderly living in a low-
income area of Miami
212 THE B VITAMINS
had low folate concentrations in their bloodstreams. Also at risk for folate problems are
alcoholics, those taking certain anticonvulsive, antibacterial or diuretic drugs and, as
we've mentioned, women on the Pill and women who are pregnant or nursing.
Studies carried out by the World Health Organization in various countries outside the
United States have suggested that up to a third of all the pregnant women in the world
have a folate deficiency. And it seems that here in America we're no exception.
Victor Herbert, M.D., of the Veterans Administration Hospital, Bronx, New York, and
several colleagues testing 110 pregnant women from low-income families in New York
City found that 16 percent had definite folate deficiency. Another 14 percent had only
marginal levels (American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology).
And in a study of 27 women of ''better economic circumstances"—patients in a private

obstetrical practice—over half had a mild folate deficiency (American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition).
That's not the best of news, because even a mild deficiency can limit the formation of
genes.
But it's not only pregnant women and their children who suffer from a folate deficiency.
"Quite apart from pregnancy, folate deficiency is a real problem in the U.S.," writes
Ronald Girdwood, M.D., Ph.D., of the university department of therapeutics. Royal
Infirmary, in Scotland in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. A spate of studies
bear out his opinion.
Charles A. Hall, M.D., of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Albany, New York,
and his co-workers tested the folate levels of 106 "essentially healthy persons" and found
31 percent of them had folate blood levels on the borderline of deficiency (American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition).
Who Is at High Risk?
Older people run a great risk of folate deficiency. British researchers found abnormally
low folate levels in the blood of
80 percent of 51 people entering an old persons' home (British Medical Journal).
A large volume of research suggests that oral contraceptives interfere with folate
metabolism and lead to a lowering of levels in the blood. The World Health Organization
has recommended that those on the Pill—as well as pregnant women and the aged—
should receive more folate.
Taking antibiotics can cause a deficiency. Folate is thought to be manufactured to some

extent by bacteria in the intestinal tract; prolonged use of antibiotics kills these bacteria.
Excessive alcohol consumption also robs the body of folate. Ninety percent of alcoholics
suffer from folate deficiency.
But most of us are not on antibiotics, the Pill, or a bottle a day of Old Crow. If we're
deficient, how come?
"This deficiency may result from inadequate intake or secondary disease," says Carl
Pfeiffer,Ph.D., M.D., in Mental and Elemental Nutrients (Keats, 1975).
Secondary diseases (that is, diseases not directly caused by folate deficiency) can impair
our ability to use the folate we take in. An African study found that patients with
bacterial infections could not absorb folate as efficiently as healthy persons (Lancet).
Psoriasis, a skin disease, may cause folate levels to fall (Skin and Allergy News). An
article in the British Medical Journal reports that severely injured or ill hospital patients
often need extra doses of folate. That's because it's so crucial to bodily repair.
How about inadequate intake?
A study of adolescents found that 85 percent of boys, 90 percent of girls from families of
low-income status and 100 percent of girls from families of upper-income status took in
less than halfihe Recommended Dietary Allowance for folate (American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition). The RDA for adults is 400 micrograms; for children under 10, 300
micrograms.
In a study of black school children in Mississippi, the average intake of folate was about
one-fifth the recommended amount. Over 99 percent of the children consumed less than
half of the daily recommended amount (Journal of the American Dietetic Association).
214 THE B VITAMINS
A nutritional survey of 46 elderly long-term surgical patients showed that most of them
had inadequate intake of folate (International Journal of Vitamin and Nutrition
Research).
Dr. Pfeiffer notes that folate intake is "one of the most widespread insufficiences in our
diets."
But a folate deficiency can result from more than just not getting the Recommended
Dietary Allowance. Vitamin C is necessary for the reduction of folate to the active form
the body can use. A deficiency of that vitamin can aggravate the ill effects of a marginal
supply of folate.
An unusual property of folate in supplemental amounts is that it can mask some of the
effects of vitamin Bi2-deficiency anemia—pernicious anemia.
Because of this, the FDA continues to put a limit on the amount of folate in over-the-
counter supplements, even though new techniques now make it possible to diagnose
pernicious anemia even when folate levels are high. Actually, folate deficiency is far
more common than B12 deficiency. As we suggested in the last chapter, if you want to
ensure folate nutrition with a B-compIex supplement, make sure it contains 400
micrograms (1.4 milligrams). If you're pregnant, you'll need double that amount (800
micrograms). And if you're a nursing mother, you'll need 500 micrograms.
And just remember that, although folate itself may not sparkle like a diamond, it can
sure help you to sparkle from head to toe.
CHAPTER
PANTOTHENATE-THE ANTI-STRESS VITAMIN
Colitis. It's the disease God forgot to give Job. Even the mild variety comes complete
with diarrhea and bloody stools. And severe colitis pulls out all the stops—literally—
diarrhea so constant the bathroom seems like a prison cell; stomach cramps; pale,
feverish skin blotched with rashes ....
If this description is turning your stomach, please dont turn the page.
We wanted to give you a really dramatic example of the role of pantothenate

(pantothenic acid)—one of the B-complex vitamins. Perhaps the best way to see how a
vitamin works to keep you healthy is to see how w/ihealthy you can get when it's
missing. And while colitis—a disease in which the colon is inflamed—is not caused by an
outright deficiency of pantothenate, it may well be the result of the body's failure to
efficiently utilize this vitamin.
Normally, your body uses pantothenate by turning it into another substance, coenzyme
A (CoA). Put another way, CoA is the metabolically active form of pantothenate. But
researchers at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, and at the
216 THE B VITAMINS
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, found that, ahhough 29 patients with colitis had
normal levels of pantothenate in their blood, the level of CoA in their colons was only
one-half of that found in the colons of 31 patients who did not have colitis (American
The researchers offered six possible explanations—all speculations—as to why colitis

patients had low levels of CoA in their colons. Why the uncertainty? Because CoA is hard
to pin down. It helps the heart beat, the stomach digest, the lungs pump. And more.
CoA is vital in the health of your adrenal glands and in the production of the adrenal
gland hormones, the hormones that give you the emotional and physical energy you
need to cope with stress— any stress. From a bitter argument to a bitter winter. From a
traffic jam to jam spilled on your shirt. From a mosquito bite to the seven-year itch. In
fact, CoA is so important for healthy adrenal glands that pantothenate (which turns into
CoA) has been dubbed an anti-stress vitamin.
Way back in the 30s, researchers had already discovered that rats deprived of
pantothenate had severely damaged adrenal glands. They also found that rats fed a
pantothenate-deficient diet reacted poorly to stress, while rats given extra pantothenate
coped with stress better.
In one study, rats were divided into three groups. One group got a diet deficient in
pantothenate. Another group got a diet adequate in pantothenate. The third group got a
diet high in this vitamin. Then all the rats were put in cold water and made to swim until
they were exhausted. The pantothenate-deficient rats swam an average of 16 minutes.
The "adequate" group did better: They swam an average of 29 minutes. But the rats with
a diet high in pantothenate swam an average of 62 minutes (Metabolism).
But what's true for rats is not necessarily true for us humans. So in 1952, Elaine Ralli
and her co-worker, Mary Dumm, researchers in the department of medicine at the New
York Uni-versity-Bellevue Medical Center in New York City, tested the anti-stress effects
of pantothenate on humans.
THE ANTI-STRESS VITAMIN 217
Standing Up to Stress
The researchers immersed a group of normal men in 48°F water for eight minutes.
Precise chemical measurements of the men's blood and urine were taken before and at
intervals after the stress. Then, for six weeks, the men received 10 grams of calcium
pantothenate (a common form of pantothenate) every day. At the end of six weeks, they
were again immersed and the same measurements were taken.
Usually, stress causes a decrease in some of the white blood cells that protect the body
against infection. After taking the pantothenate, the men had a "less pronounced" drop
in these white blood cells. Also, levels of vitamin C—a nutrient burned up by stress—
were "significantly higher." And the men excreted less uric acid, a sign that the body had
not undergone as much wear and tear. Importantly, they also had lower cholesterol
levels (Vitamins and Hormones).
A stress that's every bit as intense as cold water is the cold steel of a surgeon's knife.
Fifty patients undergoing abdominal surgery were given 500 milligrams of panthenol—a
substance similar to pantothenate—the day of surgery and for five days afterwards.
Another 50 patients were not given panthenol.
The group receiving panthenol had quicker recoveries, with less nausea and vomiting
—"a more benign postoperative course," in the words of the researchers conducting the
study (American Journal of Surgery).
Armor against X Rays
But perhaps the most severe stress is X-ray radiation. Radiation is like tiny bullets
shooting into the body.
In an experimental study. Dr. I. Szorady, of the department of pediatrics. University
Medical School, Szeged, Hungary, exposed 200 laboratory mice divided equally into
four groups to total body irradiation with X rays.
218 THE B VITAMINS
The rate of survival was highest in the group of mice receiving pantothenate for a week
before irradiation. Half were still alive 21 days following the massive stress. But among
50 other mice not protected by supplemental pantothenate, half were dead within eight
days of X-ray exposure (Acta Paediatrica Hungaricae).
"It follows that, as compared to controls, survival was prolonged by 200 percent," Dr.
Szorady concluded. "Due to its metabolic key position, pantothenic acid thus seems to
induce slow biochemical processes which ensure enhanced protection against radiation
injury."
These "slow biochemical processes" may be one key to how pantothenate shuts the door
on stress.
Stress speeds you up. Thoughts flash through the mind. Blood pressure shoots up. The
heart races. If you have a hard time steering through the stress in your life, your body
may be in chronic fourth gear—but your health will come in last. Pantothenate may help
keep your body moving at the speed it was built for.
A Longer Life
Added proof for Dr. Szorady's theory of pantothenate's power to "slow biochemical
processes" comes from Roger Williams. Ph.D., the first man to isolate, identify and
synthesize pantothenate. Dr. Williams, a research scientist with the Clayton Foundation
Biochemical Institute at the University of Texas, believes that pantothenate can actually
prolong life.
He conducted an experiment with two groups of mice, feeding both of them an identical
and nutritionally complete diet. One group, however, got extra pantothenate in their
drinking water.
The animals without extra pantothenate lived an average of 550 days. But those getting
the extra pantothenate lived an average of 653 days.
''If the 550 days is regarded as equivalent to 75 years for a human, then the 653 days
would be equivalent to 89 years/' Dr. Williams wrote in Nutrition against Disease
(Pitman, 1971).
"On a purely statistical basis," he adds, "I would be willing to wager that if a large
number of weaned babies were given 25 milligrams of extra pantothenate daily during
their lifetime, their life expectancy would be increased by at least 10 years."
And they might have fewer runny noses, too.
Dr. Szorady conducted a standard allergy skin test on 24 children, injecting them with
histamine. "Pantothenic acid reduced the intensity of the skin reaction by 20 to 50
percent in all children," he reported. In his paper on pantothenate, he also cites a study
in which a researcher "applied pantothenic acid treatment of allergic adults with
satisfactory results."
Raw Foods a Must
You'd assume that Mother Nature would have stocked her pantry with a hefty supply of
a vitamin so critical to overall health and well-being. And you'd be right. Pantos is the
Greek word for eveiywhere, and pantothenate lives up to its name: It's found in almost
all foods. But Mother Nature's pantry—brimming with vegetables, lean meats, whole
grains, fruits, nuts and seeds—is a far cry from the pantry in most modern households,
where canned, frozen and highly processed foods crowd out the real thing. As far as
pantothenate goes, these cupboards are just about bare.
That's because processed foods are losers. So concluded Henry Schroeder, M.D., former
director of research at Brattle-boro Memorial Hospital and professor of physiology at
the Dartmouth medical school.
"It is apparent that raw foods supply adequate amounts [of pantothenate] . . . ," wrote
Dr. Schroeder. "It is not apparent, however, that persons subsisting on refined,
processed and canned foods will be provided with adequate amounts. . . ."
220 THE B VITAMINS
Facts back him up. When fresh vegetables are frozen, pantothenate gets the cold
shoulder—the vegetables lose anywhere from 37 to 57 percent of this vitamin. Canned
vegetables lose from 46 to 78 percent of their pantothenate. Processed and refined
grains—the kind used in baking most of the breads, cakes, cookies and crackers sold in
supermarkets—lose 37 to 74 percent of this nutrient. Processed meats do no better,
losing one-half to three-quarters (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).
'These data,'' believed Dr. Schroeder, ''cast doubt on the adequacy of the American diet
for . . . pantothenic acid," and "demonstrate the dietary needs for the use of whole grains
and unprocessed foods of most varieties."
And that goes double for babies. A Canadian study showed that processed, strained baby
foods provide only 25 percent of an infant's need for panthothenate (Nutrition Reports
International).
Another scientist who doubts whether most people get enough pantothenate is Dr. Klaus
Pietrzik of Germany. Speaking to the 1975 annual meeting of the Federation of the
American Societies for Experimental Biology, Dr. Pietrzik warned that a diet with a 25
percent deficiency in pantothenate would damage the central nervous system after only
six months. "The desirable doses of pantothenic acid possibly should be increased," he
asserted. But what are the "desirable doses"?
It depends on whom you ask.
The No-Deficiency Diet
There is no Recommended Dietary Allowance for pantothenate. According to the

scientists responsible for setting the RDA, however, "an intake of 4 to 7 milligrams a day
would be adequate for adults," and "a higher intake may be needed during pregnancy
and lactation."
According to Dr. Williams, a much higher intake would be beneficial for mothers-to-be.
"I would be willing to give ten-to-one odds that providing prospective human mothers
with 50
milligrams of this vitamin per day would substantially decrease the number and severity
of reproductive failures/' he wrote.
And while Dr. Szorady suggests a daily 15-milligram intake, he adds that "physical work,
surgical intervention, injury, burns and grave infections, those of tbe gastrointestinal
tract in particular, may double the pantothenic acid requirement of adults."
So, how do you meet your daily requirement?
Your best bet is not to fool with Mother Nature. Follow Dr. Shroeder's advice and
include plenty of whole, unprocessed foods in your diet. Whole grains like brown rice,
oats and whole wheat are good sources of pantothenate. A bowl of oatmeal sprinkled
with wheat germ or bran is a good source. Eggs, too, supply plenty of pantothenate.
If you ask for dark meat this Thanksgiving, you'll have even more to be thankful for. The
dark meat of turkey (and chicken) is an excellent source of pantothenate. Organ meats
are also rich in the vitamin—especially liver. B vitamin-packed brewer's yeast is another
fine source of pantothenate.
These foods, along with a B-complex supplement with at least 10 milligrams of

pantothenate, should supply you with more than enough of this vitamin. (Most B-
complex supplements have more than 10 milligrams of pantothenate, some have up to
100 milligrams. It may be listed as pantothenic acid or calcium pantothenate on the
label.)
So if the stress in your life is getting you down, it's time you upped your intake of the
anti-stress vitamin, pantothenate.
CHAPTER
TAN WITHOUT BURNING WITH PABA
An argument could be made that the whole idea of working on a suntan is a little crazy.
After all, there was a time when the world's BPs (that's "beautiful people'' in affluent-
ese) were into ivory and alabaster skin. Anyone with a tan was considered strictly
working class, and who wanted to be one of those?
That twisted notion still influences us today, except that a tan no longer provokes the
image of a stoop-shouldered peasant working in the fields. People associate tans with
sailing, sunning and lounging at pool side. The only time BPs want to appear white is
when they're decked out in their tennis togs. People with neither the time nor the money
to loaf in the sun are the new working class. The only rays they're soaking up are
emanating from their office desk lamps.
The problem with cultivating a tan is that people can overdo it. Getting a bad sunburn is
no fun, and too much sun can lead to serious skin problems. We're certainly not
suggesting that you devote all of your spare time to exploring caves. You should get out
and enjoy the sun, but you also should be sensible about it. Before stepping outside, you
might put on a sun screen that will absorb, reflect or scatter the ultraviolet light of the
sun—reducing
TAN WITHOUT BURNING WITH PABA 223
the amount that reaches your skin. The best sun screens will contain one of the B-
complex vitamins, para-aminobenzoic acid, or PABA.
People with light skin color and blue or green eyes generally are more inclined to burn.
They can exceed their sunburn threshold tolerance in 10 to 20 minutes under a
noontime summer sun. Other people, who rarely burn and readily tan, may not even
become red after 45 minutes or more in the same setting.
Wrinkles, Aging and Cancer
Since people with fair skin and blue or green eyes are more susceptible to the sun, they
also are more vulnerable to skin cancer. Ireland, for example, ranks 10th for women and
20th for men in the incidence of death from skin cancer among 42 countries. The high
rate exists despite the fact that Ireland is in a latitude that receives less than half the
burn-causing ultraviolet radiation of any of the other countries.
'The most important skin carcinogenic factor in man is sunlight exposure," says Allan L.
Lorincz, M.D., professor and chief of dermatology at the University of Chicago. Too
much sun also can produce other chronic skin damage like pigment alterations,
premalignant lesions and premature wrinkling and aging. That's why you rarely see a
fashion model who's keen on tanning rituals.
People who are, however, may think they can splash on anything and be protected from
burning. "Suntan lotions are designed to be not so absolutely protective," says Dr.
Lorincz. ''They use weaker sun screens to let modest amounts of the sun through to
stimulate new pigment formation in the skin."
PABA, the B vitamin, has stood up as one of the most potdnt sun screens on the market,
he continues, and it has few complications in regard to its use. PABA's screening ability
was discovered in the 1920s by Dr. Lorincz's predecessor and former colleague at th
University of Chicago, Stephen Rothman, M.D.
224 THE B VITAMINS
PABA protects against the UVB wavelengths of the sun," Dr. Lorincz told us. UVB is the
form of ultraviolet radiation which causes sunburn and other skin problems to flare. At
the same time, PABA permits UVA rays, which are the less dangerous, tanning rays, to
travel through to the skin.
The superiority of PABA as a sun screen has been documented in various laboratory
tests. Harvard scientists found that, of 24 screening agents tested, a solution of 5 percent
PABA in alcohol provided the best protection against ultraviolet radiation (New England
Journal of Medicine).
At the University of Miami, investigators discovered that putting a 5 percent solution of

PABA on hairless mice protected them from later exposure to ultraviolet light. Mice not
treated with PABA developed severe skin lesions after they were exposed (Journal of
Investigative Dermatology).
Which Form of PABA Is Best?
In the past few years, chemical derivatives (esters) of PABA have appeared on the
market which outperform the original 5 percent PABA solution. Dr. Lorincz does not
favor the esters because "there is a theoretical reason to believe that the esters can cause
a higher risk of allergic sensitization.
"With a 10 percent PABA solution in alcohol, you get up to two hours of midday sun
protection," he says. "You can still tan—you'll just tan more slowly."
The ability of a sun screen to remain effective under the stress of prolonged exercise,
sweating and swimming is called its suhstantivity. PABA sun screens in alcohol are
considered to be quite substantive, says Dr. Lorincz. Still, when using a sun screen,
people are advised to apply it both before they go out and several times during sun
exposure, especially after swimming or perspiring.
PABA is not a carte blanche to sunbathe. It allows you to stay out a little longer, but if
you overdo it, you'll burn.
CHAPTER
BIOTIN—THE
LITTLE-KNOWN
LIFESAVER
At first, she looked like a perfectly normal baby, so no one suspected a thing. But by
three months of age, it was obvious that something was terribly wrong. She began to
have seizures— about ten a day—and nothing seemed to help. By 14 months of age, all of
her hair had fallen out—even her eyebrows and eyelashes. A red, scaly rash marred her
body. Her eyes, once bright and shining, became swollen and painful from severe
inflammation.
On top of that, she became increasingly irritable and sleepy. Her muscles grew steadily
weaker until she could barely walk. Lab studies of her blood and urine revealed a high
level of accumulating poisons, the kind found in severe metabolic disorders. And the
levels of lactic acid in her blood rose to over twice that of the normal value, causing it to
become dangerously acidic.
The doctors were understandably alarmed by the downward course the child was taking,
especially since they didn't really know what was causing it or exactly how to correct it.
But they did know that she would surely die if something wasn't done soon.
At that point, they began giving the little girl large doses of biotin, an essential B-
complex nutrient.
226 THE B VITAMINS
"The clinical response to 10 milligrams of biotin per day was dramatic," says Jess
Thoene, M.D., of the department of pediatrics. University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
"Within 12 hours the plasma [blood] lactic acid concentration had fallen to normal and
her state of consciousness had improved. After 48 hours of biotin therapy, all of her
blood chemistries had normalized. Over the next four months she reached all the
developmental milestones that had been lost during the illness. Her hair, including
eyebrows and eyelashes, began to regenerate, and her muscular coordination was
regained. Biotin not only saved her life, it allows her to have a normal, healthy childhood
without any of the signs of her former illness (New England Journal of Medicine, April
2, 1981).
But why biotin? How did the doctors single out this particular, little-known nutrient as
the special one to cure this child's ailment?
Actually, it wasn't easy. It took a lot of detective work (and a little luck) to finally fit all
the puzzle pieces together.
First, scientists learned that certain enzymes depend on biotin for normal functioning.
Without those enzymes, the body can't utilize carbohydrates, proteins and fats. When
that happens, specific abnormal metabolites (poisons) build up in the body, creating a
whole host of devastating symptoms.
When modern equipment made it possible to identify those abnormal metabolites, it

wasn't long before doctors were able to pinpoint exactly which enzyme systems were
malfunctioning.
That information, combined with the fact that this patient had symptoms strikingly
similar to another child whose enzyme deficiencies were corrected with biotin, decided
the course of action here, says Dr. Thoene.
"These defects in the metabolism of biotin may be much more common that we once
thought," adds Herman Baker, Ph.D., another doctor actively involved with the case.
"Not long ago, we had no way to test for biotin deficiency, so many cases probably went
undetected. Now we have a method which can isolate as little as one part in a trillion of
the nutrient,"
THE LITTLE-KNOWN LIFESAVER 227
Dr. Baker, a professor of preventive medicine at the New Jersey Medical School in
Newark, told us. "At present, we are the only ones in the country who have this
procedure for detecting low levels of biotin with such extreme accuracy. Ever since this
case study became publicized, we've been deluged with requests for biotin levels by
doctors whose patients have similar symptoms."
And no wonder. It's rare to be able to cure a potentially fatal disorder with a remedy
that, so far, has shown no side effects and is completely safe.
That's how Morton J. Cowan, M.D., an immunologist from the department of pediatrics
at the University of California at San Francisco feels about biotin, too. He's seen for
himself how biotin works in youngsters with this same genetic defect.
"The children I've seen," says Dr. Cowan, "had defects in their immune systems along
with all the other symptoms. In fact, two of the kids died from overwhelming infection
in combination with progressive central nervous system deterioration before we knew
that biotin could reverse the disorder" (Lancet, July 21, 1979).
"We still don't know for sure what's actually happening with these kids," Dr. Cowan told
us. "It may be that their bodies can't metabolize biotin normally. But the problem may
also be one of absorption. These kids have had a normal exposure to biotin in their diet,
yet, in some of the children, the blood and urine levels are low. The body may just not be
able to transport the biotin across the cellular membranes. We don't know why this is
so. But we do know that flooding the system with 10 to 40 milligrams a day of biotin
somehow pushes it across the barrier and into the bloodstream and cells, where it's
needed for the metabolism of fats, carbohydrates and proteins.
"With our patient, that's what it took for complete recovery. What's more, she was
relieved of the numerous infections that continuously plagued her.
"From what we've seen, immune deficiencies seem to go along with biotin deficiencies
whether the problem is genetic [like the cases mentioned so far] or acquired," Dr. Cowan
told us.
228 THE B VITAMINS
Less Biotin, Fewer Antibodies
That seems to support the conclusions made by Mahendra Kumar, Ph.D., and A. E.
Axelrod, Ph.D., of the biochemistry department at the University of Pittsburgh school of
medicine in Pennsylvania.
They found that rats that were made deficient in biotin showed a marked decrease in the
number of cells which produce antibodies (the protein which fights off infection).
The antibody-forming cells were reduced by 96 percent in the biotin-deficient rats,

report Drs. Kumar and Axelrod, but were partially restored to normal when biotin was
administered to the animals (Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and
Medicine).
Fewer Eggs, Less Biotin
Most researchers and nutritionists have long believed that it is next to impossible to
acquire a biotin deficiency. That's because such small amounts are required (about 100
to 300 micrograms per day, a mere fraction of what the sick babies were receiving).
And what you don't pick up from the good food sources that you eat (like liver, eggs,
peanuts and dried beans), say the scientists, the friendly bacteria that live in your large
intestine will manufacture for you.
Between those two sources, how can anyone become deficient?
But apparently it's not that simple. ''First of all," says Mary Marshall, research
nutritionist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's human nutrition center, "many
people have cut their intake of eggs and liver, the best sources of biotin, because of their
high cholesterol content.
"I also think it's a myth that the bacteria in your gut can supply you with the biotin
you're not getting in your diet. It's
true that they make it, but they do it in the lower part of the large intestine, and
absorption does not take place at that location.
"Besides," Mrs. Marshall told us, "we don't even know if we have the same bacteria now
as we did long ago, because of all the antibiotics we've consumed over the years."
In fact, every time you take an antibiotic or sulfa drug, you may be killing off the biotin-
manufacturing bacteria in your gut. So even if you co///<i absorb the biotin they're
making, they may not be there to make it.
Elderly People Need More
But even if you haven't taken an antibiotic in years, you still could be low in biotin, that
is, if you're physically active or elderly.
A study done in Basel, Switzerland, measured the blood levels of biotin in various
populations. The results showed that the elderly and athletes had significantly lower
levels than the control group (International Journal of Vitamin and Nutrition Research).
"The elderly may have a problem with absorption," says Mrs. Marshall. "They do with
many other nutrients, so it's possible that biotin is among them. We really don't know
for sure."
"As for the athletes," speculates Dr. Baker, "exercising causes a buildup of lactic acid in
the muscles. Biotin is part of the enzyme system which is needed to break it down again.
The more lactic acid that accumulates, the more biotin is needed.
"We will be conducting a study soon on the effect of exercise on biotin levels in humans,
so we should have some definite answers."
Meanwhile, increased need is not just limited to the elderly, athletes and people taking
antibiotics.
Hospital patients on total intravenous feeding should be aware that biotin deficiency can
result. That's what happened recently to one little girl. Unlike the other sick babies, this
patient did not have a genetic defect in biotin metabolism. (It was only after
230 THE B VITAMINS
three months on intravenous feedings that the famiHar biotin deficiency symptoms
developed.)
Ten miUigrams of biotin per day did the trick for her, too, and after seven weeks of
therapy, her dose was reduced to only 100 micrograms daily {New England Journal of
Medicine, April 2, 1981).
Children recovering from burns and scalds may need a biotin boost, too.
A study of nine children suffering from those injuries was conducted at the Institute of
Child Health in London. Plasma biotin levels were significantly below the control values
in all the children. "The evidence suggests,'' write the researchers, "that low plasma
biotin levels found in children with burns and scalds are due to the injury either through
loss of the vitamin or through increased requirements for tissue repair" (Journal of
ClinicaI Pathology).
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
There's also some impressive evidence that low biotin levels may be involved in cases of
sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), a tragic phenomenon in which babies are found
dead in their cribs for no apparent reason. Researchers in Australia and Great Britain
say that SIDS closely resembles a disorder in which marginally biotin-deficient chickens
die when subjected to even mild stress. None of the classic signs of biotin deficiency are
present in the chickens, but there are low levels of biotin in their livers, and
supplementation with biotin eliminates the problem.
The researchers speculated that the same thing may be happening in human infants, as
well. To test their theory, they examined the livers of infants who had died of various
causes and found that those with SIDS had significantly lower levels of biotin, just like
the chickens. All of the SIDS victims but one had suffered some mild disease at their
deaths, but nothing severe enough to explain why they died.
"We do not suggest," say the researchers, "that SIDS results from biotin deficiency
alone, but ... we postulate that
biotin insufficiency may leave the infant in a condition in which SIDS can be triggered
by mild stress, for example, infection, a missed meal, excessive heat or cold or a changed
environment" {Nature, May 15, 1980).
It's been reported that SIDS is more common among bottle-fed babies than breast-fed
ones. That may be because a considerable loss of biotin occurs during the manufacture
of certain infant formulas. It's been recommended that infant formulas be supplemented
with biotin as a precaution against SIDS.
It seems that babies get the brunt of the biotin-deficiency problems. Fortunately, they
also reap the benefits of ample supplementation.
For adults, there isn't enough information available yet to determine exactly how much
biotin is really needed—that is, unless you're talking about blood lipids (fats). Mary
Marshall has conducted a few experiments which show that supplementation with 0.9
milligrams biotin per day can reduce blood lipids. "We tested rats and humans with high
lipid levels," Mrs. Marshall told us, "and we found that biotin supplementation caused
an initial rise in lipids followed by a drop to below prestudy levels {Artery, March,
1980).
"So much work still needs to be done," says Mrs. Marshall, "because right now we have
more questions than answers. We think there may be a connection between biotin and
diabetes, for example."
Dr. Baker agrees. "Biotin seems to affect glucose (blood sugar) metabolism. There's
some evidence of that, and we plan to check out that possibility," he told us.
The role of biotin in immunity is another area ready to be explored. "We have no
scientific evidence right now that taking more biotin will help normal people fight off
viruses," says Dr. Cowan. "But it did relieve the kid with the genetic biotin deficiency of
their multiple infections."
A few years ago, nobody paid any attention to biotin. Now, it looks like biotin may not
stay the unknown B vitamin for long. The more we learn about it, the more evident it
becomes that it is vital to our total well-being.
CHAPTER
CHOLINE FOR A SHARPER MEMORY
How good is your memory?
Quickly, now, can you recall what you ate for dinner the night before last? Do you
remember the title of that Barbra Streisand movie you saw two years ago? What if you
bumped into an old school friend you hadn't seen for many years? Would you remember
the name—or even the face?
Clearly, if a lifetime is built of pleasant memories—growing families, graduations,

weddings, wonderful vacations—then the quality of your memory becomes the key to a
good and satisfying life.
That's not meant to suggest that your brain should be like some vast computer, endlessly
spinning a printout of every sight, sound, smell and textbook fact that ever nestled—
however briefly—in your consciousness. Many things are meant to be forgotten. But
being able to recall important events, experiences and information vividly and in fine
detail is not too much to ask.
And while nature hasn't skimped in giving us the gray matter to get the memory job
done, that hasn't stopped scientists from searching for some agent that would boost our
recall capacity even more. They haven't yet found the magic potion or elixir,
CHOLINE FOR A SHARPER MEMORY 233
but investigators at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have found
something that gives forms of recollection a welcome nudge—especially in people whose
memories are a bit below par to begin with.
That substance is choline, an essential dietary component found in a wide range of meat
and vegetable foods. Choline is thought of as a vitamin by some nutritionists (it's
included in many of the more complete B vitamin supplements). What's more, our
bodies can manufacture additional choline, provided we eat a healthful diet that
supplies the raw materials.
"Our studies show that choline has a weak to moderate memory enhancement effect,"
research psychiatrist N. Sitaram, M.D., told us. "It's not a robust effect, but it can be
measured."
Dr. Sitaram, who is now director of affective disorders at Lafayette Clinic in Detroit, was
interested in testing choline because it is a precursor, or forerunner, of acetylcholine, a
brain compound that is essential for the smooth flow of nerve impulses. Other studies
have shown that extra choline in the diet increases levels of acetylcholine in the brain.
Dr. Sitaram and his colleagues, Herbert Weingartner, Ph.D., of the laboratory of clinical
psychology, NIMH, and Christian Gillin, M.D., currently at the University of California
at San Diego, wanted to find out if this would aid memory.
On two separate days, they gave ten healthy volunteers, ranging in age from 21 to 29,
either a supplement of 10 grams of choline chloride or an identical-appearing but
worthless substitute. Then after an hour and a half, the people were given two kinds of
memory tests.
In the first, a serial learning test, subjects had to memorize in proper order a sequence of
ten unrelated words. The list was read to each person and repeated as often as necessary
until perfect recall was achieved and could be repeated twice in a row.
"Choline significantly enhanced serial recall of unrelated words as measured by the

number of trials required," the researchers reported. "Furthermore, the enhancement
was more pronounced in 'slower' subjects . . . than in subjects who performed well" (Life
Sciences).
234 THE B VITAMINS
In Other words, the people most in need of help had their memories prodded the most
when they took choline. One individual who normally needed six trial readings to
master a ten-word list cut that to four after taking choline. Another dropped from seven
to five attempts with the choline supplement.
In the second test, the volunteers were read lists of 12 common words. Half the words
were highly imageable, concrete words like table and chair, which can be easily
visualized. The rest were low imagery words like /////// and late, which represent
abstract, hard-to-visualize concepts and are more difficult to memorize.
In these trials, subjects didn't have to learn the lists in any particular order, but the
words were read to them again and again until all 12 words could be successfully
recalled twice in succession.
The results, as the authors describe them, were "extremely interesting.'' People didn't
fare any better overall when they took choline, but when the test was divided into high-
imagery and low-imagery words, they registered much better scores in the latter, more
difficult category while taking the supplement. In other words, choline seemed to
selectively enhance memory to meet the challenge of the tougher learning tasks.
Learning Time Cut in Half
One person who normally required ten trials to master a list of difficult words reduced
that to five (a 50 percent improvement!) after taking choline.
And unlike certain drugs which also raise acetylcholine levels in the brain, the authors
point out, choline is a natural food component which is usually safe even in large
amounts. The doses of choline in these tests were at least ten times as great as the 900
milligrams or less supplied by a typical diet. (These amounts, however, should be taken
only under a doctor's supervision.)
CHOLINE FOR A SHARPER MEMORY 235
As promising as Dr. Sitaram's results were, however, he was quick to point out to us that
many questions still remain. For example, these tests measured memory 90 minutes
after a single dose of choline. We still don't know how long the effects last or whether
they would continue over several weeks or months if extra choline were consumed daily.
And the trials involved only younger, healthy volunteers with a normal range of
remembering ability. The real challenge, according to Dr. Sitaram and the other NIMH
researchers, will be to determine if choline can help elderly people with serious memory
impairments brought on by the brain deterioration of senility.
CHAPTER
VITAMIN Bi,— MIRACLE OR HOAX?
The story of this "vitamin that isn't" is a long, complicated and checkered tale of
promotional chutzpah and scientific skepticism, including among its cast of characters a
beleaguered father-and-son research team, chemists from the Soviet Union, and zealous
representatives from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—all at odds. It
hasn't exactly got the pace and suspense of Three Days of the Condor; instead, if most of
the evidence is correct, it's more like four decades of the turkey. Here's the condensed
version.
Credit for discovering "vitamin B15" (we put it in quotes because, by definition, it's not a
vitamin—that is, its absence in the body isn't linked to any deficiency disease, the way
vitamin C is to scurvy) goes to the Ernest Krebses, father and son, who are also the boys
who came up with laetrile and called it vitamin B|7. Krebs senior and junior christened
their crystalline concoction pangamic acid because it was found in all (pan) seeds (i,'a-
nu'te). Over the years, it has also attracted the labels calcium pangamate, "the famous
Russian formula," and a host of brand names that made sure to use the number 15 in
them.
VITAMIN B,s—MIRACLE OR HOAX? 237
During these same years, a slew of alleged benefits were attributed to pangamic acid; it
was said to positively affect heart disease, diabetes, schizophrenia, alcoholism, asthma,
nerve and joint infections, eczema and you name it. Panacea, not pangamic, is what the
acid should have been called. The Russians, especially, touted the substance and made
great claims for its ability to lower the body's oxygen needs, thus helping athletes by
transporting oxygen more efficiently to their muscles. Coaches worldwide dropped their
whistles and ran for B15.
The only problem was, there were problems:
1. The Russian studies were pretty sloppy, without proper controls, loaded with
unsubstantiated data and looking about as water tight as a colander.
2. There is no clear chemical identity for pangamic acid, so companies producing it can
pretty much put into it whatever they want. The FDA says that it is ''not an indentifiable
substance."
3. In 30 years at the Bunsen burner, the Krebses were able to isolate pangamic acid from
seeds only once. But since naturally occurring substances can't be patented anyway, they
redoubled their efforts to find a synthetic counterpart. Both they and the Russians
succeeded in doing so. Most companies producing the stuff say they follow the Russian-
style directions and call the results calcium pangamate, which is alleged to contain
DMG, the essential extract that is supposed to be responsible for all the good deeds. But
according to the FDA, it has never analyzed a batch of pangamic acid that contained
what the Krebses said they'd been able to isolate from seeds. Furthermore, DMG has
been shown in some labora-
238 THE B VITAMINS
tory experiments to be a potential carcinogen, and so has DIPA-DCA, a major

component of the second-largest-selHng form of calcium pangamate 4. The FDA says
DMG is not a natural food substance, but a food additive, and that, until it goes through
the usual tests and safety checks, it must be removed from the shelves.
Court cases and shipment seizures have been going on for years, with the FDA ahead in
suits won and the companies victorious in the piling up of sales dollars. For even though
pangamic acid, by federal regulation, ought to be off the shelves of pharmacies and
health foods stores, you can still find it there, either boldly obvious or in various
disguises, because there's money to be made from it and the FDA can't be everywhere at
once. And our view? Well, so far, nothing that we've seen or heard
about B,5 has made us feel like dropping o///-whistles and running
for it.
VITAMIN C AND THE BIOFLAVONOIDS
CHAPTER
BRIMMING WITH HEALTH (AND VITAMIN C!)
What would happen to you if your body tissues were drenched with vitamin C, saturated
like the soil after a downpour? And what if this soaking lasted for more than just a few
hours, but for days and days, for the rest of your life? What would be the consequences?
The fate that would befall you would likely be better health. That's the opinion of a
growing number of researchers looking into the vitamin C requirements of your body.
The word is that the right daily intake of C is the one that ensures this maximum
permeation of your tissues in what's called a steady state.
It's a condition existing everywhere in the animal world, and that fact set a lot of people
thinking about the implications for man. Unlike humans, most animals can synthesize
(manufacture) vitamin C internally. Since these C makers have high saturation levels of
the vitamin, scientists reasoned, the steady state must be ideal for their health. So the
same saturation condition might be optimal for humans, who have to make sure their C
intake keeps their tissues loaded.
Emil Ginter, Ph.D., a distinguished vitamin C researcher from Czechoslovakia, was

among the first to test these assump-
240 VITAMIN C
tions. Initially, he set out to discover what a maximum saturation would do for a
creature that shared man's inability to synthesize vitamin C—the guinea pig. In test after
test, he found that guinea pigs on close-to-maximum saturation levels of C fared better
than guinea pigs with lower levels. The animals with higher vitamin C levels handled
cholesterol better and developed fewer gallstones when placed on a gallstone-producing
diet. The saturation animals were not only better off than those guinea pigs on
deficiency intakes of C, but they were even healthier than those getting many times the
intake needed to prevent scurvy—the vitamin C-deficiency disease {Nutrition and
Health, vol. 1, no. 2, 1982).
Evidence is accumulating that in humans, too, a state of vitamin C saturation is optimal

for health, says Dr. Ginter. Here and abroad, studies have demonstrated that a full store
of C can help battle harmful levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, detoxify potentially
dangerous histamines (substances produced in the body), neutralize unwholesome
chemicals in your diet and more.
Beyond Your RDA
But the question is what daily intake of vitamin C will keep your cache—your body pool
—brimming?
Whatever the quantity is, many researchers and doctors are convinced that it has little to
do with the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of 60 milligrams a day. ''Sixty
milligrams is enough, all right—if you want merely to stay just above scurvy level," says
W. M. Ringsdorf, Jr., D.M.D., of the University of Alabama in Birmingham. "But if you
want to live a life of reduced infection, if you want to promote healing and sharpen your
immune system, if you want optimum triglyceride levels in your blood, you'll want a
daily intake of C far above the RDA."
"It is certain," notes Dr. Ginter, "that the officially recommended doses are unable to
ensure a maximum body pool, for they do not lead to maximum levels of ascorbate
[vitamin C]
BRIMMING WITH VITAMIN C 241
... in the blood, and much less in tissues." And that's where some major studies come in.
They can help you figure out just how far above the RDA you should go.
In one of these experiments, researchers used vitamin C "tagged" with harmless levels of
radioactivity to trace vitamin C in the body. Anders Kallner, M.D., Ph.D., of the
Huddinge University Hospital in Sweden, and his colleagues chose 14 healthy,
nonsmoking males, put them on daily C intakes of 30 to 180 milligrams, and had them
drink water containing the tagged vitamin C. After tracking the C in blood plasma and
urine, the research team was able to gauge the men's maximum body pool and turnover
(the amount of vitamin C metabolized or used).
The average stockpile of C was assessed at 1,500 milligrams, with a daily turnover of 60
milligrams. The study concluded that, to maintain such a pool and to compensate for
turnover and incomplete absorption of C, healthy, nonsmoking males should ingest
about 100 milligrams a day {American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, March, 1979).
But that is not the last word on your C requirements. A more recent study recommends
an even higher daily intake for men—and a different one for women.
For five years, Philip J. Garry, Ph.D., and his fellow researchers monitored the vitamin C
levels of 270 healthy elderly men and women in the Albuquerque area. They checked the
subjects' diets, their intakes of vitamin C supplements and the amounts of C in their
blood. The picture that emerged was of a health-conscious group of seniors with
apparently normal abilities to absorb and store vitamin C. Dr. Garry and his colleagues
concluded that, for men to have a full C concentration in their blood (maintaining a
body pool of 1,500 milligrams), they need to ingest 150 milligrams of C per day. And for
women to get the same concentration, they need to take 75 milligrams a day. Intakes at
lower levels simply can't keep our body pools on the "full" mark {American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition, August, 1982).
Indeed, even dietary intakes three times the RDA aren't quite up to snuff, according to
Dr. Ginter. He cites some pro-
242 VITAMIN C
vocative evidence suggesting that your maximum body pool of C is an even mightier
flood than some researchers think. "This value [of 1,500 milligrams] appears unduly
low," he says. "It is certainly much lower than data on animals capable of synthesizing
ascorbate [vitamin C]. In addition, there are large organs in the human body, such as,
for instance, the liver, brain and gastrointestinal tract, in which maximum ascorbate
concentrations determined by direct analysis are at least 10 times higher."
If you examine the C content of human tissues, explains Dr. Ginter, you discover that the
maximum pool is actually about 5,000 milligrams (approximately 32 milligrams of C
per pound of body weight). And that's a pool value similar to those found recently in
monkeys.
"Vitamin C doses necessary for maintaining such a high body pool in humans have not
as yet been experimentally determined," Dr. Ginter points out, "but they may be
calculated approximately from available data." Since we know the turnover and
absorption rate of C, he says, it's a simple matter to compute the intake that we need to
keep our reservoirs topped off at 5,000 milligrams: about 200 milligrams a day.
Vitamin C to the Rescue
Let's say you're flat on your back in the hospital, recovering from abdominal surgery. Or
money problems are weighing on your mind. Or you're walking down a city street
choking on smog. How much vitamin C does your body need now?
More than you might think. We now know that your coun-termeasure for these and
other traumas should be extra vitamin C—above and beyond your saturation intake.
When your body is under the gun, it demands additional C to heal itself or fight off
enemies within.
'"Stress is just one factor that steps up your vitamin C requirements," says Robert
Haskell, M.D., of San Francisco. "If anything helps you battle the effects of stress, it's
extra vitamin C."
BRIMMING WITH VITAMIN C 243
"It appears that all forms of pollution increase the requirements of vitamin C in humans
and experimental animals,'' notes Dr. Ginter. "It has been repeatedly shown that various
pesticides, industrial toxins, certain drugs, particularly antipregnancy pills, and smoking
decrease blood vitamin C levels."
And if you have a wound that needs healing, you can observe the most dramatic example
of extra C power firsthand. For an "excess" of the vitamin not only puts wounds on the
mend, but hurries the healing along at record speeds.
That fact was confirmed by Dr. Ringsdorf and an associate when they reviewed a series
of clinical studies testing C's healing ability. The subjects were people without C
deficiencies who had a variety of wounds—bed sores, leg ulcers, gum damage, even
wounds from surgery. When these patients went on daily C intakes of 500 to 3,000
milligrams, fast-paced healing set in. Recovery time from both surgery and injury
dropped by as much as 75 percent (Oral Surgeiy/Oral Medicine, March, 1982).
And no wonder. Vitamin C, it seems, is a crucial ingredient in all human wound healing,
fast or slow. "This nutrient is unique among vitamins," reports Dr. Ringsdorf, "because
it regulates the formation and maintenance of intercellular cement and collagen [a
supportive protein that helps bind up wounds]. Thus, the structural integrity of every
tissue and organ is dependent on this vitamin."
And you're never more dependent than when you're hit by more than one C-demanding
trauma—when you're under stress and you light up a smoke to calm your nerves, for
example, or when you're nursing multiple wounds. All the factors that boost your
vitamin C needs, says Dr. Ginter, are probably cumulative. And that means your body's
C requirements may add up like bills—payable upon demand. "Personally, I believe that
in such situations," he says, "the optimum dose is several hundreds of milligrams per
day."
That sounds like small payment for some bills your body can't afford to ignore.
CHAPTER
VITAMIN C:
CHANGING YOUR BODY FOR THE BETTER
"Vitamin C is unique among vitamins because it is the only one that seems to play a role
in every bodily function, as it holds the cells together," observes Reginald Passmore,
M.D., professor of physiology at Edinburgh University in Scotland. "When it is deficient,
furthermore, it wreaks more havoc in more places in the body . . . than any other
nutrient" (Nutrition Today).
Adds Irwin Stone, one of the early pioneers of vitamin C research: "Ascorbic acid
(vitamin C) is involved in so many vital biochemical processes and is so important in
daily living that, after forty years of research, we still have no clear idea of all the ways in
which it works" (The Healing Factor, Grosset and Dunlap, 1972).
It's such a versatile performer, in fact, that vitamin C has been called "an oil for the
machinery of life." Yet, your body can't manufacture it or store more than a few grams,
so keeping your cells saturated with a rich, daily supply of C is crucial. Just how
important has been demonstrated in studies showing what happens when you don't:
Deficiencies interfere with everything from the production of collagen, the protein
"cement" that holds your cells together and helps in the healing of wounds, to your
ability to digest food and fight the effects of stress.
CHANGING YOUR BODY FOR THE BETTER 245
Researchers at Cornell University have even found that deficiencies of the vitamin
impair the body's ability to metabolize drugs, which could have serious implications for
the elderly, in particular.
"In guinea pigs, we've found that deficiencies of vitamin C impair the liver's ability to
detoxify drugs, which results in more of the drug affecting the body—causing, in effect,
an overdose," one researcher told us.
But one of the most important gears the "oil of life" greases is the body's immune system
—your defense against infectious disease. In one study at South Africa's University of
Pretoria, vitamin C was found to stimulate the immune system.
When a germ, virus or any other microscopic invader penetrates the body, a healthy
immune system, like a football team, musters a front line of defenders and hustles them
off to the site of the invasion. One unit of this defending team is made up of specialized
white blood cells called neutrophils, which simply eat up the enemy—rather like the
body's very own mean Joe Greenes. In both human subjects and human cells in test
tubes, the South African scientists found that vitamin C increased the mobility of these
neutrophils, speeding up their rush to the line of scrimmage. Vitamin C also helped
stimulate the immune response by stepping up the body's production of lymphocytes,
another kind of white blood cell {American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, September,
1981).
How do neutrophils know where the attackers have threatened the body and how to get
to the scene of the invasion? They do it by following the "scent" of a chemical distress
signal the body produces when it becomes inflamed by injury. The neutrophils' amazing
pursuit through the body's byways, hard on the enemy's trail like angry linemen, is
called chemotaxis —and it doesn't always work. When neutrophils are exposed to a
chem-otactic signal once, they become deactivated—that is, they fail to respond to a
subsequent signal.
Yet, Italian researchers have found that vitamin C "completely prevented the loss of true
chemotactic responsiveness by cells." In other words, human neutrophils, exposed to
chemical distress signal, responded right on cue to a second signal—//
246 VITAMIN C
they were saturated with vitamin C. Otherwise, they didn't respond at all (British
Journal of Experimental Pathology, vol. 61, no. 5, 1980).
For a Healthy Pregnancy
Vitamin C may also be needed to ensure a healthy pregnancy, other research suggests. A
study conducted at the Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, by Dr. C. Alan B. Cle-
metson discovered that, when the levels of vitamin C in the blood fall below a certain
level, blood levels of histamine rise significantly. Evidence going back as far as 1926
indicates that histamine might be responsible for a potentially fatal complication of
pregnancy called abruptio placentae, in which the placenta separates from the womb
prematurely.
Studies of women with that condition have found that they usually have abnormally low
levels of vitamin C in their blood. And Dr. Clemetson found that histamine begins to
build up in the blood long before vitamin C levels fall to the point where scurvy, the
classic C-deficiency disease, begins to develop. The blood levels of C are low, but by no
means deficient as the term is commonly defined {Journal of Nutrition, April, 1980).
So Dr. Clemetson believes that it might be a good idea for pregnant women to
supplement their diets with vitamin C. He does not have the final, unshakable proof that
C prevents abruptio placentae, any more than we have unshakable proof that C prevents
the other problems we've been discussing. But Dr. Clemetson thinks taking C might be a
good idea all the same.
C Saves Body Tissue
A true believer in vitamin C is former Saturday Review editor Norman Cousins. Upon
returning from a stressful trip to Russia in 1964, Cousins felt like a grimy passport with
every page stamped "pain." He had difficulty moving his neck, arms,
legs and fingers. He was diagnosed as having ankylosing spondylitis, a rare collagen
disease affecting the joints of the spine. But he fought his way back to health with up to
25 grams daily of vitamin C and mirth sessions of Marx Brothers movies and "Candid
Camera" classics.
Cousins' diagnosis may have been rare, but collagen is not. It is everywhere in the body,
comprising fully 30 percent of all body protein.
If vitamin C is lacking, the result will be a defective collagen molecule that means,
ultimately, weak tissue. Scurvy (gross vitamin C deficiency) is a hideous culmination of
tissue collapse, wherein old scars break down, new wounds won't heal, blood vessels
hemorrhage and the gums can't even hold their teeth anymore.
Science is just beginning to scratch the surface of how collagen does its job. An editorial
in the British medical journal L<;//7Cf/opened: "Long regarded as inert, uninteresting,
and purely mechanical in function, collagen is attracting the close attention of
physicians and biochemists. This reversal in outlook is partly due to the realization that
collagen is involved in many diseases, from fatal heart and lung diseases to back pain
and minor skin disorders."
The editorial goes on to say: "At present we recognize disorders primarily when
mechanical malfunction occurs, but collagen may be involved in other diseases at a
more subtle level."
Needs for C May Be Special
How much vitamin C is necessary to maintain healthy collagen production? The amount
can vary widely, as revealed in the case of a young boy studied by two southeastern
doctors, reported in the Journal of Pediatrics.
The boy, age eight when first diagnosed, had absurdly stretchable skin. His muscles
were weak; his skin was brimming with hemorrhages and scars; he was mildly myopic
and the diameter of his cornea was unusually small. At first he was diag-
248 VITAMIN C
nosed for vitamin C deficiency, but blood and urine tests showed that he was not
suffering from any deficiency in the narrow cHnical sense that doctors are trained to
look for.
What he suffered from was a vitamin dependency. His doctor, Louis J. Elsas II, M.D., of
the division of medical genetics at Emory University's school of medicine, discovered the
boy to be in need of much more vitamin C than most people need for collagen formation
because of an inherited disorder that hampered the process.
After 20 months of therapy (4 grams daily of vitamin C taken orally), the boy's wound
healing and muscle strength improved and corneal diameter actually grew—something
that's not supposed to happen after the age of four.
The case is unique. Dr. Elsas explains, because "this is the first inherited metabolic
disorder in which ascorbic acid [vitamin C] has been clearly demonstrated as a
requirement in pharmacologic [hefty] doses.'" Somehow, the genetically impaired
protein that's causing the faulty collagen formation works better with a lot more help
from vitamin C than is usually necessary.
The boy's collagen disorder is rare, but increased metabolic requirements for vitamin C
may not be so unusual. "Conceivably, a vast number of individuals could have a different
vitamin requirement," a spokesman for the research project said. "Their genes are
different; you can almost state that categorically." And since people's genes are different,
"you could expect large variations" among individuals in the shape and effectiveness of
the proteins we make to maintain our life processes.
Dr. Elsas' research may be at least as important for the new questions it raises as for the
old questions it answers. The spokesman says an increased vitamin requirement might
be discovered in some patients with "dislocated limbs, myopia ... all sorts of clinical
manifestations" that could be associated with collagen disorders.
Corneal diameters, rare collagen defects: Is this getting too esoteric?
Then consider bedsores, a common problem among the
bedridden.
Faster Healing
At the Human Tissue Reconstruction Institute at Bethany Methodist Hospital in

Chicago, Anthony N. Silvetti, M.D., was confronted by about 30 patients with stubborn
bedsores, skin ulcers due to varicose veins or diabetes, and burns due to heat or caustic
chemicals. These sores had festered for between two months and several years with no
response to conventional treatments.
Vitamin C helped heal the sores dramatically. Dr. Silvetti prepared a solution of simple
and complex sugars along with essential amino acids and vitamin C. He cleared dead
tissue from the sores, washed them with a salt solution, then applied his therapeutic
poultice to the wound every day, covering it with a sterile nonadhesive dressing.
"Within the first 24 to 73 hours of beginning the nutrient treatment," Dr. Silvetti and his
co-workers reported, "the wounds became cleaner. The foul smell disappeared and the
wounds exuded less pus. The infected tissue rapidly transformed into healthy growing
tissue full of new blood vessels. . . . Small to medium-sized wounds eventually healed
completely with little scarring. Larger wounds accepted early, successful skin grafts"
(Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, April 15, 1981, abstract no.
3929).
The sores hadn't healed before. Dr. Silvetti explained, because oxygen and nutrients
required for new tissue formation weren't circulating to the site of infection. So he
applied those nutrients—vitamin C, amino acids and sugars—directly to the damaged
skin.
The treatment even boosted patient morale. Dr. Silvetti noted, because healing began so
quickly. There was "daily visible improvement" in the sores.
At the University of Genoa medical school in Italy, researchers treated patients who
were unable to resist bacteria infections normally. Their white blood cells couldn't
"chase" or kill bacteria, and as a result, they suffered chronically from
250 VITAMIN C
abscesses and boils. One patient had had 43 abscesses in two years. None had gone
infection free for as long as a year.
Again, vitamin C proved effective without causing side effects. Three of the patients took
1 to 2 grams of C a day and improved within a few weeks. After a year, their skin was still
clear. It was the longest stretch of skin health they had ever enjoyed.
"The laboratory and clinical results obtained with ascorbic acid in our patients and the
safeness of this drug strongly suggest its use for the prevention and treatment of
recurrent infections in patients with defective chemotaxis [the ability of white blood
cells to chase germs] and/or bacterial killing" {British Journal of Dermatology, January,
1980).
But besides these particular infections, vitamin C has also shown that it can hit the
target on a lot of other distressing conditions.
Malaria has shown an interesting response to vitamin C.
In malaria, a parasite lives in human red blood cells. Once infected by a mosquito bite, a
person carries the parasite permanently, suffering from intermittent attacks of chills and
fever. Drug-resistant strains of the parasite breed constantly.
At the University of Lowell in Massachusetts, Nicholas J. Rencricca, Ph.D., was testing

the effects of high-pressure oxygen on the red blood cells of malarial mice. He
supplemented the mice with vitamin C on the hunch that the vitamin would protect
their red blood cells from the "rusting" effect of too much oxygen.
Unexpectedly, the vitamin C helped destroy the blood cells that carried the malaria
parasite but didn't harm the healthy unparasitized blood cells, and the mice lived longer
than expected. "I believe in it," Dr. Rencricca told us about vitamin C. "Even in large
doses. I wasn't out to prove or disprove anything in my experiment. There's definitely
something to it."
A nine-year study of Japanese hospital patients who had received blood transfusions
revealed that 2 grams of C given daily sharply reduced the number and severity of serum
hepatitis cases. A particularly troublesome viral disease, hepatitis often strikes surgical
patients who have had blood transfusions. By
the seventh year of the study, hospital administrators felt so strongly about the
preventative properties of the nutrient that "the decision was made, for ethical reasons,
to give vitamin C in large amounts to essentially every patient.
"During the period 1967 to 1973,'' the report continues, "there were 150 patients who
were given blood transfusions and who received little or no vitamin C (less than two
grams per day). Of these patients, 11 developed hepatitis (7 percent) . . . . Among 1,100
similarly transfused patients who received two grams or more of vitamin C per day,
there were no established cases of hepatitis and only a few questionable cases" {Journal
of the International Academy of Preventive Medicine).
Rheumatoid arthritis is another baffler that often cripples older people. A Canadian
research team took normal and arthritic cells from human joints and cultured them with
aspirin, vitamin C, vitamin E and combinations of the three. Aspirin was found slightly
effective in inhibiting growth of arthritic cells and reducing their population, but "high
and low concentrations of vitamin C had little effect on normal cells, and a low
concentration had little effect on [arthritic] cells. However, a high concentration
eradicated these [arthritic] cells'" (emphasis ours) (Experientia, vol. 35, no. 2, 1979).
The researchers concluded that an aspirin-vitamin C combination might be the best way
to reduce the growth of arthritic cells.
Divided Doses Best
Since vitamin C does so many helpful things, what's the best way to make sure you're
getting enough? A diet rich in fresh fruits, vegetables and greens should provide plenty,
most researchers say. Yet, many things are known to increase the body's demand for C,
notably stress and smoking, in fact, in one Swiss study, it was suggested that the
minimum daily requirement for vitamin C be increased from 70 to 100 milligrams for
nonsmoking adults and to 140 milligrams for smokers.
252 VITAMIN C
Alcohol also appears to interfere with vitamin C absorption. In a study at Deakin

University in Victoria, Australia, five healthy volunteers agreed to eat a very odd
breakfast: a buttered bun, coffee, 2 grams of vitamin C and 35 grams of ethanol, or ethyl
alcohol (roughly equivalent to two martinis or three light beers). Later, they ate a
boozeless breakfast for purposes of comparison. Result? "Plasma ascorbic acid
concentrations were significantly lower for at least 24 hours'' after their alcoholic meal
{American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, November, 1981).
If you take vitamin C supplements as a sort of nutritional "insurance policy," what's the
best time to do so? A trio of researchers from the University of Toronto faculty of
pharmacy and the University of Arizona college of pharmacy put that question to the
test.
To ensure accurate measurements, the scientists first saturated the tissues of four
subjects by giving them a gram of vitamin C a day for two weeks. Then they examined
the extent of vitamin C absorption by measuring the amount of C they excreted in urine
after taking a gram of C in three different ways: as a single dose in solution, divided into
eight equal parts and taken at 15-minute intervals, or a single dose right after eating a
meal high in fat.
Dividing the doses, the researchers found, increased vitamin C absorption by 72 percent
over taking it in a single dose. Taking it after a meal increased absorption by 69 percent.
"From a practical point of view," they concluded, "AA [ascorbic acid, i.e., vitamin C]
absorption may be improved by either dividing a daily dose into several smaller doses
taken during the day or by ingesting the vitamin after a meal" (Life Sciences, vol. 28, no.
22, 1981).
If smaller doses divided through the day are better than a single, larger dose, what about
timed-release vitamins, which are supposed to do the dividing for you? The same trio of
researchers recently studied that question, too.
Four volunteers were given a gram of vitamin C in several different forms: a powder
dissolved in water, a tablet, a chewable tablet and a timed-release capsule.
The researchers found that the solution, tablet and chewable tablet delivered their load
of vitamin C to the body with roughly the same effectiveness—for each, about 30 percent
of the total was absorbed. But the timed-release capsule was a different story, delivering
only about 14 percent of its contents to the body. 'The timed release capsule examined
here appears to be a more expensive and less reliable means of providing oral vitamin
therapy compared with more conventional dosage forms," the scientists remarked
{Journal of Phannaceutical Sciences, March, 1982).
Why did the timed-release capsules perform so poorly? Research team member Michael
Mayersohn, Ph.D., of the University of Arizona, says that the vitamin may have been
incompletely released from the chemical formulation that is designed to release it
slowly, or it may still have been bound by the formulation when it passed the body's
vitamin C absorption site (believed to be in the upper part of the small intestine).
Dr. Mayersohn added that there was a wide variation in the individual subjects' ability to
absorb the vitamin, suggesting that "some people may simply be good absorbers of
vitamin C and others may be poor absorbers."
Whether you're a good absorber or a poor one, a steady supply of vitamin C changes
your body for the better in a remarkable variety of ways. It may even "oil the engines" of
your life.
CHAPTER
VITAMIN C, SUPER HEALER

Whenever Lois Lane heard it said that her pal Clark Kent— wimpy old Clark—might
possibly be the champion of good in Metropolis and true hero of her heart, she was
aghast: ''Clark? Superman'? You've got to be kidding!"
It was an agonizing spectacle. How could she be so dumb? Case after case, year after
year, every time there was a job for Superman, Clark would disappear. Get with it, Lois.
But Lois never did catch on. For her, there couldn't be anything heroic about a mousy
guy who hung in there right beside her every day, unobtrusively going about his
business.
Now, there's something Lois Lane-ish about the common inability to realize that vitamin
C—everyday C—could possibly do so much good in the streets and back alleys of the city
inside us.
Funny: Every time there's "a job for Superman," like a heart attack, vitamin C appears
on the scene. We need it to rout the foe because C is our natural supcrhealer.
A bit farfetched? Sure. But the idea of using vitamin C to speed the healing of a
chemically burned eye seems just as far-
VITAMIN C, SUPER HEALER 255
fetched—even to the ophthalmologists who are testing the revolutionary treatment.
"What seems interesting to me," says Roswell Pfister, M.D., of his own experiment, "is
that we're using a perfectly normal foodstuff to reverse the tissue degeneration" of a
severely damaged eye.
Dr. Pfister, former chairman of ophthalmology at the University of Alabama-Eye

Foundation hospital in Birmingham, has been working with Christopher Paterson,
Ph.D., of the University of Colorado medical center. Together they experimented with
the corneas of 18 rabbits that were burned by a particularly nasty alkali, sodium
hydroxide. (The cornea is the clear cap that covers the lens and iris—colored portion—of
the eye.) Nine of the rabbits received daily injections of 1.5 grams (1,500 milligrams) of
vitamin C after being burned. The 9 others went untreated.
Result: In the nine C-treated rabbits, not one cornea degenerated to the point of
perforation. But among the nine other rabbits, 11 of the 18 untreated corneas perforated.
Saving Eyes with Vitamin C
Then Drs. Pfister and Paterson tried giving the vitamin in the form of eye drops.
Working again with rabbits, nine were given eye drops hourly after being burned, and
one cornea developed a superficial ulcer. Of the 19 corneas in the control group, which
received no vitamin drops, nine eyes ulcerated or perforated. Significantly, the one C-
treated rabbit that developed an ulcerated cornea had the lowest level of vitamin C in its
aqueous humor.
No, aqueous humor is not a euphemism for off-color Navy jokes. It's the fluid between
the cornea and the lens and surrounding the iris. It nourishes those parts of the eye, and
the eye's secretion of it maintains a much-needed pressure on the
256 VITAMIN C
eye as a whole. Dr. Pfister told us. Without it, ''the eye would become mushy.''
The amount of vitamin C in the aqueous humor is 18 to 20 times greater than the
amount of vitamin C in the blood. Drs. Pfister and Paterson knew this but were not
paying it any particular attention until ''somewhat by accident'' they discovered that the
amount of vitamin C in the aqueous humor of the cornea-damaged rabbit eyes "was
down to a third of its normal level," Dr. Pfister said.
Was this disappearance of vitamin C, like that of Clark Kent, more than coincidence?
The doctors (no Lois Lanes) realized a possible connection. Knowing that the formation
of collagen— the stuff that binds cells together—would be crucial to corneal healing, and
knowing also that vitamin C plays a vital role in the body's formation of collagen, the
doctors theorized that vitamin C "would be required at higher concentrations to repair
the devastating effects of an alkali burn," as Dr. Pfister put it.
What happens in the damaged corneas is an all-out war between the forces of creation
and destruction. The dead corneal cells break up while the healing process races to hold
everything together. If there is a lack of vitamin C fueling the formation of new collagen,
the eye loses.
"What we're suggesting" as a result of the experiments, says Dr. Pfister, "is that repair
processes have to be helped" by super boosts of C. "This is tissue scurvy, as far as I'm
concerned." In contrast to the old approach, which was to apply drugs to prevent old
collagen from breaking down, "our objective is to get the healing process carried out,"
Dr. Pfister says.
The next step in their research is to treat corneal burns in humans with oral doses of
vitamin C in hospitals across the nation, to see if the treatment works on humans as well
as rabbits. This could take a while. "There are not that many people who get alkali burns
in the eye," says Dr. Pfister. (Waiting time would have been less in ancient China, where
men were blinded by lye as punishment for looking at another man's wife.)
The corneal healing process does not restore sight, by the way. The cornea is no longer
transparent after such a severe
VITAMIN C, SUPER HEALER 257
burn. But it must be kept from perforating; otherwise, the fluids of the eye would escape.
With the cornea intact, sight can eventually be restored by a cornea transplant or the
implantation of a plastic cornea. Dr. Pfister points out.
Meanwhile, Dr. Pfister is interested ''in other types of eye diseases: bacterial, fungal,
viral" that might be helped by vitamin C treatment. "We have no knowledge of what
effects it might have," he said. "But if you ask me, 'Could it?' Vd have to say, 'Yes, it
could.'
Skin Saver
Another vitamin C superhealing feat involved a foreman at a printing company. The

man was so skillful that he could tell if a job was being printed correctly simply by
touching the ink on the paper as it came off the press. But that ink was his poison. It
contained hexavalent chromium (a type completely different from nutritional
chromium), a widely used industrial chemical that causes more dermatitis (skin disease)
than any other. And he had dermatitis—bad.
It hadn't always been that way. For seven years he had lived with it, keeping it somewhat
under control by taking antihistamines and steroids. But suddenly it flared up. His
hands and wrists began to swell and crack, oozing fluid. He took more drugs, but that
didn't help much. And he couldn't wear gloves or use a protective hand cream on the
job, because he had to touch his work. His only choice was to spend each Friday evening
to Monday morning with his hands wrapped in cold, medicine-soaked compresses. And
if that wasn't enough, he slept poorly because of the pain, the antihistamines made him
drowsy and his face began to swell and discolor—a side effect of taking steroids both
orally and by injection.
Needing him at work, the company finally sent him to a doctor who specialized in
occupational diseases—a doctor who knew that in 1969 a researcher had discovered that
vitamin C could protect skin from hexavalent chromium.
258 VITAMIN C
The doctor prepared a solution containing 10 percent vitamin C, and the foreman kept a
container of it next to him while he worked. ''Each hour during the work day/' writes
John Mil-ner, M.D., the physician who handled the case, "he dipped his hands in the
liquid and blotted them dry."
Within a week, says the doctor, the symptoms dramatically decreased, and he stopped
his antihistamines and his injections of steroids. Within a month, he stopped taking
steroids altogether. And he no longer stayed at home weekends with his hands wrapped
in bandages—he played golf instead!
"He has continued to use the ascorbic acid [vitamin C] solution," writes Dr. Milner, "and
the control of symptoms has been sustained over the course of years" {Journal of
Occupational Medicine, January, 1980).
CHAPTER
INSULATE YOUR HEALTH WITH VITAMIN C
Cold weather means more than the sniffles. It means you could be sniffling at someone's
grave side. Statistics indicate that thousands more die during the winter months than in
summer. During a cold spell, heart attacks, strokes and pneumonia kill people who
would have lived longer if the thermometer hadn't dropped.
Cold weather is serious business. But vitamin C doesn't kid around either. There's
substantial evidence that this nutrient can prevent a cold, clear up one that's just getting
started or shorten one that's hit full force. And vitamin C doesn't stop there. It also
tackles heart disease, circulatory problems and serious viral infections—the conditions
that can put your health in a deep freeze during winter.
Most people, however, would be content simply to make the common cold less common.
Runny nose, sore throat, fatigue—the heavy traffic of infection that stalls you in bed for a
day or two (but won't let you sleep)—who needs it? Your body doesn't, and its immune
system is set up to resist the viruses that cause colds. Then why do you catch them?
Because, new research shows, to fully resist those viruses, the immune system
260 VITAMIN C
may need large amounts of vitamin C, amounts 10 to 20 times higher than the
government's Recommended Dietary Allowance. The research wasn't with humans, but
with guinea pigs. Both species have something in common, though. Neither is able to
produce vitamin C in its body, as does almost every other mammal, but instead depends
entirely on dietary sources. So when it comes to vitamin C, what's true for guinea pigs is
more likely to be true for humans, too.
Enhanced Resistance
In the study, researchers kept two groups of guinea pigs on a diet deficient in vitamin C
but supplemented the drinking water of one group with the nutrient. Once a week for
three weeks, the immune system of both groups was challenged with a potentially deadly
substance. More than twice as many of the vitamin-deficient as the vitamin-
supplemented animals died.
In the next month, the researchers fed the surviving deficient animals vitamin C. Some
received an amount equivalent to 100 milligrams a day for a human while others
received an amount equal to 1.000 milligrams. After three to four weeks, the animals in
the 1,000-milligrams group were completely healthy and able to resist the challenging
substance. But the animals in the 100-milligram group never returned to health. They
failed to gain the weight they lost during their deficient period, and their systems were
unable to defend them against the immunologic attack (Federation Proceedings, May,
1979).
The authors, Gary Thurman. Ph.D., and Allan Goldstein, Ph.D.. who ran the study while
professors in the biochemistry department at the George Washington University school
of medicine, summarize their research: 'This study provides the first definitive evidence
that ascorbic acid [vitamin C] plays a major role in the maintenance of immunity and
provides a rational mechanism for the postulated beneficial effect of this essential
vitamin in the treatment of viral diseases."
INSULATE YOUR HEALTH WITH C 261
The mechanism they're talking about works like this: Stress uses up vitamin C, and cold
is a potent stress. When icy weather steals the nutrient, you need more to keep your
immune system up to par. If you don't get it, you can catch colds more easily. If you do
get it, you have better resistance against the viruses that cause colds. That may be a
theory, but it's a good one. Study after study shows that people who take vitamin C have
fewer and milder colds.
In a study at the University of Toronto, 407 people received 1,000 milligrams of vitamin
C a day and an extra 3,000 milligrams a day for the first three days of a cold. Another
411 people received a worthless placebo. Compared to the placebo group, the vitamin C
group spent 30 percent fewer days indoors because of illness and missed 33 percent
fewer days of work (Canadian Medical Association Journal).
In a study of crew members on a Polaris submarine, 37 sailors who received 2,000

milligrams of vitamin C a day had 66 percent fewer cold symptoms than a placebo group
(International Research Communication System).
In another submarine study (they're apparently popular among researchers trying to get
to the bottom of the common-cold problem), scientists from the Naval Medical Research
Institute, in Bethesda, Maryland, took a look at the relation between plasma vitamin C
levels and the general health of 28 crewmen on a submarine before, during and after a
68-day patrol. They noted that the group with the lowest plasma vitamin C levels ''did
not differ significantly" in health from the group with the highest levels. Yet, they also
observed, in passing, that "the results for upper respiratory infections were in the
expected direction . . . with twice as many of the low group showing symptoms of the
common cold than the high group" (Journal of Applied Nutrition, vol. 34, no. 1, 1982).
By maintaining relatively high levels of vitamin C in their bodies during those long,
lightless weeks under the sea, some of the submarines were able to fight off respiratory
infections considerably better than their shipmates.
262 VITAMIN C
In an Australian study, 95 pairs of identical twins—perfectly matched for age, sex and
genetic makeup—were used to compare the cold-fighting power of vitamin C with that of
a placebo (in this case, a pill that looked just like the vitamin but contained only lactose,
or milk sugar). For 100 days, one of each pair of twins took a gram (1,000 milligrams) of
vitamin C daily while the other took the placebo, though neither knew which was which.
They were also asked to make careful note of the duration and severity of colds, should
they appear.
When the results were analyzed, the research team concluded that "vitamin C had no
significant effect except for shortening the average duration of cold episodes by 19
percent'' (Med-icalJoiirnal of Australia. October 17, 1981). If you're interested in
knocking one day off a five-day cold, in other words, you might try vitamin C.
Interestingly, the Australians also found that "females had significantly longer, more
severe and more intense colds than males."
In a study of soldiers undergoing training in northern Canada, those receiving 1,000

milligrams of vitamin C a day had about 68 percent less illness than a placebo group
{Report No. 74-R-I012, Defense Research Board, Department of National Defense).
And in another study from Toronto, 448 people who took vitamin C had up to 38
percent fewer cold symptoms—runny nose, fever, sore throat, tight chest, aching limbs,
depression— than a placebo group (Canadian Medical Association Journal).
"There is little doubt," wrote the authors of the Toronto study, "that the intake of
additional vitamin C can lead to a reduced burden of winter illness."
CHAPTER
KEEP COOL WITH VITAMIN C
It's so muggy even the mosquitoes are taking naps. Sprawled in a hammock, with about
as much energy as it takes to sip iced tea, Joe turns on the radio and tunes in to a
weatherman sizing up the sizzler.
"Well, folks, good news. The temperature's just dropped to 32 degrees in the shade.
Thirty-two degrees Celsius, that is.''
Joe's not laughing. As far as he's concerned, this is no joke.
He's tired, irritable, and his body feels like a crumpled-up dishrag in a sinkful of dirty
dishes.
And have you been feeling like Joe lately? If so, take heart— and take a good bit of
vitamin C.
Just about everybody knows that vitamin C has been suggested as a means to prevent
the common cold. Well, recent research has also suggested that vitamin C may help
prevent the "common hot," that run-down dragged-out feeling that gets washed up on
the shore of your life by a summer heat wave.
The research we're talking about wasn't conducted where you might expect: outside,
underneath a glaring sun. It was conducted inside, in climate chambers where heat,
humidity and
264 VITAMIN C
wind velocity were controlled not by the whim of Mother Nature, but by the careful
design of scientists.
These climate chambers are used in South Africa to acclimate new mine workers to the
hot, humid air of the mines. In the chambers, the workers perform a simple exercise
called the step test—repeatedly stepping onto and off a step—for hours at a time. By
performing this exercise day after day, in progressively hotter and more humid air, they
gradually accustom themselves to the same type of conditions they will encounter in the
mines.
In 1974, however, researchers found that, despite this preparation, mine workers had a
rapid decrease in blood levels of vitamin C during their first three months of
employment—even though their vitamin C intake was adequate (South African Medical
Journal).
Heat Stress Burns Up Vitamin C
That's no surprise, really, because scientists have long known that stress of any kind—
from a snakebite to the biting cold of winter—depletes the body of vitamin C. And even if
your air conditioner has never broken down, we don't have to tell you that heat is a
stress.
When the mercury's on the rise, your body moves quickly to cool itself: Blood vessels
expand: the heart pumps rapidly to provide the energy needed to release excess heat;
sweat pours off the skin. One theory says that these reactions are sparked by hormones
from the adrenal gland, which contains a higher amount of vitamin C than any other
body tissue and needs vitamin C to do its job. But if the hot weather just won't quit and
your vitamin C is depleted, then the body's temperature stays high, and you've got a case
of the hot-weather blahs: heat exhaustion, heat prostration—maybe even heatstroke.
To translate this scientific theory into scientific fact, N. B. Strydom and his co-workers
in the industrial hygiene division of the Chamber of Mines of South Africa divided 60
miners, who were not exposed to heat for six months prior to the study, into
KEEP COOL WITH VITAMIN C 265
three groups. They asked one group to take 250 miUigrams of vitamin C a day and
another to take 500. To the third group they gave a placebo—a medically useless pill.
The workers were then asked to perform the step exercise for four hours in a
comfortable environment, during which time their temperatures, heart rates and sweat
rates were measured. On the next ten days, they performed the same exercise, but this
time in a hot, humid climate chamber (Journal of Applied Physiology).
Although there was no measurable difference in heart and sweat rates, the average body
temperatures of the vitamin C-supplemented groups were lower on every single day
after the first. Not only that, 35 percent of the workers who took vitamin C were fully
acclimated to the heat by the fourth day of the test, while only one person from the
placebo group acclimated that quickly.
You probably don't work in an overheated mine. At least, we hope not. But when vitamin
C helps those in such an extreme situation to keep their cool, it's a good bet that it'll do
the same for you.
Closer to home, Irwin Stone, Ph.D., a noted biochemist, reviews in his book The Healing
Factor: Vitamin C against Disease {Grossei and Dunlap, 1972) a number of studies in
which vitamin C was used to treat heat stress.
One such study describes long-term tests on workers in a Virginia rayon plant who had
been exposed to high temperatures and humidities. The study found that heat
prostration in the employees was eliminated by the daily administration of 100
milligrams of vitamin C. Before this regimen was instituted, there had been 27 cases of
heat prostration; in the following nine years, not a single case was reported in the group
taking the daily supplements.
Heat Rash Quickly Cured
Vitamin C may also help eliminate another heat-wave worry: heat rash, or prickly heat.
266 VITAMIN C
When heat rash strikes, the pores in the area of the rash shut down and sweating stops.
In severe cases, with a large area of the body surface involved, body temperature may
shoot up; someone with prickly heat can be a good candidate for heat exhaustion.
Dr. T. C. Hindson, a British dermatologist in Singapore, had been treating an Australian

Air Force officer who had an acute case of prickly heat. Nothing that the doctor gave him
seemed to help. But one day, the officer felt himself coming down with a cold and began
taking 1 gram (1,000 milligrams) of vitamin C. In the course of one week, the prickly
heat vanished— after having afflicted him for more than a year (Lancet).
Dr. Hindson immediately began giving vitamin C to five children whose heat rashes he
had been treating for some time without success. All of the children threw off the rash,
and their skin remained clear as long as they continued taking vitamin C.
To give further weight to his findings. Dr. Hindson conducted a carefully structured
study on 30 children with prickly heat, in which 15 children were given vitamin C and
another 15 placebos.
At the end of two weeks, the doctor discovered that, of those taking the placebo, 4
showed some improvement, 9 stayed the same, and 2 had worse prickly heat than
before. But of those taking vitamin C. 10 were completely rash free, 4 improved, 1 was
the same and none worse. Dr. Hindson then gave vitamin C to the children who had
been getting the placebo. In future examinations one and two months later, not one rash
was seen on any of the 30 children. And all of these children had been suffering from
severe prickly heat for at least eight weeks before the beginning of the experiment.
The youngsters in this experiment were given vitamin C in dosages based on their
weight: A child of 38 pounds was given about 250 milligrams daily, a 19-pounder 125
milligrams, and so forth. In cases where children were too young to take pills, mothers
were instructed to crush the tablets in their food. This dose proved virtually 100 percent
effective in curing and preventing heat rash.
CHAPTER
MAKE VITAMIN C YOUR SHIELD AGAINST POLLUTION
Some people have all the luck. You know the ones we mean. They never gain a pound,
never get a blemish, always have the right clothes, their money earns the highest interest
. . . and they've never been sick a day in their lives—or so it seems.
Even though they walk through the same environmental traps as the rest of us, they
don't get caught. Somehow smog doesn't affect their lungs, and pollutants and poisons
seem to bounce off of them as if they were protected by some kind of invisible shield.
Well, maybe they are. There may be a way to protect ourselves from the harmful effects
of pollution and other environmental contaminants. And it's not a matter of luck, either.
It has to do with our own nutritional status—especially that of vitamin C.
'Tt is now widely accepted that ascorbic acid [vitamin C] nutritional status markedly
affects the toxicity and/or carcinogenicity of greater than 50 pollutants, many of which
are ubiquitous in the air, water and food environments," says Edward J. Calabrese,
Ph.D., professor of environmental health at the University of Massachusetts, in
Amherst.
268 VITAMIN C
That's especially true of nitrosamine formation in the stomach. Nitrosamines are

carcinogens (cancer-causing agents) that may be formed in the gut when we eat foods
treated with sodium nitrate. (Nitrates are added to many processed meats and smoked
fish products as food preservatives and as flavoring and coloring agents.)
But now evidence suggests that vitamin C can actually prevent the formation of
nitrosamines in your stomach, says Dr. Calabrese. who is the author of Nutrition and
Environmental Health (John Wiley and Sons, 1980). It's a natural detoxifying agent, but
only if the vitamin is in your stomach at the same time as the nitrate-treated foods. So if
you take vitamin C only once a day, in the morning, it can't protect you from
nitrosamine formation during lunch or dinner, since it would be long gone from your
stomach by then. The obvious solution is to take your vitamin C several times during the
day with your meals, but for more reasons than one.
First of all, "even if you don't eat foods rich in nitrates, you are still exposed to those
chemicals," says Steven R. Tan-nenbaum, Ph.D., professor of toxicology and food
chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in Cambridge. "That's
because your body manufactures them automatically. Eating cured foods only adds to
the level that's already there."
What's more, if all your vitamin C is combating nitrosamine formation, it will not be
available to perform its other vital functions in the body, adds Dr. Calabrese.
Consequently, the presence of nitrates in your diet would increase your daily
requirement of vitamin C (Medical Hypotheses, December, 1979).
That's why it's important to know how nitrates are metabolized and exactly what effect
vitamin C has on nitrosamine formation.
To find that out. Dr. Tannenbaum is conducting a study. "Our volunteers are young,
healthy MIT students," he told us. "First we put them on a special diet that is completely
nitrate free. In that way, we are able to determine how much nitrate is actually produced
automatically by the body. After a few days,
A SHIELD AGAINST POLLUTION 269
we add nitrates to the diets and trace the metabolism of the chemical through the body
to learn how much of it is converted to nitrosamines.
"In the next part of the experiment, we give each student ascorbic acid to find out
whether vitamin intervention affects the amount of nitrosamines formed.
"Right now, we are giving the students 2 grams [2,000 milligrams] of vitamin C per day,
and at that level, we have found that nitrosamine formation is blocked nearly
completely. We've confirmed that in at least six different people. Less may work also,
but 2 grams did the best job.
"When you eat foods rich in nitrates, they are promptly converted to nitrites in the
mouth or in the stomach," Dr. Tan-nenbaum told us. "Vitamin C has the capacity to
react with the nitrite form of the chemical faster than nitrogen compounds can. And
nitrogen compounds are the substances needed to form the nitrosamines. If the nitrites
react to vitamin C and are destroyed, then they can't attach themselves to nitrogen
compounds. Hence nitrosamine formation is blocked."
Although there is no absolute guarantee that vitamin C will protect you from the
harmful diseases associated with nitrosamines. Dr. Tannenbaum advises people to take
it anyway. "It can only help," he says.
Protects against Radiation
That may be good advice for people exposed to X rays as well. And who hasn't been at
one time or another? Now doctors are coming to recognize the potential hazards
associated with routine irradiation, and many have curtailed their usage. Nevertheless,
any form of protection against X rays is valuable, indeed.
That's why the experiment conducted by James A. Scott, M.D., and Gerald M. Kolodny,
M.D., is of such interest. In it, they measured the effects of irradiation on normal mouse
cells
270 VITAMIN C
(which had been grown in the laboratory) with varying amounts of vitamin C or with no
vitamin C at all.
"We had heard that vitamin C can prevent damage from radiation, and so we decided to
give it a try on the mouse cells," said Dr. Scott, assistant radiologist at Massachusetts
General Hospital in Boston. "Our experiment showed that it does have this ability, but at
relatively high doses—about 10 grams per day for the human equivalent. We're not sure
exactly how it exerts its protective effect, but it somehow keeps the radiation from killing
the cells.
"We did find one thing that was a real surprise," Dr. Scott told us. "Apparently, the
vitamin C slowed down cell division. And since dividing cells are more sensitive to
radiation, that may have something to do with the vitamin's ability to protect against
damage."
He concludes that "pretreatment with ascorbic acid might alter the cell population such
that surviving cells are more resistant to the effects of subsequently administered
radiation" {International Journal for Vitamin and Nutrition Research, vol. 51, no. 2,
1981).
"So far, we can't say that these results would apply to humans," says Dr. Scott, who is
also an instructor at the Harvard medical school. "But if vitamins are necessary for
human life in small quantities, maybe some people need more, especially in those
situations which stress our bodies—such as exposure to radiation and other
environmental pollutants. I take 400 milligrams per day to be on the safe side."
Battling against Ozone
Considering the multitude of pollutants permeating the air we breathe. Dr. Scott may
have the right idea—especially when it comes to ozone. Ozone is a highly toxic pollutant
gas and is a major component of smog.
But vitamin C may be able to protect us against ozone damage, too. It did just that in an
experiment with mice. Researchers at the University of Queensland, in Australia,
exposed mice to various concentrations of ozone in the air for 30 minutes. As much as
50 percent of the vitamin C in lung tissue was lost during that time. The vitamin seemed
to be used up in its effort to battle the ozone, say the researchers. Scientists had already
established that vitamin C could prevent lung damage caused by ozone. This study
strongly supported the conclusion that it was the vitamin C in the lung itself thai was
preventing damage by ozone {Chem-ico-Biological Interactions, vol. 30, no. 1, 1980).
Protecting Occupational Health
If you think you have it bad, what about people who must work with toxic chemicals.
Now, they really have something to shout about.
Take benzene for example. That's a solvent commonly used in industry. Chronic
exposure to benzene has long been known to cause destruction of the bone marrow and
perhaps leukemia. The curious thing is that, despite similar levels of exposure to
benzene, not all workers become ill. "Given a similar degree of exposure, why do some
workers remain apparently unaffected . . . ?" asks Dr. Calabrese.
The answer may lie in the diets of the people involved. "It is hypothesized that
inadequate nutritional status of possibly several nutrients including . . . ascorbic acid
may enhance susceptibility to adverse effects caused by benzene," says Dr. Calabrese.
At first, the connection between vitamin C nutritional status and benzene toxicity
revolved around the recognition of certain similarities between benzene poisoning and
scurvy (vitamin C-deficiency disease).
Then a study was done that investigated the effect of chronic benzene poisoning on
vitamin C levels in guinea pigs. The re-
272 VITAMIN C
searchers found that benzene poisoning diminished vitamin C levels in the blood,
adrenals and liver. But the toxic effects were lessened by the administration of vitamin
C, and the mortality rate was decreased by 57 percent.
Other researchers have concluded that ''exposure to benzene produces an increased

requirement of vitamin C and that an extra supply of vitamin C given increases
resistance to the effects of benzene vapors'' {Medical Hypotheses, May, 1980).
If it's insecticides you've been exposed to, vitamin C may be able to come to the rescue
again. One in particular, chlordane, acts primarily on the central nervous system leading
to symptoms of hyperexcitability, tremors and convulsions. As if that's not enough, it
also causes marked degenerative changes in the liver, kidney, spleen and heart.
But now there's a study that shows that vitamin C can counteract some of those adverse
effects. In the experiment, the researchers divided rats into three groups. One group
acted as the control and was given the regular rat chow. The second group received the
same diet plus a dose of chlordane, and the third received the food, chlordane and
vitamin C.
As expected, chlordane toxicity drastically altered the tissues of various organs as well as
lowering the growth rates of the animals in the second group. Several of the rats' enzyme
systems went haywire, too. And the mortality rate was almost 43 percent in the
chlordane-treated rats.
The good news here is that the vitamin C-treated rats fared much better. Mortality was
nil, and growth retardation was considerably counteracted. Although vitamin C couldn't
restore all the damaged parts, it did a good job on the kidneys, where it "could reverse
some of these degenerative changes in the kidney tissues" {International Journal for
Vitamin and Nutrition Research, vol. 51. no. 3, 1981).
As long as we live in a world surrounded by pollution and other poisons, we need all the
help we can get. And vitamin C may be one of the best bets around. "It has a lot of
properties thai haven't even been investigated yet," says Dr. Scott.
"Other areas of research should be directed toward the potential effects of ascorbic acid
on the development of silicosis, noise-related adverse health effects, industrial fluoride
toxicity and lead intoxication," adds Dr. Calabrese.
But why wait till the research is completed?
The present evidence is already pretty convincing. With vitamin C as our shield against
pollutants, who needs luck?
CHAPTER
CLEAN CHLORINE FROM YOUR WATER WITH VITAMIN C
It cleans swimming pools, whitens clothes and makes tap water taste like a cross
between cod liver oil and Drano. You guessed right—it's chlorine.
Chlorine is added to practically every large urban water supply in the United States.
That's not necessarily bad. By killing off waterborne bacteria, chlorine protects us
against typhoid fever, dysentery and cholera. But making every glass of water a chlorine
cocktail is not necessarily good, either. For chlorinated water not only wipes out foreign
bodies like germs and microbes, it may also stage an attack on our bodies, damaging red
blood cells.
John Eaton, Ph.D., associate professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota, told
us that chlorinated water has a "deleterious effect" on red blood cells, crippling them so
that they can no longer efficiently perform their function of carrying oxygen to every
part of the body and causing their premature destruction.
But he also told us what to do to prevent those cells from being lamed by chlorine: "Put
vitamin C in your water before you drink it.
CLEAN CHLORINE FROM YOUR WATER 275
"It's odorless and tasteless in the tiny amount needed—^just a trace—to neutralize the
chlorine/' Dr. Eaton said. "And vitamin C works very rapidly," he added.
The research scientist made his two discoveries—that chlorine damages red blood cells
and that vitamin C neutralizes it— in the course of finding out why patients at two of
three artificial kidney centers in Minneapolis were developing severe anemia.
It turned out that, at those two centers, the water used in the blood-cleansing kidney
machines was not chlorine free. In his laboratory. Dr. Eaton found that the chlorine
severely damaged the red blood cells of the kidney patients, causing anemia. He also
found that, by adding vitamin C to the dialysis water, he could set up a chemical reaction
that neutralized the chemical (Science).
But Dr. Eaton is not the first researcher to discover that, while chlorine clears the muck
out of stream water, it can also muck up your bloodstream.
In 1972, Russian scientists found that people drinking water with 1.4 milligrams of
chlorine in it showed higher blood pres sures than those drinking water containing only
0.3 to 0.4 milligrams.
Reading about these studies, we might want to plug up the faucet for good and rely
solely on spring or well water. While that might not be a bad idea, it isn't convenient for
some of us. Instead, add a little piece of a vitamin C tablet or a scant pinch of the powder
to your glass of chlorinated water before you drink it. Not only will chlorine's taste and
odor disappear, so will its threat to your good health. Cheers.
CHAPTER
C IS FOR
CHOLESTEROL— AND ITS CONTROL
Forget Son of Sam, Jack the Ripper and the Boston Stran-gler: The greatest killer of all
time is heart disease. Specifically, it is heart disease caused by atherosclerosis, or
hardening of the arteries, and its favorite weapon is cholesterol.
Mention cholesterol, and most people want to do something about it. So they start
thinking about breakfast. Now, that's not a bad place to start, but they immediately
implicate eggs. And that's a crime. What they should be doing is pouring themselves
another glass of orange juice. Vitamin C, researchers have found, is a good defense
against cholesterol, hardened arteries and heart disease.
One testimony comes from England, where 11 elderly hospital patients with coronary
artery problems took 1 gram (1,000 milligrams) of vitamin C daily—resulting in a
decrease of total blood cholesterol levels in only six weeks. That prompted researchers to
assert that "atherosclerosis and ischaemic heart disease are not inevitable features of
aging" {Journal of Human Nutrition, vol. 35, no. 1, 1981). That's not all they found.
As a little background on the case, cholesterol's guilt is
C FOR CHOLESTEROL CONTROL 277
purely by association. Left to itself, cholesterol actually does some good. It helps our
digestion by producing bile, without which we can suffer gallstones. Our bodies need
cholesterol to manufacture vitamin D, and there is some evidence that it protects us
from cancer. Its home turf is the liver, but cholesterol goes out a lot. Its traveling
companions are called lipoproteins, and they chauffeur it around the bloodstream.
In the company of high-density lipoproteins (HDLs), cho-lesterol's joyride is relatively

safe. But introduce it to low-density lipoproteins (LDLs), and look out, cholesterol is up
to no good. Scientists now believe that lowering total cholesterol is less important than
getting most of it on the HDL route. And that, the British research team learned, is
another thing vitamin C does.
When they started their gram-a-day supplementation, most of the heart patients had
vitamin C deficiencies; the men also had correspondingly low levels of HDL cholesterol.
"After six weeks' treatment with ascorbic acid [vitamin C], the mean [average] HDL-
cholesterol concentration had increased," the study team noted. What's more, that
benefit was not restricted to the heart patients; all 7 men in the 14-member healthy
control group enjoyed it, as well.
The seven women who acted as controls experienced no significant change in

lipoprotein cholesterol, but that doesn't mean vitamin C is guilty of sex discrimination.
Women naturally have higher HDL levels, which is one reason they are less prone to
heart attacks than men. All the women in the control group had healthier HDL levels.
The evidence that vitamin C can protect as well as defend, that it is as beneficial to high-
risk subjects as to those already afflicted with heart disease, may be the most compelling
aspect of the British investigation. The research team has entered a plea for higher
recommended daily intake of vitamin C because "latent ascorbic acid deficiency may be
one of several preventable 'risk' factors contributing to the present epidemic of
ischaemic heart disease in the western world."
278 VITAMIN C
Deficiencies Are Common

Not only has it been linked to heart disease, but a vitamin C deficiency is more common
than you might think.
The heart patients in the British experiment weren't the only ones suffering vitamin C
deficiencies at the outset: Some of the 14 "healthy" control subjects were deficient, too.
The authors noted that "low blood ascorbic-acid levels are often found in elderly
patients."
Nobel Prize-winning vitamin C advocate Linus Pauling, Ph.D., suspects that as much as
99 percent of the world's population suffers from a deficiency of the nutrient. Dr.
Pauling, who personally takes 10 grams daily, agrees that the current Recommended
Dietary Allowance (about 60 milligrams) is "much too low" and says he would like to see
it raised to "at least 150." Dr. Pauling's colleague, scientist Irwin Stone, and British
physician Geoffrey Taylor are two other vitamin C champions who go so far as to suggest
that today's coronary epidemic may be but a modern version of that ancient sailors'
scourge: scurvy.
Like human beings, guinea pigs are one of a handful of species unable to manufacture
vitamin C in their own bodies. When the vitamin is withheld from their diets and scurvy
is induced in the laboratory, guinea pigs develop weak arteries with interior bruises like
those that are symptoms of the beginnings of atherosclerosis. No matter how those
bruises are acquired, they become a magnet for wayward LDL cholesterol, which collects
there in layers called plaque—perhaps a misguided attempt to shelter the injured area. If
such is plaque's intent, it succeeds all too well, eventually narrowing the blood's
passageway until it becomes a dead-end road. The body's reaction is a heart attack.
The detour signs start going up in guinea pigs' arteries when their vitamin C reserves are
in the range of 15 micrograms per gram of body weight (a microgram is one-millionth of
a gram). That's about the level we're at when we have a cold—if we've been getting only
the RDA. Taking greater amounts of vitamin C puts us way ahead of the game.
Vitamin C isn't just a policeman directing cholesterol traffic through the bloodstream
and forcing loitering platelets to break it up and move on. After a heart attack has
occurred, a high level of C can pay off like an insurance policy.
C Repairs Heart Damage
That's what Scottish physicians at Southern General Hospital in Glasgow reported

several years ago when they discovered that blood levels of vitamin C drop down to
scurvy levels within 6 to 12 hours after a person suffers a heart attack.
They concluded that the vitamin C was diverted to the heart to help rebuild the damaged
coronary tissue (British Heart Journal).
Their findings were borne out by a more recent study in which Jairo Ramirez, M.D., and
colleagues at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, found that the vitamin C
concentrations in the white blood cells of 150 patients with heart disease were
"significantly lower" than those of a control group. And they remain dangerously low for
several weeks after a heart attack before gradually increasing to a stable level. That
phenomenon may occur even when there is no change in daily vitamin C
supplementation {American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, October, 1980).
Dr. Ramirez, now engaged in private practice in San Antonio, Texas, also noted that
cholesterol is higher in patients deprived of vitamin C and that increasing amounts of
the vitamin cause an increase in the liver's production of a substance called cytochrome
P-450, which speeds up the conversion of cholesterol into bile.
Anthony Verlangieri, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the

University of Mississippi, has determined that vitamin C helps the body manufacture
another chemical compound with a nifty name: chondroitin sulfate A, alias CSA. Dr.
Verlangieri was working in the biochemistry laboratory at Rutgers University when he
discovered that CSA acts as a sort of mortar in healthy artery walls and that cholesterol
280 VITAMIN C
attaches itself only to damaged artery walls that lack this compound.
Preventing One Million Heart Attacks a Year
While Dr. Verlangieri was experimenting with CSA in his New Jersey laboratory, he was
unaware that a research team 3,000 miles away, in Culver City, California, had also
isolated CSA and was using it to treat heart-attack victims. It worked so well, deaths due
to coronary complications dropped by a whopping 80 percent in those patients treated
with CSA. Lester M. Morrison, M.D., former director of the Institute for Arteriosclerosis
Research at Loma Linda University school of medicine in California, headed the
research team. He suggests that CSA can also prevent "over one million heart attacks a
year."
Dr. Morrison's published findings coincided with those of Dr. Verlangieri, who declared,
"My findings show that vitamin C stimulates production of the same compound within
the body."
As research continues, scientists are finding that the RDA set for vitamin C is seldom
enough and that wholesome foods we've enjoyed for centuries—such as eggs—are rarely
to blame for modern diseases.
One of the first to recognize that fact was England's Dr. Constance Spittle Leslie, who
put herself on a high-cholesterol diet—but found that her blood cholesterol dropped
because she also ate lots of fresh fruits and vegetables rich in vitamin C.
If she cooked the fruits and vegetables, however, her blood cholesterol level rose,
because heat destroys vitamin C. Results were the same when Dr. Leshe carried out the
experiment on 58 human volunteers.
She also found that, when they were given 1-gram supplements of vitamin C every day,
the volunteers enjoyed the drop in cholesterol levels even if they cooked their fruits and
vegetables (Medical World News).
So you don't necessarily have to give up eggs, cheese and the finer things in life out of
fear of heart disease. There's ample evidence that vitamin C can safeguard your arteries
and your general well-being as it also protects against colds and cancer. There are many
stories of the benefits of vitamin C. Neutralizing cholesterol is only one of them.
CHAPTER
VITAMIN C, PECTIN AND HEART DISEASE
^v Emil Ginter, Ph.D.
The search for substances capable of depressing cholesterol levels in the blood is one of
the most pressing in ongoing medical research. Cholesterol concentration (or to be more
precise, the level of low-density lipoproteins, or LDL, cholesterol) constitutes an
important risk factor for atherosclerotic damage of blood vessel walls that may bring
about a heart attack or stroke.
Pharmaceutical companies have developed several drugs that depress blood cholesterol
levels in experimental animals and also in humans. The substance most employed has
been ethylester of chlorphenoxyisobutyric acid (clofibrate, Atromid) because short-term
tests revealed no serious adverse side effects from its use. However, to be effective, this
drug must be taken in rather high doses and permanently.
Two extensive surveys lasting several years, carried out in both the United States and
Europe and involving several thousand persons, have shown clofibrate to be less
effective in de-
Dr. Ginter, who has done extensive research with vitamin C, is associated with the
Institute of tinman Nutrition in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia.
VITAMIN C AND HEART DISEASE 283
pressing blood cholesterol than had originally been claimed. In addition, when used
continually, this drug has several negative side effects, the most evident of which is the
formation of gallstones. The European study even showed the overall death rate in
persons on a long-term clofibrate regimen to be significantly higher than for those not
taking the drug. And the chemical structure of the majority of other drugs with a
cholesterol-depressing action indicates that their regular use also raises the possibility
of adverse side effects.
Fortunately, there may be other, safer alternatives. For centuries, men have suspected
that fruits and vegetables contain certain natural substances which exert a protective
action in circulatory disorders. Physicians in ancient India, for example, used
concentrates of certain fruits to treat vascular diseases, and old textbooks of dietetics
recommended days of fruit-vegetable diet for cardiovascular patients.
But to come to the present time: Dr. Frank M. Sacks and his team from Harvard
compared two groups of people of about the same age consuming either the current
North American diet or an essentially vegetarian diet. They found the blood cholesterol
levels in those with a high consumption of vegetables and fruits to be substantially lower
than in the normal American population. Of particular importance, they found that the
low cholesterol levels reflected a reduction of the LDL cholesterol fraction, which is
suspected to be the real troublemaker in heart disease. On the other hand, the level of
high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, which exerts a protective action, was not
decreased.
Another group of U.S. researchers in California have noted a substantially lower

mortality rate from heart attacks in Seventh-day Adventists, who are predominantly
vegetarians. For instance, coronary mortality in Seventh-day Adventist men of a
younger age group was only one-quarter of that in a matched sample of the standard
California population. The majority of researchers attribute these differences primarily
to the fact that vegetarians have a substantially lower intake of cholesterol and saturated
animal fat than the average person. Although, of course.
284 VITAMIN C
that factor plays a considerable role, such an explanation is still incomplete, for it leaves
out of account the protective role of certain specific components of vegetables and fruits,
namely vitamin C and dietary fiber.
How Vitamin C Protects
Over the past 30 years, several teams of investigators in various parts of the world have
pointed out that vitamin C lowers cholesterol levels in humans and exerts a protective
action by promoting the transformation of cholesterol to bile acids, which can then be
excreted from the body. During a long-term marginal vitamin C deficiency, such as
people in many countries experience during the winter and spring months, when fresh
fruits and vegetables are less plentiful, cholesterol transformation to bile acids is slowed
down, resulting in an accumulation of cholesterol in the liver and the blood.
In animals, if vitamin C deficiency persists for a considerable length of time, cholesterol

also accumulates on the vessel walls, and pathological changes take place in arteries
reminiscent of human atherosclerosis. On the other hand, high doses of vitamin C
accelerate cholesterol transformation to bile acids and prevent such changes from taking
place.
If vitamin C is given to people with high cholesterol levels, a decline of cholesterol
concentration in their blood is often observed. However, after about six months, when a
maximum drop is usually achieved, there is a tendency in some of the patients for
cholesterol levels to rise again toward higher values. That is likely caused by a sensitive
feedback system. As vitamin C accelerates the conversion of cholesterol to bile acids,
some of these bile acid molecules find their way back to the liver and signal a slowing
down of the initial reaction. At that point, the cholesterol-lowering effect of vitamin C
becomes weakened.
However, if the drug cholestyramine is given with the vitamin C, there is a striking and
sustained decline of blood cho-
VITAMIN C AND HEART DISEASE 285
lesterol level, at least in experimental animals. That is because cholestyramine binds the
bile acids in the digestive tract.
So it is evident that a mutual reinforcement of the effect on blood cholesterol level exists
between vitamin C and substances capable of binding bile acids in the intestine.
Evidence has accumulated in recent years that several naturally occurring substances in
plants, designated by the general term dietary fiber, exert an effect similar to that of
cholestyramine.
Pectin's Vital Role
One such natural fiber is pectin, long used in the making of jams because of its ability to
form gels. Gel derived from pectin has the ability to bind bile acids in the human
digestive tract, thus increasing fecal excretion of bile acids.
Our own studies on experimental animals have produced conclusive evidence that
simultaneous administration of vitamin C and pectin significantly decreases cholesterol
concentration not only in blood, but likewise in the liver. When taken daily, a test
preparation containing 450 milligrams of vitamin C and 15 grams of citrus pectin
lowered total blood cholesterol in humans after six weeks. This decline was
characterized by a decrease of the dangerous LDL cholesterol, while the concentration of
the protective HDL cholesterol remained unchanged.
To sum up, a high vitamin C intake causes cholesterol transformation to bile acids to
proceed at a faster rate in the liver. Bile acids from the liver pass into the intestine,
where they are then bound to pectin gel and leave the body in the stools. The ultimate
result of this interplay of two natural substances is a low cholesterol level in the blood
and a diminished risk of atherosclerosis.
Pectin has a number of additional positive effects. It improves stool consistency, acts as
a detoxifier by binding heavy metals and carrying them out of the body, and also slows
down the absorption of sugar. This last effect may be useful for diabetics.
286 VITAMIN C
It should be stressed that this approach to cholesterol control is especially promising
because pectin and vitamin C are naturally occurring substances. It seems extremely
unlikely that even permanent consumption would result in undesirable side effects. For
this reason, persons concerned about high cholesterol levels should substantially
increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables. Black currants, for example, are a
concentrated source of both vitamin C and pectin. But other abundant sources include
citrus fruits, strawberries, tomatoes, raspberries and blackberries. Perhaps some day
supplements of vitamin C and pectin in combination will be routinely prescribed to both
treat and prevent dangerously increased cholesterol levels.
CHAPTER
CAN VITAMIN C PREVENT THE COMMON CANCER?
It's one thing to think of vitamin C in terms of preventing the common cold—but cancer?
That's a bit much. After all, there's quite a difference between a case of the sniffles and
the second leading cause of death from disease in the country. Nonetheless, some
researchers believe that the best way to deal with cancer is to prevent it. And
preliminary data indicate that vitamin C may help do just that.
First of all, it's no secret that researchers have been examining vitamin C's effects on
already existing cancer cells very closely. In a study at the University of Kansas medical
center, researchers found that vitamin C suppressed the growth of certain leukemia
cells.
The scientists took bone marrow cells from 28 leukemia patients and placed them in 28
special containers (cultures). In 7 of the 28 cultures (25 percent), the numbers of
leukemic cell colonies were reduced markedly when vitamin C was added {Cancer
Research, April, 1980).
The investigators discovered that lower concentrations of vitamin C worked as well as

extremely high levels of the vitamin in that particular instance. They suggested that a
study using
288 VITAMIN C
vitamin C might be conducted on certain types of leukemia patients. But the patients
would have to be carefully screened before they could take part in a controlled
experiment, the researchers warned. They found that vitamin C will make leukemic cell
colonies grow in a few instances.
Apparently, vitamin C also lashes out at certain bad cells while leaving good cells
unharmed. A group of researchers from France and Texas found that vitamin C is
selectively toxic to at least one type of malignant cell—a melanoma. They also observed
that the vitamin C levels needed were at concentrations that might be attained in future
studies with humans {Nature, April, 1980).
The researchers extracted both cancerous and noncancerous cells from mice. Then they
placed the cells in two separate cultures and added vitamin C. The malignant, or
melanotic, cells showed a 50 percent decrease in colony formation, cell number and
their ability to stay alive.
"Vitamin C may directly inhibit the growth of proliferating cells, and this might explain
some of the reported carcinostatic [cancer suppressing] effects," the researchers write.
They also note that the preferential toxicity of vitamin C for melanoma cells was greatly
increased when small amounts of copper were added.
Cancer Patients Helped
That's great for mouse cells in a dish, but what about vitamin C's effect on cancer
patients? Well, a Japanese hospital has been giving cancer patients the vitamin since
1968. Until 1977, they had given smaller doses to some patients, but they found such
positive results that they decided to give large doses (5 grams or more per day) to all.
Of patients in the early stages of the disease, 69 percent receiving large doses were still
alive at the time of the report, while only 29 percent of those receiving small doses
survived. Most striking was the fate of those patients who had been de-
VITAMIC C AND CANCER 289
clared terminal: "The average survival time after being pronounced terminal was 43
days for the iow-ascorbate [vitamin C] patients and 201 days for the high-ascorbate
patients." And further: "None of the Iow-ascorbate patients survived more than 174
days, whereas 18 (33 percent) of the high-ascorbate group survived longer than 174
days, their average being 483 days (886 days for the 6 still living).
"In many patients, the administration of vitamin C seems to improve the state of well-
being, as indicated by better appetite, increased mental alertness, and a desire to return
to ordinary life" (Journal of the International Academy of Preventive Medicine).
In light of the Japanese results, a study of 150 advanced cancer patients at the Mayo
Clinic needs a closer look. Researchers there found no statistically significant difference
in the survival rate, symptoms or apparent well-being of two groups of patients, one of
which received 10 grams of vitamin C daily, the other a placebo. They were therefore
unable to show evidence of the therapeutic value of high doses of C.
The problem with the Mayo Clinic study was that the patients had already run the gamut
of conventional therapy such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Their immune
systems were wrecked by the toxic effects of the previous therapies, a possibility
admitted to by the researchers: "We recognize," they write, "that earlier
immunosuppressive treatment might have obscured any benefit provided by [vitamin
C]" (New England Journal of Medicine, September 27, 1979).
Previous research on cancer victims had far better results. The link between C and the
body's immune system is well documented, particularly in cancer victims, who,
according to Linus Pauling and other researchers, "generally exhibit diminished im-
munocompetence and almost invariably have low [white blood cell] ascorbate content.
"The simplest and safest way to enhance immunocompe-tence in such patients and to
ensure that their . . . defense systems are working at maximum efficiency is to increase
their ascorbate intake.
290 VITAMIN C
"In our view, ascorbate is essential to ensure the working of the immune system"
(Cancer Research, March, 1979).
Pain Relief
A study of 30 terminal cancer patients given vitamin C by M. L. Riccitelli, M.D., and

Edward Elkowitz, D.O., showed "there was no tumor regression," says Dr. Elkowitz,
professor at Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York.
However, Dr. Elkowitz told us, "The patients had less pain, improvement of appetite and
improved well-being." And, he notes, the patients taking vitamin C were in far less toxic
a state than those patients treated with chemotherapy (anti-cancer chemicals).
The two doctors gave their patients up to 50 grams of vitamin C a day.
"It's probably impossible to give too much because it's harmless," says Dr. Riccitelli,
former assistant clinical professor of medicine at the Yale University school of medicine.
"After the body is saturated with vitamin C, the rest is metabolized by the liver and
excreted."
Dr. Riccitelli himself takes 4 grams a day and believes doing so may help prevent cancer,
"I'm sure vitamin C works to help prevent cancer," he told us. "Of course, all the
evidence is presumptive—you can't prove how it works. But that doesn't matter. You
can't prove how aspirin works either."
A physician who agrees with him is Ewan Cameron, M.B., Ch.B., a Scottish surgeon who
has conducted much of the research on vitamin C and cancer, particularly on patients
with advanced cancer.
"I'm pretty convinced that if people maintained a reasonable . . . intake [of vitamin C],
that we would see a diminished incidence of cancer," Dr. Cameron told us.
"If you can alter, even a little, the very, very advanced cancer patients, then all logic
suggests you should be able to alter the very early stages of the illness," he told us. "And,
of
VITAMIN C AND CANCER 291

course, the earliest stage of the illness is before the person has cancer at all."
Tumor Growth Reversed
And in Dr. Cameron's studies on advanced cancer patients, the disease was sometimes
altered more than a little.
"We published a paper reporting dramatic relief of bone pain in four out of five patients
with skeletal cancer," he says. "Bone cancer is usually a pretty painful situation ....
Vitamin C, however, relieves the pain. And this is not because vitamin C is, itself, a pain
reliever or a narcotic. It's because the pain is due to the steady expansion of the tumor
against the inelastic bone. Vitamin C slows down the expansion and thus relieves the
pain."
Dr. Cameron has seen cases in which vitamin C not only slowed down tumor growth, but
reversed it.
"One old man, a stationmaster, came in with cancer of the pancreas. I operated on him
and he went home. He wasn't given vitamin C yet. Four or five months later, he came
back with a big, malignant liver. He wasn't going to die that week, but he was a very sick
man. Very definitely on a downhill slope. We started him off on vitamin C and his liver
shrank back in size and, contrary to many expectations, he went home."
Over the past eight years. Dr. Cameron has compared the survival time of terminal
cancer patients who receive vitamin C to similar patients who don't. He has found that
vitamin C increases survival time by an average of 330 or more days (some of the
patients are still alive)— to 6.6 times longer than patients who don't get vitamin C.
Cancer Prevention
But the studies mentioned so far are of ways in which vitamin C is used to tackle cancer
cells which already exist. Other
292 VITAMIN C
researchers are taking a different approach. They're trying to find out if vitamin C intake
can prevent cancer cells from developing in the first place, as Drs. Riccitelli and
Cameron believe.
According to the National Cancer Institute, about 77,000 Americans develop colon
cancer annually, and 42,800 die from it. But there is a lower incidence of colon and
rectal cancer in Florida and the southeastern United States, as well as in California and
Arizona. The incidence of large-bowel cancer is one-half the national average in those
regions, note Henry C. Lyko and James X. Hartmann, Ph.D., who conducted their
research at Florida Atlantic University. They suggest that the increased consumption of
citrus fruit, which is high in vitamin C, may be the reason. Regular citrus consumption is
part of the southeastern Florida lifestyle, they report, and two-thirds of the families
there have an average of three citrus trees per household.
The scientists say that people who consume diets high in beef, fats and proteins are at a
higher risk of developing large-bowel cancer. But ". . . there is increasing evidence that
vitamin C may prevent the development of large-bowel cancer," says Lyko, ''and the
most encouraging aspect of these findings is that it may be easier to get Americans to
supplement their diets with citrus or vitamin C than persuade them to change their
dietary habits appreciably."
At Children's Hospital in Los Angeles, researchers have scrutinized vitamin C from

another angle. What happens when normal cells are exposed to a carcinogen, and
vitamin C is added afterward? Can vitamin C keep tumors from forming? William F.
Benedict, M.D., and Peter A. Jones, Ph.D., are only at the earliest stages of working out
those questions, but preliminary results are encouraging.
Vitamin C Inhibits Cell Transformation
The researchers took mouse embryo cells and exposed them to a carcinogen for 24
hours. Then they removed the carcinogen
VITAMIN C AND CANCER 293
and immediately added vitamin C to some of the exposed cells. They found that vitamin
C completely prevented cell transformation that normally occurs after exposure to
cancer-causing agents.
In a second experiment, the researchers found they could wait as long as 23 days before
adding vitamin C to the exposed cells and still get the same results. The vitamin C
completely inhibited the cell transformation.
Then the researchers took cells that had already transformed and never before been in
contact with vitamin C. They divided the transformed cells into two groups. Vitamin C
was added to one group of transformed cells. The second group was left alone. "The dish
of transformed cells that got the vitamin C changed back into normal-appearing cells,"
Dr. Benedict told us. That doesn't happen in every instance, however.
If you took transformed cells and added vitamin C to them, 75 percent of the cells would
go back to normal. Dr. Benedict explains. The remaining 25 percent would still be in the
transformed state. They would not change back, despite the addition of vitamin C.
"We think the transformation process of a cell is a progression," says Dr. Benedict.
"Vitamin C may revert a cell back to normal if the transformation process has only gone
so far."
Is there any difference between normal cells and the transformed cells that suddenly
appear normal after getting vitamin C? "We don't think there is," says Dr. Benedict.
The doses of vitamin C used were much smaller than those used in other studies, and
once the transformed cells had reverted to normal, the researchers discovered the
vitamin was no longer needed.
"When we took the vitamin C away, the cells did not transform again," says Dr. Benedict.
The vitamin C apparently made an irreversible change in the cells, and they remained
normal in appearance. "Usually, when you take other cancer-blocking agents away,
within three or four days you have transformed cells appearing in the dish again."
He emphasizes that their research does not address the question of vitamin C's effects
on cells after they have become a
294 VITAMIN C
tumor. The relevancy of their findings ties in with blocking a tumor from forming.
Vitamin C may change transformed cells back into their normal state before they grow
into a tumor, he says.
The researchers hope their results can be duplicated in whole-animal studies, such as
those with guinea pigs.
Like humans, guinea pigs are unable to produce vitamin C inside their bodies. The
scientists are interested also in learning if vitamin C can prevent cell transformations in
the same manner after X rays.
They are cautious about their findings, but they also are excited about them. "We were
quite surprised by the results,'' admits Dr. Benedict, "and as we go along, we get more
and more surprised."
CHAPTER
USING CORTISONE DRUGS? BETTER CHECK YOUR VITAMIN C!
In our overmedicated society, where doctors write prescriptions as automatically as

politicians offer handshakes, you don't have to look very far to find someone who is
taking one of the steroid drugs—cortisone, hydrocortisone, prednisone or a related
compound. In fact, chances are good that anyone who's ever experienced even a
moderate bout of arthritis or any other form of painful inflammation or swelling has
taken a steroid or corticosteroid at least for a short time—perhaps you included.
Despite the frequency with which they are prescribed, however, steroids are far from
harmless medications. Some of their undesirable side effects are so predictable and so
severe that people forced to take them over long periods eventually run into health
complications that can overshadow their ori^nnal problems. That's why it's encouraging
to learn of growing indications that a stepped-up intake of nutrients, especially vitamin
C, can counteract some of the nastiest side effects.
One of the most dangerous and widely recognized consequences of prescribed steroids is
reduced resistance to infection. A report by Ellen Ginzler, M.D., assistant professor of
medicine at Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, gives a
296 VITAMIN C
new insight into the magnitude of the problem. Dr. Ginzler noted that, among 223
patients with systemic lupus erythematosus— an inflammatory disease that causes a
breakdown of connective tissue—high doses of prednisone were directly tied to
increased bacterial and fungal infections (Medical Tribune).
Drug-related infection was the cause or major contributing factor in 30 of 55 deaths

among patients in the study group. And there were 354 nonfatal infections. Such
infections tended to rise as steroid dosage went up.
"No one is particularly surprised. Other studies have suggested the same relationship of
steroids to infection," Dr. Ginzler said, "but this is the first study that has specifically
looked at the question, trying to separate out the potential risk factors." The results, she
added, "strengthen our resolve to minimize steroid therapy" in treating lupus.
But drug-prescribing habits aren't changed overnight, even in the face of hard evidence.
What about the hundreds of thousands of Americans who are taking cortisone and other
steroids now, and for whom doctors will continue to prescribe those drugs? Here's
where new evidence suggests that supplementary vitamin C may be valuable.
Steroids increase the risk of infection by interfering with the ability of tiny colorless
corpuscles in the blood, called neutrophils, to engulf and destroy invading bacteria. But
extra vitamin C, taken at the same time as the drug, can restore the body's natural
defense mechanism and get the neutrophils back on the attack. That's the thrust of
recent findings reported by researchers Grant E. Olson and Hiram C. Polk, Jr., M.D.,
professor and chairman of the department of surgery at the University of Louisville
school of medicine.
The Kentucky researchers describe their study in the Journal of Surgical Research.
Using blood samples collected from normal people, the pair created test-tube mixtures
of neutrophils. Staphylococcus bacteria and the equivalent of a therapeutic dosage of the
steroid drug hydrocortisone, in some samples, vitamin C was added—the equivalent of 2
grams (2,000 milligrams) for
CORTISONE DRUGS AND VITAMIN C 297
a 150-pound man. Other mixtures received no supplementary vitamin C.
Testing revealed that, in the latter samples, the bacteria-killing process was significantly
depressed within one hour after the addition of hydrocortisone. But the neutrophil
mixtures fortified with vitamin C had a near-normal ability to destroy the staph germs.
The authors concluded that, in patients receiving certain steroids, "ascorbic acid
[vitamin C] may be beneficial in reducing the high incidence of infection in this group."
Their findings—and conclusion—parallel a similar study performed by researchers at the
Georgetown University hospital, Washington, D.C. In that study, reported in the Journal
of the Reticuloendothelial Society, blood samples from six patients receiving steroid
treatment were exposed to latex particles, meant to simulate a bacterial invasion.
As expected, measurements indicated that among these subjects—who had been taking
steroids for from one day to more than five years—neutrophil function was significantly
impaired.
But when the same patients were given 2 grams of vitamin C—two 1-gram doses over a
12-hour period—on the very next day it was found that their natural bacteria-fighting
mechanisms had returned to normal. And the improvement was rapid, occurring wihin
one hour of receiving the second dose of vitamin C.
Steroids Widely Used
If vitamin C can help curb even one of the dangerous adverse effects of steroid drugs, it
promises to be of potential value to a large cross section of the American population. For
those medications are now being prescribed for a whole host of conditions ranging from
treatment of menopause, arthritis, bursitis, asthma, psoriasis and enteritis to kidney
disease, eye inflammation and leukemia.
298 VITAMIN C
Simply recognizing a particular prescribed drug as a steroid isn't always easy, as they are
under a bewildering variety of brand names. For example, Allersone, Cort-Dome,
Cortenema, Cortril, Dermacort and Hytone are just some of the brands of
hydrocortisone. And prednisone, one of the most popular of the steroids, is marketed by
many different companies.
Side effects, as listed in standard prescribing volumes such as the Physicians' Desk
Reference, are numerous and alarming. In addition to lowered defense against infection,
they include peptic ulcers, cataracts, glaucoma, diabetes, heart problems, high blood
pressure, delayed wound healing and bone and muscle breakdown.
In addition, people who take steroids continuously for several years to treat a chronic
illness often develop a distressing condition known as Cushing's syndrome. Symptoms
include painful, fatty swellings on the body, a moon-shaped face, distended abdomen
and reduced sexual ability.
Still another side effect, suppressed growth in childhood, also appears to respond
favorably to vitamin C. A team of doctors at two hospitals in Athens, Greece, discovered
that supplements of 500 milligrams of vitamin C every eight hours helped restore new
collagen formation in youngsters taking steroid drugs. Collagen is essential for normal
growth, but steroids interfere with its formation. The Greek researchers found that new
collagen production was boosted by 52 percent after four days of vitamin C
supplementation (Archives of Disease in Childhood).
Given the facts of modern life, cortisone and other steroid drugs are an almost
unavoidable part of medical treatment for many people. But we must never forget that
they are two-edged swords. Hopefully, as more doctors and patients find out about the
counteracting effects of vitamin C, at least some of the terrible consequences of the
steroids can be avoided.
CHAPTER
VITAMIN C AND HEROIN ADDICTION
The heroin addict: His Hfe turned into a hell, the heroin he craves shuts off emotion and
sexual desire, warps sleep and, if the needles are dirty, infects the liver and heart.
He has a problem that society, in spite of spending hundreds of millions of dollars, has
been largely unable to solve. But he may be helped—perhaps even cured—by a simple
substance: vitamin C.
One reason heroin addicts stay heroin addicts is that it's physically grueling to go off the
drug. Withdrawal symptoms last for days and include runny eyes and nose, sweating,
chills, muscle aches and pains, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, loss of appetite and
insomnia. Most withdrawal programs deal with those symptoms by treating them with
specific drugs: Valium for the insomnia, for instance, or Darvon for the pain. The
problem with that approach, however, is that the treatment medications have side
effects sometimes as debilitating as the withdrawal symptoms themselves. Also, the
medication may itself be addictive! In fact, the most widely accepted treatment for
"curing" a heroin addict is giving him methadone—another addictive drug.
What heroin addicts really need is a way to detoxify their
300 VITAMIN C
bodies without suffering prolonged withdrawal symptoms. Sound impossible? Not if

they take vitamin C.
"Sodium ascorbate [vitamin C] . . . was seen as a cost-effective, convenient, safe way to

detoxify narcotic addicts," write Valentine Free and Pat Sanders, R.N., former
researchers at the San Francisco Drug Treatment Program, who gave large amounts of
vitamin C to heroin addicts during their withdrawal {Journal of Psychedelic Drugs, July-
September, 1979).
The researchers asked 227 addicts—all of whom had used heroin for at least seven years
and spent $70 to $100 a day on the drug—to join one of three groups. Group 1 received
vitamin C—24 to 48 grams for the first week of withdrawal, then 8 to 12 grams for the
next two weeks. Group 2 received "symptomatic relief medications" such as Librium, a
tranquilizer. Group 3 also received those medications, but only for three days—for the
last 18 days of the detoxification period they received vitamin C. During the entire three
weeks of the pilot study, the researchers measured the average number of withdrawal
symptoms in each group.
After the first day of the study, the number of withdrawal symptoms in group 1 (vitamin
C) was 6.5 while group 2 (medications) had 8 and group 3 (medications-vitamin C) had
9. By the end of the first week, however, group 1 had dropped to 3 symptoms, group 3
had 1.1—and group 2 had 8.
By the end of the second week, the vitamin C group had no symptoms, the medication-
vitamin C group had 1 symptom and the medication group had 7.5. At the end of the
third week, the situation was much the same, with the medicated group dropping to 6.5
symptoms.
They Lost Their Craving for Drugs
And vitamin C helped the addicts in other ways.
The researchers point out that four of the addicts taking vitamin C "reported a loss of
'craving' for drugs." None of the addicts in group 2 noted any change in their desire for
drugs.
VITAMIN C AND ADDICTION 301
And, say the authors, the ''majority of subjects" in the vitamin C groups "reported the
feehng of having increased energy while large amounts of ascorbic acid [vitamin C] were
used."
The researchers believe that this increased energy, along with improvements in
psychological health caused by vitamin C, should make it easier for detoxified addicts to
become responsible citizens: "Patient reports of ... a sense of well-being add to a greater
self-esteem in newly detoxified individuals—a factor which outpatient treatment can
build on by encouraging the patient to deal more effectively with the home and
community environments."
And, they say, the vitamin C program (which also includes mineral supplements) may
help ex-addicts form a new habit— health. "Ascorbic acid and mineral supplements
applied to narcotic withdrawal symptoms . . . can easily lead into nutritional counseling
and other health perspectives once the detoxification phase has been successfully
completed."
This research project was not the first time heroin addicts received large amounts of
vitamin C during withdrawal. Irwin Stone, a biochemist who has spent years
investigating vitamin C, and an associate conducted a study in which addicts took the
nutrient. The results are impressive (Journal of Orthomolecular Psychiatry).
"The general improvement in the well-being of the addicts within 12 to 24 hours after
beginning sodium ascorbate detoxification is striking," they write. "It is demonstrated by
improved mental alertness and visual acuity; appetite is returning, and the addict is
amazed that treatment is working without the use of another narcotic."
The scientists also point out a rather incredible observation: If an addict receiving
vitamin C uses heroin during the withdrawal period, "it is immediately detoxified and no
'high' is produced. It is like injecting plain water."
Stone and his colleague describe the case of one addict, a 23-year-old who had used
heroin since he was 15 and had been through several medication-oriented detoxification
programs. "After three days on the regimen," they write, "he began eating
302 VITAMIN C
and feeling so much better and thinking more clearly . . . and he began to have restful
sleep." After three months, he was still drug free and had lost his desire for heroin.
In all, the researchers gave vitamin C to 30 addicts. The success rate? 'Thirty out of 30
patients were successfully treated.''
CHAPTER
BIOFLAVONOIDS FOR HEALTHY CAPILLARIES
Bioflavonoid—the word has a kind of ominous ring to it. You can almost see the movie
poster with its garish artwork, the faces of the terrified townspeople, the lurid prose:
"What was this strange menace that stalked the city? What did these things want? For
24 hours they held an entire community paralyzed with terror! It was— The Day of the
Bioflavonoids!"
What we're dealing with here is fear of the unknown. The only reason this family of
nutrients comes off sounding like some monstrous salad, run amok, is that many of us
have never heard of them. The bioflavonoids are often overlooked by nutritional experts,
but they have widespread beneficial effects. These "things" are not out to terrorize your
town, drain your bodily juices or turn you into a soulless zombi. They come in peace, to
help make us all healthier people.
The effects of the bioflavonoids were first observed in 1936 by scientists led by Albert
Szent-Gyorgyi. Dr. Szent-Gyorgyi, who also discovered vitamin C and was awarded the
Nobel Prize for his efforts, noted that, when animals with scurvy were given crude
preparations of vitamin C derived from natural sources, they lived longer than animals
given pure vitamin C. The impure
304 BIOFLAVONOIDS
vitamin C was more effective in healing the capillary (tiny blood vessel) damage that is
characteristic of scurvy. Dr. Szent-Gyor-gyi reasoned that there must have been some
additional substance present in the impure vitamin C that boosted its healing effects.
That substance was actually a group of compounds, the bioflavonoids. Dr. Szent-Gyorgyi
and his colleagues found that these compounds act to strengthen the capillaries and stop
capillary bleeding by lowering the permeability of the capillary walls. Because of this
action, he called the compounds vitamin P, for permeability.
Ralph C. Robbins, Ph.D.—a leading expert on the bioflavonoids and a researcher at the
food science and human nutrition department, institute of food and agricultural
sciences at the University of Florida, in Gainesville—told us that the scientific world
reacted quickly to the discovery. ''Soon after Dr. Szent-Gyorgyi discovered the activity of
bioflavonoids in animals, a great number of people studied the compounds and found
that the biolfavonoids seemed to produce beneficial effects in some 50 diseases."
In most cases, the effects of the bioflavonoids could be traced to their action in the
capillaries. These miniscule blood vessels are the link in the circulatory system joining
the arteries and the veins. There are some 3.6 billion capillaries, located in virtually
every part of the body. The capillaries, and the capillaries alone, carry out the chief
purpose of the circulatory system—they deliver oxygen and nutrients to the body's
tissues and remove poisonous wastes.
"The important role which capillary dysfunction plays in many diseases is fully
recognized by the medical profession, for it is in the capillary system that the essential
exchange of body fluids takes place," a team of American scientists told the 20th
International Congress of Physiology (Journal of the American Geriatrics Society).
Boris Sokoloff, M.D., William Coda Martin, M.D., and Clarence Saelhof, M.D., in a paper
delivered to the congress in Brussels, Belgium, listed a variety of diseases in which
failure
BIOFLAVONOIDS FOR HEALTHY CAPILLARIES 305
of the capillaries to function properly was a problem. "In viral hepatitis, poliomyelitis,
smallpox, measles, primary atypical pneumonia, mumps, virus A influenza, St. Louis
encephalitis and other viral infections, capillary fragility and hemorrhage have been
observed.'' The scientists also reported that capillary problems were a factor in
arteriosclerosis, hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and bleeding ulcers.
The paper described the researchers' use of bioflavonoids to treat a number of these
disorders, particularly those which are likely to strike older people. Age itself tends to
produce capillary problems. Tests of 189 patients, age 53 to 88, found that 124 of them,
about 64 percent, suffered from capillary fragility. Patients in the group who had high
blood pressure were more likely to have capillary problems than those who did not.
The researchers treated 30 of these patients, including 19 suffering from high blood
pressure, with bioflavonoids for a period of four weeks. In only one instance was there
no change in the patient's condition. In two cases, there was some improvement, and in
the remaining 27, the functioning of the capillaries was either completely, or very nearly,
restored to normal.
Dr. Sokoloff and his colleagues followed the case histories of 13 patients who had
suffered "little strokes"—recurring, relatively minor episodes of bleeding in the brain
that, over the course of time, can produce paralysis, palsy, failing intellectual power and
personality changes. The problem occurs mostly in older people. The scientists
administered 600 milligrams of bioflavonoids daily to the 13 patients. One patient died
of a stroke two weeks after his treatment began, and 2 others moved to another city and
left the study after a short period of time. The condition of the remaining patients,
observed for periods ranging from 12 to 32 months, either improved or remained
satisfactory. None of them suffered further strokes.
Because of evidence that capillary fragility was a problem in arthritis, the scientists
examined the case histories of 45 arthritis patients treated with bioflavonoids. While the
changes were not dramatic, significant improvement was noted in 20 patients, and only
10 patients showed no improvement at all. Pa-
306 BIOFLAVONOIDS
tients who had had arthritis for the shortest time responded best to the treatment. The
bioflavonoids are hardly a miracle cure for arthritis, the doctors concluded, but "they
can be recommended as a supplement to other methods of treatment."
Bioflavonoids have been found effective in countering several of the complications of

diabetes. In diabetes, and also in cases of high blood pressure, inflammation of the
retina is a frequent problem. The retina is located at the back of the eyeball, where the
images we see are received and carried to the brain by the optic nerve. Inflammation of
the retina results in impaired vision and is accompanied by the buildup of waxy
excretions from the blood vessels. One-sixth of all cases of acquired blindness are the
result of retinal disease in diabetics.
Dr. Sokoloff and his colleagues found that, in 85 percent of 198 cases of retinal
inflammation treated with bioflavonoids, the bleeding in the retina was promptly
controlled.
Cataracts Prevented
Cataract formation, a clouding over of the lens of the eye that can produce blindness, is
another possible complication of diabetes. Scientists at the National Eye Institute in
Bethesda, Maryland, have found that one of the bioflavonoids, quercitrin, is capable of
holding off the development of cataracts in diabetic laboratory animals (Science).
In this case, the action of the bioflavonoids has nothing to do with their effects on the
capillaries. In 1975, the same team of scientists at the institute reported that several of
the bioflavonoids inhibited the action of an enzyme, called aldose reductase, that had
been found to play an important part in the formation of diabetic cataracts (Science).
Three of the bioflavonoids— quercetin, quercitrin and myricitrin—were more powerful
inhibitors of the enzyme than anything previously tested.
The researchers decided to test the effects of quercitrin, the most potent of the three, in
diabetic animals. They used a South American rodent called the degu, which, because of
its particular
susceptibility to the action of aldose reductase, invariably develops cataracts 10 to 12

days after the onset of diabetes. The diabetic degus that were not fed quercitrin
developed cataracts right on schedule, after about 10 days. The degus receiving the
bioflavonoid, however, were free of cataracts 25 days after the onset of the diabetes,
even though the levels of sugar in their blood were roughly the same as the levels in the
other animals.
Treating Bleeding Disorders
We could go on at great length here about the action of the bioflavonoids in various
diseases. Almost any problem that involves bleeding seems to have been alleviated at
one time or another by bioflavonoids.
Scientists in France found that the bioflavonoids were a highly effective alternative to
hormone therapy in the treatment of abnormal uterine bleeding in women (Family
Practice News i. The French doctors also reported that the bioflavonoid treatment
corrected abnormal menstrual bleeding in 39 of 40 women who had problems following
the insertion of an intrauterine contraceptive devide (lUD).
These researchers found that the treatment provided relief for pregnant women
suffering from varicose veins, and other studies have shown that a bioflavonoid-vitamin
C complex relieves the hot flashes which occur in menopause (Chicago Medicine).
Bioflavonoids have been shown to reduce inflammation in bacterial and viral infections.
That is important because of the side effects associated with the use of steroids, the
standard antiinflammatory agents. Scientists in Europe have demonstrated that a
complex of bioflavonoids, vitamin C and two antiinflammatory enzymes acts against a
wider variety of inflammations than seven other nonsteroid anti-inflammatory
substances and produces no side effects whatsoever (Arzneimittel-Forschung/Drug
Research).
308 BIOFLAVONOIDS
Less Blood Cell Clumping
So the bioflavonoids are active against a hodge-podge of many disorders. Coming up

with one neat explanation for all these effects is probably impossible, but the
bioflavonoids' action in the capillaries is certainly of major importance. Dr. Robbins has
done extensive work in this area and believes that the bioflavonoids' effects on capillary
permeability may be linked to their regulation of a tendency of blood cells to clump
together.
In 1971, Dr. Robbins established that the bioflavonoids have a direct effect on blood cell
aggregation, the clumping together of blood cells which often occurs in states of illness
(Clinical Chemistry). "Decreased blood cell aggregation," he wrote, "may explain the
reported beneficial effects of flavonoids on abnormal capillary permeability and fragility,
the decreased symptoms in many diseases, and the protective effect against various
traumas and stresses.
"An effect of aggregation is decreased capillary blood flow .... Decreased blood flow may
be reflected in changes in capillary permeability and resistance to rupture."
Dr. Robbins reported that research had demonstrated a close relationship between
blood flow and capillary permeability. When blood flow through the capillaries is
blocked, the capillaries become more permeable and components of the blood are lost;
when the blood flow is restored, the capillaries return to normal. What happens, then, is
that bioflavonoids decrease blood cell clumping, which increases blood flow and results
in less permeable, healthier capillaries.
"There are several hundred different bioflavonoid compounds in patients," Dr. Robbins
told us. "The ones in citrus fruits are the most active in the body." Because their
formation depends on the action of sunlight, bioflavonoids are usually concentrated in
the outer tissues of plants, for example, in the rind and peels of oranges.
The bioflavonoids act in plants as natural preservatives, retarding the growth of bacteria
and working to prevent the de-
struction of vitamin C by oxidation. This preservative action is so strong that

bioflavonoid-rich onions and garlic, and juices prepared from green pepper, celery,
potato peels and tomatoes, have all been shown to preserve the quality of meats.
These things are not visitors from a distant galaxy, after all. The bioflavonoids are an
important part of a natural, nutritious diet. They can, and should, become as familiar to
you as your own back-yard garden.
CHAPTER
HEALING WITH BIOFLAVONOIDS
Mike is prone to colds. So he takes vitamin C. Still, he sniffles and sneezes.

Mary is anemic. So she takes iron supplements until she worries she'll rust in the rain.
But still, she feels tired at the end of the day.
John's nose is apt to bleed for no apparent reason. So he eats more vitamin K-rich leafy
vegetables to enhance blood clotting. And still, his nosebleeds persist.
Although their symptoms may be different, the solutions to their problems may be the
same: All three may be helped by taking bioflavonoids.
Unfortunately, most of us don't eat as many fresh fruits and vegetables as we should,
and very few of us eat the skins, membranes and rinds of citrus fruits, which are among
the richest sources of bioflavonoids. But increasing our intake of these important
nutrients may help clear up a host of nagging health problems we often mistake for
symptoms of something else.
The major trauma of a miscarriage, the minor annoyance of a nosebleed and assorted
ailments in between may respond well
HEALING WITH BIOFLAVONOIDS 311
to bioflavonoid therapy because bioflavonoids are particularly adept at strengthening

capillary walls.
Babies Carried to Term
As a result, certain young women would do well to baby themselves with bioflavonoid
supplements.
"I believe some miscarriages occur because of increased fragility of placental capillaries,
and bioflavonoid supplements seem to help toughen those capillaries," says Jack C.
Redman, M.D., a family practitioner in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He prescribes citrus
bioflavonoids for his patients who suffer from chronic miscarriages. Dr. Redman, who is
also a diplomate of the American Board of Family Practice, told us his results with the
bioflavonoid therapy have been excellent.
"I've had success giving bioflavonoids to women who have had two, three, even four
miscarriages,'' Dr. Redman explains. "I tell them to begin taking the supplements
immediately the next time they become pregnant, and it almost always works. My
results have been very encouraging."
Dr. Redman usually prescribes 200 milligrams taken three times a day, for a total of 600
milligrams daily. He tells of one patient who miscarried her first pregnancy but took the
bioflavonoids for the duration of the second. "Although she experienced some spotty
bleeding during her third month, she carried a beautiful baby girl to term," Dr. Redman
recalls. "In that case, as in several others, I found evidence of an old blood clot after I
delivered the placenta."
Bioflavonoids Regulate Blood Cells

Another bioflavonoid researcher has found thai the bioflavonoids from a grapefruit a
day may keep heart problems at bay.
312 BIOFLAVONOIDS
Oranges, lemons, tangerines and grapefruits are good sources of citrus bioflavonoids.
Various components present in all of them make up the bioflavonoid complex, but
individual constituents of the bioflavonoid-complex family may vary slightly among the
different fruits. Their duties vary slightly, too. For instance, bioflavonoids derived from
grapefruit help regulate hematocrit levels, which reflect the ratio of red blood cells to
whole blood, according to Dr. Ralph C. Robbins, Ph.D., of the food science and human
nutrition department, institute of food and agricultural sciences at the University of
Florida, in Gainesville. Dr. Robbins is one of the foremost scientists in bioflavonoid
research today, and he and others have found that high hematocrit levels are a constant
finding in people who are subject to heart attacks.
"In fact, a high hematocrit appears to be a risk factor for heart attacks and strokes," says
Dr. Robbins, adding that "high hematocrits were a constant finding with heart attack
victims in the famous 'Framingham study,' which established the link between life style
and heart disease."
In one of his own studies. Dr. Robbins took 40 people who had a wide range of
hematocrit levels and placed them on a diet that included a grapefruit a day—no other
restrictions were applied. After 12 weeks, there was a significant drop in the hematocrit
levels in the high-hematocrit group (including several heart attack patients) but no
significant drop in the hematocrits of individuals already in the ideal range. In addition,
those with low hematocrit levels rose to the normal range.
That's important. Dr. Robbins points out, because low hematocrit levels are indicative of
anemia. "Hematocrit levels too high and too low are both unhealthy. What we are
finding out is that grapefruit helps to stabilize hematocrit levels. Evidence indicates the
effect is due to the bioflavonoid naringin."
Some of the other bioflavonoids that have been isolated include rutin, from buckwheat
and other natural sources, hes-peridin, from oranges and lemons, and tangeretin, from
tangerines.
"There are so many bioflavonoids, and their activity varies according to a number of
factors, including a person's blood type," notes Dr. Robbins. Most fruits and vegetables
contain
dozens of different ones, and most bioflavonoid supplements are available in complex
form.
"Citrus is a regular cornucopia of flavonoids," says Russel Rouseff, Ph.D., of the Florida
Department of Citrus at the University of Florida agricultural research center in Lake
Alfred, Florida. "There are at least 40 individual flavonoids that have been identified in
citrus. Most of them have been reported to have biological activity. Those are the ones
we call /7/V?flavonoids."
If you get all your citrus in the form of juice, you may be missing out on many of the
most active bioflavonoids, which are found in the rind, the membranes between the fruit
segments and in the white, spongy layer called the albedo, just under the rind. Many of
the citrus fruits sold in supermarkets have been artificially colored. Powdered citrus peel
sold to flavor baked goods, however, has usually not been dyed. Dr. Rouseff believes
such products may be good sources of bioflavonoids.
Protection from Cancer
Many bioflavonoids seem to help protect our bodies from the cancer-causing effects of
pollutants such as benzpyrene, which is released into the air when some synthetic
compounds are burned. Bioflavonoids increase the anti-cancer activity of certain
enzymes found in our skin, lungs, gastrointestinal tract and liver. These enzymes
metabolize foreign compounds, according to Dr. Robbins, and help convert fat-soluble
carcinogens (cancer-causing agents) to water-soluble form so they may be safely
excreted from the body. Citrus bioflavonoids are particularly potent in this regard, he
notes.
Other researchers have reported on some of the anti-cancer effects of vitamin C.

Bioflavonoids may lend a helping hand here, too, because bioflavonoids have been
shown to increase the body's absorption of vitamin C. in one Czechoslovakian study,
researchers found that guinea pigs absorbed twice as much vitamin C if they were given
supplements of rutin and another bioflavonoid at the same time they were given the
vitamin C
314 BIOFLAVONOIDS
supplement (Physiologia Bohemoslovaca, vol. 28, 1979). Like people, guinea pigs are
unable to manufacture their own vitamin C within their bodies and must rely on outside
sources to get it.
Natural Antihistamines
Neutralizing the cancer-causing agents in air pollution and enhancing the absorption of
vitamin C, known for its benefits as an antihistamine, aren't the only ways bioflavonoids
may keep us breathing easily. Bioflavonoids are pretty good antihistamines themselves.
According to Elliott Middleton, Jr., M.D., director of the allergy division in the
departments of medicine and pediatrics, school of medicine. State University of New
York in Buffalo, the bioflavonoid quercetin will inhibit the release of histamine from
white blood cells. During a typical allergy attack, histamine is released, causing red,
watery eyes, stuffy nose, sneezing, itching and impaired breathing.
Dr. Middleton found that quercetin will also inactivate certain viruses, including herpes
type 1 (cold sores) virus, polio virus, parainfluenza virus and a particular respiratory
virus that afflicts young children and may be a forerunner of asthma. Although the
effectiveness of quercetin under normal dietary conditions has not been established, Dr.
Middleton speculates that "certain naturally occurring flavonoids may have a role in
antiviral therapy" {Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, January, 1982).
Across the country, in Portland, Oregon, nutritional consultant Brian Leibovitz relies on
bioflavonoids to keep his allergic patients comfortable throughout the hay fever season.
''But bioflavonoids work even better on asthma,'' Leibovitz told us. "In fact, a standard
treatment for asthma, a drug called cromolyn sodium, is nothing more than a synthetic
bioflavonoidlike molecule."
For those people bedeviled by another nose problem—frequent nosebleeds—

bioflavonoids may offer some hope, also.
In his extensive research, Boris Sokoloff, M.D., successfully used bioflavonoids to treat
chronic nosebleeds in 45 people. All of them took 300 milligrams at four-hour intervals
for a total of 1,500 milligrams of bioflavonoids a day, and all of them were cured—in
some cases in as little as 36 hours!
Help for Cold Sores
Bioflavonoids and vitamin C can help your body heal cold sores in half the time usually
required, according to Geza T. Terezhalmy, D.D.S., and other researchers at the National
Naval Dental Center in Bethesda, Maryland. The painful blisters that erupt in the mouth
and around the lips are the result of infection by the herpes simplex virus (type 1). Fever
or exposure to cold, heat, sun, wind or rain often bring about this disfiguring nuisance in
susceptible people. Between 80 and 90 percent of us get them at some time in our lives,
and about 40 percent have the problem over and over again.
But Dr. Terezhalmy and his colleagues found a way to significantly reduce the time it
takes for these annoying sores to heal: supplements of bioflavonoids and vitamin C. Dr.
Terezhalmy decided to use water-soluble bioflavonoids and vitamin C because of the
many reports that these two substances can be an aid in healing. Vitamin C, he said,
appears to play an important role in maintaining the strength of the blood vessels and
forming the substances that hold the cells together. Bioflavonoids, he said, have been
reported to strengthen the walls of the blood vessels. He told us that a combination of
bioflavonoids and vitamin C has been used to successfully treat bleeding gums and viral
infections characterized by fragile blood vessels.
Applying this to the problem of herpes simplex infections of the lips and mouth. Dr.
Terezhalmy believes that the progression of the inflammation requires weakening of the
tiny blood vessels in the tissue and damage to the cement holding the cells together. Dr.
Terezhalmy wanted to find out, then, if the tissue-
316 BIOFLAVONOIDS
Strengthening ability of bioflavonoids would help protect the lips and mouth from the
herpes infection.
So he assembled 50 volunteers with recurrent herpes infections on the lips and mouth.
Twenty were treated with 600 milligrams each of bioflavonoids and vitamin C divided
into three daily doses. Twenty were treated with 1,000 milligrams each of bioflavonoids
and vitamin C divided into five daily doses. The other 10 were treated with a lactose
dummy pill. Neither the patients nor the examining doctors knew which patients were
getting which treatments until the end of the experiment. The standards used to judge
the effects of the treatment were the visible signs and symptoms of the infection: itching
and feeling of fullness in the affected area, pain, formation of blisters, crusting and
disappearance of the blisters.
Before the treatment was begun, there was no significant difference between those who
received dummy pills and those who received bioflavonoids and vitamin C. But after the
treatment began, the differences were remarkable.
The most remarkable difference. Dr. Terezhalmy told us, was in the duration of
symptoms. People treated with the dummy pills were symptom free after an average of
9.7 days. But those treated with 600 milligrams of bioflavonoids and 600 milligrams of
vitamin C were completely symptom free after only 4.2 days. There was no significant
difference in healing time between those given 600 milligrams of bioflavonoids and
those given 1,000 milligrams.
Another interesting result Dr. Terezhalmy mentioned was that all 10 of the placebo-
treated people developed multiple blisters, which broke during the course of the
infection. But only 36 percent of the bioflavonoid-treated group developed blisters.
Giving the treatment early in the course of the infection seemed to make a difference.
When bioflavonoids and vitamin C were given at the first sign of symptoms, only 6 out
of 26 developed blisters. But when it was given 12 hours or more after the first
symptoms, 8 out of 12 developed blisters.
Dr. Terezhalmy told us, "There really hasn't been any adequate treatment for this
disease until now, nothing that will
actually abort the process of blister formation and minimize the other clinical
manifestations."
'The beauty of all this is that these compounds are in our food," muses Dr. Robbins, and
Dr. Redman agrees. 'Today, bioflavonoids are a by-product of the orange-juice
industry," Dr. Redman notes, "but Tve heard that someday orange juice will be a by-
product of the bioflavonoid industry."
VITAMIN D CHAPTER
DON'T LET THIN BONES LET YOU DOWN
One reason why falls of any kind are more likely to result in fractures for people over 50
is the prevalence of a bone-thinning condition called osteoporosis. As the bones
gradually become demineralized, mishaps that once caused bruises are more likely to
result in breaks. However, new evidence suggests you can fight back, because
osteoporosis, once thought to be an unavoidable consequence of aging, may be
preventable. The secret is no fancy trick, either: simply a combination of measures
including early diagnosis, calcium supplements, vigorous exercise and vitamin D.
"Osteoporosis in the elderly is an epidemic that's received far too little attention,"
contends Robert Recker, M.D., chief of endocrinology at Creighton University in
Omaha, Nebraska. Indeed, of the six million Americans affected each year, most will be
postmenopausal women over 45. And the annual cost of treating fractured hips exceeds
$1 billion.
Everyone begins losing bone mineral at around 40 years of age, but women who've had
few or no pregnancies are at greatest risk of suffering the fractures that are the major
clinical feature of osteoporosis. And except for the use of the hormone estrogen,
DON'T LET THIN BONES LET YOU DOWN 319
which has been suspect because of its link to uterine cancer, most therapies for this bone
disease are still in the early investigative stages.
For these reasons, "prevention is more important than treatment,'' declares Harold
Draper, Ph.D., chairman of the nutrition department at Guelph University in Ontario.
But how do you guard your bones from becoming riddled with holes like Swiss cheese?
Essential to the health of strong bones is vitamin D, the "sunshine vitamin." For most
people, the main input is via the skin, where ultraviolet light from the sun converts a
form of cholesterol into vitamin D. Vitamin D can also be obtained directly from the
diet, in fish liver oils, egg yolks and fortified milk. However, if you're swaddled in heavy
clothes all winter, barely touch milk and live in the North, you may have decreased levels
of vitamin D in your blood by springtime.
That's cause for concern because, without vitamin D, the body cannot properly utilize
calcium. Consequently, bone health suffers and the bones deteriorate, lose calcium and
are more susceptible to fractures. Thus, bones are most likely to break in winter and
early spring, when the days are short, sunlight (and hence vitamin D) is scarce and
calcium availability in the body is low.
D Deters Bone Deterioration

And many studies demonstrate vitamin D's practical benefits. During one investigation,
researchers gave a concentrated form of vitamin D to seven women with osteoporosis,
all of whom had suffered at least one fractured vertebra. During the year of treatment,
the women had an improvement in their calcium balance so that "no further vertebral
compression fractures were sustained during the treatment period" (Clinical Research).
In a similar study, researchers gave patients with osteoporosis a concentrated form of

vitamin D and either 1 or 2 grams of calcium a day (Clinical Endocrinology).
320 VITAMIN D
The first part of the study lasted a week. Seventeen people received the nutrients. Six
had senile osteoporosis, which is "caused" by old age. Five had postmenopausal
osteoporosis, which is caused by the postmenopausal decrease in the production of
estrogen, a female hormone that plays a role in regulating bone mass. (Almost every
woman suffers from some degree of osteoporosis within ten years of her menopause.)
Six had cor-ticosteroid-induced osteoporosis, which is caused by long, constant use of
corticosteroids, anti-inflammatory drugs. A diverse group. But in just one week, every
single person had "a significant increase in calcium absorption rate"—a sign that the
disease was improving.
Physical Activity Improved
The patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis continued into the second part of the
study, which lasted over a year, and were joined by five new patients with senile
osteoporosis.
By the end of the study, nine of the ten patients had "greatly improved" physical activity.
All but one "became more mobile." And of the five patients who had needed a cane,
three no longer did.
The slow, shuffling walk and limited physical activity of those with osteoporosis and
osteomalacia may be caused not only by hone loss, but by muscle loss.
In 1965, researchers discovered that osteoporotic women lost muscle as well as bone.
Research has also shown that vitamin D has a direct effect on muscular health. In a
study focusing on that link, researchers gave a concentrated form of vitamin D and 1
gram of calcium a day to 11 osteoporotic women for three to six months. At the
beginning and end of the study, they measured the women's muscular health (Clinical
Science, vol. 56, no. 2, 1979).
One of the measurements was a "time dressing test," in which the researchers measured
the women's muscular mobility by timing how long it took them to put on stockings,
vest, un-
DONT LET THIN BONES LET YOU DOWN 321
derpants, shirt and a frock. Before the women began taking the nutrients, they needed
an average of 3 minutes and 30 seconds to dress. At the end of the study, they needed
only 2 minutes and 52 seconds. One woman, who took over 5 minutes to dress at the
start of the study, needed just over 2 minutes at the end. The researchers also measured
favorable biochemical changes in the muscle itself. "We suggest," the researchers write,
that the patients "had some kind of myopathy Imuscle disease] induced by an
insufficient production . . . of vitamin D."
CHAPTER
THE SUNSHINE VITAMIN CAN BRIGHTEN YOUR HEALTH
You might be a little skeptical of those people who loudly announce their plans to leave
the 20th century behind—just deposit their credit cards, mortgage payments and pocket
calculators at the edge of the woods and "return to nature.'' But the truth is, no matter
how ''civilized" your style of life may be, your body never left nature; it's still intimately
attuned to the grand procession of natural cycles. And that's something you can ignore
only at your peril.
During the winter months, for example, your body responds to the low-lying winter sun
with an ebb in the chemical tides that transform calcium and phosphorus into bone.
How can the sun's angle affect bone growth? Through vitamin D, a remarkable
substance that is synthesized in your skin when it's struck by ultraviolet light and which
goes on to play a key role in your body's calcium metabolism.
During the short, dim days of winter, when you're either indoors or bundled up much of
the time, lack of sunshine on your skin can result in a steady drain on your vitamin D
supply until, by late winter or early spring, your bones may actually
THE SUNSHINE VITAMIN 323
begin to ache. Worse, if this shortage is allowed to continue, newly formed bone can
become soft and misshapen—a condition known as osteomalacia, or adult rickets.
Fortunately, there's a way around this problem short of waltzing around the back yard in
the buff. Ordinarily, you manufacture most of the vitamin D you use through this
magical meeting of the skin and sun (hence its nickname, "the sunshine vitamin"), but
vitamin D is also available, though not plentiful, in the natural food supply. By making
sure your diet is adequate in vitamin D—and seeking out the sun during the darkest
months— you can make it through winter without the dull aches and pains of a
deficiency. Unfortunately, studies show many people experience a sharp decline in their
vitamin D supply during the winter.
One such study was conducted by doctors at the University of Dundee, in Dundee,
Scotland, where levels of ultraviolet light in sunshine are "very low or negligible" from
November through February. Over a period of a year, the researchers studied the
vitamin D status of three groups of people by measuring their serum levels of the major
circulating form of vitamin D, 25-hydroxy-vitamin D, or 25-OHD for short.
The groups were divided according to occupation and amount of exposure to sunlight:
Gardeners in the local parks department worked outdoors all day, winter and summer;
hospital staffers got their sunshine mostly on weekends or after work; and a group of
elderly inpatients, who were confined indoors, received virtually no natural or artificial
sunlight at all.
The results showed that "in each group the seasonal changes were highly significant,"
with the highest 25-OHD levels recorded during the late summer and autumn and the
lowest during the late winter or early spring. And "25-OHD levels were higher in the
outdoor workers than in the indoor workers, who in turn had higher values than did the
elderly inpatients" (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, August, 1981).
The researchers noted something else of interest: The more sunshine the subjects got,
the later in the season their 25-OHD
324 VITAMIN D
levels peaked. While ultraviolet light was strongest in July, for example, the gardeners
reached their highest levels in November; the inpatients peaked in August.
Perhaps, the researchers suggested, "in the outdoor workers, vitamin D synthesis
continues well into the autumn with continued exposure and so vitamin D stores
continue to increase."
What all this means to your health was demonstrated in another study conducted by a
trio of doctors in Leeds, England. The doctors examined biopsies from hip bones of 134
patients who had suffered suspicious fractures of the femur, or thigh bone, over a period
of five years. They concluded that 37 percent of the patients were suffering from
osteomalacia. But what was most disturbing was the fact that by far the largest number
of fractures occurred in a period stretching from February through June (Lancet).
"As would be expected if this seasonal variation was attributable to variation in the
supply of vitamin D dependent on sunlight, the proportion of cases with osteomalacia is
highest in the spring and lowest in the autumn," they noted.
Why is there a two-month to six-month time lag between the shortest days of the year
(the third week in December) and the appearance of fractures caused by weakened
bones? Well, vitamin D is fat-soluble and thus easily stored by the body. Your cupboards
may be full to overflowing by the end of the summer and not run out until late winter or
even early summer. So it's important to take advantage of sunny weather whenever you
can.
Elderly at Risk
That reminder is something older people should make special note of. Because,
according to a study at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, the elderly may have trouble making
use of vitamin D even if they live in a sunny climate and get plenty of D in the foods they
eat.
The Israeli doctors compared serum 25-OHD levels of 82 elderly people and 30 young
control subjects. They discovered that 15 of the elderly subjects—nearly 20 percent—had
outright vitamin D deficiencies, and 28 more had borderline levels. Even elderly farm
workers, who got plenty of sunshine—while their vitamin D status was considerably
better than those older people who were confined indoors—were still significantly lower
than the youthful control group (Israeli Journal of Medical Sciences, January, 1981).
"It seems likely that impairment of vitamin D metabolism at several points in the
metabolic pathway, rather than simple underexposure to sunlight, is a major factor in
vitamin D deficiency in the elderly," the doctors concluded. They suggested that perhaps
aging impairs the body's ability to produce certain active forms of vitamin D, which in
turn slows down the absorption of calcium through the intestine. Result: an increased
risk of faulty bone mineralization.
There may be other factors working against vitamin D nutrition in older people,
according to Michael F. Holick, M.D., Ph.D., of the department of medicine at the
Harvard medical school, "Aging significantly reduces the skin's capacity to produce
vitamin D,," Dr. Holick explains. "The skin of a 70-year-old can make about half of the
vitamin D3 precursor produced by a 20-year-old."
Normally, he explains, ultraviolet wavelengths in sunshine, striking your bare skin,

convert a lipid substance called 7-dehydrocholesterol into previtamin D^. Previtamin
D^ is unstable when heated and slowly converts to vitamin D^ (an active form) in the
deeper layers of your skin. You don't actually make vitamin D3 during sunlight
exposure. Dr. Holick told us; it takes three or four days for the whole manufacturing
process to run its course, so your body is busy producing vitamin D3 long after you come
in out of the sun.
In the elderly, however, this marvelous machinery has begun to lose its efficiency. "It's
not too surprising, really, because age decreases all metabolic functions," Dr. Holick
says. Also,
326 VITAMIN D
the skin actually thins with age, so there are fewer cells to synthesize the vitamin.
What's to stop your skin from producing too much vitamin D? (Being fat-soluble and
thus easily stored, the nutrient can be toxic in high doses.) It's widely believed that
tanning is the answer: In response to extended exposure to sunlight, the skin produced
melanin, or pigmentation, to shield its deeper vitamin D-producing layers from
ultraviolet light. But Dr. Holick contends that, while this may be a factor, it isn't the
most important one. His research has shown, he says, that too much sun causes
previtamin D3 to break down into a pair of biologically inert substances, preventing the
overproduction of vitamin D.
Too much sun, of course, can also increase your risk of skin cancer and accelerate the
aging of your skin. But Dr. Holick believes it may be time to "reevaluate the natural
benefits of sunlight" for older people who may not get enough vitamin D in their diet.
How much sun should you get? Well, 15 to 30 minutes of sun exposure twice a week in
Boston in the summer should be "more than adequate" for lightly pigmented people
over 60 years. Dr. Holick says.
Keeping your vitamin D stores in order really shouldn't be too difficult, even if you rarely
venture into the sun. A recent study in Norway—at latitude 70 degrees north, where the
sun hangs below the horizon a full two months of the year—is a case in point. Over a
period of a year, serum 25-OHD levels were examined in 17 healthy adults living in
Tromso. Though the lowest concentration was found in March, blood levels overall
remained "at a constant and fairly high level" throughout the year (Scandinavian
Journal of Clinical Laboratory Investigation, vol. 40, 1980). The researchers attributed
this sunny finding to good nutrition and the widespread consumption of dairy products
fortified with vitamin D.
Actually, vitamin D isn't very common in the natural food supply. The foods that contain
it in high amounts are all of animal origin, with the greatest amounts occurring in
saltwater fish high in oil, such as salmon, sardines and herring. Fish liver oils are
highly concentrated sources of vitamin D. Egg yolks and liver also contain substantial
amounts.
Rickets on the Rise?
The fortification of milk and other milk products since World War II is one reason the
childhood bone disease called rickets is today considered, in the words of one
researcher, "a medical curiosity." In the days of the industrial revolution, when children
were confined to sunless sweatshops in smoggy cities, it was a serious health problem
and was still fairly common as late as the 1940s. But by 1969, asurvey of over 6,000
children of low-income families showed only 0.1 percent had bowing of the legs (a
symptom of rickets).
Yet, recently, some doctors have begun to worry that rickets "may still be a significant
problem in some population groups." Over a period of a year, for example, four children
from the Hartford, Connecticut, area were diagnosed as having rickets caused by poor
diet. The youngsters exhibited classic symptoms of rickets, from bowing of the legs to
general weakness, delayed motor development and low weight, but because their
doctors were not familiar with the condition, a correct diagnosis wasn't made for
months {Pediatrics, July, 1980).
After examining the youngsters' dietary histories, doctors concluded that "particular
groups of children, namely vegetarians, children breastfed for an unusually long time,
and black children, are at risk to develop the nutritional deficiencies of vitamin D and
calcium metabolism that lead to clinical rickets." Vegetarians are at risk because they
may not get enough milk and milk products, breastfed children because human breast
milk may be inadequate in vitamin D—though this is still a controversial point—and
black children because their dark skin blocks the ultraviolet light that triggers vitamin D,
production.
One thing all four youngsters had in common: They turned up at the hospital at the end
of winter. After months indoors, or
328 VITAMIN D
outdoors only when they were buttoned up to the ears, they just hadn't been getting
enough sunshine to keep their vitamin D batteries charged and humming. With that was
coupled a diet deficient in vitamin D, and by winter's end they were in serious trouble.
Do You Live in the Colon Cancer Belt?
Another reason for keeping well supplied with vitamin D is the possibility that its lack
could be linked to colon cancer.
Two scientists who conducted research at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore have
theorized that sunshine and a year-round supply of vitamin D might prevent this killer
illness. No one has ever suggested that idea before.
''We have simply shown," says one of the reseachers, Ced-ric F. Garland, Ph.D., "that
there is a predilection for colon cancer in areas that receive less sunlight. As far as we
know, this is the first time that anyone has shown a correlation between vitamin D and
colon cancer."
In late 1976, Dr. Garland and his brother Frank, a doctoral candidate in epidemiology,
were comparing the rates of colon cancer and skin cancer in the United States. In the
Sun Belt, skin cancer was common but colon cancer wasn't. In the colder regions, the
reverse was true. Intrigued, they borrowed sunshine statistics from the U.S. Weather
Service. The numbers pointed to an inverse relationship between sunshine and colon
cancer. But Dr. Garland didn't know why.
''As epidemiologists," Dr. Garland told us, "we make a gross observation and hope to
stimulate biochemists to find a mechanism. We discover associations long before we
know the reasons behind them." He explains that epidemiologists, for instance, linked
tobacco to lung cancer years before anyone knew the chemistry involved.
Colon cancer rates support the new hypothesis. A cattleman in sunny, sparsely
populated New Mexico, for example, is much less likely to get colon cancer than a
stockbroker in smoggy, crowded New York. Per 100,000 people, 17.3 New Yorkers will
suffer from colon cancer, but only 6.7 New Mexicans will. (Nationally, there are about
120,000 new cases of colon cancer per year).
Inhabitants of cities are deprived of sunshine for several reasons. Ozone pollution
deflects some of the urban sunlight. Tall buildings eclipse the sun even more. ''Even in
areas where sunlight is intense," Dr. Garland writes, "persons who live and work in cities
may not receive much exposure to it. . . . Vitamin D deficiency occurs in large cities even
in tropical and subtropical areas" {International Journal of Epidemiology, vol. 9, no. 3,
1980).
Dr. Garland's ideas may throw some new light on current wisdom about colon cancer. A
high intake of beef and fats has been shown to increase the risk of colon cancer, and a
high-fiber diet of fresh produce and whole grains has been shown to lower the risk. But
Dr. Garland told us that, thanks largely to fast and processed foods, there aren't enough
regional variations in the American diet to explain all the regional variations he found in
colon cancer rates. To him, sunlight is a plausible additional factor.
How does Dr. Garland think vitamin D protects the colon? Working with the known fact
that vitamin D enables the body to absorb calcium, he theorizes that calcium's presence
somehow protects the lining of the colon from cancer-causing waste substances that
pass through it.
As you can see, man (and woman) was not meant to live by fluorescent light alone.
Sunshine and vitamin D are too important to give up. And you should do your best to get
them year round. Vitamin D is not just for winter anymore.
VITAMIN E CHAPTER
VITAMIN E—
SCIENTISTS SAY IT WORKS
What must have been a very important moment in the history of vitamin E research
took place in the auditorium of a fine hotel on Central Park South in New York City.
At the request of the New York Academy of Sciences, vitamin E experts from all over the
world gathered together for three days to swap notes they'd been jotting down for ten
years or more.
Armed with speeches, slides, graphs and charts, they all testified to the fact that vitamin
E was no longer a ''vitamin in search of a deficiency," as it had been called. Instead, it's a
vitamin that can influence many illnesses and that provides a key to the healthy
functioning of our muscles, eyes, blood, lungs and more.
What follows is a record of some of the research presented in New York by almost 70
physicians and biochemists from California to Boston, from Japan and China to Sweden,
England, West Germany and Israel.
Severe pain in the lower legs while walking—caused by poor circulation below the knees
—was the subject of a study reported
SCIENTISTS SAY E WORKS 331
by Knut Haeger, M.D., of Sweden, one of the pioneers in vitamin E research. When most
of the medical community dismissed the vitamin as a fad, Dr. Haeger was already using
it to promote circulation and relieve pain.
Since the mid 1960s, Dr. Haeger said, he has given 100 international units of vitamin E
three times a day to a total of 122 people with "intermittent claudication," or calf pain
that occurs only when the sufferer tries to walk. He also told the patients to take walks
twice a day, to try gymnastic exercises at home and not to smoke cigarettes.
Of those who faithfully practiced this regimen. Dr. Haeger said, 82 percent reported
they could walk at least 10 percent farther than before, and 50 percent said they could
walk at least 30 percent farther. By comparison, only 11 percent of a non-supplemented
control group was able to increase their walking distance by 30 percent.
"We were able to prove," Dr. Haeger reported, "that patients on alpha-tocopherol
[vitamin E] had a significantly longer walking distance than patients given either
vasodilator agents [drugs that widen the blood vessels] or anticoagulant therapy, or a
regimen of multivitamins excluding vitamin E."
Dr. Haeger's system requires patience, however. He said it takes about 18 months of
supplementation and regular exercise before circulation improves measurably. Of those
patients who maintained his program, 73.4 percent improved, compared to only 19.2
percent of the control group.
For those who like walking, another of the conference lecturers reported that vitamin E
is vital for physical endurance.
Lester Packer, Ph.D., of the University of California at Berkeley, said that E-deficient
rats exercised to the point of exhaustion show a 40 percent decrease in endurance.
Without vitamin E, he explained, there's increased damage to the mitochondria—the
microscopic structures inside each cell where the body turns food into energy. "E-
deficient animals just tire out earlier," Dr. Packer told us, adding that extreme vitamin E
deficiency may cause a special form of muscular dystrophy.
332 VITAMIN E
Protecting the Eyes
The use of vitamin E for diseases of the eye was the subject of several papers at the
conference. Representing the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, Kailash C.
Bhuyan, M.D., and colleagues were excited to talk about their finding that vitamin E
could stop the growth of, and possibly reverse the damage caused by, cataracts in
rabbits.
The researchers said they artificially induced the cataracts in the rabbits, then fed them
vitamin E intravenously. The results were promising: "In rabbits having early cataract . .
. there was an arrest and reversal of cataract in about 50 percent of the animals treated
with vitamin E." Photographs showed that, when the rabbits were given vitamin E in the
early stages of the disease, there was decreased clouding of the lenses.
Vitamin E may also keep the eyes young. Researchers from the University of California
at Santa Cruz showed that, in rats deficient in vitamin E or deficient in selenium or
chromium, fat droplets built up within the eye and the eye lost some of its ability to
combat unwanted invaders. Most important, the light-sensitive nerve endings in the
retina of the eye were destroyed or became abnormal when those deficiencies occurred.
And that was a symptom of aging.
"Effects of deficiencies in vitamin E alone or in selenium alone suggest that each of those
nutrients play an important role in the retina . . . and la deficiency of either] appears to
accelerate age changes in the retina," they concluded.
Healthier Blood
One of vitamin E's most important protective roles takes place in the blood, where there
are two substances that must be carefully balanced—prostacyclins and thromboxanes.
Prostacyclins inhibit clots from forming, and thromboxanes encourage
clots to form. According to Rao V. Panganamala, Ph.D., of Ohio State University,

diabetic rabbits suffer from abnormally high levels of thromboxanes, which makes them
susceptible to cardiovascular disease.
But Dr. Panganamala found that, when he gave diabetic rabbits vitamin E supplements
for two to three months, their thromboxanes dropped to a safer, normal level and their
prostacyclins rose to normal levels or higher.
Two physicians who journeyed from Giessen, West Germany, reported that vitamin E
helped them save the lives of certain intensive-care-unit patients. These people were in a
state of shock after such things as auto accidents, poisoning or infection. Shock caused
clots to form in the blood vessels of their lungs, threatening to cut off their breathing.
The process is called shock lung syndrome. Vitamin E worked because it apparently
prevented the clots from forming in the first place.
It was interesting how the physicians first came to use vitamin E. They discovered that
the symptoms of shock lung syndrome were identical to symptoms of exposure to ozone
and nitrogen dioxide. Knowing that vitamin E can protect the lungs from those
atmospheric pollutants, they decided to give it to their shock lung patients—with
success.
Several presentations at the conference dealt with cholesterol. In the blood, cholesterol
attaches itself to low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) or high-density lipoproteins (HDLs).
High levels of HDLs and low levels of LDLs have been associated with a lower risk of
coronary heart disease and atherosclerosis.
A team of physicians from the Wood Veterans Administration Medical Center in

Milwaukee tested the effect of vitamin E on the blood of 43 men and women. They gave
each person 800 international units of the vitamin daily for four weeks. Results showed
that the vitamin raised HDL levels, but only in those people who initially had low HDL
levels.
William J. Hermann, M.D., a pathologist in Houston, came to similar conclusions. Dr.

Hermann found that vitamin E was most effective in people who began with low HDL
levels, who
334 VITAMIN E
were under age 35, and who weighed no more than 10 percent more than their ideal
weight.
A third group of physicians, from Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, used vitamin E to lower
LDL levels in rats. They said the vitamin worked best when given early in an animal's
life.
A Boost for Resistance
Researchers at the conference also showed that vitamin E may enhance our resistance to
disease and pollution.
Ching K. Chow, Ph.D., of the University of Kentucky, exposed two groups of rats, one
supplemented with vitamin E and the other not, to cigarette smoke. After three days of
chain smoking. 5 of the 16 unsupplemented rats were dead, compared to only 1 of the 13
supplemented rats.
Dr. Chow said cigarette smoke contains more than 3,000 chemicals, many of which are
highly reactive //t^ radicals that may have altered certain essential enzymes in the rats.
He concluded that it was the cigarette's visible smoke, rather than its invisible gases,
that did the most harm.
Another speaker, Laurence M. Corwin, Ph.D., of the Boston University school of

medicine, said that vitamin E boosts the body's cell-mediated immunity. This kind of
immunity protects us from bacteria, viruses and, in some cases, cancer. His research
showed that vitamin E stimulates the production of new defense cells and neutraMzes
substances that normally keep those cells in check.
Interestingly, Dr. Corwin commented that ''as far as the immune response is concerned,
normal dietary levels of vitamin E may not be sufficient to maintain an optimal host
defense against disease."
Most of the researchers at the conference agreed that even fairly high doses of vitamin E
—considerably higher than the current Recommended Dietary Allowance of 15
international
units—are very safe. As a daily intake, the figures most often mentioned were between
300 and 800 international units daily. Bertram Lubin, M.D., of Oakland, California,
who was cochair-man of the conference, told us that he considers 200 to 400
international units to be a reasonable range for a daily supplement. For Dr. Lubin, this
conference signaled what he called "the turnaround in the acceptability of vitamin E that
has taken place in the last ten years."
CHAPTER
VITAMIN E—
JACK OF ALL TRADES,
MASTER OF MOST
Vitamin E is a nutritional Swiss Army knife. The Swiss have a knack for making the
greatest use of the smallest space, and with one of their military's pocketknives you can
open cans, uncork bottles, clip your nails, balance your checkbook, practically
everything short of squaring the circle.
The thing's amazing, but it's nothing next to vitamin E. The vitamin modifies blood fats
so that they protect against heart disease. Vitamin E may also promote a healthy
circulatory system by preventing the formation of dangerous blood clots and by
protecting red blood cells from damage by oxidation.
If vitamin E worked just to prevent heart disease, it would be impressive enough. But on
top of that, scientists are finding that vitamin E protects health in a lot of other ways, as
well. It's the sheer variety of E's protective action that is most astonishing.
At a conference of the American Chemical Society, Robert P. Tengerdy, Ph.D., reviewed

work he and researchers at Colorado State University did, plus research by scientists at
other institutions, on the effects of vitamin E on the immune system.
E—JACK OF ALL TRADES 337
The most intriguing aspect of that research is that it involves levels of vitamin E higher
than the Recommended Dietary Allowances.
Dr. Tengerdy and Cheryl Nockels, Ph.D., professor of animal science at Colorado State
University, used what he calls high doses of vitamin E to discover how much is needed
for the optimal performance of the body.
"When animals are fed vitamin E at a level three to six times exceeding what is available
in normal diets, the most noticeable improvement in their defense against infectious
diseases is a significantly enhanced immune response," he says. "In this case, it is
manifested by an increased production of antibodies, the protein molecules that help
eliminate invading microorganisms."
Increased production of antibodies with high vitamin E diets has been observed in mice,
chickens, turkeys, guinea pigs, rabbits, pigs and sheep.
Can a "Good" Diet Still Benefit from Supplements?
While many nutritional studies compare the effect of a deficient diet to that of one with
an "adequate" supply of the vitamin involved, these researchers organized things a bit
differently. They gave some animals their normal laboratory diet— which supplied the
Recommended Dietary Allowance of everything, including vitamin E. To others they
gave the same diet plus a supplementary amount of vitamin E. It's like comparing a
group of people who eat "a good diet" with another group who eat a good diet with
vitamin E supplements.
"I tried to determine whether supplements of vitamin E, given in excess of what is

required for normal growth and reproduction, increase immunity to infection," Dr.
Nockels told us.
338 VITAMIN E
In one experiment, she said, researchers gave one group of mice their normal diet and
another a diet supplemented with 60 international units of vitamin E per kilogram of
food (1 kilogram is about the amount of food you probably eat in a day). They injected
both groups with sheep red blood cells. Four days later, the mice were examined.
When mice are injected with sheep red blood cells, their bodies react to them the way
they'd react to bacteria—by producing the chemicals, called antibodies, that take
invaders out of action. That vital defensive process was significantly stronger in the mice
who received the vitamin E supplements. For one thing, the weight of their spleens was
greater (a sign of increased antibody production). And when the researchers measured
the amounts of antibodies in the blood of both groups, the supplemented mice tested
considerably higher.
Dr. Nockels and her co-workers then tested the effect of vitamin E on immunity in
guinea pigs. She gave one group of the small rodents injections of vitamin E in amounts
well above the standard dietary level, another group got no injections. Then she
vaccinated them with the virus that causes a serious strain of encephalitis.
Here, too, the animals who received supplemental vitamin E protected themselves with
significantly higher levels of antibodies than those who did not.
Active immunity, the body's ability to manufacture antibodies against invading

organisms, provides important protection at any age. But newborn animals (and this
includes human infants) don't have this ability. Until they can establish it on their own,
they are dependent on the antibodies transferred to them as they grow in embryo and,
after birth, in their mothers' milk.
According to another of the Colorado State experiments, vitamin E can effectively boost
the process of passive transfer that keeps defenses up at this particularly vital time for
newborns. The researchers gave one group of hens a diet supplemented with 150
international units of vitamin E per kilogram of food, the other just the normal feed.
After four weeks, they incubated the hens' eggs.
Researchers took blood samples when the chicks were two days and seven days old and
measured the antibody levels. The offspring of hens given vitamin E supplements, it was
found, had higher levels of antibodies than the controls. The vitamin E their mothers
received, it seems, gave them a better start in life.
Putting Vitamin E to the Real Test
While laboratory measurements of immune reactions are important, they must be

judged with care. Resistance to disease is a complex thing, and a higher level of
antibodies does not automatically mean better defense against infection. A small but
significant number of antibodies, for instance, might not make any practical difference
when real bacteria and viruses are involved. To determine whether vitamin E
supplements effectively help to prevent infection, the Colorado researchers performed a
series of experiments with chicks, turkeys and sheep. Using a number of different
species, they explained, ''makes generalize tions sounder. It strengthens the likelihood
that findings will also apply to humans."
Groups of chicks and turkeys were fed either the normal chick or turkey feed or that plus
vitamin E supplements ranging from 100 to 300 international units per kilogram of
food. They were then injected with disease-causing bacteria. Among both the chicks and
the turkeys, vitamin E supplements meant a lower mortality rate: Fewer animals
succumbed to the disease.
What was more, there was a significant connection between the size of the supplement
and the degree of protection. Twenty-five percent of the chicks who received no
supplements died of the infection, for example; 10 percent of those who received 150
international units of vitamin died, and only 5 percent of those who received 300
international units died.
In another experiment, the researchers fed a group of lambs large doses of vitamin E,
then inoculated them and an unsup-plemented group with Chlamydia, a germ which
induces pneumonia in sheep.
340 VITAMIN E
Later examination of the animals showed less damage to the lungs of those who had
received vitamin E supplements than to those of the controls. Also, the supplemented
animals showed no traces of the bacteria in their bodies, while the pathological
organisms could be found in 40 percent of the controls.
In all three species. Dr. Nockels concluded, vitamin E significantly improved resistance
to disease.
This particular aspect of vitamin E may be worthy of greater attention. Dr. Nockels says.
"1 think that further research may show that vitamin E provides positive improvement
of immune capability in humans, too."
Such research may show, among other things, that the RDA— what is normally
considered "enough" vitamin E—is far too low.
'The RDA does not appear to maintain immunity at full strength," says Dr. Nockels. "In
every case, I found that an amount of vitamin E greater than the RDA for the animal was
required to stimulate improved immune response. And with elderly animals, the
allowances might have to be even higher."
Vitamin E has also been shown to be involved in the prevention of a number of specific
problems unrelated to bacterial infection. Patients with vitamin E deficiency have
developed serious nerve degeneration. Recent research indicates that vitamin E may
also prevent cortical cataracts, the most common type of cataract among older people.
Cortical cataracts are a clouding of the outer part of the lens of the eye. The condition
often afflicts older diabetics and can result in partial or total blindness. John R.
Trevithick, Ph.D., a biochemist at the University of Western Ontario, has shown that
large doses of vitamin E can prevent the formation of cortical cataracts in animals.
Vitamin E's protective action may cover cancer, as well. E has been shown to inhibit the
breast-cancer-causing action of the chemical daunorubicin in rats and the colon-cancer-
causing effects of dimethylhydrazine in mice.
That result clearly supports the idea that vitamin E blocks the formation of nitrosamines
and nitrosamides, a family of
chemicals that are strongly suspected to cause colon cancer in humans, and researchers
at the Ontario Cancer Institute in Canada are now testing vitamin E to determine if it
can block the recurrence of threatening growths (called polyps) in patients with cancer
of the colon and rectum.
Those researchers have already shown that the wastes of people eating a normal diet
contain chemicals that cause mutations in a special strain of test bacteria. Scientists
know that chemicals which cause the mutations very often also cause cancer, and results
of various tests led the Canadian researchers to believe that the chemicals they found in
the feces were probably nitrosamines and nitrosamides {Environmental Aspects of N-
Nitroso Compounds, International Agency for Research on Cancer, 1978).
The most interesting developments came when the researchers tested the effects of
vitamin E on the levels of the suspected cancer-causing chemicals. Supplementation of
people's diets with 120, 400 and 1,200 international units of E a day led to significant
reductions in the amounts of the chemicals in feces (American Association for Cancer
Research Abstracts, March, 1980).
Cramp Relief with E
Another problem that succumbs to vitamin E is the pain of cramps.
When a team of Los Angeles doctors gave vitamin E to 125 patients with nighttime leg
and foot cramps, 103 had complete or nearly complete rtWef (Southern Medical
Journal).
"More than half of the patients had suffered from leg cramps longer than 5 years and
many of these had had cramps for 20 to 30 years or longer," Samuel Ayres, Jr., M.D.,
and Richard Mi-han, M.D., reported. "Approximately one-fourth of the patients had
cramps every night or several times a night, and in about 65 percent of the cases the
cramps were severe."
About half of the patients found relief by taking 300 international units or less of
vitamin E a day. The other half needed
342 VITAMIN E
400 international units or more to control their cramps. And, the doctors note, many
patients had to continue taking vitamin E to stay free of cramps: "In a number of
instances it was learned that cramps recurred when treatment was stopped or greatly
reduced, but promptly responded again when treatment was resumed."
After treating so many patients with vitamin E, the doctors believe the nutrient is
practically a cramp medicine: "The response of nocturnal [nighttime] leg and foot
cramps to adequate doses of vitamin E is prompt, usually becoming manifest within a
week, and occurs in such an overwhelming number of cases that it appears almost
specific for this ailment.''
But doctors have treated more than nighttime foot and leg cramps with vitamin E.
They have also treated nighttime rectal cramps, cramping of abdominal muscles and
cramps from heavy exercise.
One particular type of cramp that may occur after exercise— heavy or mild—is
intermittent claudication, a cramp of the calf. Scientific evidence shows that this cramp,
too, may yield to vitamin E.
A doctor studied 47 men with severe intermittent claudication, giving 32 of them

vitamin E and the rest drugs to improve their circulation. After about three months, he
tested the men to see how far they could walk. In the vitamin E group, 54 percent of the
men could walk the test's maximum distance, a little more than half a mile. But only 23
percent of the drug group completed the test (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).
Vitamin E may have treated intermittent claudication by doing what the drugs failed to
do—improve circulation. After about 18 months of taking vitamin E, 29 of the 32 men
showed an increase in the flow of blood to their calves. During those same months, most
of the men in the drug group had a decrease in their flow. But exactly how vitamin E
works continues to puzzle doctors.
An Australian physician, who tried vitamin E "with remarkable success" on

approximately 50 patients, wrote to a medical journal saying he was "unable to explain
the physio-
logical reason why vitamin E should control muscle cramp" and asked his colleagues to
"give me an explanation" {MedicalJour-nal of Australia).
Well, it doesn't really matter why. What matters is that vitamin E does work in many
cases to relieve cramps. If you should ever have a cramp, that's all you need to know.
And given the extra threats to health we all encounter in today's environment, it's a good
idea to make sure your diet contains the vitamin E you need. Most grains, nuts and
seeds are high in vitamin E. Sunflower seeds and wheat germ are two particularly good
sources of the vitamin, and supplements can help you attain the optimal levels necessary
for good health. When just one nutrient boosts the body's well-being in so many
different ways, you should take full advantage of it.
CHAPTER
VITAMIN E LUBRICATES THE CIRCULATION
Some people don't need convincing.
People like Drs. Evan and Wilfrid Shute—pioneers in the vitamin E field—who for more
than 30 years have been advising patients to take vitamin E to dissolve painful blood
clots and prevent heart attack and stroke.
Or Alton Ochsner, M.D.—a leading surgeon and teacher for many years at the Tulane
University school of medicine in New Orleans—who was giving his patients the edge
against postsurgical blood clots back in 1950 by prescribing vitamin E.
But for those who haven't tried it and who still have to be convinced of the anticlotting
benefits of vitamin E, your time has come. We've now got scientific evidence that
vitamin E can reduce clotting at its earliest stages. And why.
But first, you may be wondering how this research may affect you. After all, aren't blood
clots basically good guys that could save your life in a pinch?
Yes, that's true. When you nick yourself with a razor or slit your finger on the razor-
sharp edge of a piece of paper, tiny saucer-shaped blood cells (appropriately named
platelets) are immediately called to the rescue.
Normally, platelets are pretty independent characters that
E LUBRICATES THE CIRCULATION 345
slip and slide through the bloodstream with no real desire to latch on to other blood
cells. But when the word is out that there's been damage to a vessel wall, they stick
together—literally.
Within seconds, they're clinging to the crack in the vessel and sticking to each other to
build up a thickened, gooey mass— just perfect for plugging the gap in the vessel wall
and preventing further blood loss.
It is this clumping of platelets—the first most crucial step of blood clot formation—that
scientists refer to as platelet aggregation. Usually, it takes only a few minutes after injury
for other substances to get caught up in this sticky mass and form a clot.
But sometimes something goes amiss. Instead of clumping on cue, the platelets begin to
congregate on a healthy artery wall. If they grow into an unruly mob and are joined by
other chemical agitators, a blood clot could form within the blood vessel and cause real
trouble.
Deep vein thrombosis (a medical term for a blood clot in the leg) and phlebitis (another
condition of the legs, characterized by inflamed blood vessels and clot formation) are
caused by spontaneous clotting. Both conditions can be painful. But the real problem
arises when the clot journeys up the leg and gets caught in a major blood vessel of the
heart, lungs or brain.
If a blood clot gets stuck in a coronary artery that is obstructed by cholesterol deposits
and blocks blood flow, a heart attack could result. Similarly, a clot may lodge in the
lungs (pulmonary embolism) or brain (stroke) and again pose fatal possibilities.
There is also a growing number of studies which link increased platelet aggregation with
migraine headaches. Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association,
Donald J. Dalessio, M.D.. of the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla,
California, notes, 'There is a substantial increase in platelet aggregation during the pre-
headache phase of migraine." He also suggests that this apparent tendency toward
clotting may explain the slight increase in incidence of stroke among patients with
migraine.
It stands to reason, as Dr. Dalessio points out, that any
346 VITAMIN E
substance which might interfere with platelet aggregation could act as a protective
measure against recurrent migraines as well as strokes.
And that substance is vitamin E.
One of the links between vitamin E and platelet aggregation was published in the
Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. Lawrence J.
Machlin, Ph.D., and a group of researchers at Hoffmann-La Roche, Nutley, New Jersey,
compared blood samples taken from vitamin E-deficient rats to those taken from
animals receiving extra doses of the vitamin.
Not surprisingly, the supplemented animals had the edge against clotting. For one thing,
platelet aggregation was significantly reduced in all the rats of the vitamin E group. In
addition, after 15 to 16 weeks, the rats on a deficient diet began producing more and
more platelets. And this, researchers speculate, may also contribute to the increased
clotting: The more platelets you've got bumping into each other in the bloodstream, the
greater the chance of them sticking together and setting off the series of reactions
leading to a blood clot.
Pediatricians at the State University of New York's Upstate Medical Center have
reported a similar correlation in two children seen at the center. Blood samples taken
from both girls were found to be extremely low in vitamin E and abnormally high in
platelets.
To test the clotting capacity of the blood samples, the physicians added certain
chemicals, which cause platelet aggregation, to test tubes of the blood and compared
them to similarly treated samples taken from healthy children.
As expected, the platelets from the deficient girls clumped more readily than those from
the control group.
However, both the platelet count and the high clotting tendency were reduced to normal
following vitamin E supplementation (Journal of Pediatrics).
This finding falls in line with the results of studies conducted by Manfred Steiner, M.D.,
Ph.D., a blood research specialist and associate professor of medicine at Brown
University in Providence, Rhode Island.

In one of Dr. Steiner's earlier works, blood samples taken from several healthy
volunteers were similarly exposed in test tubes to chemical agents, to stimulate the type
of platelet clumping that might occur spontaneously in a blood vessel. When vitamin E
was added to the test tubes, however, this clumping was kept to a minimum.
In another similar study. Dr. Steiner first put the volunteers on a vitamin E regimen
(1,200 to 2,400 international units daily) for a few weeks and then took the samples,
which he exposed to the same chemical agents used above. Again, he reported, vitamin
E minimized platelet sticking (Journal of Clinical Investigation).
Dr. Steiner was convinced, but not satisfied that his work was completed. "There's no
question that vitamin E does have a profound effect on platelet aggregation," the Rhode
Island researcher says. ''But that's only the beginning. We wanted to know whether we
could explain the molecular basis of that effect." And, he indicated, he had a hunch that
the answer might be found in the outer coating, or cell membrane, of the platelets.
Vitamin E Protects Cell Membranes
And why not? Other researchers have found that vitamin E protects cell membranes,
especially, from the destructive effects of oxygen.
For example, a biochemist from the University of Puget Sound in Washington, Jeffrey
Bland, Ph.D., found that the membranes of red blood cells (not platelets) became
weakened when exposed to the circulating oxygen in the blood. But vitamin E protects
against this weakening and increases the life expectancy of the cell.
"When cells are subjected to oxidative damage, it is as if they have been hit with a tiny
hand grenade," Dr. Bland told us. "There is little question that damage is being done.
348 VITAMIN E
"But vitamin E has a great affinity for cell membranes because these membranes contain
large amounts of unsaturated fatty acids and other fats, and vitamin E is a fat-soluble
vitamin.''
In Dr. Bland's research, 24 volunteers were instructed to take 600 international units of
vitamin E a day for 10 days. Then blood samples were taken and these samples exposed
to oxygen and sunlight for 16 hours to hasten oxidation. Normally, a great many of the
cell membranes would have shown signs of damage. But with the vitamin E, Dr. Bland
reports, "only a very small number" of cells were harmed.
Is it possible to relate this finding on red blood cells to blood platelets? "I think there is
enough consistency in cell membranes to say that this is going to hold true," Dr. Bland
told us. "We have done a little bit of research on platelets and, so far, we've found that,
the higher the concentration of vitamin E, the greater the stability of the platelet
membranes. There is less chance of developing binding sites on the platelet
membranes."
Dr. Steiner agrees. "Many nutrition biochemists say that vitamin E does have a
stabilizing effect on the cell membranes. I have tried to investigate this possibility by
measuring the membrane fluidity, that is, measuring the motion of molecules in the
platelet membrane.
"Let me explain it this way: The cell membrane consists of lipids [fats] and proteins. The
lipids act like an oily sea in which the proteins are inserted. Think of it as cooking oil: As
you heat it or cool it, the consistency changes. The lipid sea reacts the same to
temperature change. And it's possible to monitor these changes by measuring the
movement of the protein molecules; the thicker the sea, the slower the movement of the
molecules. And, of course, the thinner the sea, the faster they will move.
"Vitamin E affects the fluidity of the membrane much in the same way that temperature
does. I've found that, under any temperature conditions—even at body temperature—
vitamin E permits the proteins to move about more freely. And in blood platelets, it is
this increased fluidity that reduces the stickiness of the platelets."
How much? Well, in volunteers taking 1,200 to 1,600 inter-
national units of vitamin E a day for four weeks. Dr. Steiner reports a 30 to 45 percent
reduction in the stickiness of the platelets. And in those who kept up with the E regimen
for more than a year, platelet adhesiveness was cut 50 percent.
But there's a second wave in platelet aggregation that we haven't discussed yet but which
plays a very important part in the development of dangerous blood clots.
Apparently, when platelets first stick together, they look very much like a cluster of
grapes. And they're just as fragile. At any time, they can break apart and slip back into
the bloodstream unnoticed. Under these circumstances, a blood clot doesn't have a
chance to develop.
However, if the platelets hold on long enough, they eventually release a chemical
substance which draws them closer— and tighter—together. The cluster of grapes we
had before becomes one solid piece of fruit. And now there's no turning back.
According to Dr. Steiner, a blood clot is inevitable at this point—unless you're fortified
with vitamin E.
"During platelet aggregation, subtle changes occur in the platelet membrane which
activate certain enzymes in the membrane to link up with those fatty acid molecules we
talked about earlier," Dr. Steiner explains. ''Somewhere in the process of this union, a
powerful chemical substance is released into the surrounding platelets which
significantly increases the stickiness of the membranes. The clump then becomes
permanent."
But here, again, vitamin E can block a potential tragedy. "The molecular structure of
vitamin E is just perfect for linking up with the polyunsaturated fatty acid molecule," Dr.
Steiner explains. "And if vitamin E links up with it first—which it will if you keep
yourself supplemented with E—then the fatty acid molecule is unavailable to the
enzyme. No chemical agent is released. The platelet clump is able to dissolve. And no
clot forms.
"Based on these findings, I feel that vitamin E should be considered a worthwhile

preventive measure against such clot-related disorders as heart attack and stroke," Dr.
Steiner says. "I take 1,200 international units of vitamin E every day."
350 VITAMIN E
A Sticky Problem
Dr. Bland is convinced of the importance of this vitamin E research. "Preventing platelet
adhesion is a very big concern of medical researchers these days."
One of those researchers is R. V. Panganamala, Ph.D. He's seeing firsthand how vitamin
E works. Dr. Panganamala, of the department of physiological chemistry at the Ohio
State University school of medicine in Columbus, has conducted experiments with
rabbits and rats to show how and why vitamin E is so crucial to the health of blood
vessels.
"Any time platelets stick together inside an intact blood vessel, it's a problem," explains
Dr. Panganamala. "But that can happen when the platelets produce too much
thromboxane, a substance that enhances their stickiness. It can also happen if the vessel
wall doesn't produce enough prostacyclin. This chemical has the opposite effect on
platelets—that is, it keeps them free-flowing and slippery.
"In our experiment," Dr. Panganamala told us, "we wanted to see what effect vitamin E
had on those two chemicals. We used animals that were normal and healthy to begin
with and divided them into two groups. One group received a diet high in vitamin E
while the other's diet had no vitamin E at all. After 10 to 12 weeks, we tested the levels of
thromboxane and prostacyclin in the animals. We found that those deficient in vitamin
E had significantly higher amounts of thromboxane while, at the same time, their
vessels lost the capacity to produce prostacyclin.
"It's our current understanding that the proper ratio of thromboxane to prostacyclin is
imperative if platelets are to move through the blood without aggregating at the wrong
time. If the ratio's out of balance, there is a far greater chance of thrombosis [blood
clots] to occur. Vitamin E helps keep these substances in precise, proper balance."
Because of the success of that experiment. Dr. Panganamala wanted to try a similar
experiment using diabetic animals.
"We know that people with diabetes are particularly vul-

nerable to circulatory problems," he told us. "So we decided to see if the thromboxane
and prostacyclin balance was adversely affected in animals with that condition.
"First, we created diabetes in a group of experimental rats. After the diabetes was
established, we tested their levels of thromboxane and prostacyclin and found that they
were out of balance—too much of the first and too little of the second.
"Next, we supplemented the rats' diet with vitamin E. Within eight to ten weeks, the two
chemicals were back to their normal levels."
Diabetics may gain an extra benefit from vitamin E. Research has shown that excessively
sticky platelets and diabetic retinopathy (disease of the retina) go hand in hand.
A study done in Israel has shown that vitamin E may counteract the damaging effects of
diabetic retinopathy (possible blindness) by inhibiting platelet aggregation and,
consequently, improving circulation to that area {Acta Haematologica, vol. 62, no. 2,
1979).
IV Patients May Need Extra E
When hospital patients are fed intravenously, they are particularly susceptible to
vitamin E deficiency and excessively sticky platelets, according to Peter M. Thurlow,
M.D., and John P. Grant, M.D., ofthedepartmentof surgery at the Duke University
medical center in Durham, North Carolina. They studied 13 patients who were on total
parenteral (intravenous) nutrition (TPN) for two or more weeks, and they found that,
even with standard vitamin supplementation, TPN is associated with a gradual decrease
in serum vitamin E concentrations.
And as serum vitamin E levels decrease, platelet aggregation becomes abnormal. One
patient, whose vitamin E concentration and platelet aggregation were normal initially,
developed a deficiency and platelet hyperaggregation (overly sticky platelets) after 15
days of TPN. In fact, every patient with low vitamin E
352 VITAMIN E
levels also had abnormal platelet aggregation. Extra supplementation raised the plasma
vitamin E levels and returned platelet aggregation to normal in most of those patients.
Because platelet hyperaggregation has been implicated in the development of both

thrombosis and atherosclerosis, the doctors recommend supplemental vitamin E during
TPN to maintain normal vitamin E levels and platelet function {Surgical Forum, vol. 31,
1980).
Actually, that's good advice for just about everyone, not just those fighting off illness.
Smooth-flowing blood vessels mean a healthier circulation, no matter what your present
state of health. Let vitamin E be the plumber that helps clean up your internal pipes.
CHAPTER
HELP YOUR HEART WITH VITAMIN E
Medical discoveries are often the results of fortunate accidents. When, by coincidence, a
33-year-old Houston pathologist tested his own blood cholesterol while taking daily
doses of vitamin E, he stumbled on what he thinks might be an important new method
for preventing atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries.
In the summer of 1978, William J. Hermann, M.D., a pathologist at Memorial City

General Hospital in Houston, was setting up new tests to study the distribution of
cholesterol in the blood of the hospital's patients.
The tests showed more than just how high a person's cholesterol level was. In the blood,
cholesterol is transported by complexes of fats and proteins called lipoproteins. Low-
density lipoproteins (LDLs) carry cholesterol to the cells, and high-density lipoproteins
(HDLs) carry cholesterol away from the cells. A high proportion of LDLs has come to be
associated with a high risk of atherosclerosis, and a high proportion of HDLs is
associated with a low risk. On sampling his own blood—which happened to be handy—
Dr. Hermann found only 9 percent HDLs, a sign of a higher than average risk.
354 VITAMIN E
At about the same time, with no idea that it would eventually affect his laboratory work.
Dr. Hermann urged his father to start taking vitamin E. The elder Hermann, a man of
60 at the time, was in good health. But there was a family history of cardiovascular
problems, and Dr. Hermann had seen evidence that vitamin E can prevent unsaturated
fats in the body from turning into bulkier, ''stickier," potentially more harmful saturated
fats. His father agreed, but he also persuaded his son to start vitamin E therapy. Dr.
Hermann began taking 600 international units of vitamin E per day.
The dog days of August passed by. Dr. Hermann went on vacation, where he drank
almost no alcohol (alcohol might have increased his HDL fraction) and even gained a
little weight (which can decrease HDL). When he got back to his lab, he tested his blood
again. He found "with astonishment" that, after taking vitamin E for 30 days, 40 percent
of his blood cholesterol was now attached to HDL.
Vitamin E Lowered Cholesterol
"I came back from vacation and the results had changed so dramatically that for two
days I thought the experiment had failed," Dr. Hermann told us. Then he realized that
the vitamin E had apparently shifted the cholesterol, taking him from what is considered
a higher than average risk to a lower than average risk of atherosclerosis.
Although he is frequently skeptical of vitamin therapy claims in general. Dr. Hermann

was excited by his discovery. He decided to put the accidental discovery to a test. In the
fall of 1978, he picked five people with average amounts of HDL cholesterol and five
with high risks of atherosclerosis (low HDL cholesterol) and placed them all on 600
international units of vitamin E per day. The results: All five people with cholesterol
problems improved radically within a few weeks. And though the experiment was small.
Dr. Hermann was impressed because vitamin E even had a positive effect on four of the
five healthy volunteers.
HELP YOUR HEART WITH VITAMIN E 355
In publishing his findings. Dr. Hermann wrote, 'The results were so obviously
significant and of potential value to the medical community that we wish to report them
in their somewhat tentative form" {American Journal of Clinical Pathology, November,
1979).
What does Dr. Hermann's experiment mean to someone who's concerned about
preventing or delaying the onset of atherosclerosis? It means that he or she may be able
to use vitamin E as another defense against cholesterol buildup in the arteries. Exercise,
such as long-distance running, has been shown to decrease the risk of atherosclerosis
(New EnglandJournal of Medicine, February 14, 1980). Both exercise and vitamin E
seem to raise the amount of cholesterol in the HDL complexes. That indicates that
excess cholesterol is leaving the cells and getting dumped out of the body in a healthy
way.
In Dr. Hermann's experiment, the three men and two women who started out with very
low levels of HDL cholesterol all raised their levels by between 220 and 483 percent. The
effect of vitamin E was consistent, even though the volunteers ranged in age from 28 to
55 and had widely varied exercise and eating habits. One woman of 55, who was
overweight, took longer to respond and needed 800 international units per day, but her
results were ultimately the same.
All five of these high-risk subjects moved within seven weeks or less to an average or
even above average level of HDL cholesterol—a good sign that they were reducing their
chances of developing atherosclerosis. They also lowered the levels of very-low-density
lipoproteins (VLDL) and triglycerides (another fatty acid complex) in their blood by
about one-quarter and one-fifth, respectively, thereby mitigating two more warning
signs of impending atherosclerosis.
Of the five volunteers with average initial cholesterol distribution, four saw their HDL
fraction rise to between 127 and 237 percent of its original value. The only person who
did not seem to benefit from the vitamin E therapy was a 33-year-old man with an
average HDL cholesterol level. His HDL fraction stayed the same after 30 days.
356 VITAMIN E
The total amount of cholesterol in the blood hardly changed at all for any of the subjects.
But that didn't matter. Dr. Hermann stressed. "What matters," he said, ''is whether the
cholesterol is on the way in (bound to LDL) or on the way out (bound to HDL). "
When the body is functioning properly. Dr. Hermann explained, cholesterol is
manufactured in the liver and sent through the bloodstream to the cells. It is essential
for the synthesis of hormones, for the formation of cell membranes and even for
protection against cancer. The cells can make their own supply of cholesterol, or they
can pick it up from the blood. What they don't need, they send back into the blood, on to
the liver and out of the body.
VLDL, LDL and HDL, as mentioned before, are the complexes of fats and proteins that
carry cholesterol through its cycle. The VLDL carries it out of the liver, where it is made.
Then the VLDL, with cholesterol still on board, degrades into an LDL. The LDL delivers
the cholesterol to the cells along the artery walls. After an intricate digestive process, the
cells spit out any excess cholesterol. This is where the all-important HDL plays its role.
Acting as, in Dr. Hermann's words, "a garbage collection mechanism," the HDL picks up
the discarded cholesterol and packs it off to the liver.
The delicate balance of the cycle, however, can get derailed. A family tendency toward
circulatory problems, a high-fat diet, smoking or a sedentary life style can increase the
level of LDL and decrease the level of HDL. When that happens, too much cholesterol is
being fed to the cells, and not enough is being eliminated. Clogged with cholesterol, the
cells die, eventually forming fatty streaks, or plaque, along the artery walls. And plaque
is what promotes clotting and narrowing, eventually blocking the artery and causing
heart attack and stroke.
Vitamin E. according to Dr. Hermann, may help maintain a healthy LDL-HDL balance.
At some point in the biochemical process, the vitamin seems to enhance the metabolism
of cholesterol. But Dr. Hermann wasn't sure where. His best guess
HELP YOUR HEART WITH VITAMIN E 357
was that vitamin E enables cell membranes to let cholesterol pass out of them more
easily, making it available for HDL pickup.
Dr. Hermann believes that this was the first experiment to show a direct relationship
between the use of vitamin E and a higher level of HDL cholesterol in the blood.
Dr. Hermann's preliminary findings about vitamin E can be summed up as follows.

First, the vitamin seems to improve cholesterol metabolism. Second, it seems to have
this effect regardless of age, sex or diet. Third, it seems to begin working within 20 days
(or longer for those who are overweight).
These effects do require a maintenance dose. Dr. Hermann found that, when he stopped
taking vitamin E for one month, his HDL cholesterol level dropped from its high of 40
percent down to 16 percent—close to where it started. But when he renewed the therapy,
this time at 400 international units per day, his HDL fraction rose within a month to 27
percent.
Dr. Hermann won't go so far as to prescribe an exact dosage of vitamin E. But he does
say that the 15 to 50 international units of vitamin E often found in multivitamin
preparations probably aren't enough to have an effect on cholesterol metabolism. He
suggests 400 international units as a good maintenance dose for the average person. He
recommends higher doses—600 or 800 international units—at first for people with
cholesterol imbalances.
Dr. Hermann is hoping that his discovery will inspire more research on vitamin E. "I'd
like to see people get excited about this effect, study the mechanism of it and verify these
preliminary findings," he said.
If new studies confirm what Dr. Hermann has found, he will have added significantly to
the growing body of clinical evidence of vitamin E's healthy effect on the human
circulatory system.
CHAPTER
VITAMIN E— STRONG MEDICINE FOR RARE DISEASES
Here's a health quiz that few people outside of the medical profession could be expected
to pass. But you might want to try it, anyway.
What is discoid lupus erythematosus? Sickle cell anemia? Thalassemia?

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia? Retrolental fibroplasia?
Give up? Unless they've touched you personally, or a friend or someone in your family,
it's not likely that you would recognize many (or any) of the above health problems. But
to the tens of thousands of individuals afflicted, the consequences of those obscure
disorders are all too real.
Here's something you have heard of, though: vitamin E. And the important thing to
know about this last item is that it's helping doctors to come to grips with all of those
problems we've just mentioned.
Consider discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE), for example. It's a chronic disease of the
skin which torments its victims with red, circular blotches, or plaques. Pore openings
widen and become plugged with scale. Although not as serious and deep-seated as the
related malady systemic lupus erythematosus (which
STRONG MEDICINE FOR RARE DISEASES 359
attacks and breaks down connective tissue throughout the body), DLE can be quite an
ordeal.
That's why a report by two Los Angeles dermatologists, Samuel Ayres, Jr., M.D., and
Richard Mihan, M.D., is so noteworthy. Dr. Ayres, who is emeritus clinical professor of
medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and Dr. Mihan, a
clinical professor at the University of Southern California school of medicine, have had
excellent results treating patients with vitamin E {Cutis, January, 1979).
Current therapy of lupus, they point out, ''depends almost entirely on three categories of
drugs: antimalarials, corticosteroids and immunosuppressives, all three of which may be
helpful, but which also carry serious risks of undesirable side effects, including
infections and malignancy.
''Vitamin E, on the other hand, when properly used, is essentially free of such side
effects. However, it must be employed in potent form, in adequate amounts, and over an
extended period of time, sometimes indefinitely, to achieve maximum therapeutic
benefits."
Blotches Disappeared
Drs. Ayres and Mihan described seven patients treated with vitamin E. One, a 63-year-
old woman, had been troubled by discoid lupus for about eight months. Reddish, scaly
and crusty blotches the size of nickels and quarters marred her skin. She was started on
a supplement of 800 international units of vitamin E daily, later increased to 1,200
international units, and a special cream containing vitamin E was applied directly to the
skin twice a day. "Five and a half months later, the patient's skin was completely
cleared," the doctors report. "Her response was excellent."
Another woman, 37 years old, had suffered with lupus symptoms on and off for 23 years.
Pea-size and larger scaly plaques were scattered over her upper back, chest, arms and
face. She began taking 800 international units of vitamin E daily, with the
360 VITAMIN E
dosage later stepped up to 1,600 international units. Vitamin E was also applied directly
to the skin. ''After nine months, all lesions were clear," according to Drs. Ayres and
Mihan, ''except for six tiny inconspicuous remnants on the face and left neck."
Still another patient, a 33-year-old woman, had on-and-off symptoms for 20 years.
There were plaques on her cheeks, chin and neck, along with some withered areas on the
scalp with associated hair loss. After taking vitamin E and 50 micrograms of selenium
daily—the doctors observed that this trace mineral enhanced vitamin E's effect—the
woman showed almost no remaining signs of redness after seven months, and there was
"considerable new hair growth in previously bald areas on the scalp."
Not all responses were so dramatic. A 54-year-old woman with rough plaques on her
face, nose, neck and chest also tried vitamin E. "There was definite improvement six
months later, compared to photographs taken at her first visit. All lesions were flatter,
paler, and some showed areas of normal skin." Her response was "good."
Others in the group who took the lowest amounts of vitamin E—only 300 international
units daily—showed the poorest response, leading Drs. Ayres and Mihan to conclude
that the preferred dosage is between 1,200 and 1,600 international units daily.
Protecting Cell Walls
How does vitamin E accomplish its results? The doctors aren't entirely sure, but they
suspect vitamin E acts at the cellular level. "Theoretically, vitamin E functions as a first
line of defense by protecting cell membranes from destructive lipid peroxidation. . . ." in
other words, fatty components in the cell wall may be shielded from harmful oxidation
or breakdown when sufficient vitamin E is present.
Unfortunately, the cards are normally stacked against vitamin E being present in any
abundant quantity. According to Drs. Ayres and Mihan, "deficiencies of vitamin E may
be actual,
due to an inadequate intake, but are probably more often due to inadequate absorption,
defects in utilization or increased requirements. Unsaturated fats, laxatives and mineral
oil, inorganic iron, white bread and cereals 'enriched' with iron, and estrogen exert an
antagonistic effect on the utilization of vitamin E."
Overcoming such obstacles require larger amounts of the nutrient than diet alone could
ever supply. "We would like to emphasize," they point out, "that we have prescribed
vitamin E for patients with lupus and other diseases not as a simple nutritional
supplement but as a potent therapeutic agent."
What does the future hold? In light of their good results, Drs. Ayres and Mihan would
like to see larger clinical studies begun in which vitamin E would be pitted against not
only the discoid, but also the much more serious systemic form of lupus erythematosus.
They are hopeful that such investigations will establish the value of this simple
innocuous form of therapy for managing an otherwise recalcitrant, disfiguring and
sometimes fatal disease.
Another little-known but serious disease which may someday yield to vitamin E is sickle
cell anemia. People with this inherited disease suffer from an abnormality of
hemoglobin which affects their circulating red blood cells, with sometimes disastrous
results.
Hemoglobin is the iron-rich reddish pigment inside the cells which carries vital oxygen
to all the tissues of the body.
Unfortunately, sickle cell victims have an unusual molecular form of hemoglobin which
can actually cause the red blood cells to bend into a distorted crescent or sickle shape.
The sickle shape makes it possible for the red cells to slip through the tiniest of blood
vessels (called capillaries). Those vessels are so small in diameter that even normal
blood cells have to march through in single file. Sickled cells get caught and hopelessly
jammed.
Sickle cell victims suffer from recurring attacks of fever and pain in the arms, legs and
abdomen as sickled cells back up in blood vessels, causing painful sickling crises.
362 VITAMIN E
"Sickle cell anemia afflicts 1 black person out of every 500, or 50,000 American blacks,"
according to Danny Chiu, Ph.D., a researcher at the Children's Hospital medical center
in Oakland, California.
Dr. Chiu and a colleague, Bertram Lubin, M.D., have now discovered that patients with
sickle cell anemia also have a vitamin E deficiency. As Dr. Chiu suggested at the
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology's annual meeting in Dallas in
April of 1979, inadequate levels of vitamin E in sickle cell patients' blood plasma and red
blood cells may contribute to the sickling process.
For one thing, the scientists found that the extreme susceptibility of red blood cells from
sickle cell patients to lipid peroxidation can be prevented—at least in the test tube—by
vitamin E. Dr. Chiu speculates that vitamin E's action as an antioxidant may alter the
red blood cell membrane's stability, making it less vulnerable to bending and distortion.
Next, Dr. Chiu plans a clinical trial—in which sickle cell patients will receive 400
international units of vitamin E daily for a year and a half—to see if the nutrient can
relieve sickling symptoms, as well.
"Normally, most cells of sickle cell patients only sickle under certain circumstances," he
explains. "Otherwise, the molecular defect isn't expressed clinically. But some cells,
which we call ISC, or irreversibly sickled cells, always sickle. The amount of these cells
varies from one patient to another, from 5 to 30 percent."
Already, another study has discovered that supplemental vitamin E can reduce the
percentage of ISC by more than half. Researchers from Hoffmann-La Roche and
Columbia University told the same Dallas conference that, when 13 sickle cell patients
took 450 international units of vitamin E a day, the proportion of irreversibly sickled
cells dropped from 25 to 11 percent.
While individuals of African origin are at risk for sickle cell anemia, those from
Mediterranean countries like Greece and
Italy sometimes inherit a blood disorder known as thalassemia. Here, too, vitamin E
seems to be involved.
People who are bom with thalassemia are not able to produce normal hemoglobin. Their
red blood cells are misshapen, defective and rapidly destroyed. In its severe form, the
disease requires blood transfusions to sustain life.
When a group of patients with thalassemia took supplemental vitamin E (750
international units for three to six months), "encouraging'' changes occurred in their red
blood cell membranes. This may indicate that vitamin E helps the membranes to better
withstand oxidative stress, according to the researchers from Hebrew University-
Hadassah Medical School and the Hadassah University hospital, Jerusalem
{IsraelJournal of Medical Sciences).
Protecting Premature Infants
It's too soon to tell if vitamin E will someday be routinely prescribed for treating
thalassemia. But the vitamin is already being used in some hospitals to prevent another
killer with an unfamiliar name—bronchopulmonary dysplasia, or BPD, for short.
BPD's victims are much too young and helpless to defend themselves. They are
premature infants, placed on mechanical respirators because of acute difficulty in
breathing. Researchers now believe that this prolonged exposure to high oxygen
concentrations under pressure can cause the serious and often fatal structural changes
in the lungs called BPD.
However, in a trial at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut, Joseph B. Warshaw,

M.D., and several associates demonstrated that, when such infants were injected with
vitamin E, they were far less likely to succumb to BPD. Six of 13 babies who did not get
the injections experienced lung changes indicative of BPD. and 4 died. But none of the 9
infants who received supplemental vitamin E showed any signs of BPD, and all survived
{New En inland Journal of Medicine).
364 VITAMIN E
Finally, vitamin E is believed to protect against another threat to the newborn—

retrolental fibroplasia. Again, as with BPD, the premature baby is the target, and life-
saving oxygen delivered under pressure is the culprit. The artificially high
concentrations of oxygen cause spasm and rupture in tiny blood vessels inside the eye,
which can lead to detachment of the retina and a halt to eye growth. For this reason,
retrolental fibroplasia is the chief cause of blindness in the newborn.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have found that, when supplemental

vitamin E is given, fewer premature babies develop retrolental fibroplasia, and those
who do are affected less severely than would otherwise be expected (Pediatric Research).
It's just one more example of the many ways this special nutrient is helping those with
special health problems.
CHAPTER
NUTRITION THAT STARTS AT SKIN LEVEL
Versatile might be a good label for them. They're the nutrients that not only help to keep
you healthy on the inside, but go to bat for you when you're hurting on the outside, too.
And they go to work directly, right where the hurt is—whether it's a burn, cut or
abrasion—because they're applied topically, just like any other salve or ointment. Take a
look at vitamin E, for example.
''We've been using vitamin E here for years," says John Flanigan, M.D., a surgeon and
director of the enterostomal therapy unit at the Pottsville Hospital and Warne Clinic in
Pennsylvania. Dr. Flanigan uses vitamin E ointment or oil in conjunction with oral
supplements of E and zinc to promote the secondary closure of wounds.
A primary closure is when a cut is sewn up and it heals, explains Dr. Flanigan. A
secondary closure means there is a gaping wound in which some skin has been lost and
the tissue underneath is exposed. 'Then I give patients the supplements and use vitamin
E ointment or oil." Applying vitamin E helps the tiny red particles of new capillaries
form on the surface of the wound to patch it together and heal. Doctors call this process
366 VITAMIN E
granulation. Dr. Flanigan told us, "The tissue is fresher and the wound heals better
when vitamin E is applied to it. But you have to have a good range of vitamin E
systemically (inside the body) as well as locally." Healing time may be cut in half when
vitamin E ointment or oil is used, he said.
The results obtained by using vitamin E can be ''very impressive," Dr. Flanigan says,
relating the case of a patient whose leg was gangrenous and required amputation.
Doctors had decided to amputate above the knee because the leg would heal better. But
instead of healing, the leg became gangrenous again and required reamputation higher
up on the thigh.
After the second operation, the patient was given vitamin E and zinc supplements, while
vitamin E was applied locally on the granulating surface of the wound. The wound began
to heal nicely, but the patient broke out in hives. The doctors believed the reaction was
an allergic response to the vitamin therapy, so they discontinued it. Within two or three
days, the surgical wound began to get worse.
"We decided it wasn't the E and zinc causing the allergy and put the patient back on the
program. The wound healed beautifully," says Dr. Flanigan.
Dr. Flanigan says vitamin E ointment and oil are effective on bedsores, too, and can be
used in the home for minor first-aid problems. They may be used "indiscriminately" for
minor cuts, abrasions and burns, he says, since "vitamin E is never going to hurt
anybody." If you should fall and scrape yourself, for instance, thoroughly clean the
wound, apply an antiseptic and then reach for the vitamin E, says Dr. Flanigan. The
wound should be recleaned and the vitamin E should be reapplied daily for the problem
to heal quickly and safely, he says.
Dr. Flanigan credits the late Evan V. Shute, M.D., as one of the people who first
convinced him to try vitamin E. Dr. Shute, with his brother, Wilfrid E. Shute, M.D..
pioneered research in vitamin E more than 50 years ago. Together they founded the
Shute Institute in Canada, which has treated more than 40,0()() patients for a variety of
diseases with vitamin E.
NUTRITION AT SKIN LEVEL 367
Vitamin E Should Be in Every Kitchen
In 1975, Dr. Evan Shute, writing in his annual publication for doctors, proclaimed,
"Vitamin E should be in every kitchen for convenient use. . . . Burns, abrasions,
lacerations respond well to alpha tocopherol [vitamin E]. It should be given promptly,
both orally and locally. This minimizes the scarring and deformity seen so often when
bums and other wounds heaP' {Summary).
In one of several cases documented. Dr. Shute writes of a man who had suffered a
second-degree burn of his right forearm. He had come to Dr. Shute 7 days after the
accident, his burns severely blistered. He was given 300 international units of vitamin E
to take daily by mouth. Vitamin E ointment was applied locally, as well. Within 5 days,
the patient's wounds were 90 percent healed. He was completely healed in 11 days
without the slightest impairment of his arm's bending ability, notes Dr. Shute.
"The most puzzling yet helpful feature of patients treated for burns with alpha
tocopherol is the quick relief of pain," he writes. "When skin grafts fail, they are merely
repeated, for that is the end of the line. We rarely send a patient for grafting and never
repeat it. Since vitamin E is slightly anti-infective, wounds are usually very clean, an
important factor in the 'take' of grafts."
Relief from Cold Sores
Vitamin E also has been reported successful in the treatment of another skin problem,
cold sores (herpes simplex). At the health facilities of two industrial firms in Liverpool,
England, an "unusually large number of patients" were seen suffering from cold sores,
many of which were failing to respond well to standard treatment. Vitamin E capsules
were handed out to the pa-
368 VITAMIN E
tients with instructions to apply the Hquid contents to the lesions every four hours.
"The most striking results were: (a) quick and sustained relief of pain, and (b) early
disappearance of the lesion/' say the report's authors, who have treated at least 50
patients successfully with the method. "Now, as a matter of routine," patients with cold
sores are given a capsule (and a pin!) and told how to apply the oil," they write {British
Dental Journal, vol. 148, no. 11-1, 1980).
CHAPTER
VITAMIN E, WHEN IT'S SINK OR SWIM
We're all swimming in a sea of stress—physical, emotional, chemical. And some of us are
in over our heads. How about you?
Air pollution is dragging your lungs down for the third time. Some scientists say that
radiation—microwaves, X rays, nuclear power—is a hidden riptide that can wash your
health out to sea. And the doughnuts tossed at you by the neon lights of your local fast-
food strip aren't exactly life preservers.
Have a sinking feeling about all that stress? Then swim— with vitamin E.
When researchers want to find out about stress, they don't kid around. One of their
favorite tests is to throw rats into a tub of cold water and see how long they can swim
before sinking. The test packs a lifetime of stress into an hour (the rats even develop
ulcers).
A researcher from the California State University in Hay-ward recently conducted such a
test. But first, he divided the rats into a few groups and, for 18 days, supplemented the
diets of some groups with vitamin E. He found that the vitamin E rats swam longer and
had milder ulcers than the animals who weren't fed vitamin E {Clinical Research, vol.
27, no. 1, 1979).
370 VITAMIN E
But does this test hold water for you? After all, you're probably not a member of the local
Polar Bear Club or an English Channel swimmer who likes to make January crossings.
But you are someone who breathes, and that means coping with a source of stress that
can give cold feet to anyone who's striving for better health—air pollution. Vitamin E can
guard against that, too.
Daniel Menzel, Ph.D., a researcher at the Duke University medical center in Durham,
North Carolina, continuously exposed three groups of mice to ozone, one of the
deadliest air pollutants. One group, however, received a large amount of vitamin E with
its diet, another group got a smaller amount and the third group got no vitamin E. The
group receiving the large amount of vitamin E survived an average of two weeks longer
than the other groups (Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology).
In another experiment. Dr. Menzel exposed two groups of mice to nitrogen dioxide, a
pollutant just as deadly as ozone. He gave one group a daily amount of vitamin E
equivalent to what a person would get if he took 100 international units. The other
group received the equivalent of 10 international units of vitamin E, the amount found
in the average American's diet. After three months of exposure to nitrogen dioxide, both
groups of mice had lung damage "very similar to what occurs in the early stages of
human emphysema," said Dr. Menzel. But the 100 international unit mice had
significantly less lung damage (Medical Tribune).
In yet another study, Ching K. Chow, Ph.D., of the University of Kentucky, exposed two
groups of rats, one supplemented with vitamin E and the other not, to cigarette smoke.
After three days of chain smoking, 5 of the 16 unsupplemented rats were dead,
compared to only 1 of the 13 supplemented rats.
Dr. Chow said cigarette smoke contains more than 3,000 chemicals, many of which are
highly reactive and may have altered certain essential enzymes in the rats. He concluded
that it was the cigarette's visible smoke, rather than its invisible gases, that did the most
harm.
Well, you're not a rat or a mouse. But you are a guinea pig in an experiment called the
20th century—continuous exposure to ozone, nitrogen dioxide and a menacing mix of
other air pol-
VITAMIN E FOR STRESS 371
lutants. And you don't want to be in the 10 international units' group—even if you live
where the air seems clean.
Pollution Is Inescapable
"Air pollution is not confined to metropolitan areas," Dr. Menzel told us. "Rain made
highly acidic by air pollution is a uniform phenomenon east of the Rocky Mountains.
The amount of ozone in certain rural areas of New Jersey is greater than in downtown
Manhattan."
To protect his own health. Dr. Menzel takes 200 international units of vitamin E every
day. "A study I'm now completing may show if a higher amount is needed," he says. "But
200 international units should help protect the body from the stress of air pollution."
Why can't your body go it alone? Oxidation is why.
Oxidation is happening all around you—a rusted-out car, a rotten banana, yellowed
newspapers in the attic. All have been oxidized, slowly sizzled by oxygen. Ozone and
nitrogen dioxide can turn the scorch of oxidation into a four-alarm blaze—and turn your
lungs into a burned-out ruin. Vitamin E douses the fire.
But that's not the whole story. Free radicals are chemical maniacs, out-of-control
molecules that roam around looking for something to destroy. Oxidation creates the free
radicals and they do the dirty work—but not if they meet their match in vitamin E.
Oxidation isn't the only process that creates free radicals, however. So does radiation.
Radiation—the energy that beams out of X-ray machines and pulses at the core of
nuclear reactors. Like an atom-size bullet racing at nearly the speed of light, radiation
can rip into the very center of a cell. The wound is called cancer. Some scientists believe
that free radicals are responsible for radiation-caused cancer. And with various kinds of
radiation in the living room (color TV), the bedroom (luminous clock dial) and the
kitchen (microwave oven), vitamin E may help keep your home a sweet home.
372 VITAMIN E
Researchers from the Netherlands grew cell cultures in their laboratory, adding vitamin
E to some of the cultures. After several weeks, they bombarded all the cells with X rays—
and more of the vitamin E cells survived (British Journal of Radiology).
Radiation is a typically modern—and typically dangerous— stress. Mercury is another.
Mercury made the headlines in the late 60s and early 70s when a Japanese industrial
firm dumped it into a bay and severely poisoned many of the people living near there.
Their symptoms— lack of coordination, blindness, deafness, slurred speech—marked
mercury as one of the most toxic substances around. And even though you don't hear
much about mercury these days, each year in America 310 tons are spewed into the air
and 80 tons dumped into the water. But E can help.
Scientists from the National Medical Center for Toxicolog-ical Research in Jefferson,
Arkansas, gave laboratory animals either mercury alone or mercury with vitamin E. The
animals who got mercury alone suffered severe damage to their brains and central
nervous systems. But vitamin E, said the researchers, "showed a remarkable protective
effect"—the animals who received it remained in almost perfect health (Environmental
Research).
Mercury, radiation, ozone—vitamin E takes them all on. And it even tussles with the
toughest customer there is—aging.
Extending the Life Span
Scientists are just beginning to understand what makes people age. One widely accepted
theory lays the blame on free radicals. Denham Harman, M.D., Ph.D., a professor at the
University of Nebraska college of medicine and the chief proponent of this theory,
believes that cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure and senility are all caused, in
part, by free radicals. He told us that a diet which includes ample amounts of vitamin E
could "lessen the possibility of those health problems occurring." Such a diet, he says,
"may reasonably be expected to
VITAMIN E FOR STRESS 373
add five to ten or more years of healthy, productive Hfe to the life span of the average
person.''
Another scientist who studies aging, Johan Bjorksten, Ph.D., says the RDA for vitamin E
is the amount "necessary to avert obvious deficiency symptoms, but by no means the
optimal range for longevity." He thinks that a daily supplement of 200 to 300
international units could conceivably extend a person's life span by 5 to 15 years
(Rejuvenation).
And Dr. Menzel told us that the amount of vitamin E in the typical American diet—9
international units—is probably too low to maintain good health, let alone shield a
person from stress.
Diet Alone Can't Do It
The daily amounts of vitamin E recommended by these scientists—anywhere from 100

to 600 international units—are much higher than found in even the most natural and
wholesome diet. But one study shows that there are no harmful effects from taking 800
international units a day for many years, so if you want to use that much vitamin E, you
can do so with confidence (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).
Of course, even if you take a vitamin E supplement, you still want to get as much vitamin
E from your food as you're entitled to. And it's simple to do: Avoid processed and
refined foods.
Canned and frozen foods lose up to 65 percent of their vitamin E. Grains are a good
source of the vitamin, at least until they're milled. Corn flakes, for instance, have lost 98
percent of their vitamin E. Whole wheat bread has seven times more vitamin E than
white bread, and brown rice has six times more than white rice. Nuts, another good
source, lose up to 80 percent of their vitamin E when roasted. Oils, too, provide plenty
of vitamin E—unless they're hydrogenated. For the most vitamin E, eat whole foods.
You have to swim against the stream of stress, but you don't have to drown in it. Buoy
yourself up—with vitamin E.
CHAPTER
VITAMIN E HELPS PROTECT THE BREASTS
"Given the results of this study, we can conclude that vitamin E may help prevent cancer
of the breast."
So says Robert London, M.D., director of obstetrical and gynecological research at Sinai
Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. The study he's talking about is one he conducted in
which vitamin E was used to treat not cancer, but fibrocystic disease of the breast. That's
a disease in which cysts, tiny sacs filled with liquid, poke out through the skin of the
breast, tearing tissue and forming hard lumps and sores.
In an interview with us. Dr. London emphasized that these lumps are not cancerous.
However, he did point out that "50 percent of all women have this disease sometime in
their lives, and there is a much higher incidence of cancer of the breast— about two to
eight times greater—among women who have had fibrocystic disease."
With this in mind. Dr. London reasons that anything that would effectively treat
fibrocystic disease might prevent breast cancer in thousands of women.
And according to his study, vitamin E does just that.
VITAMIN E HELPS PROTECT THE BREASTS 375
Dr. London first reported the results of his study to a meeting of the American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists held in Washington, D.C. {Oh. Gyn. News).
Dr. London told the physicians that, for his study, he selected 12 of his patients,
menstruating women with fibrocystic breast disease. These women ranged in age from
16 to 42 years old. Every day for three months, he gave these women a placebo—a pill
with no real potency. Then, for two months, they received a daily dosage of 600
international units of vitamin E. Eight healthy women, chosen as controls, also were
given placebos and vitamin E.
Of these 12 patients, 10 improved. Seven had what Dr. London called a "good" clinical
response. Three had a "fair" response. But when these 10 women were taken off the
vitamin E treatment, their disease returned full force—within just six weeks, the
women's breasts "had the appearance they did before the treatment," Dr. London told
the conference.
This finding alone is dramatic evidence that vitamin E treats fibrocystic breast disease—
and so could prevent breast cancer.
But Dr. London also discovered the biological mechanics behind vitamin E's rapid
healing of cysts and sores, and this discovery gave him a hint as to how vitamin E might
stop breast cancer before it starts.
Dr. London found increased amounts of a hormone secreted by the adrenal gland in the
women with fibrocystic disease after they started taking vitamin E. But why is this so
important?
Boosting hormonal levels is a classic treatment for women who already have breast
cancer. An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association states that
"alteration of the hormonal milieu is still one of the major and most successful methods
for treating advanced breast cancer." And another article in Science points out that, in
some cases of breast cancer, "tumor growth is regulated by the hormonal environment
and that a change in this environment will cause tumor regression."
Dr. London told the conference that vitamin E, by altering the level of a certain hormone
in women .with fibrocystic disease
376 VITAMIN E
before they get breast cancer, ''might alter the subsequent development of breast
carcinoma. . . /'
But in spite of all this fanfare, do we really need to enlist vitamin E in the fight against
breast cancer? After all, isn't the American medical establishment slowly but surely
conquering this disease? What about those highly touted early detection programs that
supposedly save the lives of thousands of women? What about those new drug
treatments hailed in a prestigious medical journal as "nothing short of spectacular?"
Conventional Therapy Inadequate
Norman Simon, M.D., and Sidney Silverstone, M.D., professors at the Mount Sinai
School of Medicine, provide one thoughtful answer to these questions: ''Despite recent
great advances in medical care, the mortality rate for cancer of the breast in the United
States is essentially unchanged. Even if there has been some improvement in the
survival of patients with cancer of the breast through modern, presumably more
effective management, this improvement is hardly commensurate with the announced
advances in therapy and early detection" (Bulletin of the Nen- York Academy of
Medicine).
Breast cancer is still the most feared cancer among women. And for good reason. The
major killer of American women between the ages of 33 and 55, breast cancer will strike
at least 88,000 American women this year. Thirty-three thousand will die. But these
facts and figures don't tell the whole story.
Cancer specialist Henry M. Lemon, M.D., professor of medicine at the University of

Nebraska medical school, speaking to an American Cancer Society seminar for science
writers, warned that eight million American women will develop breast cancer sometime
in their lives, and "the majority of these women will ultimately die of their disease with
current diagnostic and treatment methods."
"Although there is no current therapeutic regimen for fibrocystic disease of the breast,"
Dr. London suggests, "vitamin
VITAMIN E HELPS PROTECT THE BREASTS 377
E under controlled circumstances may be a valuable adjunct to therapy." And he says

that he has seen no harmful side effects from taking the vitamin, either in his own
practice or reported in medical journals.
''It may be doing women with fibrocystic disease some good," Dr. London told us, "and
certainly is relieving their symptoms of lumps, sores and tenderness."
At least for 50 percent of the women reading this book, that's good to hear.
CHAPTER
CF KIDS REQUIRE EXTRA VITAMIN E
Coping with cystic fibrosis (CF) generally means pulling out all nutritional stops. But
now there's evidence that vitamin E may be the most critical consideration.
The idea that CF kids may be deficient in vitamin E isn't new. It's been suspected for
some time, since the body's uptake of vitamin E depends largely on its ability to digest
and absorb fats. And many—if not most—CF patients have trouble absorbing fats due to
a complication involving the pancreas.
Yet, until now, researchers had a hard time making that theory stick. For one thing,
traditional blood tests which measure the total vitamin E levels never show much
difference between CF patients and healthy controls. And even if they did, the doctors
would tell us that vitamin E deficiency wasn't much to worry about.
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, suggest

otherwise. Singling out alpha tocopherol (the most important component of vitamin E)
in blood samples taken from CF patients, they found that all of 52 patients suffering
from intestinal dysfunction were deficient in the vitamin. And—more
CF KIDS NEED EXTRA E 379
important—they discovered that this deficiency had a decided effect on the red blood
cells.
Red blood cells taken from vitamin E-deficient CF patients had a much shorter life span
than those taken from healthy persons with adequate vitamin E levels. This reduced
survival rate was boosted back up to normal with vitamin E supplementation in doses
ranging from 50 to 400 international units per day, the researchers noted (Journal of
Clinical Investigation).
What does this mean to the CF patient? We asked Philip M. Farrell, M.D., Ph.D., head of
these investigations.
"Taking vitamin E isn't going to cure CF," he explained. "But rd say it's likely to be of
some benefit.
"It's conceivable, for example, that the severe lung disease associated with CF puts stress
on the red blood cells, which— as you know—are involved in transporting oxygen. Since
vitamin E provides protection of these blood cells, it's likely that a vitamin E-
supplemented child will have the edge in fighting CF.
"And there's another thing that we didn't mention in the report but which I think you
should know," Dr. Farrell confides. "The vitamin E content in lung tissues is normally
high. In view of the pulmonary problems in CF patients, I think that says something!"
Of course. Dr. Farrell is just speculating on the implications of a vitamin E deficiency, at

this point. But he is sure of one thing—"patients with CF should be given daily doses of a
water-soluble form of vitamin E."
How much?
"We gave our patients five to ten times the Recommended Dietary Allowance," he
replied. "The RDA for children is 5 to 10 international units per day."
VITAMIN K CHAPTER
YOUR FOUNDATION NEEDS VITAMIN K
What vitamin is found in such large quantities in nature, and required in such small
amounts by the body, that deficiencies were always thought to be rare? Most people
haven't even heard of it. It's not commonly available in supplemental form because we
apparently need no more of it than is available in a good, sensible diet. And part of our
supply of the vitamin is produced in the body itself, by bacteria in the intestinal tract.
Although most people don't even know it exists, there is such a thing as vitamin K, and
we'd all be in deep trouble vvithout it.
Vitamin K is required for the production of a number of coagulation factors, substances

in the blood which are essential for normal blood clotting. Nosebleeds, bleeding in the
intestines and stomach, and blood in the urine are all common in vitamin K deficiency.
Bleeding may occur within the brain, and the deficiency can result in death.
But if vitamin K deficiency is so rare, what's the problem? Scientists used to believe
there was no problem at all, but now they're not so sure. Until a few years ago, the only
role vitamin K was known to play in maintaining good health was its assur-
YOUR FOUNDATION NEEDS VITAMIN K 381
ance of proper blood clotting. And people were certainly not bleeding to death because
of vitamin K deficiencies. Indeed, it was hard to find even minor problems caused by a
lack of vitamin K.
Now, however, a body of evidence is building which indicates that vitamin K may do
more than promote coagulation. Research at Harvard University, the University of
California at San Diego, and other scientific centers suggests that vitamin K is necessary
for the maintenance of healthy bones, as well. There is evidence, a spokesman for the
Harvard research team told us, that slight vitamin K deficiencies in older people may be
contributing to the degeneration of bone that is so common at that time of life.
"The work so far," the spokesman told us, "is only a suggestion that vitamin K is
important. Vitamin D has long been known to be involved in calcium uptake and
turnover in bone. Now, evidence suggests that another vitamin may also play a role, but
by a totally different mechanism."
Research has already demonstrated a possible connection between vitamin K and strong
bones in animals. Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that
chicks fed a vitamin K-deficient diet suffered a 10 percent reduction in the mineral
content of their bones after only five days on the diet (Journal of Dental Research).
That study was prompted by, and supported, work the Harvard team did in 1975. "What
we did first," one of the Harvard researchers told us, "was to isolate from chick bone a
protein which binds calcium and does so only through the action of vitamin K. The
protein is called osteocalcin, and it's also abundant in human bone."
The binding of calcium around a protein framework is a crucial step in the building of
healthy bones. "The bone is a complex mixture of minerals," the spokesperson told us,
"primarily calcium phosphate, precipitated in and around a protein matrix. The protein
matrix is about 90 percent collagen and 10 percent other proteins. Possibly the most
important of those other proteins is osteocalcin, which makes up 1 percent of the total
protein in the bone.
382 VITAMIN K
"Osteocalcin doesn't bind all the calcium in the bone, only a small fraction of it, in fact.
But osteocalcin plays an important role when the bone is first taking shape. Just as bone
starts to mineralize, this protein appears on the scene. Vitamin K is required for the
synthesis of osteocalcin, or rather, for an important modification of osteocalcin once it
has been synthesized. After the protein has been modified by vitamin K, it can bind
calcium, even if vitamin K is no longer present.''
Vitamin K gives osteocalcin its special chemical gift, and that might be the spark which
sets the whole process of bone mineralization in motion. The scientists in North
Carolina found that the initial binding of calcium by the protein matrix was either
severely reduced or totally absent in the bones of chicks deficient in vitamin K.
Bone mineralization is an ongoing process, though, and it may be that vitamin K is

continually needed for the process to go on. The skeleton is a living, constantly changing
organ, the Harvard spokesman stressed. "The structure of bones is like reinforced
concrete, in that the protein matrix supports the mineral structure around it. But I
hesitate to use that analogy because bone is a very dynamic organ. Unlike concrete, it's
constantly being replaced. The whole structure turns over in the course of time. In some
parts of the skeleton, the turnover is as little as 1 percent in a year, but in babies the
entire skeleton is replaced in that time."
As we grow older, and particularly as women undergo menopause, something happens

to disrupt the healthy turnover of bone. A condition called osteoporosis may set in,
causing loss of bone mass and increasing fragility of the bones. The condition affects
three out of every four women after menopause, resulting in a frightening increase in
broken bones. By the age of 90, one woman out of every five fractures a hip, and one of
every six of those women dies within three months of the injury. Studies have already
shown that extra calcium in the diet can help prevent osteoporosis.
But scientists in Japan have also used vitamin K to reduce the loss of calcium from
bones that occurs in osteoporosis, the Harvard researcher told us. "The Japanese study
was published
in 1971, well before our knowledge of the connection between osteocalcin and vitamin K.
We dug it out of the literature only after we isolated osteocalcin in bone in 1975. Once we
had done that, we wanted to see if vitamin K had ever been associated with bone
mineralization before.
"The Japanese scientists looked at three osteoporosis patients. In three women, vitamin
K reduced calcium loss in the bone, by 18 percent in one patient, 50 percent in another
and 21 percent in the third.
"But such evidence is very preliminary in nature. The studies of vitamin K and bone
formation have mostly been done with animals and are just now expanding to clinical
research, to relate the ideas developed with animals to human problems."
Work with humans has established one other bit of evidence indicating a link between
vitamin K and bone formation. Anticoagulant drugs, which prevent blood clotting, are
antagonists of vitamin K. They block its coagulant effects. They may also block its
possible effects on bone formation.
"When pregnant women are given anticoagulant drugs in the first three months of
pregnancy," the Harvard spokesman said, "many have given birth to babies with bone
defects. Conceivably, this syndrome involves an abnormal synthesis of osteocalcin.
"Of course, it will be years before the facts are established in humans. But having the
power to speculate, when you reach certain conclusions in animal studies, you begin to
look at the possibilities for humans. After all, that's the reason we study animals, to get
clues for applications in clinical situations with human patients."
One of the most tantalizing possibilities would be the use of vitamin K to fight
osteoporosis. The Harvard spokesman told us there are plenty of hints that such therapy
might help.
"Osteoporosis occurs mainly in older people. Those people often eat soft, bland foods
and fail to eat enough green vegetables, which are rich in vitamin K. Studies in England
have shown that older people are commonly slightly vitamin K-deficient, in that their
blood coagulation activity is slightly reduced.
"Older people also often take mineral oil as a laxative, which
384 VITAMIN K
interferes with the way vitamin K is absorbed into the body." Other drugs which older
people are more likely to use—including anticoagulants, antibiotics and cholestyramine,
a drug used to lower cholesterol levels in the blood—may all contribute to vitamin K
deficiency.
Beyond the problem of calcium loss in bones, there are larger possibilities for vitamin K
suggested by current research. Calcium is involved in a host of biological processes other
than bone formation, such as muscle contraction, the transmission of nerve impulses
and the release of hormones. All those processes involve a chemical reaction called
calcium binding.
Just as vitamin K is involved in the formation of the calcium-binding protein osteocalcin

in bones, scientists have found, it triggers another calcium-binding protein in the blood.
That reaction has been shown to be the key to vitamin K's promotion of blood clotting.
And the researchers at Harvard have found similar proteins, dependent on vitamin K, in
the kidneys and human placenta {Biochemical and Biophysical Research
Communications: Biochemica et Biophysica Acta, vol. 583, 1979).
In the placenta, a vitamin K deficiency may produce the bone defects seen in the babies
of mothers taking anticoagulant drugs. 'The placenta provides all the calcium to the
fetus from the mother's circulation," the Harvard spokesman explained. "It's the
exchange mechanism through which the fetal skeleton gets all its calcium." If, according
to the theory, a vitamin deficiency produced by anticoagulant drugs upsets this vital
link, the fetus fails to get the calcium it needs.
A vitamin K deficiency acting on the kidneys could cause problems for adults. "The
kidneys are involved in determining how much calcium is excreted from the body," the
spokesperson told us. "The vitamin K-dependent protein we found in the kidney may
have an important role in the retention of calcium in the body." A failure of that protein,
caused by a lack of vitamin K, might disrupt the supply of calcium to the entire body.
That, of course, would throw a variety of essential biological systems on the blink.
"A daily requirement for vitamin K has not yet been established," the Harvard
spokesperson said, "but diets containing
plenty of fresh green vegetables will provide adequate vitamin K." Broccoli, cabbage,
lettuce, turnip greens and spinach are all good sources of the nutrient.
People taking anticoagulant drugs should keep their physicians posted on any changes
in their diets, particularly any increase in foods rich in vitamin K. The amounts of those
drugs required to produce a desired effect vary with intake of the vitamin, since K
promotes the blood clotting the drugs are meant to stifle. A radical change in diet could
produce health hazards for people using those drugs.
Though no one knows for sure exactly how much vitamin K the average adult needs,
there have been some estimates. The National Research Council, which draws up the
Recommended Dietary Allowances for nutrients used by the government, does not have
an official RDA for vitamin K, but they do make a ballpark guess.
They say the average adult needs between 70 and 140 micrograms of K each day. That's
not too difficult. For example, to get 140 micrograms of vitamin K, you would have to eat
about 2'/2 ounces of broccoli. (You'd probably be better off with a bit more vitamin K,
especially if you're over 60 or so.) Sounds like a very sensible approach, indeed, to
avoiding what could be some very complex health problems.
BOOK III
Vitamin
Therapy for
Disease
INTRODUCTION
One doctor we talked to called it ''medical schizophrenia."
On the one hand, scientific study after study shows that vitamins have therapeutic
power—that they can prevent or cure disease. And these studies are published in
medical journals that doctors read as regularly as you read the morning paper.
On the other hand, when someone walks into a doctor's office and says he has kidney
stones, he gets a drug—not magnesium and vitamin B6. A person with intermittent
claudication (leg cramps during walking) gets a drug—not vitamin E. And a woman on
the Pill who has depression gets a drug—not vitamin 85. Yet all these vitamins are
proven treatments that many doctors know about. Not only that, they're often safer and
more often effective than drugs. So why don't doctors use them? Why this medical
schizophrenia?
No one really knows for sure. But what we do know is that you shouldn't be cheated out
of using vitamins when they could help your disease or condition. That's what book 3—
Vitamin Therapy for Disease—is all about. It will describe scores of scientific reports
that show vitamins can help everyday problems like colds or fatigue and health disasters
like cancer or heart
INTRODUCTION 389
disease. In many cases, the vitamin will be preventive, a way of stopping those illnesses
before they start. But you'll also read about vitamin therapy for people who are already
sick. Not that you should stop seeing your doctor and switch to vitamins. These
therapies are meant to be used in conjunction with medical treatment and with your
doctor's approval. That's why throughout the book we've included the names of the
medical journals in which these studies appeared and the scientists who conducted them
—if you tell your doctor that information, he can read those studies for himself in a
source he's sure to respect. And maybe you can cure him —of medical schizophrenia.
ACNE CHAPTER
VITAMIN A FOR ACNE
Most people suffer from acne during adolescence. The passage of time heals them. But
for a few unlucky people, acne persists, covering their faces, necks and shoulders with
weltlike sores and inflamed sacs that can leave permanent scars. Dermatologists have
tried helping them with X rays, antibiotics, female hormones, anti-inflammatory
corticosteroids and even steel brushes for scouring off the scars. Unfortunately, serious
side effects often accompany the long-term use of those treatments.
There are promising new alternatives, however. In experimental trials, a man-made

cousin of vitamin A, called 13-cis retinoic acid, has cured even the most stubborn acne in
many cases.
One study of 13-cis retinoic acid {13-cis identifies its molecular structure) comes from
Leeds, England, where doctors used it to treat eight patients between the ages of 18 and
32. The patients suffered from severe acne—ranging from small pimples to deeply
inflamed cysts—that therapy with antibiotics hadn't helped.
The patients took oral 13-cis retinoic acid daily for four months. After one month, the
amount of sebum (the skin oil that causes pimples when it's trapped under the skin by
clogged ducts)
VITAMIN A FOR ACNE 391
produced by their sebaceous glands declined by 75 percent. After four months, the
patients' acne conditions improved by 80 percent {Lancet, November 15, 1980).
The researchers described the improvement as "dramatic." "By 16 weeks there was an
80 percent improvement in the overall grade and 80 percent reduction in non-inflamed
lesions, 90 percent reduction in small inflamed lesions, and 90 percent reduction in
deep inflamed lesions."
According to the researchers, this synthetic form of vitamin A does what vitamin A does
—normalizes all the epithelial tissues, including the skin—but does it much more
efficiently.
Side effects from the therapy included dryness of the eyes and inflamed lips, but they
weren't severe enough to make any of the patients drop out of the program. In fact, the
researchers were able to minimize the side effects by cutting the dosage down without
sacrificing the therapeutic effect.
Most important, 13-cis retinoic acid seems to keep on working after the patients stop
taking it. In experiments at the National Cancer Institute, 13 of 14 previously untreatable
acne patients were totally cleared of acne, and the other one improved by 75 percent.
After the treatment ended, the patients remained acne free for between 12 and 20
months {New England Journal of Medicine, February 15, 1979).
Thirteen-cis retinoic acid is not to be confused with vitamin A or vitamin A acid. Natural
vitamin A is necessary for healthy skin, and some dermatologists prescribe it for their
acne patients. But many physicians feel that in the doses required for long-term acne
therapy—as much as 300,000 international units a day—vitamin A isn't safe.
Vitamin A acid, also called retinoic acid, is commonly applied as an ointment for acne. It
dissolves the comedo—better known as a plug or blackhead—so that the acne sores can
drain. Some doctors avoid retinoic acid because it can irritate the skin, making it more
vulnerable to sunburn and to sunlight-induced skin cancer.
Vitamin A levels in the body are dependent on a good supply of zinc, and some
researchers have studied the combined effects of zinc and vitamin A on acne.
392 VITAMIN THERAPY FOR DISEASE
Gerd Michaelsson, M.D., of Uppsala, Sweden, has found that "boys with severe, but not
mild, acne have significantly lower serum zinc levels than healthy controls" and that
"both boys and girls with severe acne have significantly lower levels of retinol-binding
protein [an indicator of the amount of vitamin A in the blood] than healthy controls.
"A low-zinc diet may worsen or activate acne, especially the pustular reactions," Dr.
Michaelsson says. 'This is seen after 10 to 14 days in acne-prone patients" {Nutrition
Reviews, February, 1981).
Dr. Michaelsson first linked zinc to acne while treating a patient who suffered from a
disease called acrodermatitis entero-pathica and also from acne. He prescribed zinc for
the acrodermatitis and, unexpectedly, his patient's acne cleared up. Dr. Michaelsson
later began experimenting with zinc and acne.
None of the researchers know exactly how zinc works. Dr. Michaelsson found that acne
recurred when the zinc treatment was discontinued. He theorizes that zinc may induce
the release of vitamin A in the body, that it may have an anti-inflammatory effect, that a
deficiency of zinc causes enlargement of the sebaceous glands. He also thinks that a
widespread zinc deficiency may contribute to acne.
Two dermatologists who use vitamin A as well as zinc in their practice are Milton
Saunders, Jr., M.D., and Irwin I. Lu-bowe, M.D. Dr. Saunders is the president of the
Optimum Health Foundation in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Dr. Saunders advises against
an excess of whole milk and fried foods. He also discourages the use of coffee, tea or very
hot and spicy foods because they may dilate blood vessels of the face and aggravate acne.
Stress Can Be a Factor
About 20 percent of his patients are adults. Dr. Saunders says, and their therapy differs
from adolescents'. "In many teenagers, diet is the key to acne, but among adults, stress
is the key factor."
VITAMIN A FOR ACNE 393
Women schoolteachers. Dr. Saunders has found, often come to him with stress-related
acne. He finds that when they spend time away from the classroom their acne begins to
clear. Salesmen are another high-risk group. Their regimen of travel, restaurant food
and social drinking tends to give them pimples. Athletic stress, if it triggers the release
of male hormones (in men or women), is also suspected of making acne worse.
Dr. Saunders uses antibiotics, vitamin A acid ointment, zinc supplements and water-
soluble vitamin A (since fat-soluble vitamin A may be harmful in large doses) in an
effort to heal the skin as soon as possible. "There's no point in fooling around," he told
us. "These people want results yesterday."
Dr. Lubowe, who practices in New York City, also prescribes water-soluble vitamin A. In
addition, he advises his patients to take 400 international units of vitamin E and 50
milligrams of zinc daily. And in his book, A Teenage Guide to Healthy Skin and Hair (E.
P. Dutton, 1979), he expresses his own opinions on diet and acne:
"Too many fats in your diet are a common cause of acne. Since the sebaceous glands
need food to function, they draw upon the daily intake of food that is transported to the
skin by the blood. The worst villains are fatty meats, carbohydrates, chocolate, cocoa,
spices, iodized salt and shellfish."
The outlook for acne treatment has never been better. In the past, acne sufferers faced
difficult and confusing choices between treatments of questionable value. But now there
are promising alternatives, including options as simple as switching from saturated to
unsaturated fats and eating foods rich in vitamin A and zinc.
AGING CHAPTER
ANTIOXIDANT
VITAMINS
VS. PREMATURE AGING
Oxygen. You can't live without it. But each breath you take, drenching every cell in your
body with life-sustaining oxygen, carries you one step closer to old age and possible
degenerative disease. And that relentless journey may go faster or slower, depending on
how you and oxygen mix.
Don't get us wrong. Oxygen is absolutely essential to health. You couldn't survive for
more than a few minutes without it. And up to a point, more is better. Athletes and other
fitness buffs strive to increase their bodies' oxygen-processing capacity as a measure of
enhanced vigor. But unless you are properly protected, fats or lipids (which are
abundant in all your cells) can combine with oxygen at an excessive rate in a chemical
process known as oxidation.
Given favorable conditions, oxidation will turn a shiny metal wrench into an ugly rusted
wrench very quickly. Our bodies, of course, don't rust. But under the right
circumstances, oxidative damage produces the kind of accelerated wear and tear that
may lead to premature aging, lowered resistance, cancer and heart disease.
VITAMINS AND PREMATURE AGING 395
The guilty party is believed to be a tiny molecular fragment called a free radical. Free
radicals are extremely unstable substances which, in the presence of oxygen, combine at
random with unsaturated fats to form peroxides. In butter and other highly perishable
foods, free radical reactions lead to spoiling or rancidity. In human beings, free radical
reactions cause irreparable damage to cells and the protective membrane linings that
surround cells. And this damage accumulates over the years with telltale age spots,
wrinkling and worse.
Putting the Brakes on Free Radicals
Fortunately, nature has provided us with a way of slowing down such reactions. "Cells
and tissues are protected against oxidizing free radicals by a complexity of antioxidant
mechanisms," explains T. L. Dormandy of the department of chemical pathology at
London's Whittington Hospital. ''So long as the supply of antioxidants lasts, these free
radicals are instantly trapped" (Lancet).
"But one antioxidant molecule can scavenge only one free radical," the author warns. So
a constant "self-regenerating" supply is needed.
Luckily, the three most important natural antioxidants— vitamin E, the trace mineral
selenium and vitamin C—are easily obtainable if we're willing to make the efforts.
To understand how antioxidants protect us, let's take a look at some scientific findings.
Antioxidants can block the formation of tumors. Thirty-three weeks after exposure to a
powerful cancer-causing chemical, animals whose diets were supplemented with a
mixture of four antioxidants—including vitamins E and C—developed only about half as
many tumors as unprotected animals (Expericntia).
One of the researchers. Homer S. Black, Ph.D., told us that the same antioxidant
mixture showed "very marked effects" protecting against tumors triggered by ultraviolet
light. And it's
likely that this protection occurs at the cellular level: In other trials, the same
antioxidants tested separately prevented the usual cell-destroying effects of ultraviolet
irradiation.
''We're primarily concerned with skin cancer," says Dr. Black, who is director of the
photobiology laboratory at the Houston, Texas, Veterans Administration Hospital. "But
while skin cancer affects the epidermis, many other cancers arise in the epithelial lining
of internal organs—and that's similar to skin. So I think what we're finding about
antioxidants may have implications for other cancers, as well."
In addition to protecting against cancer, antioxidants may also have a beneficial effect in
extending the life of cells. When clusters of rat brain cells are cultured in a test tube,
they normally show signs of severe structural degeneration within 40 days. But when
similar cell clusters were held in a culture supplemented with vitamin E, the cells were
still well preserved and structurally sound after 40 days (Anatomical Record).
"The difference was like night and day," Bruce D. Trapp, Ph.D., of the National Institute
of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke, told us. Dr. Trapp explained
that the cells lived longer because of vitamin E, which may help preserve the cell
membrane, letting various metabolites into clusters of cells while letting wastes escape.
"Otherwise, the cells will die," he said.
Helping the Body Help Itself
Antioxidants also appear to play a key role in fostering immunity, the body's natural
ability to repel invading disease organisms. According to Werner A. Baumgartner, Ph.D.,
and coworkers of the nuclear medicine department at the Wadsworth Hospital Center in
Los Angeles, body stores of vitamin E and selenium tend to fall sharply when there is a
tumor. And this antioxidant deficiency may be responsible in part for the depressed
immunity so common in cancer patients. They suggest
that antioxidant supplemenlalion might reverse this often fatal situation (American
"In fact," Dr. Baumgartner told us, "there is growing evidence that even in healthy
people the immune processes require more antioxidants than we normally take in with
our food. The immune system seems to require more antioxidants than other cells in the
body. So even a slight stress, such as a marginal deficiency of vitamin E, could impair
the immune response."
In still another new report, Los Angeles dermatologists Samuel Ayres, Jr., M.D., and
Richard Mihan, M.D., have found vitamin E to be of great therapeutic value in many
disabling and stubborn skin disorders. And they believe the reason is vitamin E's
antioxidant properties (Cutis).
All the diseases they discuss—including scleroderma, vasculitis and other disfiguring
inflammatory disorders—seem to involve a breakdown in which the body's normal
defense mechanism goes haywire.
Drs. Ayres and Mihan theorize that these conditions, called autoimmune diseases—in
which the immune mechanism literally attacks the body's own tissues—are the result of
cell rupturing caused by free radicals. Large doses of vitamin E—up to 1,600
international units daily—have produced dramatic reversals.
The most spectacular case was a 45-year-old man suffering from Raynaud's
phenomenon. In this condition, constriction of small arteries in the fingers and toes can
choke off the blood supply, leading to a bluish discoloration. This man had six ulcerated
fingers as a result, and in three, gangrene had set in. But within eight weeks of applying
vitamin E directly to the skin and taking the supplement by mouth, as well, the man's
fingers were completely healed. On a continuing maintenance dose of vitamin E, there
was no recurrence during the next year.
Extending Life Spans
One of the most enthusiastic supporters of vitamin E's value as an antiaging factor is
Denham Harman, M.D., Ph.D., of the
University of Nebraska college of medicine in Omaha. In his studies. Dr. Harman found
that, when various antioxidants were added to the daily diets of mice shortly after
weaning, their average life expectancy was increased by 15 to 44 percent. They also
developed fewer breast tumors and fewer senile plaques— small areas of degeneration in
the brain.
''Support is steadily growing for the possibility that seemingly haphazard free radical
reactions play a significant role— possibly the major one—in the breakdown of the
human body during the process of aging," Dr. Harman explains. "It is reasonable to
expect that one or more free radical reaction inhibitors, added to a properly selected
natural diet, may increase the functional human life span by five to ten years. Those
would be extra years of active, enjoyable life."
Dr. Harman adds, "Many free radical reaction inhibitors are known. However, the most
prominent in living things, and best known, is vitamin E. . . . Thus, increasing the weekly
intake of vitamin E by 300 to 500 international units may possibly increase our
prospects for a long and healthy life."
Although vitamin E and selenium are the most widely discussed natural antioxidants,
vitamin C also has antioxidant properties in addition to its more publicized cold-fighting
and antiviral capabilities.
That's why vitamin C (in the form of sodium ascorbate) is now being added to many
processed meats such as frankfurters and bologna. According to Terence W. Anderson,
M.D., Ph.D., professor of epidemiology at the University of Toronto, vitamin C's
antioxidant properties block the oxidative transformation of nitrate additives into
cancer-causing substances called nitrosa-mines (Nutrition Today).
For the same reason, one large pharmaceutical firm urged that vitamin E (alpha
tocopherol) also be added to nitrate-prcser\ed meats. Hoffmann-La Roche researchers
have found that together the two antioxidants—E and C—work more effectively than
vitamin C alone (Food Chetnical News).
As scientists focus more on the health-sustaining role of antioxidants, it's possible that
still other nutrients will come into
the spotlight. We already know, for example, that vitamin A acts as an antioxidant in
some situations. And even the trace element zinc, while not thought of as an antioxidant,
has been shown to prevent some harmful effects of free radicals.
For now, though, the two antioxidants you should be paying attention to, in terms of
your own diet, are vitamin E and selenium.
Unfortunately, there's evidence that our modern Western diet is dangerously deficient in
antioxidant protection.
The problem can be traced to the refining of natural grains, oils and other foods that
normally contain ample antioxidants. Dr. Anderson points out that ''in the raw state,
most fats and oils that are high in polyunsaturated fatty acids contain enough natural
antioxidants (mainly tocopherols) to inhibit peroxidation . . . but this antioxidant
'umbrella' can itself be destroyed by oxidation during prolonged storage or processing"
(Lancet).
Wheat germ contains an unusually large amount of vitamin E, he says, "so that whole
grain wheat products normally contribute a surplus of antioxidants to the diet. By the
end of the 19th century this surplus had been reduced by the general change from whole
meal to highly refined white bread, but it was the introduction of oxidizing agents
[chlorine and other bleaches] that finally eliminated bread as a useful source of dietary
antioxidants."
Eventually, Dr. Anderson reasons, there came a point when there was not enough
antioxidant in the diet to prevent the formation of harmful peroxides—a kind of
rancidification right inside our bodies. "I believe that this point was reached in the
British and North American diets about 1920," he adds.
Dr. Anderson theorizes that this unfavorable dietary shift may have been largely
responsible for the rapid surge in heart attack deaths over the last 50 years. In animals,
at least, peroxide free radicals can fatally damage the heart muscle.
How much vitamin E do we need to tip the scales back in our favor? "At present, we
believe the optimal level to be between 400 and 600 units a day," says Jeffrey Bland,
Ph.D., a biochemist at the University of Puget Sound. "Situations which would lead to
rapid utilization of vitamin E, such as exposure
to photochemical oxidants (smog), ionizing radiation (sun or X rays), smoking or other

factors which lead to increased cellular oxidation, should be met with somewhat greater
intakes of vitamin E." Also, the more polyunsaturated oils we consume, the more
vitamin E we need.
Given oxygen's penchant for mischief, it's important to ensure an adequate supply of
protective antioxidants—so long as we live and breathe.
CHAPTER
VITAMINS
FOR LIVING LONGER
When you've reached that point in your life when some of your friends are starting to
pack for the retirement home (if not the nursing home), it's time to do some serious
thinking about how you're taking care of yourself. Because if you play it right, you can be
packing for a camping trip in the mountains, or a summer in Europe, or a seashore
holiday full of evening barbecues on the beach and early morning bicycling—instead of
the nursing home.
But it's got to be you that takes care of yourself. You can't depend on your doctor to be
much help in keeping you really alive —healthy, energetic, and clearheaded. Your doctor
is trained to prescribe drugs and perform surgery. The problems of aging require a
different approach. To make the years after middle age the best years of your life, you
have to take charge of the underlying factors that determine your health. And one of the
most important of these is your diet.
For example, a British study found that, out of 93 geriatric patients with acute problems,
none had a normal nutritional profile. A. G. Morgan, M.D., consultant physician,
Airedale General Hospital, Yorkshire, United Kingdom, and five colleagues tested

patients for vitamin A, thiamine (Bj), riboflavin (B2), niacin, vitamins C, D, E and K and
protein. Twenty-two of the 93 actually had lower than normal levels of most of the
nutrients. The most common deficiencies were in protein, niacin and vitamins C, E and
A.
Dr. Morgan at first suspected "that an inadequate dietary intake, due to disease or to
physical and mental deterioration, was the most likely cause of these multiple
nutritional abnormalities." However, by the end of his study. Dr. Morgan concluded that
"their present illness could not have significantly contributed to their nutritional status"
{InternationalJournalfor Vitamin end Nutrition Research).
In other words, the dietary deficiencies came before the health problems, and not the
other way around. That is a key point. Were these people in the hospital because their
diets weren't providing them with enough of the right nutrients?
Impressed by Vitamin C
Olaf Mickelsen, Ph.D., formerly of the department of food science and human nutrition,
Michigan State University, East Lansing, is in a good position to comment, since he has
participated in a number of scientific studies designed to answer that very question. He
has also authored a review of the subject, "The Possible Role of Vitamins in the Aging
Process," which appears as a chapter in Nutrition, Longevity, and Aging (Academic
Press, 1976).
During an interview. Dr. Mickelsen told us he was "impressed by the effects a reasonable
intake of vitamin C seems to have. People who have been taking more vitamin C seem to
have fewer problems when they enter the hospital." And, as he writes in the book, "the
results of a number of studies imply that a higher than normal intake of [vitamin C]
appears to reduce the aches and pains to which older persons are prone, to lower
mortality when the aged are ill, and to increase their longevity."
VITAMINS FOR LIVING LONGER 403
Dr. Mickelsen went on to discuss a study led by a colleague of his, Eleanor D. Schlenker,
Ph.D., chairperson of the department of human nutrition and foods at the University of
Vermont, in which the average protein and vitamin C intakes were measured in a group
of 100 women over the course of almost 25 years.
The women who had higher intakes of vitamin C and protein lived longer. So the
beneficial effect of increased intake is undeniable in this case. Furthermore, Dr.
Mickelsen points out that the women who did survive tended to increase their intake of
vitamin C between 1948 and 1972.
A follow-up study two years later by Drs. Schlenker, Mickelsen and two colleagues
revealed "a striking relationship between nutrient intake and physical health. Those
women who on the basis of medical examinations appeared younger than their years
consumed fewer calories and substantially less total fat, saturated fat, and fat as a
percent of total calories."
In contrast, "lower intakes of thiamine, vitamin A, and ascorbic acid [vitamin C] were
noted among women who appeared older" (Federation of American Societies for
Experimental Biology).
In simpler terms—eat better, feel younger.
A Classic Longevity Study
Another study mentioned by Dr. Mickelsen is probably the classic study in the field of
nutrition and aging: the San Mateo County, California, survey of health and nutrition of
577 people over the age of 50. The study was begun in 1948, with very close
measurements of the dietary intake of each subject, biochemical tests that are associated
with health and disease (such as blood levels of cholesterol, vitamin C and sugar), and
recording of diseases. Four years later, Harold D. Chope, M.D., reexamined 306 of the
original 577 people and went into the record books to look for evidence that nutrition
had played a part in their aging process.
He found it. People with higher than average intakes of vitamins A and C and niacin
tended to live longer than those with lower intakes.
And the differences were quite remarkable. Among the people whose intakes of vitamin
A were less than 5,000 international units per day, the death rate was 13.9 percent. For
those whose daily intakes of vitamin A were 5,000 to 7,999 international units, the
death rate was 6.9 percent. But among the people whose daily intakes were 8,000 or
more international units, the death rate was only 4.3 percent—less than a third of the
rate for the group getting under 5,000 international units.
The data on vitamin C was even more remarkable. Among those whose intakes were less
than 50 milligrams per day, the death rate was 18.5 percent. For those whose daily
intakes were over 50 milligrams, the death rate was 4.5 percent, less than a quarter of
the rate for those whose diets provided less than 50 milligrams!
The difference adequate nutrition seems to have had on delaying death is impressive.
But what about what doctors call morbidity —illness, suffering and general ill health?
Did nutrition affect these important factors in the lives of the people in the study?
Again, the answer is yes. Dr. Chope writes in the report of his study, "In subjects with
low intake of vitamin A (less than 5,0001.U. [international units]), the incidence of
nervous system, circulatory system, and respiratory system disease was high. . . . Low
thiamine intake (less than 0.80 mg. a day) seemed to be associated with nervous system
disease and circulatory disease; the higher the intake of thiamine, the lower the
incidence of disease of these two systems. Diseases of the circulatory system and the
digestive system were associated with low intake of ascorbic acid (less than 50 mg. per
day). Among persons with a high intake of ascorbic acid (110 mg. and over), there was a
low incidence of nervous system and circulatory system disease" (California Medicine).
Looking at Dr. Chope's results, you might be led to wonder how many of the people took
nutritional supplements. Unfor-
VITAMINS FOR LIVING LONGER 405
tunately, Dr. Chope did not determine which people did or didn't. But there have been
some studies in which the effects of vitamin supplements on health in the later years of
life have been documented.
The Value of Supplements
A British physician, Dr. G. F. Taylor, took part in one study in which 40 geriatric
patients were given supplements containing 15 milligrams thiamine, 15 milligrams
riboflavin, 50 milligrams nicotinamide (a form of niacin), 10 milligrams vitamin B^,
(pyri-doxine) and 200 milligrams vitamin C. Another group of 40 received dummy
tablets.
After a year. Dr. Taylor (who did not know which patients were getting supplements)
was able to determine who was or wasn't receiving supplements merely by examining
them for the signs of nutritional deficiencies and other illnesses.
Dr. Taylor describes his experience in these words: "At the start of the trial I recorded 13
of the 80 patients as having no marked signs of nutritional deficiencies. . . . After six
months of the trial, I could not decide with certainty in more than half the cases whether
they had had treatment or not. . . . But at the end of the year's trial, it was obvious which
patients had received active tablets and [which ones received] dummy tablets. . . .
"In the treated group, the classical signs of malnutrition improved slowly. After 12
months' treatment, many signs had disappeared with a return to normal appearances.
In some cases improvement was still continuing after 12 months' treatment. At the end
of one year's treatment there was a striking improvement in the general physical and
mental condition. In the untreated group clinical signs did not improve and in many
cases deteriorated. Deterioration during infections, and when antibiotics, steroids, or
diuretics were given, was especially marked. . . .
"One of the most dramatic and significant findings in this study arose after the trial had
officially finished. All cases were observed clinically for six to nine months after stopping
treat-
ment, and signs of nutritional deficiencies reappeared in many previously treated cases.
. . /' {Vitamins in the Elderly, John Wright and Sons, 1968).
This classic study not only underscores the importance of supplemental vitamins, but
reveals that the good they do often takes time—close to a year of regular
supplementation.
Further, the good they do is not some kind of ''cure.'' Vitamins are concentrated
foodstuffs. They nourish your body's innate desire to be healthy. As Dr. Taylor noted,
when the added nourishment ceased, the benefits faded.
Do vitamins like A, the B complex and C extend your life, then?
Maybe—but maybe not. A more scientific view is that, rather than extending life,
superior nutrition merely keeps life from being unnecessarily shortened—as is so often
the case. But when you've worked hard all your life and you've finally reached the point
where you can pack your suitcase and go anywhere you want, without worrying about
job responsibilities or who will take care of the kids, that's really quite a bit.
\ CHAPTER
B VITAMINS CAN KEEP YOU ON THE BEAM
To a certain group of senior citizens in New Jersey and Maryland, it must have seemed
the stuff of magic. Not that their wrinkles uncreased, their snowy hair turned black or
their bodies reverted to supple specimens of youth.
No, their transformation from ailing oldsters to revitalized men and women was less
dramatic but nonetheless striking. The signs of rejuvenation and vigor were
unmistakable: renewed health, diminished aches and pains, fewer nervous disorders,
improved coordination, softer skin and more attractive appearances.
The man who prompted these changes is no wizard, but Herman Baker, who holds a
doctorate in metabolism and nutrition and teaches at the New Jersey Medical School in
East Orange. In fact, it didn't require any sorcery at all for him and three colleagues to
reverse what seemed to be the inevitable infirmities of the elderly.
Magic? Hardly. The secret to many so-called problems of old age, he discovered, was no
more than a vitamin B deficiency that can impair one's health if left untreated.
As it happens. Dr. Baker, a professor of medicine and preventive medicine, is no

stranger to the field. He first launched
his studies on the effects of nutrient deficits 25 years ago as an important tool in
diagnosing maladies of the aged.
Apparently, Dr. Baker's interest hasn't waned. His most recent project focused on 473
elderly people, ranging from 60 to 102 years old, in New Jersey and Maryland. Of this
sample, 327 lived in nursing homes and the rest resided at home. At the study's onset in
1978, blood tests and physical examinations revealed 7 to 8 percent of the subjects had
signs of anemia, skin dermatitis, cracked lips, nerve disorders, muscular aches and pains
and poor visual coordination. However, evaluations also showed as many as 39 percent
suffered from subclinical vitamin deficiencies that hadn't yet blossomed into noticeable
symptoms or ailments.
What were the culprits responsible for this charade of "old age" in otherwise healthy,
nonbedridden people? The critical ingredients turned out to be none other than
absentee members of the vitamin B family—nutrients that not only affect the central
nervous system and coordination, but are crucial to mental and emotional well-being.
According to Dr. Baker, the elderly he studied exhibited strikingly depressed levels of Be
(pyridoxine), niacin and B|2, as well as inadequate amounts of folate (folic acid) and
thiamine, other components of the B complex.
To remedy those deficits, an injection of the entire B complex was given to the group
once every three months during the year's experiment. After the first shot. Dr. Baker
told us, symptoms began to disappear. In another 12 weeks, following the second
injection, the investigators noted an increased level of circulating nutrients in the
subjects' blood. At the study's conclusion, the elderly's physical woes had vanished along
with their vitamin deficiencies. "They're all in good health now," says Dr. Baker.
"Vitamin deprivation may affect the young far less because they retain adequate
reserves, thanks to sufficient vitamin-binding sites in the liver," he contends. Perhaps,
then, increased nutrient needs in the elderly reflect, at least in part, decreased vitamin
storage sites. Dr. Baker speculates. In addition, metabolism difficulties and medication
may interfere with vitamin absorption in later life.
B VITAMINS CAN KEEP YOU ON THE BEAM 409
Dr. Baker isn't the first to recognize the need for vitamin supplementation to protect the
elderly.
Back in 1968, senior citizens were the target of a British study designed to treat
symptoms of malnutrition with vitamin preparations. The outcome? 'There is evidence
of chronic vitamin deficiencies in a large number of elderly people," concluded a
hospital study, ''which can be reversed by large doses of vitamin supplements for long
periods'" {Vitamins in the Elderly, John Wright and Sons, 1968).
The supplements in this case were four B vitamins—thiamine (15 milligrams), riboflavin
(15 milligrams), B^ (10 milligrams) and nicotinamide (a form of niacin—50 milligrams)
— along with vitamin C (200 milligrams). The project divided 80 aged patients into two
equal groups: 40 participants received one daily vitamin preparation; the other 40 were
given identical-looking dummy tablets. The pills were distributed so that researchers
had no idea which subjects were ingesting the vitamin supplements or swallowing the
placebos.
Malnutrition Disappeared
At the experiment's onset, clinical workups disclosed "classic signs of malnutrition"—

such as skin hemorrhages, a fissured red tongue, grayish white skin patches around the
mouth—in all but four elderly patients.
However, after 12 months' treatment, the physicians found many of these symptoms
disappeared with a "striking" improvement in patients' physical and mental conditions.
"At the end of the year's trial," the report noted, "it was obvious which patients had
received active and dummy tablets, except for a few marginal cases."
The vitamin-treated group showed marked progress, while the placebo-fed group
manifested clinical evidence of deterioration in many cases.
After vitamin supplements were stopped, signs of the deficiencies reappeared in the
treated group.
Dr. Baker believes immune response in the aged may be weakened because of persistent
vitamin Be and folate deficits, increasing susceptibility to severe bacterial and viral
infections. "The extensive degree of subclinical vitamin deficiencies may contribute to
physical and mental dysfunction far more than previously recognized," Dr. Baker
concludes in his report {Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, October, 1979).
In fact, in his next research project. Dr. Baker is focusing on the relationship between
vitamin deficiencies and mental deterioration in the aged. It should come as no surprise,
then, that he should be an enthusiastic advocate of vitamin preparations, especially for
those 65 years and older. "For some vitamins, like the B complex," notes Dr. Baker,
"continual supplementation may be needed to protect the elderly against
hypovitaminosis."
Besides vitamin supplements, it's important to spike your diet with generous helpings of
food rich in B vitamins, such as liver, whole grain cereals, nuts, yeast, dark leafy green
vegetables, poultry and fish, for that extra ounce of protection.
After all, there's no need to grow old before your time. Remember, it doesn't require any
magic to hold back the clock, especially if the signs of "aging" are something as
preventable as a vitamin deficiency.
CHAPTER
AGE WITH EASE
THROUGH
WISE NUTRITION
Maggie looked at the doctor as if he were mad. After all, it was her birthday, and if she
wanted to brood the day away it was her business. Turning 50 just isn't easy. But across
from her sat the doctor, wearing a full grin and looking at Maggie as if she were the
luckiest person alive.
"Fifty. It must feel wonderful," he glistened. 'Today has got to be the best day of your
life."
Maggie shot him a glance. She wasn't going to let this crazy talk get to her. "What's so
wonderful about turning 50?" she snapped back. "Look at me. I'm getting o/c/."'
"Yes, and isn't it great," he answered. "It's a privilege not given to everyone."
Indeed. There's a lot to be said for getting older. Never before has such a large
population of older Americans been living so long. Had Maggie been born 100 years ago,
she wouldn't have been expected to live beyond 40. But today, at 50, she's considered to
be only middle-aged, with the probability of another quarter century of living ahead of
her. But how active and healthy those coming years will be will pretty much depend on
how well Maggie treats herself.
Being in her 50s makes Maggie vulnerable to a malady that's all too common among our
older generations—poor nutrition.
"Poor nutrition is a very big problem as we grow older," says Linda H. Chen. Ph.D., a
University of Kentucky professor and nutrition researcher. "A lot of older people may
think they're getting a proper diet but they're not.
"A 20-year-old woman can devour the exact same meal as her 65-year-old grandmother,
but the older woman won't necessarily be getting the same nutritive value out of it."
Why? Simply because the older body can't assimilate vitamins and minerals the way it
used to.
"Digestion and absorption get poorer as people get older. It's a natural part of aging,"
Dr. Chen explains. There are other things that naturally happen to the body as we age:
Metabolism slows, kidney function decreases, muscle and fat balance changes, and our
ability to metabolize sugar declines. Generally, activity levels slide with age.
"What it all boils down to," says Dr. Chen, "is that our need for calories lessens as we get
older, but our need for nutrients does not." As Maggie said, getting old isn't easy.
Research studies show that as high as 50 percent of Americans over the age of 65 are
consuming less than two-thirds of the Recommended Dietary Allowances of calcium,
iron, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin and vitamins A and C. Zinc, folate (folic acid) and
vitamins B12 and B^ are also common deficiencies among the aged.
Dr. Chen concentrated her studies on riboflavin (vitamin B:), vitamin Bf, and iron in a
group of elderly people in central Kentucky.
"Deficiencies were significant," she told us. "I found one-quarter had iron deficiencies,
one-third were deficient in riboflavin and half showed a vitamin Bfi deficiency. In
studies of nursing-home populations, deficiencies were even more severe. This was
probably due to the residents' poorer health and the fact that they were on medications,
which can also hinder the absorption and/or increase excretion of some vitamins and
minerals."
On the other hand, there is research indicating that getting less than the RDA is not as
much of a problem among those who
AGE WITH EASE 413
take vitamin and mineral supplements. That was illustrated in a study of an elderly
population that included many supplement users.
"The population is unique in that all the people were in good health, lived in their own
home or apartment, were more educated than the average for their age group and, for
the most part, were considered to be health-conscious individuals," James S. Goodwin,
M.D., one of the researchers on the project, told us. Sixty percent of both men and
women, whose average age was 72, took one or more vitamin supplements, with
vitamins C and E being the most popular.
For the group as a whole, food intake of vitamin C, niacin and vitamin A was well above
the RDA for most of the people. However, through food alone, a substantial percentage
of the population was receiving less than the RDA for vitamins B5, 6,2, D and E, folate,
calcium and zinc. But the supplement users, thanks to their extra measure of protection,
showed virtually no nutrient shortcomings.
For example, nonsupplementers got less than 50 percent of the RDA for vitamin B^,,
but those taking a supplement got a whopping 275 percent of the RDA (American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition, August, 1982).
The study points to the need for some kind of dietary supplementation for the elderly. 'T
feel everyone over the age of 65 should take a multivitamin pill," says Dr. Goodwin.
Of course, the ideal way to attain proper nutrition would be through diet alone. But
doing so admittedly gets tougher as we get older simply because, at around the age of
40, we have to start worrying about middle-age spread. It's the time in our lives when
maintaining weight no longer means just watching our calories. It means cutting them
down.
The Expert Committee on Energy and Protein Requirements has made these
recommendations: After age 40 we should cut calories by 5 percent and do so again after
age 50. At age 60, calories should be sliced another 10 percent and again after 70.
"Maintaining nutrition on fewer calories isn't impossible to do," says Frank Beaudet, a
nutrition expert at the Andrus Gerontology Center at the University of Southern
California. "As
you get older, quality of the food must count much more than quantity. Simply reducing
starch, sugar and fats and switching to proteins, fruits, vegetables and whole grains can
keep you in nutritional balance."
Beaudet admits that getting people to change lifelong eating habits isn't always possible.
Often, getting older people to eat at all can be the problem.
"There are a whole range of economic and social factors that can affect an older person's
interest in eating," says Beaudet. "The death of a spouse, living alone, eating meals alone
all can cause a disinterest in food. Poor nutrition can result, and in some cases, even
malnutrition.
"When people aren't eating right, a vitamin supplement is one way to help solve the
problem," he says.
Being on a sensible diet doesn't always guarantee that you're also in nutritional balance.
"Elderly people take an awful lot of drugs, and there are many drugs that can adversely
affect vitamin and mineral absorption and excretion," says Dr. Chen.
The most popular of these is probably aspirin, commonly used by many older people as
a pain killer. It can block vitamin C from entering the blood. Aspirin, as well as
phenobarbital and the diuretic triamterene, can also affect folate utilization.
Some drugs that can cause vitamin Bft deficiency are hydralazine, used in the treatment
of hypertension, and L-dopa, used in Parkinson's disease.
Mineral oil, a long-time favorite laxative, has adverse effects on the absorption of
carotene and vitamins A, D and K. Antacids containing aluminum inhibit intestinal
absorption of phosphorus and increase the excretion of calcium.
"Drug-related deficiencies are sometimes the hardest to pinpoint because older people
take so many drugs and get them from so many sources," says Dr. Chen. "It's important
that they don't just arbitrarily take them and not let their physicians know."
So take stock in what you eat. As the doctor told Maggie, getting old is "a privilege not
given to everyone."
CANCER CHAPTER
THE ANTI-CANCER
VITAMIN
COMBINATION
Scientific breakthroughs do not obey the laws of supply and demand. Millions in
research grants do not guarantee results. No matter how much society may need a
particular cure or vaccine, sometimes it's just not available at any price.
By the same token, important advances may take place in the most underfunded,
understaffed lab. Dedication and inspiration sometimes get results that money can't.
The work of Sister Mary Eymard Poydock, Ph.D., director of cancer research and former
professor of biology at Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania, is a case in point. The
Mercyhurst labs are not large or well endowed. But 20 years of painstaking work by
Sister Eymard and her associates have now produced results which indicate that a
combination of vitamins C and Bi^ may have a powerful effect against cancer. While
Sister Eym-ard's work has been confined to laboratory animals, the implications for
further research are obvious.
For 20 years. Sister Eymard has been testing a substance that had been advanced as a
possible anti-cancer agent. The first results were promising, and the name "mercytamin"
(from the Sisters of Mercy) was applied to the substance. Mercytamin was
actually a combination of vitamins C, B12 and a variety of enzymes. Through scientific

testing of the solution, the enzymes and other chemical additives were eliminated as
possible active agents. Finally, only the vitamins remained, and in 1978 the name
mercytamin was dropped.
Sister Eymard held back on publishing her findings until she was certain the results she
was getting were true. "We've done enough experiments now, testing hundreds of mice,
to establish that it works," Sister Eymard says. "We've got it down to a point now where,
if you do it according to the 'recipe,' it will work everytime."
Sister Eymard and her research staff implanted three common types of cancer into
laboratory mice—sarcomas (cancerous growths of connective tissues), carcinomas
(cancers of skinlike tissues) and leukemias (cancers of the blood-forming organs). Those
cancerous tissues were implanted both in the abdomens and under the skin of the mice.
The mice were then injected with the mixture of vitamins C and B12 (in a ratio of one
part B^ to two parts C) near the site of the tumor transplant.
Within four days, some of the tumors from the abdomens of the mice were removed,
and the cells were examined under the microscope. There was a dramatic change in the
tissue. The cancerous cell division had stopped completely.
Tumors Didn't Grow
The tumors growing under the skin were treated the day after implant with the C-B12
combination. The results were similar—no tumors would grow. In the control animals
(those mice with transplanted tumors which were not given the C-B12 combination), the
tumors continued to grow at a rapid rate.
Inhibiting tumor growth was only part of the results of Sister Eymard's experiments.
She also wanted to see if the C-B12 mixture would prolong the lives of animals already
suffering from cancer. To find out. Sister Eymard and her colleagues injected
THE ANTI-CANCER COMBINATION 417
the mixture near the cancerous growths of diseased mice for seven successive days.
Treated animals lived longer than those mice not given C and B|2. In fact, all the treated
mice outlived the control group. It appeared that the combination of C and B12 not only
inhibits the growth of cancer cells, but also prolongs the lives of animals impregnanted
with cancer.
"There are few things presently on the market that will ensure a 100 percent survival
rate with cancer," Sister Eymard says, "but we had a 100 percent survival rate after the
controls were dead. Most of the treated mice outlived the controls two or three weeks."
To be sure that it was really the C-B12 concoction, and not an unknown factor present in
mice, that was responsible for her results, Sister Eymard conducted experiments on
free-living cancer cells growing on a culture medium. The vitamin C-B12 complex was
used as a treatment on three types of cancer cells and on healthy cells, as well. The
treated cells, the untreated control group and the healthy cells were left to incubate.
At the end of the incubation period, the untreated control group was infested with
cancer cells. In the treated group, however, not one cancer cell of any of the three types
was to he found. The healthy, noncancerous cells were unaffected by the C-B12 complex.
It appeared that Sister Eymard had found a cancer-inhibiting agent that not only
stopped many kinds of cancer, but did so with absolutely no side effects in healthy
tissue.
Sister Eymard also tested each vitamin separately to determine if either was primarily
responsible for the anti-cancer effects. The combination of the two vitamins, however,
always performed much more effectively than either one alone.
Tests showed that the combination might be working by boosting the animals' immune
systems to fight the cancer. Sister Eymard is confident that, with more experimentation,
especially on larger mammals and humans, the vitamin C-B12 combination could prove
to be a useful preventive weapon in the fight to eliminate the second leading cause of
death in America.
The scientific community has taken note of Sister Eymard's findings.
A spokesman for the American Cancer Society, which helps fund Sister Eymard's
research, told us, "The physicians on the committee which reviewed Sister Eymard's
work were most impressed with the results she was getting. She has come forth with
work of considerable promise."
Sister Eymard herself takes a modest stance.
'T'm glad you're looking into this," she told us. "Every bit of information helps to educate
the public. It might give them some hope, and that's what they need most."
CHAPTER
VITAMIN C AGAINST CANCER
When most health-conscious people think of extending their lives, they think in terms of
years. You may tell yourself, "If 1 give up smoking now, I may reasonably expect to live
5, maybe 10 years longer." Or, "If I stick to a regular exercise program and watch my
diet, I may be good for an extra 15 years." The emphasis is always on a long and healthy
life of indefinite span, with several additional productive years tacked on the end as a
bonus.
When the terminal cancer patient contemplates his future, he thinks in terms of days. In
the final stages of that dread disease, when the battle has been lost and even the doctors
have given up hope, time assumes a different dimension.
One study, however, holds out promise that even these patients can look forward to an
extra round of life—thanks to vitamin C. For the evidence now points to the distinct
possibility that daily supplementation with this nutrient in relatively large amounts can
add many precious days to the lives of terminal cancer victims. In some cases, as we
shall see, vitamin C has turned those remaining days back into years.
The Study in question was done by Linus Pauling, Ph.D., and Ewan Cameron, M.D., a
surgeon. Dr. Pauling, a Nobel prize-winning chemist, is associated with the Linus
Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine, Menlo Park, California. Dr. Cameron
practiced medicine at Vale of Leven District General Hospital, Loch Lomondside,
Scotland.
In their clinical study, Drs. Cameron and Pauling compared the survival time of 100
terminal cancer patients, selected over a five-year period and given vitamin C, with
1,000 similar patients who did not receive the vitamin. All were patients at the Vale of
Leven hospital, whose surgical unit treats most of the advanced cancer patients in the
Loch Lomondside area. Each person receiving vitamin C was matched with 10 control
patients of the same sex, close to the same age and suffering from the same type of
tumor, who did not get vitamin C. (Patients in the non-vitamin C group were selected—
some in retrospect—by a random search of the hospital's case records over the past ten
years; most had died before the doctors began administering vitamin C.)
Vitamin C Gave Extra Days to the "Hopeless"
"For strong ethical reasons," the researchers point out, "every patient in the treated
group was examined and assessed independently by at least two physicians or surgeons
(often more than two) who all agreed that the situation was 'totally hopeless' and 'quite
untreatable' before ascorbate [vitamin C] was commenced."
In other words, before turning to vitamin C as a last resort, all the people were first
treated with surgery, radiation, chemotherapy or hormones—all the conventional forms
of cancer treatment. In every case, such methods failed. For example, ten women with
breast cancer had undergone mastectomy and subsequent radiation treatments, as well
as receiving hormones.
VITAMIN C AGAINST CANCER 421
They had improved for a while but then relapsed. Their tumors were running out of
control. At that point, the patients were declared terminal, the decision to begin giving
vitamin C was made and the doctors began counting survival days.
A similar point of no return was selected for each of the patients in the non-vitamin C
group by examining their records. From that date when exploratory surgery revealed
that a tumor was inoperable or conventional anti-cancer treatments were abandoned in
despair, the patient was considered terminal, and the remaining survival days were
totaled up for comparison purposes.
Those persons receiving vitamin C were started out with 10 grams (10,000 milligrams) a
day intravenously. This was usually stopped after about ten days, and then the patient
began taking the same dosage of vitamin C by mouth. As Drs. Cameron and Pauling
describe it, the vitamin C approach was begun "cautiously'' but was continued with new
patients over the next five years because "it seemed to have some value."
In the light of their summarized findings, that would seem to be an understatement. For
in every type of cancer treated, the people receiving vitamin C tended to live longer than
those who did not receive the vitamin.
Lung cancer patients, for example, survived an average of 3.53 times longer after being
declared untreatable than their controls. Those with stomach cancer lived 2.61 times
longer. Bladder cancer victims survived 4.49 times longer. Patients with kidney tumors
displayed a greater than fivefold increase in life expectancy. Those with breast cancer
lived 5.75 times longer. And those with cancer of the colon managed to survive, on the
average, 7.61 times longer on the vitamin C regimen!
Case Histories
Let's translate some of those findings into actual days, months and years. A 74-year-old
man whose lung cancer was pronounced untreatable began taking vitamin C and lived
for more than a
year longer—427 days. The ten individuals in his control group (other men of about his
own age with approximately the same degree of untreatable lung cancer) survived for an
average of only 17 more days. Three died within 2 days; the longest any survived was 31
days. Could the lack of vitamin C have made such an incredible difference?
Another patient in the vitamin C group, a 69-year-old man with inoperable cancer of the
colon, also received an unexpected new lease on life. Those in his control group survived
for an average of 37.3 days—little more than a month. But this man's condition
improved considerably after beginning the vitamin C. He lived for 1,267 days, almost
3'/2 years.
A 67-year-old woman with cancer of the ovary responded well to vitamin C. She was still
alive at the time these results were tabulated, 240 days after commencing treatment.
She had already survived almost six times longer than the average for her control group.
Another remarkable turnabout involved a man, age 62, suffering from bladder cancer.
The men with bladder cancer in his comparison group lived an average of 63 days
without vitamin C. But 669 days (almost two years) after starting with the vitamin, he
was still alive at the time the paper went to press. He already had survived more than
ten times longer than the average for the untreated bladder cancer victims in his
grouping.
Overall, the 100 people in the vitamin C group enjoyed an average survival time 4.16
times greater than those 1,000 individuals in the control group.
''At the present time, we cannot conclude that ascorbate has less value for one kind of
cancer than for others," Drs. Cameron and Pauling state. "Our conclusion is that the
administration of ascorbic acid in amounts of about 10 grams per day to patients with
advanced cancer leads to about a fourfold increase in their life expectancy, in addition to
an apparent improvement in the quality of life'' {Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences of the United States of America).
That last point is especially important, since the final months or days of a terminal
cancer patient's life are often filled with
pain and despair. To prolong such a period of misery could hardly be interpreted as
beneficial. But many of the people receiving vitamin C reported less pain. They were
able to get by with less dependence on pain-killing drugs that numb the mind. In short,
they not only lived longer, they found life more worthwhile.
When Drs. Cameron and Pauling proceeded to analyze their data further, they
discovered an interesting breakdown in the way the vitamin C group benefited from
treatment. They found that among those patients there were two distinct subgroups.
"The data indicated that deaths occur for about 90 percent of the ascorbate-treated
patients at one-third the rate for the controls, so that for this fraction there is a threefold
increase in survival time, measured from the date when the cancer was pronounced
untreatable. For the other 10 percent of the ascorbate-treated patients, the survival time
is not known with certainty, but it is indicated . . . to be more than 20 times the average
for the untreated patients."
In other words, a small but significant proportion of the patients responded to the
vitamin C treatment in what can only be termed a spectacular manner. In fact, at the
time the final results were compiled, 18 people were still alive, having survived an
average of more than 970 days. Sixteen of those were considered clinically "well."
In one case, a woman, age 50, with breast cancer was still alive AVi years (1,644 days)
after starting with vitamin C. The untreatable cases in her control group had lingered for
an average of just 83 days. Yet this woman was still alive, her cancer apparently brought
under control.
Another success story: A 74-year-old man with an advanced, untreatable kidney tumor
was still alive and well 1,554 days (more than four years) after he started taking vitamin
C. Those in his control group had survived only an average of 169 days before
succumbing to their cancers.
One of the most dramatic recoveries of all involved a 40-year-old long-distance truck
driver suffering from cancer of the lymphatic system. The reversal was so remarkably
clear-cui in this case that it rated a special report by Dr. Cameron and another
Scottish doctor, Allan Campbell, in the journal Chemico-Biological Interactions.
In the spring of 1973, the truck driver began complaining of spasmodic pains in the
muscles between his ribs. He started to lose weight. Night after night he awoke
shivering, bathed in sweat. Chest X rays revealed that the mass of tissues and organs
separating the lungs was greatly enlarged. When doctors removed and examined one of
the man's lymph glands, they found that cancer had spread throughout his entire
lymphatic system.
Treatment with vitamin C—10 grams daily—was begun immediately. 'The initial
response to intravenous ascorbic acid was very dramatic indeed and far exceeded
clinical expectations," Drs. Cameron and Campbell reported. "Within 10 days of
commencing therapy, the patient claimed to feel quite fit and well, and had been
transformed from a 'dying' into a 'recovering' situation."
The man appeared to make a full recovery. Chest X rays were normal. He returned to
work. But when he discontinued the vitamin C, the cancer symptoms returned with new
ferocity.
He was readmitted to the hospital, where he received intravenous infusions of 20 grams

of vitamin C daily for two weeks. Then he was placed on a maintenance regimen of 12.5
grams of vitamin C a day by mouth. Once again, the cancer symptoms subsided, and the
patient was declared "fit and well" with "no evidence of active disease."
As the latest report from Drs. Pauling and Cameron went to press, this patient was still
alive and well, 1,106 days after his initial diagnosis of advanced cancer.
How can we explain such a favorable response? For that matter, how can we explain any
prolongation of life, whether measured in days, months or years, in the patients who
received vitamin C?
According to Drs. Pauling and Cameron, "A simple interpretation of these facts is that
the administration of ascorbate to the patients with terminal cancer has two effects.
First, it increases the effectiveness of the natural mechanisms of resistance to such an
extent as to lead to an increase by a factor of 2.7 in
the average survival time for most of the patients. . . . Second, it has another effect on
about 10 percent of the patients, such as to cause them to live a much longer time. This
effect might be such as to 'cure' them; that is, to give them the life expectancy that they
would have had if they had not developed cancer [emphasis ours].
"On the other hand," the authors theorize, the vitamin C "might only set them back one
or more steps in the development of the cancer. . . ." In any event, the immediate effect
is the same: The patients receive a bonus of extra life.
How Could a Vitamin Help?
Why vitamin C? Drs. Cameron and Pauling note that "cancer patients have a much
greater requirement for this substance than normal healthy individuals," apparently
because all available vitamin C is mobilized by the body in a valiant effort to boost
natural resistance and repel the invasive malignant growth.
One way that vitamin C conceivably works to strengthen the body's own immunity to
cancer was explained to us by Robert Yonemoto, M.D., a surgeon and former director of
the surgical laboratories at the City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, California.
According to Dr. Yonemoto's own studies in conjunction with colleagues at the National
Cancer Institute, vitamin C increases lymphocyte blastogenesis in healthy human
volunteers.
Lymphocytes are white blood cells which gobble up and destroy foreign agents in the
body. To divide and multiply, they must first undergo blastogenesis, which is a swelling
process. The greater the blastogenic activity, then presumably the greater the
effectiveness of the body's natural resistance against outside invaders.
When Dr. Yonemoto gave 5 grams (5,000 milligrams) of vitamin C daily to his five
volunteers, they all showed a significant spurt in blastogenesis. When the intake was
doubled to 10 grams—the same dosage used by Drs. Cameron and Pauling in
treating cancer patients—the increase in lymphocyte blastoge-nesis was even greater.
"Vitamin C increases the general immunity of the individual/'' Dr. Yonemoto told us, "so
we should be able to demonstrate that it is good for the cancer patient and that its intake
should precede and immediately follow cancer surgery."
The new findings of Drs. Pauling and Cameron would certainly seem to confirm vitamin
C's importance. As they say, their results "clearly indicate that this simple and safe form
of medication is of definite value in the treatment of patients with advanced cancer."
Naturally, they would like to see vitamin C tried by other physicians, outside of
Scotland: "It is our opinion that a similar effect would be found for untreatable cancer
patients in other countries," they state.
In calling their promising findings to the attention of the worldwide scientific

community, the two suggest that even larger dosages of vitamin C (above 10 grams
daily) might be even more beneficial. And they stress that, in the future, patients should
be given the benefit of vitamin C much earlier in the course of their disease, before the
outlook has become so dim. In that way, they speculate, cancer patients might hope to
live an additional 5 to 20 years.
Of course, any such results will need to be tested and re-tested in clinics and
laboratories around the world before anyone can begin to breathe a sigh of relief about
the menace of cancer. But in the meantime, based on the already quite substantial
evidence that has accumulated, we suspect the wisest course of all would be to look to
daily vitamin C supplementation as a potential preventative of tumor growth, rather
than a cure.
Cancer is one battle that is best avoided completely.
CATARACTS CHAPTER
NEW HOPE FOR CATARACT PREVENTION
What causes cataracts? Can they be prevented? The answers to those questions are not
coming easily to medical investigators. In fact, the mystery surrounding the onset of
these sight-robbing curtains on the eye has at times appeared as cloudy and
impenetrable as the cataracts themselves.
But bit by bit, bright patches of knowledge are appearing, and none seems brighter than
a report by three scientists at the National Eye Institute's laboratory of vision research in
Be-thesda, Maryland. For the trio has discovered that a commonly occurring natural
family of nutrients, the bioflavonoids, exhibits a surprisingly potent blocking effect
against certain types of cataracts.
Cataracts occur when the normally transparent lens of the eye gradually clouds over.
Instead of focusing incoming rays of light into a sharp image on the retina, the impaired
lens scatters the light, obscuring vision. If the clouding progresses far enough, sight can
be completely lost. As a result, cataracts are a major cause of blindness all over the
world.
Nearly 16 million people are severely disabled by this eye disease. More than 24'/2
million Americans alone, over age 60, suffer from cataracts {British Journal of
Nutrition, May, 1982).
Viewed against such a backdrop, the work of National Eye Institute researchers S. D.
Varma, A. Mizuno and J. H. Ki-noshita takes on added importance. Writing in Science,
the team described what happened when the bioflavonoid quercitrin was fed to
laboratory animals especially prone to rapid cataract formation.
Quercitrin was chosen because, like other flavonoids, it has been shown to inhibit an
enzyme, aldose reductase, which is normally present and almost inactive in the lens of
the eye. Under normal circumstances, aldose reductase poses no problem, but when
blood sugar levels rise (as in diabetes), the enzyme swings into action to convert the
sugar into sorbitol. And sorbitol inside the lens is suspected as a cataract trigger.
Scientists believe that's why diabetic individuals have a higher incidence of cataracts
than other people.
The researchers found that supplementing diabetic animals' diets with quercitrin cut the
sorbitol concentration inside the eye in half. And even more important, those animals
receiving the bioflavonoid developed no cataracts during the course of the trial, while
unsupplemented animals showed signs of lens clouding within ten days!
"This study," the authors concluded, "reveals for the first time that inhibition of aldose
reductase not only leads to a decrease in the sorbitol accumulation in the lens but also
impedes the cataractous process. The cataract formation in diabetes may thus be at least
delayed, if not prevented. . . ."
Earlier tests by Varma, Kinoshita and another colleague (Science) revealed that all
flavonoids tested—in addition to being relatively safe and nontoxic—"have significant
inhibitory activity" against aldose reductase. However, the more widely known
bioflavonoid rutin isn't as potent as quercitrin. Quercitrin, though, is not currently
available as a food supplement. It is probably found in citrus fruits, but these amounts
would not be enough to have a therapeutic effect. Dr. Kinoshita told us.
Eye researchers are quick to point out that there are many differences between animal
lenses and human lenses, particularly with regard to cataract formation. But still the
notion that the
NEW HOPE FOR CATARACT PREVENTION 429
kinds of food we eat might have either a protective or detrimental effect with regard to
cataracts isn't really so farfetched. The lens of the human eye "has a metabolism that is
as finely tuned to its proper function as the metabolismof any other tissue," points out
an authority on cataracts, English researcher Ruth van Hey-ningen of the University of
Oxford's Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology (Scientific American). Conceivably,
certain nutrients or their lack could profoundly alter that metabolism.
For example, simultaneous deficiencies of vitamin E and the amino acid tryptophan in
pregnant rats result in cataract formation in their offspring. That was demonstrated by
two scientists at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. George E. Bunce
and John L. Hess of the department of biochemistry and nutrition discovered that 33
percent of the young born to deficient rats developed cloudy spots in their lenses within
24 days (Journal of Nutrition). That high incidence rate didn't show up, though, among
other rats when only vitamin E or tryptophan alone was withheld.
Full Range of Vitamins Found Protective
In another study, by famed University of Texas biochemist Roger J. Williams and

colleague James D. Heffley, several groups of young rats were placed on diets of varying
quality and then fed high amounts of galactose, a type of simple sugar.
"By feeding galactose-containing diets to young rats, cataracts are regularly produced,"
the pair noted in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "When, however, we
furnished galactose-fed animals with what may be considered a well balanced, full team
of nutrients, cataract prevention was accomplished. On four galactose-containing diets
supplied with a full team of nutrients, not a single cataract developed in 24 rats (48
eyes). On four diets using the same dietary galactose challenge.
accompanied with inadequate nutritional teams, 47 out of 48 eyes developed cataracts."
Next, the two scientists tried to reverse the cataracts in some animals by switching them
to better diets. In more than half the cases, the condition of the eyes improved, although
slowly and not completely.
The authors fortified the higher-quality diets for their animals with a nutritional team
that included vitamins A, D and E, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, folate (folic acid) and
several other nutrients.
''It is evident that from our study no one could derive a precise list of the nutrients
involved in protecting against cataract," they noted. "Our simple experiment shows that
when we attempted to furnish enough of all the essentials, success was attained. . . .
"It seems possible that if the dietary challenge offered these rats had been less severe or
if the change in diet had been instituted at the very first sign of cataract instead of
waiting until the cataracts were well formed, the responses might have been more
favorable."
The authors add that they would like to see the nutritional team approach tested for
effectiveness in preventing human cataracts.
One might wonder about the sudden interest in preventing a condition that, once it has
arisen, can be treated so readily. Modern surgery, which removes the affected lens or
lenses, is a highly successful operation. However, cataract researcher van Heyningen,
among others, considers surgery to be only "a partial remedy."
"Prevention would be much better than the present 'cure,' she stresses, because once the
natural lens has been removed, thick spectacles or contact lenses are then required to
restore the eye's focusing ability.
So modern surgical methods notwithstanding, there appears to be a tremendous need

for more research into cataract prevention and healing through the use of natural food
substances.
COLDS, FLU AND THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
CHAPTER
FIGHT OFF FLU AND COLDS THE NATURAL WAY
Every day, every hour, every minute of our lives there's a battle for survival going on
inside our bodies. It's between us and them—those invisible germs and viruses that
cause colds and flu and any number of other infections and diseases.
But silently and relentlessly our bodies fight back, keeping the invaders from taking over
and making us sick. Our nifty immune system is the defense that does this for us
automatically and, most of the time, perfectly.
Sometimes, our white blood cells track down germs and gobble them up. At other times,
it's the antibodies produced by special cells that destroy the germs. There are even
certain proteins called immunoglobulins, complement and interferon that our cells
make just for fighting off viruses, bacteria and other foreign invaders. As if that's not
enough, we are also stocked with fighters known as T cells, B cells and (believe it or not)
killer cells.
Are you impressed? You should be because, if even one of these systems broke down,
you'd be in serious trouble— healthwise.
"Each lack or deficiency presents itself clinically to the doctor ... in its own particular
way," says Ronald J. Glasser, M.D., author of The Body Is the Hero (Random House,
1976). "No antibodies, and the child has recurrent pneumonias and abscesses; no
granulocytes [germ-gobbling white cells], and he has prolonged bacterial infections; no
lymphocytes [T and B cells] and he has recurrent fungal infections and severe,
recurrent, viral illness.''
Luckily, most of us don't have to contend with that degree of immune dysfunction. On
the other hand, you shouldn't take your immune system for granted. It needs the same
TLC as the rest of your body in order to give you the best protection from disease.
That's where good nutrition comes in. "There is an intimate relationship between
nutritional status, immune response and infection," says R. K. Chandra, M.D., professor
of pediatric research at the Memorial University of Newfoundland. "When nutritional
deficiency and infection coexist, the former is often chronic and precedes the latter acute
process."
In other words, when your diet is inadequately supplying all the vitamins and minerals
you need, your immune defenses go down, allowing germs to multiply and cause illness.
And you don't have to be grossly undernourished either, adds Dr. Chandra, who is also
the coauthor of Nutrition, Immunity, and Infection (Plenum Press, 1977). Deficiency of
individual nutrients can undermine the immune system, too.
Robert Edelman, M.D., agrees. "Acquired immune dysfunctions in man occur with
deficiencies of certain vitamins and minerals," says Dr. Edelman, who is chief of the
clinical and epidemiological studies branch at the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, in Bethesda, Maryland.
Actually, in animal studies, the most important immunological effects are produced by
deficiencies of vitamin 86, pantothenate (pantothenic acid) and folate (folic acid),
according to Dr. Edelman. For example, a deficiency of B^ alone depresses both cellular
(T and B cells) and humoral (antibody production) im-
FIGHT OFF COLDS AND FLU 433
munity in animals. Other experiments have shown that T and B cells fail to multiply
normally when tested against a foreign substance (like a germ). What's more, volunteers
with short-term experimental B6 deficiencies have shown reduced antibody responses
to vaccines.
As for pantothenate, a deficiency of that nutrient appears to inhibit the stimulation of

antibody-producing cells and their ability to produce the special proteins
(immunoglobulins) that fight off foreign invaders.
Folate deficiency can cause its share of immune-system problems, too, adds Dr.
Edelman. Animals lacking in folate show a shriveling of the tissues that produce
lymphocytes, as well as diminished white blood cell numbers and impaired cell-
mediated and humoral immunity (Journal of the American Medical Association,
January 2, 1981).
"The good news," Dr. Edelman told us, "is that the immune system responds very
quickly to adequate nutrition."
Of course, it responds in the opposite direction just as easily. "Experiments in animals

have shown that a one-month deficiency in certain nutrients has negative effects on the
immune system if the deficiency occurs during a period of rapid growth," says Kathleen
Nauss, Ph.D., of the department of nutrition at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, located in Cambridge.
"In our experiments, we fed animals diets that were marginally deficient in folate as well
as choline and methionine [an amino acid]. These substances all play a role in cellular
metabolism. Within a month, sometimes less, we found the animals' immune system to
be depressed. It was particularly severe in young animals."
When it comes to people, both the very young and the elderly are especially susceptible
to immune dysfunction: the young because their rapid growth rate creates an increased
demand for nutrients, and the old because the immune system simply deteriorates with
age.
What's more, the elderly often have an inadequate diet, compounding the problem. In
fact, in one study. Dr. Chandra
found that 41 percent of a group of people over the age of 60 had nutritional deficiencies
that contributed to their immune dysfunctions.
Vitamin C and Colds
While good nutrition in general is important to a smoothly running defense system,

several nutrients (besides those already mentioned) stand out as superstars in this area.
Vitartlin C surely heads that list. After all, how many people do you know who swear by
vitamin C for colds? Dr. Edelman does. "I don't get too many colds," he told us, "but
when I do, I take large doses of vitamin C. It relieves the symptoms and shortens the
duration of the cold. It seems to work well."
Kenneth Cooper, M.D., agrees. He's a fitness expert and author of The Aerobics Program
for Total Well-Being (M. Evans and Company, 1982). "For many years, I have taken
1,000 milligrams of vitamin C daily, and during that time I've experienced almost
complete protection from colds and other upper respiratory infections. Before I began to
take this dosage, 1 regularly had two or three major colds each year. After I started
taking some extra vitamin C each day, however, the number of colds declined
dramatically. In my opinion, there is probably a causal connection between the vitamin
C supplement and my good health," explains Dr. Cooper, "although it is impossible to
draw a valid conclusion based on a study of one patient."
Other researchers, however, are working on proving just such a connection, and their
studies have been centering on vitamin C's effect on the immune system.
"We became interested in vitamin C because of other studies we had seen on the
relationship of immunity to this nutrient," says Richard Panush, M.D., chief of clinical
immunology at the University of Florida college of medicine, in Gainesville. "We decided
to carry out our own studies and see what we'd come up with. In the first experiment, we
tested the effects of vitamin
FIGHT OFF COLDS AND FLU 435
C in the test tube and found that it boosted a wide array of immune responses.
"Our next study was done on a group of normal, healthy volunteers. We gave half of
them vitamin C and the other half a placebo [harmless inactive pill] and then measured
their immune response. Those taking the vitamin showed a measurable increase in their
immunity," Dr. Panush told us.
"Now we're in the middle of an experiment that is testing the effects of vitamin C on the
immune system of sick people to see if it will help them get better. We should have those
results within the year."
In another study, researchers from Johannesburg, South Africa, tested the antibody
response of two groups of guinea pigs. One group (the controls) received only a minimal
amount of vitamin C while the other group received supplemental vitamin C. Antibody
levels were then measured after the animals were injected with a foreign substance.
The animals receiving the supplemental C had significantly higher antibody levels than
the control group. The researchers observed that vitamin C appears to stimulate the
production of immunoglobulin M-type (Ig M) antibodies, in particular. And, say the
researchers, "Ig M is a most effective first line of defense against invading organisms."
For the animals, the enhancement of the immune response was accomplished with 160
milligrams of vitamin C per day. A comparable stimulation of the humoral immune
system in humans might require a daily vitamin C intake of 1.5 to 2 grams (1,500 to
2,000 milligrams), the researchers speculate (International Journal for Vitamin and
Nutrition Research, vol. 50, no. 3, 1980).
For the elderly, who often have age-associated immune dysfunction, supplemental zinc
may give them the boost they need. That's what doctors in Brussels have found out. In
their experiment, the researchers gave zinc supplements (50 milligrams of zinc twice
daily for a month) to 15 volunteers over 70 years of age. Meanwhile, another elderly
group of 15 received no sup-
plementation during that time. At the end of the experiment, the zinc group showed a
significant improvement in the number of circulating T cells. "The data suggest that the
addition of zinc to the diet of old persons could be an effective and simple way to
improve their immune function" {American Journal of Medicine, May, 1981).
Another simple way to beef up your immune system might be to supplement your diet
with arginine. That's an amino acid naturally found in meats, nuts, seeds, beans and
sprouts.
Being able to fight off the germs that bombard you every day is a tough business. You
win a few, you lose a few. But with good nutrition on your side, you can tip the scales in
your favor.
CHAPTER
VITAMINS THAT PERK UP A SAGGING DEFENSE
A young brother and sister in South Africa have been in the medical HmeHght. The
children had been plagued with frequent bacterial infections. Juvenile acne, pneumonia,
recurring sinusitis, ear infections and upper respiratory tract infections were just some
of the maladies their bodies seemed unable to battle. Both children also were allergic to
animal hair, house dust, pollen and food, yet they apparently had no drug allergies.
The children were suffering from an unusual disorder called chronic granulomatous
disease (CGD)—a severe immune deficiency disease in which part of a person's natural
immune system defenses are impaired. It is an inherited disease whose victims are
young people showing an abnormally high susceptibility to pus-producing infections.
The infections are caused by certain species of bacteria against which the patient's body
has no defense.
The youngsters were treated with drugs that lowered the frequency of infections, but
they still had bouts with pneumonia, bronchiolitis and sinusitis. Finally, they began
taking high doses of vitamin C.
After following a supplementation program with the nutrient, the two children
experienced a ''decrease in the frequency

of infection and increased weight and growth rate," researchers noted. "Both children
have remained free of infection for a 10-month period, which included the South African
wmter. In the previous two winters both children suffered from severe pneumonia and
recurrent upper respiratory tract infections."
A brother, just over two years old and not included in the study, also had CGD. The boy
developed an acute inflammation of the umbilicus shortly after birth. At the age of two
weeks, he developed a serious abscess and complications. He was given 1 gram of
vitamin C daily, and the problem cleared up. He has remained free of infection for nine
months, the researchers reported.
They concluded that "... ascorbic acid [vitamin C] may be an important supplement to
prophylactic antibiotics and chemotherapeutic agents in the treatment of CGD" {South
African Medical Journal, September 15, 1979).
Why did vitamin C apparently help those children ward off infections? One clue
appearing in blood samples of the older brother and sister was an increase in neutrophil
activity after taking vitamin C.
"Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell and are the main killer cells that respond to
bacteria in the body," explains Nor-bert J. Roberts, Jr., M.D., associate professor of
medicine and a member of the infectious disease unit at the University of Rochester, in
New York. "Vitamin C appears to be important for the migration of those killer cells. In
the absence of vitamin C, the migration of these cells and phagocytosis—the eating— of
bacteria can be depressed."
Dr. Roberts has been researching the effects of vitamin C and fever on the immune
system. "There have been numerous speculations on vitamin C's role on immune
function," says Dr. Roberts. "There also has been a lot of controversy and unknowns
about hyperthermia [elevated body temperature]. Is fever good or bad? Should a person
take aspirin to reduce fever or not?"
They decided to put both vitamin C and fever to the test, choosing to pit them against an
influenza virus. "An infection
VITAMINS FOR A SAGGING DEFENSE 439
with the influenza virus can depress a patient's immune function to other agents," Dr.
Roberts told us.
First, they toolc some normal human white cells and stimulated them with a plant
substance called PHA. ''Normal cells should respond to PHA. If a person has an immune
deficiency, his cell response to PHA will be less,'' explains Dr. Roberts.
After they observed how the normal cells responded to PHA, they exposed the cells to
influenza. When the cells "came down with the flu," their immunity was lower, as shown
by a lower than normal response to PHA. When the flu-infected cells were treated with
vitamin C, however, they bounced back and exhibited a higher response to PHA.
Infected cells which were raised to fever temperature also responded more favorabl to
PHA.
"Both ascorbic acid and fever appear to enhance the response of the cells and to
diminish the adverse effects of the virus, when examined in the test tube," Dr. Roberts
says. "It remains open to question whether a person taking vitamin C and avoiding
aspirin will find any benefit for the immune system, but our work suggests that it might.
Repeated studies we have done show the same thing all over again. However, for certain
individuals (a young child or a person with heart disease, for example), it might be
important to lower fever" (Journal of Immunology, November 1979).
A Boost from Vitamin A
Vitamin C is not the only nutrient which may dramatically bolster the body's natural
defenses. Benjamin E. Cohen, M.D., of Houston, Texas, has been studying vitamin A
over the years and has found that it, too, may boost a person's immune response.
"While I was working at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, I

examined the effects of steroids and vitamin A on mice," he told us. "Steroids are
chemical agents secreted by the adrenal glands. Among other things, high doses of
steroids are known for their suppressive effect on a person's immune response. They are
widely used drugs often given to
transplant patients so that their immune systems will be less likely to reject the
transplanted organ.
"When I gave high doses of steroids to mice, their immune systems were depressed. But
when the mice were given vitamin A, the steroids were unable to depress the immune
system. Vitamin A blocked the depression."
Dr. Cohen also discovered that vitamin A decreased the animals' susceptibility to a
variety of bacterial infections. And when mice were given vitamin A in conjunction with
a potent anti-cancer agent, the anti-cancer agent became 100 times more potent.
Dr. Cohen went to England on a fellowship from Harvard and began researching the
effect of vitamin A on the immune system in humans.
"It has consistently been found that anesthesia and surgery result in a suppression of the
immune response in patients," he says. "Whenever patients are anesthetized, it generally
takes a few weeks for their immune response to recover."
Working with colleagues from Australia and England, Dr. Cohen conducted research
with patients who were undergoing elective operations. The patients were divided into
two groups. One group received vitamin A before, during and after surgery. The other
group did not take vitamin A supplementation. Blood tests were performed immediately
before and after surgery and one week later. A series of immune function tests was run
on each sample.
"By and large, there was a tendency toward a depression of the immune function in
patients not taking vitamin A," Dr. Cohen explains. "On the average, patients who did
take vitamin A did not experience a depression of the immune response at all." Vitamin
A seemed to keep the patients' immune defenses functioning normally despite their
surgery {Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics, November, 1979).
Dr. Cohen theorizes that vitamin A's favorable effects on the immune system might
prove to be beneficial in battling certain types of cancers. "The immune system has been
implicated in the control of certain types of tumors," he told us. "If that is
VITAMINS FOR A SAGGING DEFENSE 441
true, it may be possible to improve the immune system's work with vitamin A
supplementation. That may be helpful in arresting or even eradicating the tumor." Dr.
Cohen says vitamin A probably would be given to the patient as additional therapy. "The
nutrient might be used in conjunction with a more traditional approach."
The immune system is a complex internal mechanism that still is not completely
understood. But as researchers continue to investigate the ways in which certain cells in
our bodies overwhelm and destroy dangerous bacteria and other foreign invaders,
vitamins A and C are sure to receive even more attention.
CHAPTER
BOOST YOUR IMMUNITY WITH VITAMIN C
Interferon is a remarkable defensive substance that the body makes naturally when it's
invaded by the likes of viruses and cancer. And extra vitamin C means extra interferon.
When an invader, such as a virus, enters the body, it attacks the cells that make up body
tissues. Each individual virus attacks one cell and takes over the cell's reproductive
cycle, making the cell turn out more viruses instead of more cells. Unless the body fights
back in some way, it will quickly be overcome by the invaders.
Naturally, the body does fight back. According to Benjamin V. Siegel, Ph.D., a research
professor at the University of Oregon health sciences center in Portland, interferon is
the body's first line of defense. "Before the body is even producing any antibodies," Dr.
Siegel told us, "interferon can just attack the disease. But the body has to be producing
enough interferon."
Interferon does not work directly against the invaders. Instead, it is manufactured by
the ceil under attack and, like Paul Revere, is sent off to alert the surrounding cells. The
other cells are stimulated into producing a substance which prevents the virus from
reproducing any further. The invasion is stopped dead in its tracks—provided there's
enough interferon.
BOOST IMMUNITY WITH VITAMIN C 443
"The beauty of interferon," according to Dr. Siegel, "is that it works against all viruses. A
vaccine usually works against only one specific type of virus. And in the case of chemical
virus killers, the viruses can develop mutant types that are resistant to the chemicals.
But this doesn't happen with interferon."
What does happen with interferon, however, is that there are great variations in just
how much interferon is available. Dr. Siegel offers this as a possible explanation of why
some people are more resistant to viral infections than others.
Interferon Fights Cancer
The importance of interferon is not limited to fighting viral infections such as the
common cold and influenza. These two items alone, of course, would guarantee that
interferon would be a top priority for drug research. But interferon also stimulates
another anti-invasion force, the macrophages. Dr. Siegel calls them the "angry" cells that
seek out and destroy not only invading viruses, but any foreign intruder—including
cancer cells.
In Sweden, persons with bone cancer were treated with large doses of interferon
produced in a laboratory. The survival rate increased substantially. But the number of
people treated with interferon was necessarily small, mainly because it is very difficult
and costly to produce interferon in a laboratory. Nonetheless, the great promise of using
interferon to fight cancer, as well as serious viral diseases such as hepatitis and
influenza, is stimulating research to find a way of making the body produce more
interferon.
According to Dr. Siegel, "pharmacological companies, which are interested in making

money as well as helping people, have been trying for years to find an agent that will
increase interferon production in the body. It is possible to produce interferon in the
laboratory. But if interferon is produced like this, on the outside, it would cost
thousands of dollars for enough interferon to cure a cold. So the trick is to produce it on
the inside, to get the body to produce more of its own interferon. Vitamin C appears to
do just that."
Dr. Siegel's first investigation into vitamin C's effect on interferon involved infecting
mice with extremely lethal leukemia-causing viruses. One group of mice received large
doses of vitamin C, one group did not. The mice that did get vitamin C developed milder
cases of leukemia and produced more than twice as much interferon.
Vitamin C also boosts other defenses. The activity of macrophages, which is stimulated
by interferon, is further heightened by vitamin C. White blood cells are also helped by
vitamin C, as is the production of antibodies against specific diseases.
Double Evidence of Vitamin C's Power
Currently, Dr. Siegel is attempting to find out whether vitamin C can completely prevent
or delay the onset of leukemia. In his earlier work, such large doses of the leukemia virus
were used that there was never any doubt that all the mice would get the disease. The
purpose was to measure the interferon production. But in his present investigation,
lower doses of the leukemia virus are being used, in hopes of giving the vitamin C-
interferon team a chance to show if it can stop leukemia before it gets started.
Of course, some of the questions medical skeptics are going to ask are whether Dr.
SiegePs results can be duplicated and whether vitamin C can affect human interferon as
well as it can that of a mouse. Other researchers have already begun to answer these
questions—happily, in the affirmative.
Norwegian investigators recently published the results of their work with human cell
cultures. Such cell cultures, grown in the laboratories, are often used in the early stages
of research work when it is inconvenient to use volunteers or animals. The cells were
challenged with viruses and supplemented with varying doses of vitamin C while
interferon levels were measured. Vitamin C was found to increase the cells' production
of interferon at all dose levels {Acta Patholo^ica et Microhiologica Scandinvica).
BOOST IMMUNITY WITH VITAMIN C 445
Dr. Siegel is pleased with the Norwegian reports, especially since these researchers set
out to disprove his results. ''But their results are almost the same as ours," he told us.
"Our work is solid. It's established. What we've done is demonstrate, for the first time,
what vitamin C does."
There is abundant evidence from still more researchers' work that vitamin C gives a
significant boost to the body's ability to fight off invaders. Not all of them have
considered the connection between vitamin C and interferon. But the husband-wife
team of biochemists Carlton E. Schwerdt, Ph.D., and Patricia Schwerdt did in their work
with human cell cultures and cold viruses. The Schwerdts set out to find if vitamin C
could prevent or reduce common cold symptoms. The cells were treated with vitamin C
for two days, then infected with a common cold virus.
The effect was described to us by Dr. Carlton Schwerdt: "The virus goes through one
cycle of growth, but subsequent cycles seem to be inhibited." After the first cycle, 16 to
48 hours after the first infection, virus yield dropped gradually until it was one-
twentieth that of the culture which was not treated with vitamin C. After 48 hours, the
treated culture had a virus yield which was one-fortieth the size of the untreated cells.
If you think that sounds like the kind of population controlling effect interferon exerts
on viruses, then you have that thought in common with the Schwerdts. At least one of
their experiments demonstrated that vitamin C was increasing a form of antiviral
activity similar to that of interferon.
As promising as all this research is for the battle against cancer and viral infections,
there is one important thing to note. The drug industry is not going to spend much
money trying to find out more about vitamin C's effect on interferon. They are spending
their time and money trying to find a way to make artificial interferon or develop a drug
which will do the same thing vitamin C does. The reason is simple. Everyone has access
to vitamin C. No one can patent it and sell it for drug-high prices. Naturally, the drug
companies won't promote something that won't make money for them.
CRAMPS CHAPTER
VITAMIN E FOR THOSE PAINFUL CRAMPS
Cramps—they cramp your style.
A cramp in the calf can turn a pleasant walk into a forced march home. And did your
community pool ever seem like the set of Jaws —only with your thigh muscles standing
in for the shark? You could even hate writing a love letter if writer's cramp suddenly put
on the squeeze.
There are over 100 muscles in your body. Any one of them could knot up. And few Boy
Scouts could help you untie these knots. But you can be prepared for cramps—with
vitamin E.
That's the news from Australia, where Dr. L. Lotzof is having "remarkable success"
treating muscular cramps with vitamin E.
In a letter to The Medical Journal of Australia, Dr. Lotzof reported giving daily doses of
about 300 milligrams of vitamin E to 50 patients suffering from muscular cramps. In
all50 patients, almost all cramping stopped.
As soon as Dr. Lotzof's patients stopped taking vitamin E, their cramps returned.
Dr. Lotzof was surprised by these excellent results. He asked other doctors to write to
the journal and offer explanations
VITAMIN E FOR CRAMPS 447
as to why vitamin E controls muscle cramps. But it's unlikely he'll get much of a
response. Modern medical science really has no clear idea what causes cramps. But
scientific literature is full of reports by doctors like Lotzof who—without knowing the
why behind their treatment—have cured muscle cramps with vitamin E.
Two such doctors are Samuel Ayres, Jr., M.D., and Richard Mihan, M.D. They treated
125 of their patients, who were suffering from nighttime leg and foot cramps, with
vitamin E. "More than half of these patients had suffered from leg cramps longer than
five years and many of these had had cramps for 20 to 30 years or longer," the doctors
wrote in the Southern Medical Journal.
But vitamin E made short work of even these long-standing cramps. Of the 125 patients,
123 found relief from their cramps after taking vitamin E. One hundred three of these
patients had "excellent" results: "complete or nearly complete control" of cramps,
A daily dose of either 300 or 400 international units of vitamin E cleared up most
cramps. Some patients, however, needed more. So if you begin taking vitamin E for
cramps and find a daily dose of 400 international units has little or no effect, don't
hesitate to try a larger amount. "There are virtually no side effects from doses as high as
1,600 to 2,400 international units daily," the doctors assure us.
Also, if you find vitamin E does work, stick with it. "In a number of instances ... it was
learned that cramps recurred when treatment was stopped or greatly reduced, but
promptly responded again when treatment was resumed," the doctors explain.
All in all, the doctors feel confident that vitamin E will do the job. "The response of
nocturnal [nighttime] leg and foot cramps to adequate doses of vitamin E is prompt,
usually becoming manifest within a week, and occurs in such an overwhelming number
of cases that it appears almost specific for this ailment," they assert.
vitamin E. Nocturnal rectal cramps, cramping of abdominal muscles and cramps from
heavy exercise were also "relieved completely" with the vitamin.
Is Walking Painful?
Now, walking is not a heavy exercise. At least, not for most people. But if you have
intermittent claudication—a painful cramping of the calf muscle that sneaks up on you
after you've walked too far—a stroll around the block can have your calf muscle playing
the "heavy" in a very unpleasant muscular melodrama. Well, help is on the way. No
white hats or shining armor—^just our old friend, vitamin E.
Knut Haeger, M.D., a Swedish surgeon, selected 47 men with severe intermittent
claudication. He gave 32 of them vitamin E; the rest received drugs to improve
circulation (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).
After about three months, the men were tested to see how far they could walk without
pain. Fifty-four percent of the vitamin E group walked 1 kilometer (Ys of a mile), the
test's maximum distance. But only 23 percent of the second group could walk that far.
How did vitamin E help these men to walk? Vitamin E may stop intermittent
claudication—and all cramps—by improving circulation. After about 1'/: years of taking
vitamin E, 29 out of 32 men in Dr. Haeger's study had an increase in the flow of blood to
their calves. That's a big difference from those who took prescribed drugs. After \Vi
years, 10 of 14 of those men had a diminished flow.
So even though scientists have yet to unravel the mystery of how vitamin E works to stop
cramps, you don't have to wait to use it. You can unravel—now—twisted, tight and
cramped muscles with vitamin E.
CRIME AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
CHAPTER
CRIME-BUSTER VITAMINS
Time was, convicts used files to escape from jail. Now they use knives and forks.
In Pitkin County, Colorado, 500 prisoners went on a diet free of sugar, white flour and
coffee and ate dinners from a natural foods restaurant. A study showed that, from their
release to the end of the study, not one prisoner has been in trouble with the law.
In Dougherty County, Georgia, every juvenile offender undergoes biochemical testing

and is given nutritional supplements to help correct any chemical imbalance. The
number of serious crimes by juveniles in Dougherty County is less than it was ten years
ago—a pleasant exception to the trend in many American communities.
In Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, 600 criminals have received nutritional education and gone on
a diet emphasizing lean meats, whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables. Eighty-nine
percent of those people have not committed another crime.
That bad nutrition and bad behavior are closely linked is the truth, and nothing but the
truth. But the people running America's multibillion-dollar criminal justice system are
just beginning to wake up to the fact. They're being shaken awake by
a small group of men and women who realize that no approach to criminal rehabilitation
—social casework, psychotherapy, group therapy, psychiatry, academic and vocational
training—can possibly work unless a good diet backs it up.
"Of the nearly two million criminals in jail, over 70 percent have been there before,"
Alex Schauss told us. "So something has to be wrong with the way most criminals are
rehabilitated."
Schauss is a former state corrections training officer for the Washington State Criminal
Justice Training Commission. He oversaw the training of parole and probation officers,
the men who deal with criminals out of jail. To keep them out, Schauss put together a
course called "body chemistry and offender behavior." Its many topics include diet,
vitamins, minerals, stress, food allergy and exercise—detailed information about health
that the probation officer passes on to the offender. But can this kind of approach really
soften a hardened criminal?
"Not one single probation or parole officer has called me and said this approach doesn't
work, and if it didn't, I would be hearing about it," says Schauss. Studies back up that
claim.
Schauss chose 102 people who had committed a crime and were on probation. He had
some of them receive nutritional counseling and others traditional counseling.
(Traditional counseling advises an offender about his job, housing, clothing, family
problems and other areas of daily life—except what he eats.) Schauss found that 34
percent of the people receiving traditional counseling committed another crime,
compared with only 14 percent of the people receiving nutritional counseling.
In another study, Schauss again had probationers receive nutritional counseling. This
time, he compared the probationers' arrest records before, during and after the
counseling. Eight months after the counseling had ended, not one of the probationers
had been rearrested while, statistically speaking, all of them should have been rearrested
based on their previous arrest records.
Nutritional counseling works—beyond a shadow of a doubt. Schauss explains why:

"Most people, criminals included, are extremely naive about diet and how it affects their
body and
CRIME-BUSTER VITAMINS 451
mind," he says. "Simply educating a criminal about nutrition, showing him that bad
dietary habits ruin mental and physical health and keep him behind bars, helps him give
up those habits." And of all bad habits, too much sugar may be the worst.
Most repeat offenders eat a glut of candy, soda and other goodies that add up to from
300 to 600 pounds a year, about two to four times more sweets than the average
American eats. It's a crime they don't get away with. Eating that much sugar can cause a
disorder in blood sugar metabolism called hypoglycemia, and studies show that almost
90 percent of all inmates have it. Many of the symptoms of hypoglycemia are
psychological: irritability, paranoia, sudden violent behavior—cT/m/V?^/behavior.
Educate a convict about sugar (and caffeine and alcohol, which can also cause
hypoglycemia), help him cut it out of his diet and you can end up with John Doe instead
of John Dillinger II. And most convicts, says Schauss, want that help.
"The one common denominator of inmates is to get out of jail. People don't like to be
behind bars. About 70 percent of the convicts who receive nutritional counseling change
their diet for the better and keep it changed."
And that change may include eliminating all the foods to which a convict is allergic.
Food allergy. It works just like hay fever except, for pollen, substitute eggs, chocolate,
corn, citrus fruits, milk or wheat. (A person may become allergic to the foods he eats
most often, and these foods, being so common, account for most food allergies.) But
while hay fever and similar allergies attack the nose, a food allergy may attack the brain
—and can make a good boy go bad.
"Aberrant social behavior can be directly caused by a food allergy," explains Ray
Wunderlich, Jr., M.D., a St. Petersburg, Florida, physician and author of several
publications on allergies.
"The brain is a target organ for food allergy," he told us. "Immediately after eating the
offending food, a person's behavior changes for the worse. His brain can fog over,
leaving him apathetic and sluggish, or he can go wildly hyperactive. In either case, he
lacks good judgment. He doesn't see whole situations and reacts to fragments and
details.
"If he becomes apathetic, he needs a severe and heightened thrill to interest him in life—
being chased by police, being wanted by the law, being in danger. If he becomes
hyperactive, he works on a different time clock than the rest of society, demanding
things now and using violence to satisfy his urgent needs."
Dr. Wunderlich points out that not only can food trigger violence, but so can chemicals
to which a person is allergic. Schauss illustrates the point with a story of "chemical
warfare."
"A boy at school suddenly became ruthless and violent, beating up other kids and
breaking furniture. Our staff investigated and found that he was allergic to fumes from
the school's floor wax.
"How many convicts mired in the criminal justice system started going downhill after a
few incidents like this? If someone's actions are socially unacceptable, people start to
think of him as a misfit. If he repeats those actions often enough, he is labeled a misfit.
Inevitably, he begins to think of himself as a misfit—and to act like one."
To break this cycle, which Schauss has named hiocrimi-nogenesis, a criminal must avoid
the substances to which he is allergic and improve his diet. He also needs psychological
counseling to restore his self-esteem. But before counseling, he needs nutritional
supplements.
"Many delinquents and criminals do not have sufficient biochemical reserves to make
positive mental changes," says Dan MacDougal, a lawyer from Atlanta, Georgia.
MacDougal is a consultant to the Judicial Service Agency in Dougherty County, an

organization which works with juvenile delinquents. The agency, he says, "teaches them
the proper use of will and new behavior patterns that are not based on fear or hostility,
but are based on love."
Before psychological treatment starts, however, every delinquent undergoes biochemical

testing and is then given nutritional supplements to correct any chemical imbalance.
(The agency must be doing something right. Dougherty County has the lowest juvenile
crime rate in the nation.)
CRIME-BUSTER VITAMINS 453
"Vitamin 65 lowers impulsivity and violent behavior," MacDougal told us. "Vitamins A,
C and E aid in detoxifying a person whose violent behavior is being caused by heavy-
metal poisoning."
Heavy metals—lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, to name a few. They pollute air, water
and food. Most people aren't too bothered by the heavy metals in their bodies. Some are.
"I see lead poisoning contributing to an awful lot of criminal behavior," says Barbara
Reed, former chief probation officer of the Municipal Court in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.
Mrs. Reed treated most of her probationers with diet, suggesting a steady fare of natural,
unprocessed foods and the complete elimination of refined carbohydrates and caffeine.
Of the 600 people who followed that diet, 89 percent never committed another crime.
"But some need more help than a better diet," Mrs. Reed told us. "They need a vitamin-
and-mineral regimen to cleanse their body of heavy metals.
"One man was referred to me after he had committed two felonies: trafficking in drugs
and carrying loaded firearms. He was diagnosed as having lead and aluminum
poisoning. After three months of special treatment and a good nutritional diet, he was
eager to return to regular work."
Schauss also relates a case of a man with heavy-metal poisoning:
"A man was being held in the county jail who had been arrested for assaulting a
policeman. During his arraignment, his behavior disrupted the court proceeding. Two
psychiatrists and a mental health specialist interviewed him. One psychiatrist diagnosed
him 'acutely schizophrenic' The other two experts agreed he was a full-blown 'paranoid
schizophrenic' All three predicted that by the age of 30 he would become a vegetable.
"Well, our staff looked at him and noticed symptoms of lead poisoning. Tests were
conducted and showed that he was suffering from toxic levels of arsenic, lead, mercury
and cadmium in his system. Through vitamin and mineral supplementation, chelation
therapy and counseling, he improved rapidly."
However, Schauss, Reed, MacDougal and many other professionals agree that nutrition
is only one facet of biochemical treatment. Exercise, too, is very important, as are proper
lighting, fresh air and sufficient sleep. 'These are terrific tools," says Mrs. Reed. "By
improving a criminal's health, we help him to perform better in the other rehabilitative
services."
Good health. For thousands of criminals, it's the best accomplice for a permanent
jailbreak —and a break with the past.
DEPRESSION CHAPTER
NUTRITION:
THE SILVER LINING
Mary sits slumped in a chair, her mascara smeared by an hour of crying, her thoughts
black as the circles under her eyes ....
"Why did I bother putting on makeup this morning? Tm ugly and that's that. John must
hate me. And what's the use of looking good, anyway? Life is so empty, so useless. If only
I could run away."
But for Mary, and 50 million other Americans, there's no running away—from
depression. Serious depression. Not just a day of the blues, but weeks, perhaps months,
of symptoms like these: You hate yourself and everyone else. You speak hesitantly in a
dull monotone. You can't concentrate or make decisions. Sex is a chore. Headaches are
frequent. Sleep is restless, and during the day you move like a sloth. You feel frustrated,
trapped, hopeless. And when you think of suicide (which is often), it's with relief.
Who gets depressed? Anyone can. But almost twice as many women as men do.
Pregnant women. Women who've just had babies. Postmenopausal women. Women on
the Pill.
But often the cause of their depression isn't psychological; it's physical—a nutritional
deficiency.
In the week after they had given birth, 18 women were tested for severity of depression
and blood levels of tryptophan, an essential amino acid. Doctors found that those with
the most severe depression had the lowest levels of tryptophan (British Medical
Journal).
A study of 15 depressed pregnant women showed that those with the deepest depression
had the lowest blood levels of vitamin Bt (Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica
Scandinavica).
Researchers discovered that postmenopausal women with depression have a
disturbance in their tryptophan metabolism very similar to that found in patients
hospitalized for depression (British Medical Journal).
Numerous studies show that women on the Pill who become depressed have low levels
of vitamin B(, (Lancet).
And a study shows that in the days before menstruation, a time of depression for many
women, tryptophan metabolism is disturbed (American Journal of Psychiatry).
A Crucial Chain Reaction
Why tryptophan? Why Bfi?
Because of serotonin.
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter, one of the chemicals in your brain that helps control
moods. Some scientists theorize that low levels of serotonin cause depression. But to
have enough serotonin, you need enough tryptophan, which is essential in its formation.
And to have enough tryptophan, you need enough Bfi, without which tryptophan can't
be formed. B^, tryptophan, serotonin: The chemical chain reaction that forms this
neurotransmitter is more complex, but these links are crucial.
Estrogen can break them.
Estrogen, a female hormone, can block the activity of Bf,, forcing it out of the body. And
estrogen can speed up the metabolism of tryptophan, making less of it available to form
se-
NUTRITION: THE SILVER LINING 457
rotonin. That doesn't happen every day. But if estrogen levels are high—if you're
pregnant, taking the Pill or about to have your period—then you can have a shortage of
tryptophan or Bfi. And a long face.
The solution? Replace the nutrients.
When 250 "depression-prone" women received oral contraceptives supplemented with

B^,, 90 percent remained free of severe depression (Ob. Gyn. News).
In another study, doctors measured the blood levels of B^, in 39 depressed women on
the Pill and found that 19 had a severe deficiency. When they gave these women B^,, 16
improved in mood (Lancet).
And those women probably got more than just an increase in their B6 levels. Many
women on the Pill suffer from a blood sugar disorder. When they take B^, however, that
disorder improves (Contraception).
Not everyone suffering from depression is a woman, of course. But studies show that
tryptophan and Bfi may help anyone who's depressed.
Doctors measured the severity of depression in patients hospitalized for the problem
and then gave them tryptophan and B(, for one month. After the month, they again
measured their depression. It had decreased by 82 percent (British Medical Journal).
Niacin Helps, Too
In another study lasting one month, doctors gave tryptophan and niacin to II depressed
patients. (Ten of the patients were women, and their average age was 52. More than
likely, they were in the throes of postmenopausal depression.) Why niacin? The doctors
knew that, in some studies, depressed people took tryptophan but didn't get any better.
They theorized that the tryptophan hadn't been metabolized properly and that niacin
would correct this problem. They were right. After a month on tryptophan and niacin,
the patients' blood levels of tryptophan
rose almost 300 percent and their depression fell 38 percent {Lancet).
Research also shows tryptophan's superiority over a drug. For three weeks, doctors gave
one group of depressed patients tryptophan and a second group the drug imipramine,
an antidepressant. Both groups did equally well, having "significant improvements." But
the patients on the tryptophan, say the doctors, had fewer side effects (Lancet).
Researchers have also found they could give too much tryptophan. Depressed patients
who received 6 grams of tryptophan and 1,500 milligrams of niacin (as nicotinamide) a
day didn't improve, but those who received 4 grams of tryptophan and 1 gram of niacin
did. The researchers theorize that there is an optimal range for blood levels of
tryptophan in depressed patients, and that giving too much or too little of the nutrient is
useless {British Medical Journal).
So if something is eating you—and taking a big bite—perhaps you should try increasing
your intake of the nutrients we've discussed. Good nutrition and bad moods don't mix.
FATIGUE CHAPTER
VITAMINS
FOR PEAK ENERGY
Without mentioning any names, those television commercials about 'iron-poor" and
''tired" blood that we've been dunned with all these years gave us the wrong impression.
Not only did they assault us nightly with something new to worry about and promise
salvation in a relatively expensive, over-the-counter concoction, they also implanted the
half-truth that our blood needs iron, and iron alone. They neglected to tell us that the
blood also needs vitamins.
Now, no one doubts the importance of iron. It's the critical ingredient of hemoglobin,
the molecule in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to the tissues. And no
one doubts that many people, particularly preschool children, women of child-bearing
age and the elderly, have a diet that's inadequate in iron. But iron is only one instrument
in an orchestra of nutrients that helps pour forth a steady stream of new blood cells from
our bone marrow. Iron may play first violin, but the French horns, oboes and timpanis
are vitamins.
Folate, for instance. Without this B-complex vitamin, the body cannot manufacture
some of the molecular building blocks of DNA. The DNA molecule, in turn, is the secret
of cell division.
Less folate (folic acid) means less DNA, which means a slowdown in the creation of new
cells, including red blood cells. (Folate deficiency also causes the production of
abnormally large red blood cells.) Like iron, folate is a nutrient many people don't get
enough of in their food. One physician called folate deficiency "the most common
vitamin deficiency in man.''
"Evidence is accumulating that folacin [folate] deficiency may be more widespread than
previously suspected." That was the conclusion of a team of University of Florida and
University of Miami researchers who studied blood samples from 193 elderly, low-
income volunteers in the Coconut Grove section of Miami, Florida. Knowing that they
would discover a high rate of nutrition-related anemia (an abnormally low concentraion
of red blood cells or hemoglobin) in this group, the researchers hoped to single out the
cause of the anemia. Surprisingly, the missing link wasn't iron. It was folate.
Based on the folate content of their red blood cells, 60 percent of the volunteers fell into
the category of "high risk" for folate deficiency, and another 11 percent evidenced a
"medium risk." Fourteen percent were frankly anemic. At the same time, "the iron status
of these elderly people was normal and indicates that the anemia was not due to a
dietary iron deficiency.
"These findings . . . point out the fallacy of the rather widespread assumption that
anemia always reflects dietary iron deficiency," the Florida study noted. "It is important
to reassess the true incidence of iron deficiency worldwide in view of mounting evidence
of the extent of folacin deficiency" {American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, November,
1979).
A glance at the diets of the elderly volunteers revealed an absence of foods rich in folate.
Only 17 percent of the group said they ate fresh vegetables and, in spite of the
abundance of fresh oranges and grapefruit in Florida, only 30 percent reported eating
citrus fruits. Some of these people also customarily boiled their vegetables for several
hours, thereby destroying most of the folate.
Liver, actually, is the best source of folate. It's also, conveniently, a prime source of other
nutrients that the blood thrives
VITAMINS FOR PEAK ENERGY 461
on, such as vitamin Bi:, iron, riboflavin and vitamin A. Folate can also be found in
lentils, other beans of various kinds and most vegetables. Whole grain bread, meat and
eggs are moderately good sources of folate.
The elderly, with their tea-and-toast diets, aren't the only ones who risk folate
deficiency. Teenagers, with their diet-cola-and-taco diets, need extra folate to keep up
with their accelerated growth rate. But many of them aren't getting it.
In a study of 199 12-to-16-year-olds in the Liberty City section of Miami, the same group
of researchers found approximately 50 percent of these low-income adolescents to be
deficient in folate and about 10 percent deficient in iron.
Again, in a paper presented to the Federation of American Societies for Experimental

Biology, the researchers stressed that folate shouldn't be eclipsed by an overemphasis on
iron. "The incidence of folic acid [folate] deficiency during adolescence has not been
widely studied." they said. "In fact, the potential for a folic acid deficiency is often
ignored. If anemia is present, it is generally assumed to be due to an iron deficiency."
Researcher James Dinning, Ph.D., calls folate deficiency among teenagers a "high-
priority area" and believes that it may affect more people than, for example, high
cholesterol. "Folate deficiency could be the major problem in this country," Dr. Dinning
said.
Of particular concern was the impact of low folate levels on adolescent girls, especially in
light of the high rate of teenage pregnancies in the United States. "A long-term folic acid
deficiency prior to pregnancy has been found . . . to adversely affect the outcome of
pregnancy."
Depending on the severity, folate deficiency can trigger a wide range of symptoms.
Sleeplessness, irritability, forgetfulness and depression are associated with acute
deficiency. Lethargy, weakness and loss of color are symptoms of the megaloblastic
anemia (a type characterized by oversized, incompletely formed red blood cells) that
results from folate deficiency.
Besides anemia, folate deficiency has recently been linked to neurological problems.
Researchers at the laboratory of neu-
roanatomy at McGill University in Montreal found that folate supplementation relieved

mild depression, fatigue and abnormal intellectual or nerve function in certain people.
These symptoms, significantly, appeared even before the folate deficiency was severe
enough to show up on a routine blood test {Nature, March, 1979).
Serge Gauthier, M.D., one of the McGill researchers, told us that the neurological
problems stemming from lack of folate are mild, "but since it's a common deficiency, it's
worth looking into." His research group suggested that shortages of vitamins such as
folate can influence behavior by decreasing the synthesis of neurotransmitters, the
molecules that relay brain messages. Dr. Gauthier warned that older people are
particularly vulnerable to the neurological effects of folate deficiency.
As mentioned before, it's not one or two but a constellation of nutrients that fuels the
daily manufacture of blood cells in the bone marrow and keeps tham alive and
functioning after they move into circulation. Here's a brief list of some other nutrients
that work with folate in the process of blood formation.
Vitamin B12: You can't talk about folate without mentioning B12. Without B|2, the
folate needed for DNA synthesis remains trapped in a form the body can't use.
This creates some confusion in diagnosing anemia, since a lack of either of these
vitamins can cause anemia, and it's difficult to tell which one's missing. Meat, poultry,
fish and eggs all supply B|2. Fruits, vegetables, grains and grain products do not contain
it.
Riboflavin, or vitamin B2: The complex mechanism of blood production relies partly on
this vitamin.
In a study in Germany of pregnant women, supplementation with both iron and

riboflavin was much more effective in raising the red blood cell count than iron alone
{Nutrition and Metabolism). Researchers in London also found that even a marginal
deficiency of riboflavin can shorten the life span of red blood cells {Proceedings of the
Nutrition Society, February 1980). Foods rich in riboflavin are brewer's yeast, liver and
beef heart, followed by milk, cheese, eggs, leafy green vegetables and grains.
VITAMINS FOR PEAK ENERGY 463
Vitamins A and E: There's evidence that each of these vitamins plays a role in moving
iron from the diet to the blood. In people deficient in vitamin A, iron supplementation
did not raise their hemoglobin levels unless accompanied by therapy with vitamin A
(American Journal of Clinical Nutrition). And vitamin E, in combination with vitamin C,
has been reported to enhance the uptake of iron into the process of blood formation.
So where the state of your blood is concerned, don't take you cues solely from ads about
iron on the TV. Good nutrition is too complex for that, and putting energy back into
"tired" blood means more than just pumping iron. It means making sure your diet
provides the whole spectrum of nutrients necessary for healthy maintenance of the
blood.
CHAPTER
ENERGY VITAMINS TO MAKE LIFE A BREEZE
On your way to the "speedy mart" for a quart of milk, you drive by a tennis court. The
white-toggged players are about your age, but their faces glow with a royal flush, and
their backhands are youthfully crisp. As you realize that you just took the car instead of
walking the mere half mile to the store, you wonder jealously, ''Where do they get so
much energy?''
Nutrients to keep your eye on are vitamin B^, pantothenate (pantothenic acid) and
vitamin C. Of course, we need all the essential vitamins and minerals, but those three
are proven fatigue fighters. And they have been studied in depth.
"If a person feels fatigue, then taking certain vitamins and minerals, over and above
what we get from our ordinary diet, should certainly decrease that fatigue."
So says John H. Richardson, M.D., a biology professor at Old Dominion University, in

Norfolk, Virginia. About three years ago. Dr. Richardson, partly as a doctor and partly as
an avid jogger, became interested in the relationship between different nutrients and
stamina. So he set up a series of experiments to test the effects of vitamins and minerals
on the endurance of lab animals. One of the vitamins was B^.
MAKE LIFE A BREEZE 465
Dr. Richardson assembled two groups of 20 rats each. He fed all of them a normal rat
chow and conditioned each of them on an exercise wheel for 30 days. One group was
supplemented with B6 and the other wasn't. At the end of one month, he attached the
rats' calf muscles to a spring and measured how many seconds they could maintain a
contraction. In human terms, he told us, it was like timing how long you could hold
yourself in the "up" position of a chin-up.
Be Increases Stamina
The supplemented rats were stronger. "Time to fatigue was measured for all animals.
Results indicate that contraction time for Bft animals was significantly longer than
controls. This study suggests that vitamin Bft given orally increases stamina," Dr.
Richardson reported {Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, June, 1981).
Dr. Richardson says he isn't sure why vitamin B^ works. He only knows that it works
consistently, and he believes it will work for people as well as animals. "In terms of
performance or well-being," he told us, "I think we could feel better than we do if we
took this nutrient. A lot of people walk around fatigued from lack of sleep or overwork or
stress. I know I do. But with Bf,, we might live closer to our potential. We wouldn't get
tired so quickly, we would feel better, we could function at a higher level."
At Oregon State University, in Corvallis, James Leklem, Ph.D., has been intensively
studying the blood of 15 male high-school cross-country runners and trained bicyclists.
In all those young men, he found that the B^, levels of their blood rose when they
worked out.
That extra B(, had to come from somewhere. Dr. Leklem reasoned. But there was no
change in diet to explain the rise, and the body can't synthesize its own B^,. Apparently,
the body met its needs by mobilizing the vitamin from tissues in the body.
"We have seen that vitamin 85 levels in the blood go up during exercise," Dr. Leklem
told us. Unfortunately, he adds, "our intake of Be isn't as good as it might be, and this all
comes down to eating better, really."
Meanwhile, at the University of Oregon, in Eugene, an hour south of Corvallis, other

scientists have also been investigating the link between Be and exercise. "There is always
an increase in the need for 85 during physical stress," Frantisek Bartos, Ph.D., told us.
"People in general have a greater-than-RDA [Recommended Dietary Allowance] need
for the vitamin, but in athletes the need is even more pronounced. We know that the
amount of 85 in a normal diet is not sufficient."
Dr. Bartos says that Be supplements have increased his own energy.
Unnecessary Fatigue
If those findings are valid, then there are many elderly people living in a state of
unnessary fatigue. In a recent survey of men and women between 60 and 95 in central
Kentucky, "aging was associated with a decline in . . . vitamin B(, status."
The survey showed that 56.6 percent of the patients in nursing homes and 43.5 percent
of the elderly living at home were deficient in Be. More seriously, 27.3 percent of the
institutionalized elderly were "severely deficient." Decreased digestive ability, use of
diuretic medication, social isolation, limited income and lack of family support were
among the reasons suggested for the widespread deficiency (International Journal of
Vitamin and Nutrition Research, December, 1981).
There also seems to be a link between pantothenate and fatigue. It's known that from
pantothenate the body builds coenzyme A (CoA), a catalyst necessary for the conversion
of food to energy. Low levels of CoA can be dangerous. In one experiment at the
University of Nebraska, Hazel Fox, Ph.D., and colleagues compared two groups of men—
one group received
MAKE LIFE A BREEZE 467
the vitamin and the other was totally deprived of it. After ten weeks, the deprived men
were listless and complained of fatigue (Journal of Nutritional Science and
Vitaminology).
That was an extreme case, but Dr. Fox has found that most Americans consume barely
as much as the lower end of the National Research Council's recommended daily intake
of 4 to 7 milligrams. "The intake of pantothenic acid by Americans is decreasing," she
told us. 'Tn 1955, when I first measured the intake of the vitamin by college women here
in Lincoln, the average was about 7 milligrams a day. We rarely get figures that high
now. The average is 4 or 5. People just don't eat three square meals the way they used to.
People aren't choosing the right foods. There are too many processed foods.
"Fatigue has been described as a symptom of pantothenic acid deficiency," she added,
"and I would make a guarded statement that the evidence shows a relationship between
fatigue and low pantothenic acid intake. It's something we need to look into."
Although the current recommended allowance for the vitamin is only 4 to 7 milligrams,
it wasn't always that low. In 1963, a researcher in Hungary reported that "a healthy adult
person requires about 15 milligrams of pantothenic acid daily," and he went on to say
that physical work, surgery, injury and gastrointestinal infections can double the need
for pantothenate. A deficiency can be caused by liver disease, allergies and sometimes as
a side effect of drugs, he noted.
To avoid a pantothenate deficiency, avoid processed foods. Researchers at Utah State

University studied a wide range of foods and found that products made from "refined
grains, fruit products and extended meats and fish, such as frankfurters, sausages, and
breaded fish fillets" are low in pantothenate. Also, pantothenate is water soluble, so part
of it may be lost during cooking.
The elderly and others who eat lightly should make sure that they eat pantothenate-rich
foods. Those foods are beef, chicken, potatoes, oat cereals, tomato products and whole
grain products.
Vitamin C and Iron
Two other antifatigue nutrients are iron and vitamin C. Since vitamin C helps the body
absorb iron, the two naturally go together.
In a study of fatigue among female garment factory workers in the Philippines,

researchers discovered that iron and vitamin C supplements improved the output of
workers who were moderately to severely anemic but didn't change the productivity of
workers who were only mildly anemic {Journal of Occupational Medicine, October,
1981)
Also, a researcher in Switzerland has shown that an optimal dosage of vitamin C for
nonsmokers should be 100 milligrams a day (compared to the U.S. RDA of 60
milligrams) and 140 milligrams for smokers and others under physical stress.
He noted that, when a deficient person was supplemented for 12 weeks with vitamin C,
riboflavin and Bf,, there was "a statistically significant improvement in working
capacity" {South African Medical Journal, November, 1981).
Obviously, the nutrients mentioned here are only a few of those linked to overall fitness
and energy. Good health depends on all of them, and the right blend might just enable
you to better enjoy whatever you want to do—go swimming, play tennis, trim the hedge
or just walk to the "speedy mart."
GALLSTONES CHAPTER
GALLSTONES AND B
If you've been giving cheese omelets and gravy-laden hot roast beef sandwiches the cold
shoulder, you're probably making it a point to avoid heart disease. But did you know
that not eating fatty and cholesterol-ridden foods may be a good way to avoid gallstones,
as well?
And that in itself could be worth your trouble, for developing gallstones could be the
quickest date you'll ever make with a surgeon.
Gallbladder surgery has become one of America's favorite operations. No wonder! As

one of the richest countries in the world, we boast one of the richest diets imaginable:
lots of meat, lots of butter, lots of cream. And, consequently, we've got plenty of
gallstones to show for it—some 20 million sufferers can attest to that.
Now, though, there is hope that some of those victims can avoid the trip from the dining
room table to the operating table. One study from abroad suggests that, although
surgery may be the best alternative in the management of chronic gallbladder disease, it
isn't really the best answer to gallstones. Controlling the solubility of the bile cholesterol
perhaps is.
The gallbladder is a pouch below the liver which stores a fat-emulsifying liquid, called
bile, produced by the liver. A small amount of cholesterol in the bile is perfectly normal.
Bile acids and lecithin help to keep it dissolved. But when there is more cholesterol than
can be handled by bile salts and lecithin, su-persaturation occurs and gallstones form.
You'll get the picture of what's happening in your gallbladder if you toss a handful of
sugar into a cup of tea. The cholesterol, like the sugar, will not completely dissolve and
will clump together to form bigger crystals, or stones. In the gallbladder, these stones
may be as small as peppercorns or as large as plums. As long as they are small enough to
pass through the bile tracts, there's no problem. But once those nasty cholesterol stones
have been fattened to the point where they're stuck in the gallbladder, there's one very
effective—and very traumatic—way to combat the stabbing pain and burning irritation—
surgery.
That's because, in advanced stages of the disease, the painful symptoms are as much a
result of an inflamed gallbladder as they are of the stones themselves. There's no known
way to treat an inflamed gallbladder. Nor will a grossly inflamed organ necessarily heal
itself once the threat of stones has passed. Removal of the gallbladder is the only way
out.
But don't expect surgery to provide a no-catch guarantee against future attacks. Even
though the gallbladder may be adequately removed, stones lingering in the bile ducts are
sometimes overlooked. Complete operative cleaning of the bile tracts helps.
Nevertheless, gallstones may form again and lodge in the ducts if the bile remains
supersaturated with cholesterol.
Attempts are often made to flush the bile tracts clean using an instrument which can
help the physician peer into body cavities. But this technique, too, is galled with
problems. For one thing, it is difficult to reach the portions of the bile tracts closest to
the liver. And what's worse, the stones could be dislodged and pushed further up into
the liver bile ducts. A stone blocking the bile duct leading from the liver can cause
jaundice.
Obviously, getting rid of gallstones for good isn't easy. It would seem that the only
logical solution might be altering the
GALLSTONES AND B. 471
cholesterol saturation of the bile. Limiting your intake of saturated fats such as those
found in meat and dairy products is the first step toward preventing supersaturation.
Researchers are hard at work trying to uncover other ways.
How to Dissolve More Cholesterol
But, meanwhile, according to Dr. K. Holub of the Wilhel-mina Hospital in Vienna,

Austria, and associates, preventing gallstones may be as close as your nearest grocery
and health foods stores. Based on their research, corn oil and vitamin Be (pyridoxine)
taken together may provide a better and safer solution to cholesterol saturation (Acta
Chirurgica Aitstriaca).
In a carefully controlled study, the bile from 22 gallbladder patients was evaluated three
days after surgery. Then the same patients were given 1 tablespoon of corn oil and two
25-milligram tablets of vitamin B^ at seven o'clock and midnight one night and at four
o'clock the next morning. Bile samples were again taken and analyzed to determine
whether there was any change in the cholesterol-dissolving capacity of the bile.
Indeed there was! Of course, the bile's ability to dissolve cholesterol differs greatly from
individual to individual. But according to the Austrian research team, all patients were
better able to keep their cholesterol in solution after treatment with corn oil and vitamin
Bf,. In fact, depending on the patient, the bile in the sample taken after the treatment
was able to dissolve anywhere from 43 to 86 percent more cholesterol than before the
administration of the corn oil-B^ combination.
The effectiveness of this treatment may depend on long-term use. But never fear. There
are no ill side effects associated with either the corn oil or the vitamin in the doses used,
say the doctors.
And the treatment is easy to take. A tablespoon of corn oil can easily be added to a salad
at lunch and again at supper. It may be a little more difficult to disguise the corn oil in
your morning meal. So swallow your tablespoon's worth and follow
it with a glass of orange juice. Vitamin Bf, tablets can be purchased in the health foods
store in 25-milligram tablets. Just take two with each meal. Keep in mind that the oil
and B^ should be taken together and that this level of supplementation should be under
the supervision of a doctor.
Now, corn oil and 65 may not dissolve preexisting gallstones, but they might prevent
small stones from becoming large stumbling blocks in your quest for good health. By
decreasing cholesterol saturation in the bile, these natural substances may also shield
you against the development of new stones. So if you've already undergone gallbladder
surgery or know that you may be predisposed to developing gallstones, the above
routine seems worth a try.
GUM PROBLEMS CHAPTER
KEEP YOUR GUMS IN THE PINK
You don't have to watch too many television commercials for toothpaste before your
realize that teeth are the glamour items of the mouth. Shiny, white teeth are attractive,
alluring, sexy— vying with the eyes as the focal point of a winning appearance.
Those same ads never extol the virtues of healthy pink gums. After all, what could be
more unexciting than the soft, curving ridges which we take for granted and which,
almost incidentally it seems, happen to be attached to those shiny white teeth?
But gums are the very foundation of a healthy mouth, the supporting structure upon
which all else rests. Anything which weakens the gums must ultimately weaken the teeth
because the latter, though they may be solid and cavity free, are actually no stronger
than the fleshy mantle (the technical term is gingiva) that anchors them soundly to the
bony sockets of the jaw itself.
And while each tooth is encased in a tough outer protective layer called the enamel, the
gums lie exposed in all their supple softness. Each day they must face tremendous wear
and tear, bathed almost constantly in bacteria, acids and the residue of decaying food
particles. In such an environment, the gum tissue's ability to maintain, repair and
defend itself is at least a minor miracle.
For all these reasons, it's important that you pay more attention to the health of your
gums. Their appearance can tell you much about the overall state of the rest of your
body, and trouble with the gums—if left unchecked—can lead to the loss of every tooth
in your mouth.
According to Thomas L. McGuire, D.D.S., author of The Tooth Trip (Random

House/Bookworks, 1973), there are several easily recognizable features of healthy gums.
They are firm, pinkish in color, and they fill in all the spaces between the teeth. In
addition. Dr. McGuire says, ''Healthy gums have little dot-like indentations (stippling),
especially found in the areas closest to the teeth. Your gum, in these areas, should look
like the outside of an orange peel." There should also be an elevated roll or collar around
the gum where it meets the tooth.
Unhealthy gums, on the other hand, may look smooth and puffy. They often bleed
slightly after toothbrushing and show signs of inflammation—called gingivitis—around
the gum line.
Because the gums can mirror deficiencies throughout the body, they have become a
handy, though admittedly imprecise, dietary reference point. People suffering from
scurvy, the vitamin C-deficiency disease, were found to have engorged, dark red gums
that bled easily. And similar, though less severe, gingival inflammation has been
associated with deficiencies of vitamins A and D, niacin, riboflavin and bioflavonoids. At
the other extreme, excessively pale gums may be a sign of iron deficiency anemia.
Pregnancy can affect the gums, causing swelling and bleeding. And so can oral
contraceptives and certain other drugs. Heavy smokers may develop a brown
discoloration of the gums called "smokers' melanosis," which is more than just a stain
from smoking.
The Tooth Destroyer
The most serious and widespread problem affecting the gums, however, is periodontal
disease—a chronic, progressive inflam-
KEEP YOUR GUMS IN THE PINK 475
mation and infection of the gum tissue and underlying alveolar bone (jawbone). Most
medical researchers believe that the disease is caused by residual food, bacteria and
tartar deposits that collect in the tiny crevices between the gums and the necks of the
teeth. As the bacterial infection spreads deeper into the periodontal tissue surrounding
the jaw-tooth connection, the jawbone itself begins to shrink around the sockets until
teeth loosen and fall out. An estimated 75 percent of the adult U.S. population suffers
from some degree of periodontal disease, and it is the leading tooth destroyer among the
middle-aged and older.
Keeping the teeth and gums clean and free of the sticky plaque or film that can harbor
harmful bacteria is essential. Careful, effective brushing (particularly at the gum line),
along with daily between-teeth cleaning using dental floss, is the backbone of a
preventive program. But sound nutritional habits can also play a critical role.
Writing in Nutrition Today, Dominick P. DePaola, D.D.S., Ph.D., and Michael C. Alfano,
D.M.D., Ph.D., point out that the plaque which develops in the gum crevice "constitutes
one of the most dense concentrations of bacteria to which man is exposed. It is,
therefore, not surprising that the removal of this bacterial mass usually prevents the
development of inflammatory periodontal disease, or arrests it once it has begun. The
health of the periodontal tissues depends upon the balance between the virulence of the
plaque and the resistance of the host."
Nutrition is one factor that can favorably influence that balance. Drs. DePaola and
Alfano note that the cells lining the gum crevice have one of the highest turnover rates in
the body— completely renewing themselves every three to seven days. This thin lining,
or epithelial tissue, is in what they call "a continuous critical period."
"Nutritional stress during this period may impair the renewal of the epithelium and
compromise its barrier function," they warn. "Animal studies from our laboratories have
indicated that an acute deficiency of vitamin C almost doubles the ease with which
bacterial toxins can penetrate the tissues of the mouth. More recently, we have noted
similar effects on permeability caused by zinc and protein deficiencies."
C Provides the "Glue"
The need for vitamin C to cope with periodontal disease makes even more sense when
we consider that the nutrient is essential to the formation of collagen, a kind of
intercellular cement. Collagen is the glue that helps build and maintain all the
connective tissue in our bodies, including the bones and gums.
Researcher Adrian Cowan of the Royal College of Surgeons faculty of dentistry in

Ireland says that "collagen, although immensely strong, is completely inert . . . once it
starts to break down under the influence of toxins spreading from the gingival crevice, it
cannot repair itself."
To try to counteract this. Cowan gave a group of 69 patients vitamin C supplements

ranging from 1 to 3 grams (1,000 to 3,000 milligrams) daily for one to five months. The
subjects' periodontal membranes at the juncture between root, bone and gum were
examined by X ray both before and after the trials. After supplementation, the
periodontal pictures improved, indicating a strengthening of the collagen material (Irish
Journal of Medicine).
As a result, researcher Cowan is "guardedly optimistic'' that gum health can be improved
or enhanced—even in relatively normal, healthy subjects—through high doses of vitamin
C.
A classic nutrition experiment more than a quarter of a century old demonstrated a

similar link between vitamin C intake and optimum gum health. The study, carried out
by the New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station, involved more than 200
schoolchildren at six schools scattered through the state.
The selected pupils had varying degrees of gum sponginess, and initial measurements
showed that more than half had blood levels of vitamin C below the danger line. Eight of
the youngsters had no detectable vitamin C at all in their blood serum!
When the children were given 100 milligrams of supplemental vitamin C over a period
of six weeks or more, dramatic improvements were noted. The bleeding tendency of the
gums was one of the first things to disappear. Soreness and discomfort also disappeared
very rapidly. Redness faded more gradually,
KEEP YOUR GUMS IN THE PINK 477
while over a period of weeks the gum surface became more firm instead of spongy.
Infection was also reduced.
Except in cases where severe destruction of the gums had already occurred, the report
concluded, ''there was apparently complete reversal of all abnormal changes if vitamin C
was given in adequate quantity for a sufficient length of time."
Folate Reduces Infection Rate
Vitamin C isn't the only nutrient that has been proven effective in resisting the ravages
of gum disease. Folate (folic acid), one of the B vitamins, has also scored some
impressive results.
In a study conducted by Richard I. Vogel, D.M.D., of the New Jersey Dental School in
Newark, and several others, supplementary folate was given to one group of subjects for
30 days. Another group received a placebo, or dummy pill. The gum health of both
groups was measured at the start and finish of the study.
Both groups scored the same at the beginning, but after 30 days those in the folate
group had significantly lower levels of gingival exudate. That's the technical term for the
fluid which flows from the gum margins and is associated with infection and
inflammation. In fact, the subjects taking folate had 50 percent less exudate flow than
those in the unsupplemented group (Journal of Periodontology). And this improvement
took place even though plaque levels in the mouth stayed about the same.
Although blood tests indicated that none of the people had been suffering from an
outright folate lack at the start of the trial, the authors state, "We can only conclude that
there may be a deficiency at the end organ level" (in other words, in the gums).
The amounts of folate used in the study (4 milligrams daily) were far in excess of the
Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of 400 micrograms (0.4 milligrams) daily set
by the federal government. And even that amount might be hard to obtain from some
foods, since the authors note that from 50 to 95 percent
of the folate in vegetables and other foods is destroyed in cooking, canning and other
processing.
In another study, Dr. Vogel and several associates demonstrated that folate also may
help protect the gums of women taking oral contraceptives. Pill users receiving 4
milligrams of folate daily had significantly less gingival inflammation after 60 days than
others who took no extra folate (Journal of Dental Research).
Preventing Bone Loss
It may turn out that part of vitamin C's beneficial effect may be traced to its influence on
the jawbone. Animal studies at the Harvard school of dental medicine show that vitamin
C inhibits bone resorption, or shrinkage, by 50 percent or more. The Harvard
researchers suggest that vitamin C "plays a heretofore unrecognized but prominent role
in the regulation of bone resorption as well as bone formation" (Journal of Dental
Research).
Another factor to keep in mind: Cigarette smoking apparently can intensify the
periodontal disease process. Other researchers at Harvard found, after studying 684
healthy men, that smokers had greater bone loss in the jaw and a much higher
percentage of loose teeth than nonsmokers (Dental Survey).
So next time a toothpaste commercial tries to tell you that the key to happiness in life
and love is whiter teeth, remember the real foundation of a healthy mouth. And take the
necessary steps—including sound cleaning habits and an adequate intake of nutrients—
to keep your gums firmly in the pink.
HAIR PROBLEMS CHAPTER
NOURISHING (AND CHERISHING) YOUR HAIR
Want to do something nice for your hair and scalp? Let your organic vegetables go to
your head. Literally. A glob of fresh, raw carrots applied to your noggin gives your scalp
a fresh tingling feeling and your hair a nice luster, body and bounce.
So says hairdresser Monsieur Jacques, who grows vegetables in his back yard in Queens
to use on the heads of his customers—after whirling in a blender (the vegetables, not the
heads). Monsieur Jacques, whose New York shop carries his name, firmly believes that
the fresh vitamins and minerals in fresh vegetables do almost as much good externally
as internally. His convictions come not from laboratory studies on animals but from
observations on humans, he told us. One good-size cut-up carrot goes into the blender
with a little water and an herbal shampoo. The resulting foamy puree is massaged gently
into the scalp and left on for a few minutes, then rinsed at least twice. This is great for
oily hair, says Monsieur Jacques. For dry hair, he used a puree of avocado. And for
normal hair, celery, string beans or cucumbers. And then there's invigorating mint,
which is used to stimulate circulation. Customers like it so much that
they bring their own bottles to take some vegetable shampoo home with them.
Monsieur Jacques got the idea for salads on the hair when he observed Arab women
mashing fresh olives and wild green beans into a paste and combing it through their
long, dark, beautiful hair.
Perhaps the most popular of all the foods that are applied to the hair is the egg. Whip
two or three to a frothy foam and use as a shampoo for dry hair. This is a protein-rich
cleansing shampoo that, with regular use, gives body and a lovely natural luster to your
tresses, says Madame Reti, a New York hair specialist.
Panthenol Thickens Hair
Eggs are a rich source of panthothenate (pantothenic acid), which might explain the
effectiveness of panthenol, a form of pantothenate, the anti-stress vitamin. Pantothenate
is essential to the body's ability to utilize protein, which is what hair is all about.
Panthenol thickens or swells the cuticle covering on the hair by up to 10 percent,
whereas water alone under the same conditions swells hair by less than 1 percent. This
was determined by examination under an electron microscope in a study conducted by
an independent laboratory for Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc., of New Jersey (Drug and
Cosmetic Industry).
The studies also demonstrate the ability of panthenol to repair hair damage like split
ends, fly-away hair and general weakening of the hair shaft, conditions that are caused
by chemicals, hot-air drying, vigorous brushing, combing and other environmental
effects, a representative of Hoffman-La Roche told us.
Panthenol owes its effectiveness to more than the fact that it swells the hair. It also acts
as a moisturizer, thus giving each hair the ability to retain moisture longer. It was
determined, too, that panthenol penetrates into the hair shaft, leaving a thin elastic
NOURISHING YOUR HAIR 481

film which contributes to a thick, bouncy look. It also seems to make hair much easier to
comb and set. This may be a boon for curly heads, for those with kinky hair and for
children who hate to have their hair combed. Panthenol may not make you a double for
Farrah Fawcett, but it can give your hair a nice luster and a healthy, vibrant look.
So if you would rather have your eggs sunny-side up on a plate and your vegetables and
mayonnaise in your salad, you might enjoy the effects of panthenol on your hair. It
comes in sprays, shampoos and conditioners. Scientists have found that it repairs
damaged hair most effectively when applied as a leave-on conditioner. Every hair
specialist we interviewed for this book stocks it.
While panthenol can do many nice things for the hair you have, don't expect it to grow
hair on a bald head.
Other Nutritional Aids
Low serum iron may be a contributing factor to hair loss among women, says Irwin
Lubowe, M.D., a New York dermatologist. Eat more liver or take iron tablets and folate
(folic acid), which is also very important to healthy hair.
Some women lose their hair when they go on the Pill. Hair loss may continue for several
weeks after the Pill is discontinued. Dr. Lubowe advises discontinuing the Pill when hair
loss is associated with its use.
A. L. Leiby, M.D., a dermatologist in Akron, Ohio, finds that hair loss brought on by the
Pill can sometimes be treated effectively with vitamin B^. The hormones present in oral
contraceptives have been associated with a deficiency of this vitamin, which is essential
to the health of hair iSkin and Alleri^y News).
Loss of hair is also known to occur following the use of methotrexate, an anti-cancer
drug which has a damaging effect on the metabolism of folate, a B vitamin important to
the blood.
It is recommended by Dr. Lubowe as an additional supplement which may favorably

affect hair growth.
Dr. Lubowe, who believes that many factors affecting the health of the body can affect
hair fall, gives his patients a complete blood and hair analysis and then prescribes
accordingly.
A high-protein diet and large amounts of all the B vitamins, with special emphasis on
inositol and folate, are important, he told us. He also suggests a daily zinc supplement
along with other trace minerals.
HAY FEVER CHAPTER

VITAMINS
TO NEUTRALIZE HAY FEVER
He was recently out of college, tall and handsome. One would have thought he spent his
summers chasing girls on the beach or tennis balls on the court. Instead, he weathered
the fair season indoors, staring through a closed window at the revelers in the sun. He
knew from experience that only the first frost would free him from his air-conditioned
prison, for frost would kill the ragweed that caused his debilitating hay fever.
Meanwhile, he took prescription antihistamines—eight a day, which was the most his
doctor would allow. Still he suffered.
Finally, he took the advice of friends and went to see Brian Leibovitz, a nutritional
consultant in Portland, Oregon. Leibov-itz recommended a nutritional program that
included taking 6 grams of citrus bioflavonoids every day.
A few weeks later—''during the height of the hay fever season that year," as Leibovitz
recalls—the young man no longer required drugs to control his symptoms.
'That was two summers ago, and he's still doing well. He's probably outside right now,
without an extra handkerchief or six in his pocket."
All of the symptoms of hay fever—the red, watery eyes, constantly runny nose, perpetual
sneezing, intermittent conges-
tion and even the asthma that characterizes the disease at its most severe—are caused by
histamine. Histamine is a potent natural compound released when the immune system
responds to an allergy-provoking substance. A relatively benign piece of ragweed pollen
(or anything else) can set off an alarm in a sensitive person. Your body reacts as if you
had a cold when there are no germs present.
Happily, hay fever has something else in common with the cold: Both respond to
treatment with vitamin C. That's because vitamin C is a natural antihistamine.
A Natural Antihistamine
In a series of studies, researchers at the department of obstetrics and gynecology at

Methodist Hospital, in Brooklyn, found that blood levels of vitamin C bore an inverse
relationship to blood levels of histamine; as one went up, the other went down, and vice
versa. ''Persons with low plasma ascorbate [vitamin C] levels have high histamine
levels," the researchers noted after processing blood samples from 400 healthy
volunteers.
Next, the researchers took 11 with low levels of vitamin C or high levels of histamines
and placed them on a program of vitamin C supplementation.
Improvement was rapid, occurring within three days. "It would seem that ascorbic acid
[vitamin C] deficiency is one of the most common causes for an elevated blood
histamine level, as all 11 of the volunteers given one gram of ascorbic acid daily for three
days showed a reduction in blood histamine" {Journal of Nutrition, April, 1980).
"The need for vitamin C seems to be greater in some allergic patients," agrees clinical
nutritionist Lynn Dart, a registered dietitian. In her work as manager of the nutrition
department at the Environmental Healthy Center in Dallas, Ms. Dart has found that
large doses of vitamin C are sometimes quite effective.
"The average allergy sufferer with a vitamin C deficiency usually responds to 4 to 8

grams a day when trying to either
VITAMINS FOR HAY FEVER 485
Stave off a reaction or clear up a reaction in progress," she told us.
The responses of his own patients in Bennington, Vermont, have convinced Stuart
Freyer, M.D., of the same thing.
"The hay fever season in Vermont can be pretty severe," says Dr. Freyer, who has
emphasized nutritional therapy for 6 of the 12 years he's been a practicing
otorhinolaryngologist (ear-nose-throat specialist). He gives his hay fever patients
"relatively high amounts of vitamin C. Five grams or more is typical." But when advising
his patients to take that much vitamin C, he cautions them to increase their calcium
supplementation as well.
"High levels of vitamin C may bind with calcium and pull it out of the bones, then flush
it out in the urine when the body discards any excess vitamin C. Vitamin C may also
combine with calcium in the diet to interfere with absorption.
"There really should be no problem with calcium deficiency if a person either uses
vitamin C in its calcium ascorbate form rather than its simple ascorbic acid form, or if
the ascorbic acid is supplemented with adequate amounts of bone meal or dolomite. I
usually recommend my patients take 400 to 600 milligrams of calcium a day during hay
fever season."
Dr. Freyer has also found that vitamin C works better when his patients take B-complex
vitamins, especially pantothenate, along with it.
"I recommend 200 to 500 milligrams of pantothenate, plus another 50 milligrams of B

complex," he says. "Sometimes, when a patient has impaired absorption—and many
people with allergies do—I also give them pancreatic enzymes. These help to break down
the foods so vitamins can be absorbed better."
Vitamin C Works Best with Bioflavonoids
And if you really want to get the most out of your vitamin C during hay fever season,
take it with citrus bioflavonoids, as
well. Studies done on animals have shown that citrus bioflavonoids may favorably alter
the body's metabolizing of vitamin C by raising the concentration of the nutrient in
certain tissues and enhancing its bioavailability {American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,
August, 1979).
In his own work, nutritionist Leibovitz has found citrus bioflavonoids are the answer to
many a hay fever victim's prayers.
"More than once, I've had a hay fever patient who did not respond to vitamin C recover
when given citrus bioflavonoids," he says. Early in his career as a nutritionist, Leibovitz
worked with Linus Pauling, Ph.D., on studies with vitamin C. In his own research, done
while a graduate student majoring in biology at the University of Oregon, Leibovitz
found that large doses of vitamin C significantly reduced the mortality rate of mice with
laboratory-induced anaphylaxis, a potentially fatal allergic response. In a paper
delivered at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society, in Houston, in
March, 1980, Leibovitz concluded that ''these results suggest the possible use of ascorbic
acid in human immediate-type hypersensitivities (allergy, asthma, anaphylaxis)."
Anaphylaxis isn't the only type of allergic reaction that may be fatal; a person could die
from an asthma attack, too. And, "left untreated, hay fever can develop into asthma,"
according to a spokesman at the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases,
in Bethesda, Maryland. "Actually, 'hay fever' is something of a misnomer because it isn't
caused by hay and it isn't characterized by fever. Basically, when it occurs in the nose,
it's called allergic rhinitis."
Asthma, Leibovitz notes, responds even better to citrus bioflavonoids than allergic
rhinitis does. "In fact, a standard treatment for asthma, a drug called cromolyn sodium,
is nothing more than a synthetic bioflavonoidlike molecule," he told us. "I found cirtus
bioflavonoids work just as well for people with hay-fever-induced asthma.
Another thing that seems to help some patients is vitamin E, and findings by a Japanese
researcher concur that vitamin E exhibits antihistamine properties.
VITAMINS FOR HAY FEVER 487
After he injected 20 volunteers with histamine, Mitsuo Ka-mimura, of the department of

dermatology at Sapporo Medical College, noted the skin around the injection site
swelled up. However, when he gave the volunteers 300-milligram doses of vitamin E
daily for five to seven days before injecting them with histamine, there was far less
swelling than before (Journal of Vitaminology). Finally, Leibovitz rounds out his
program by telling his patients to give up junk food and cigarettes. Dr. Freyer does the
same.
''Smoking, in particular, increases the need for vitamin C," says Dr. Freyer. "Smoking is
an irritant; it is also an allergen. Smoking is madness for anyone who suffers from hay
fever."
But if you do smoke, Dr. Freyer cautions that hay fever season is, ironically, not the best
time to quit. "Any change in your routine, your daily habits, is bound to cause stress—
and stress will often aggravate an allergic reaction. I always advise my patients to go
easy on themselves at this time of year."
So take it easy and breathe easy. A positive outlook, supplemented by vitamin C,

bioflavonoids, pantothenate and vitamin E may be just what the doctor ordered. Just
because there is pollen outside is no reason you can't be out there, too.
HEALING PROBLEMS CHAPTER
NUTRIENTS THAT HELP YOUR BODY HEAL ITSELF
Imagine you were alive at the time of Homer's Greece, and in the heat of battle you
caught a bronze-tipped arrow in the thigh. A valient friend, carrying you on his back,
managed to drag you off the battlefield and into the klisia, or medic's hut, before you
passed out. What sort of first aid could you expect once you were there?
Well, if Homer's Iliad and Odyssey are any clues to ancient Grecian medical practice,
you'd probably get: a seat, lots of storytelling, perhaps a cup of wine sprinkled with
grated goat cheese and barley meal, served by a beautiful woman; and eventually your
wound would be washed out with warm water. To stanch the blood, you'd receive their
most popular remedy— someone would recite a charm or sing a song over the injury. So
much for the Red Cross.
Considering the amount of fighting the ancients did—and their crude, if poetic, ways of
treating deadly wounds—it's a wonder any of us are alive today. But (at least so far) the
body's power of self-healing is greater than man's power of self-destruction. As one
modern-day researcher has put it: "If the body were
HELP YOUR BODY HEAL ITSELF 489
not wise, man could not survive. Every cell, tissue, organ and system is programmed to
heal. . . . The only reason we make it is that for every injury there is a healing response."
The healing of wounds is a process so intricate and marvelous that much of it remains a
mystery today. But one thing is becoming increasingly certain: When your body is on the
mend, whether it be from major surgery or a nicked knuckle, good nutrition can do a
whole lot to help it heal than telling a story or singing it a song.
"I do believe that everyone should know the beautiful deeds of which his or her tissues
are capable," writes Guido Majno, M.D., describing the physiological wonders of wound
healing in his delightful book The Healing Hand: Man and Wound in the Ancient
Wo/7J(Harvard University Press, 1975). Those beautiful deeds include the ability to
clean up the terrible mess caused by a wound, to fight off the invading hordes of
bacteria, and to set about building brand-new tissues and blood vessels.
Stepped-Up Demand
All this frantic activity at the site of the wound causes a stepped-up demand for
carbohydrates, fats, minerals, vitamins, water, oxygen and—absolutely essential—amino
acids, the famous building blocks of protein. And proteins are the bricks, boards and
shingles of which the whole repair job is built.
In fact, ''even more or less minor wounds require a good nutritional state and normal
protein metabolism for optimal wound healing to take place," says Sheldon V. Pollack,
M.D., chief of dermatologic surgery at Duke University medical center. Besides slowing
down the reconstruction of tissues, protein deficiency can also impair the body's ability
to protect itself from infection. Dr. Pollack observes. So when you're recovering from
injury, it's doubly important to make sure your diet includes plenty of protein-rich foods
such as fish, milk, eggs, liver and wheat germ.
Injury also steps up the body's demand for certain nutrients, particularly vitamin C—a
little hero of healing power. Researchers have shown many times that "a deficiency of
vitamin C impairs wound healing in experimental lower animals and human beings and
... an excess accelerates healing above the normal level/' write W. M. Ringsdorf, Jr.,
D.M.D., and E. Cheraskin, M.D., of the University of Alabama school of dentistry.
Vitamin C is a star in the cellular dramas of wound healing because it regulates the
formation of collagen. When the cat nips your hand. Dr. Majno explains, the wound is
repaired "not with the original tissue, but with a material that is biologically simple,
cheap and handy: connective tissue ... a soft but tough kind of tissue, specialized for
mechanical functions, primarily that of holding us together; it fills the spaces in and
around all other tissues."
Because the creation of collagen depends on vitamin C, a deficiency can disturb the
''architecture" of that connective-tissue repair job and delay the completion of the whole
healing project. In one study, vitamin C deficiency in human cells decreased collagen
production by 18 percent according to one biological measurement and by 75 percent
according to another measurement {American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, March,
1981.)
In another experiment, designed by Drs. Cheraskin and Ringsdorf, two gallant dental
students with normal vitamin C levels each allowed the dentists to remove a tiny plug of
tissue from their gums. In order to precisely measure the speed of healing, the wound
was painted with a blue dye and photographed each day until the blue dot (indicating
unhealed tissue) disappeared. After a two-week rest, the students had another plug
extracted from their gums—but this time, they also took 250 milligrams of vitamin C
with each meal and at bedtime (for a total of 1 gram daily).
A comparison of the healing sequences in both cases showed that the vitamin C-
supplemented wounds healed 40 percent faster than those made when the students
were eating a "normal" diet. When the experiment was repeated using a daily dosage of
2
grams of vitamin C, the wounds healed 50 percent faster (Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine,
Oral Pathology, March, 1982).
Actually, vitamin C's healing power has been recognized for decades. In the 1940s, A. H.
Hunt reported that wound disruption or breakage had been reduced by 75 percent since
doctors at St. Bartholomew's Hopital in London began routinely administering vitamin
C to all patients having abdominal operations. Over a period of 30 months. Hunt
observed that "leakage from suture lines has occurred in but one of a large number of
operations."
In a British study, vitamin C's effect on the healing of bedsores was studied. Twenty
surgical patients suffering from bedsores were divided into two groups: One group was
given two 500-milligram vitamin C supplements daily, the other was given two placebos
(or chemically worthless pills). After a month, precise measurements of the wounds
showed that the bedsores in the vitamin C group had decreased in size by 84 percent;
the placebo group showed only a 42.7 percent decrease. 'Tt is well established that in
scurvy [vitamin C-deficiency disease] wound healing is delayed and that the healing
process may fail completely," the scientists observed (Lancet).
Injury Drains Vitamin C
When you're recovering from any kind of injury, it's also crucial to keep your diet
vitamin C-rich because injury drains your body's supply. In one study, researchers found
that vitamin C levels in the white blood cells of surgical patients had dropped by 42
percent three days after surgery (Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics). Drs. Ringsdorf
and Cheraskin suggest that this and other studies showing a drop in vitamin C levels
may indicate that "during postsurgical recovery the vitamin C in the body migrates
toward and concentrates in the healing site."
Whatever the case. Duke's Dr. Pollack told us, "If you're recovering from injury and
you're seriously ill, elderly, don't eat
properly or otherwise have low vitamin C levels, it would be wise to take 1 or 2 grams of
vitamin C a day."
Although the details of its role in wound healing aren't very well understood, vitamin A
is known to be a player in collagen formation, wound closure and infection fighting. A
plentiful supply of vitamin A can also help ensure that the new tissue that forms across
the wound is strong and resistant to breaking, according to studies at the University of
Illinois department of food science.
The Illinois investigators explored the effects of beta-carotene (a substance that the body
turns into vitamin A) and retinoic acid and retinyl acetate (two chemical forms of
vitamin A) on the healing of wounds in rats with marginal vitamin A levels. The animals
were fed a vitamin A-free diet for two weeks, then divided into groups: One received a
basal diet, which provided a known amount of vitamin A, and the other received the
basal diet plus one of the three vitamin A substances.
Five days later, when the animals were sacrificed and their wounds examined, it was
discovered that the supplemental retinyl acetate and beta-carotene "resulted in
increases of 35 percent and 70 percent, respectively, over the wound tensil strength
[resistance to being torn open] of rats fed the basal level of vitamin A" {Federation
Proceedings, no. 3453, March 1, 1981).
Diabetics very often suffer from slowly healing wounds, a problem that can be worsened
by another problem: They're also more apt to pick up infections. But in a study
conducted by researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York City,
supplemental vitamin A was shown to increase wound strength in diabetic animals. The
researchers also believe that vitamin A helps fight wound infections.
The researchers concluded that vitamin A works to strengthen wounds mainly by

increasing the accumulation of collagen. "We believe that just as supplemental vitamin
A improves immune responses of traumatized animals and surgical patients, it will be
especially useful in preventing wound infection and promoting wound healing in
surgical diabetic patients," they observed (An-ncds of Surgery, July, 1981).
Thiamine and Vitamin E: A Little Help from Your Friends
There is also growing evidence that at least some of the B-complex vitamins are involved
in human wound healing. In one study, experimental animals fed diets rich in thiamine
(vitamin Bi) were found to have heavier, denser granulation tissue (new tissue formed
during wound repair) than those on deficient diets.
Based on thiamine's known biological activities in the body, the researchers concluded it
probably aids healing by helping the body step up its energy metabolism at the healing
site, where the furious breakdown and buildup of cells requires tremendous amounts of
usable fuel {Journal of Surgical Research, January, 1982).
But no survey of nutrition and wound healing would be complete without mention of
vitamin E.
Wilfrid E. Shute, M.D., a veteran vitamin E researcher, reported that vitamin E helps
accelerate wound healing, is ''the ideal treatment for burns" because of its ability to limit
cell death to those cells that have been killed by the burning agent, and can even reduce
old scar tissue when applied directly. Keloids, or progressively enlarging, raised scars
caused by overproduction of collagen during the healing process, can be prevented by
taking vitamin E orally and also applying it directly to the fresh wound. Dr. Shute says.
Not everyone agrees. Dr. Pollack, while observing that ''there is some data to suggest
that vitamin E can promote wound healing," told us that "the research is still kind of up
in the air . . . we just don't know the precise role, if any, that vitamin E plays in wound
healing."
But meanwhile, next time you peel your knuckle along with the potato—or catch a
Grecian arrow in the thigh—you might give nutrition a try. It could just be your body
knows some things your doctor doesn't.
HEART DISEASE CHAPTER
PLATELETS—LITTLE LIFESAVERS THAT CAN KILL YOU
If you've ever seen a Western movie, you know the story. There are good guys and bad
guys. The good guys—the sheriff and his men—are devoted to the law. They're always
ready to go where needed, well organized and effective. They work well together.
The bad guys are dedicated, too—to mischief and mayhem. Any time they put their
heads together, you know there's going to be trouble.
In real life, of course, things are rarely that simple. After rounding up the villains, on
occasion, the sheriff and his posse just might spend a couple hours too many in the local
saloon— and then set half the town on fire.
When you think about health and disease, it's all too easy to look for the same pattern:
the bad guys (invading bacteria, harmful chemicals and similar sinister forces) against
the good guys (strong drugs and the body's own defenses). But here, too, the truth
appears to be that it's often the upright citizens who turn into the lawless mob.
Normally, those tiny, blank-faced blood cells called platelets are your body's way of
keeping bloodshed to a minimum. After
PLATELETS AND YOUR HEART 495
any injury, they pile on top of one another to form a hving wall, the nucleus of a clot that
brings bleeding under control. Were platelets not on the job, any minor mishap could
turn into a major catastrophe. Properly functioning, they are lifesaving.
Functioning improperly, however,they can be life threatening. Time and again, when
researchers investigate trouble in the heart and circulatory system, they find platelets in
the midst of it. Strong evidence links platelet problems with heart attack and stroke and
with blood clots that often follow surgery and that threaten women who use birth
control pills.
When agonizing migraine headaches are about to strike, doctors have found, platelets
begin acting strangely. Abnormal platelet activity has been associated with the
complications of diabetes, too, and with the rejection of organ transplants. According to
one theory, platelets play an important role in the development of atherosclerosis—
clogging and hardening of the arteries.
The big question, obviously, is this: How can we keep platelets on the job but out of
trouble?
Before we can attempt an answer, we need a better understanding of the problem.

Which means asking another question. What are platelets supposed to do—and what
makes them go wrong?
Ordinarily, platelets float peacefully and independently in the bloodstream, right

alongside the red blood cells, which carry oxygen, and the white cells, which defend the
body against invaders. A slip of the paring knife or a fall from your bike, however, lets
blood out of the bloodstream—and sends platelets into action.
Instead of flowing freely out of the wound, platelets begin sticking to the injured blood
vessel and to each other. This is called platelet aggregation, and it resembles the way
logs and twigs swept down a river may start to pile up at a snag.
What happens next is very important and a bit more complicated. The platelets don't
just lie there like a growing pile of logs; when they aggregate, they release a host of
chemicals, including highly active enzymes and hormonelike substances called

prostaglandins. Some of these chemicals make that loose bunch of platelets cling
together much more firmly. That jumble of logs and twigs tightens up into a real dam.
Soon other clotting materials are deposited by the blood; a safe, solid clot puts a stop to
bleeding, and all is well.
All is not well, however, when platelets get carried away in the performance of their
duties—when, without waiting for the proper occasion, they start to clump together on
their own or congregate on the walls of veins and arteries.
Why does this happen? No one can say for sure, but a lot of recent attention has focused
on the chemistry of the process. Some of the chemicals released by aggregating platelets,
it seems, can go either of two ways. They can be converted into substances that promote
clotting or substances that prevent it. When a platelet collides with the wall of an artery,
for example, it releases its chemicals and an enzyme in the artery wall turns them into
prostacyclin, which prevents platelets from clumping together— a natural protection
against blood clots inside the vessels.
Normally, there's a balance between clot-promoting and clot-preventing chemicals,

scientists speculate. It's an imbalance that causes dangerous, unnecessary clots.
The exact mechanism may be unclear, but there's nothing indefinite about the results
when platelets clump together too easily. Often, this happens after surgery. Immobilized
in bed, a patient may develop a blood clot in a vein of his leg. This is painful enough, but
if the clot breaks off and travels up to his heart, lung or brain, it may threaten his life.
When platelets adhere to the artery wall, according to one widely held theory, it sets into
motion the process that causes atherosclerosis. Less dramatic than a blood clot, but just
as dangerous.
There's a connection between sticky platelets and strokes, according to a Kansas

University medical center research team that tested the blood of 59 stroke victims and
15 healthy controls. They found that, in the younger group, platelets of stroke victims
had a heightened tendency to aggregate.
"This leads us to suggest that the treatment of platelet hy-peraggregability (the

increased tendency to clump together) is a reasonable thing in the prevention of stroke,"
said researcher James R. Couch, M.D.
Clumps of platelets are a prime suspect when a heart attack takes place, too. Even if they
are too small to block a vessel, according to one theory, they can fatally disrupt the
electrical impulses that keep the heart functioning normally. The platelets of recent
heart attack victims, studies have found, do show an increased tendency to stick
together.
One recent study offers an especially ominous finding: 20 percent of people killed
instantaneously in car accidents (whose death, that is, was not caused by bad health)
had tiny clots forming in the veins of their legs. These silent thrombi (thrombi are blood
clots; these are called silent because they give no sign of their presence) suggest that
platelet problems are far from rare.
Obviously, there's a lot to be said for keeping platelets in line. But is it possible?
Doctors and scientists have long been intrigued by the question. For years, they have
used anticoagulant drugs (drugs that keep the blood from clotting) to prevent strokes.
Right now, two major studies are investigating whether aspirin, which inhibits platelet
aggregation, can decrease the risk of heart attack and stroke.
But there are problems. Because they are so effective in preventing clotting,
anticoagulants can cause dangerous bleeding. Aspirin often causes stomach bleeding,
too. And, it has been suggested, as aspirin slows down platelet function, it also interferes
with other aspects of body chemistry.
A long history of experimentation, however, suggests that it is possible to keep platelet

activity under control without powerful drugs and their dangerous side effects—by
natural, nutritional means. These can restore the chemical balance necessary for normal
platelet activity and enhance the body's own protective mechanisms.
If you know your vitamins, it won't surprise you to hear vitamin E mentioned in this
regard, first and foremost. More than a quarter of a century ago, Alton Ochsner, M.D.,
famed surgeon and teacher at the Tulane University school of medicine, started giving
his patients large daily doses of vitamin E. The result: Blood clots, always a danger after
surgery, became rare on his wards.
Since then, a lengthening series of experiments has been able to zero in on vitamin E's
ability to cut down on blood clots: It works, they say, by discouraging platelets from
clumping together.
In two young patients, a recent study found, a deficiency of vitamin E produced an

abnormal tendency toward platelet aggregation. High doses of the vitamin brought
platelet activity back to normal. In another study, researchers gave healthy volunteers
daily doses of vitamin E. Here, too, the supplements kept platelet clumping to a
minimum.
How does vitamin E keep platelets in their place? The process is not fully understood,
but Manfred Steiner, M.D., a professor of medicine at Brown University, suggests it
interrupts the chain of clotting events at the crucial point of the release reaction —the
point at which the loose bunch of platelets hardens into a solid mass. Vitamin E ''has a
definite inhibitory action on the platelet release reaction," says Dr. Steiner. It steps in to
prevent the formation of those potent chemicals that bond platelets to each other.
Another nutrient with the ability to prevent blood clots and protect against heart disease
is vitamin C. And here, too, it seems that at least part of its power lies in its ability to
regulate the reactions of platelets.
In England, Constance Leslie, M.D., gave 1 gram daily of vitamin C to 30 patients who
had had operations that left them particularly vulnerable to clots. A similar group
received no vitamin C. Patients in the vitamin C group, she reported, suffered only half
as many incidents of deep-vein thrombosis as the unprotected patients. And when clots
did form, they were less severe.
Powerful Protective Action
Elsewhere in her hospital, years of experience demonstrated that "vitamin C has a

powerful protective action against thrombosis," Dr. Leslie added. The burn unit of the
hospital had, as a routine practice, given all patients 1 gram daily of vitamin C since
opening seven years earlier. "Only one death from pulmonary embolism (blood clot in
the lung) has been recorded, and no cases of clinical deep-vein thrombosis have
occurred for at least SVi years,'' wrote Dr. Leslie (Lancet).
While Dr. Leslie could offer no explanation of vitamin C's "powerful protective action
against thrombosis," two recent experiments suggest that, as with vitamin E, control of
platelets is the heart of the matter.
When a team of researchers led by Kay E. Sarji, Ph.D., and John A. Colwell, M.D., at the
Veterans Administration Hospital at Charleston, South Carolina, tested the platelets of
diabetics, they found two things. The platelets were abnormally sensitive to aggregating
agents—they clumped together too easily—and they had low levels of vitamin C. This
excessive stickiness. Dr. Sarji told us, may contribute to the development of
complications of diabetes. "When platelets are more adhesive than normal, you may be
more likely to develop thrombosis," she said, "and many of these complications are
related to thrombosis."
When Dr. Sarji and her colleagues took plasma samples from normal subjects and added
vitamin C to them, a striking change took place: The tendency of the platelets to clump
together was much reduced.
To investigate further the effect of vitamin C on platelet clumping, Dr. Sarji gave oral
doses to eight healthy nonsmoking men—2 grams daily for a week. Here, too, their
platelets became significantly less sticky—less prone to clump together.
At the Louisiana State University school of medicine, in New Orleans, another study had
similar results. A research team lead by Alfredo Lopez, M.D., Ph.D., added vitamin C to
blood samples and gave oral doses of vitamin C to 12 healthy students.

In both cases. Dr. Lopez reported, there was a consistent increase in the lag time of
platelet aggregation induced by collagen—a substance that normally makes platelets
clump.
"The adherence of the platelets to the collagen is impaired," Dr. Lopez explained to us.
'Tt takes longer for them to stick."
This could have very important implications. According to one theory, platelets
clumping on artery walls is the first step in the formation of the dangerous blood clots
that accompany atherosclerosis. The deterioration of the artery wall exposes collagen,
which is in the connective tissue below the wall layer. When platelets adhere to the
collagen, the process that leads to thrombosis is set in motion. Dr. Lopez's study
indicates that vitamin C inhibits platelets' adherence to collagen,
"If that theory is correct, this inhibition could be highly significant," Dr. Lopez says.
How does vitamin C discourage platelets from aggregating too easily? One explanation,
which Dr. Sarji cautions is ''highly speculative," involves prostaglandins, those very
potent chemicals that have a strong influence on platelet behavior.
"Platelets produce chemicals that can be turned into thromboxane, which causes
aggregation, or prostacyclin, which inhibits aggregation. Possibly, vitamin C shifts the
pathway, to favor the production of prostacyclin," she says. In other words, vitamin C
may help your body produce its natural protective substances.
HORMONE IMBALANCE CHAPTER
VITAMINS
FOR A HEALTHY HORMONAL SYSTEM
In the lakes near Mexico City lives a salamander called the axolotl. It looks rather like an
overgrown tadpole and looks that way all its life, unless it's fed large amounts of the
hormone thyroxine. That is the hormone responsible for the natural development of
frogs from tadpoles. Thyroxine fed to the growing axolotl triggers the same action in that
animal, and it sprouts legs. A comparable feat would be if humans could take pills to
grow wings.
All of which seems more appropriate for a third-grade science unit than a health book
unless, perhaps, you have a 13-year-old son or daughter. The enormous physical and
emotional changes everyone experiences in the process of puberty and maturation are
little less extraordinary than sprouting wings, if you think about it, and are entirely
controlled by the secretion of hormones in the blood by the glands of the body.
The endocrine glands manufacture hormones which are involved in reproduction, in the
body's physical reactions to danger, in the mechanisms that maintain a constant
temperature in the body, in the process of growth and even, some scientists suspect, in
the prevention of psychiatric disorders like depression.
Given such a central role, it's no surprise that a number of vitamins, and good nutrition
in general, are vital to the healthy functioning of the endocrine glands.
Vitamins and the Adrenals
Many of the interactions between nutrients and the endocrine system have only recently
been discovered, however, and many are not yet fully understood. Vitamin C, for
example, is highly concentrated in the thyroid, but scientists don't know exactly what
the vitamin C is doing there. It's clear, though, that the vitamin is necessary for the
proper functioning of the glands.
The adrenal glands, perched atop the kidneys, are involved in the regulation of
metabolism and the body's reactions to stress. When we are subjected to stress, the
stores of vitamin C in the adrenals are depleted. When the glands are stimulated to
produce hormones for an extended period of time, the stores of vitamin C can disappear
completely, as if they had been used up. Many of the symptoms of scurvy (the classic
vitamin C-deficiency disease), such as fatigue, weakness, impaired digestion and an
inability to tolerate stress, are strikingly similar to the symptoms of adrenal failure.
Researchers have found that a decline in the production of certain hormones by the
adrenals in old age can be partially restored by vitamin C.
For whatever reason, vitamin C is obviously important. There is also evidence that both
vitamin A and riboflavin deficiencies can disrupt the healthy functioning of the adrenal
glands.
Vitamin A is closely associated with the health of the thymus. Scientists working at the
Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York found that mice under stress suffered a
shrinking of the thymus gland. When the mice were fed vitamin A, the losses were not as
severe, and vitamin A also sped the recovery of thymus weight after the stress was
removed. Later studies showed that stress caused a loss of vitamin A in the thymus
(Federation Proceedings).
A HEALTHY HORMONAL SYSTEM 503
And when the stress came in the form of cancer cells inoculated into the mice's bodies,
vitamin A continued to boost the action of the thymus. Vitamin A minimized the
degeneration of the thymus, which occurred with the development of cancer in the body,
and speeded recovery of the gland when tumors were surgically removed. As part of a
strong immune system, vitamin A seems a crucial factor in the whole anti-cancer
defense structure.
That's just another example of an obvious pattern. Whether they act directly on a gland,
boost the action of its hormones or operate in a way that we haven't yet figured out,
vitamins A and C are indispensable to the health of the glandular system. It's up to us to
make sure we get the right nutrients in the proper amounts to keep the system purring.
INFERTILITY CHAPTER
VITAMINS FOR WEAK SEED
Even men with normal amounts of sperm have their share of duds and weakHngs. It's
not uncommon for as much as 40 percent of their sperm to be slow swimmers or
abnormally shaped. So while millions of sperm may start the journey to the egg, only a
choice few actually reach their destination, and only one wins the prize.
Or—in more and more cases—none. Fertility specialists, who once concentrated mainly
on the woman when pregnancy failed to occur, now are finding that male infertility is
increasing in frequency. In fact, the number of sperm that men are producing has
dropped by almost half during the last 30 years, according to several studies—from 107
million per measured unit (a milliliter, or one-thousandth of a liter) to 62 million per
unit. Not that 62 million is bad. It'll do the job. But in this case, more is definitely better.
Because the implications of the sperm decline can have far-reaching effects for future
generations, scientists are anxious to get to the bottom of it.
Some researchers now think toxic chemicals should be considered as one of the culprits.
They point out that, during the
WEAK SEED 505
same 30 years sperm counts have been declining, our use of these substances has
steadily increased, with thousands entering the environment each year.
One researcher who agrees with that theory is Ralph C. Dougherty, Ph.D., professor of
chemistry at Florida State University in Tallahassee. "We are much too casual about the
chemicals we introduce into our environment," says Dr. Dougherty. And he should
know.
Dr. Dougherty recently completed a study which found a correlation between lower
sperm counts and the presence of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) in seminal fluid. The
average sperm count of the 132 students tested was found to be 60 million per unit, but
23 percent of the group had counts of only 20 million per unit or less, the level often
accepted as defining functional sterility. "More important," Dr. Dougherty told us,
"every seminal fluid sample in the study showed amounts above background level of
environmental contaminants such as PCB, hexachloro-benzene (a fungicide) and DDT
metabolites. About 25 percent of the reduced sperm counts correlated with the presence
of PCB," he added. "PCBs act by inhibiting cell divison through DNA damage—the
material in genes. It takes eight cell divisions to get a mature sperm. If cell division is
slowed by 10 percent, it can result in a 60 percent decrease in the number of sperm
produced."
People become contaminated with these chemicals via the food chain, says Dr.
Dougherty, where they usually accumulate in fatty tissue, resisting breakdown because
of their built-in stability. PCBs above 1 part per million (1 part PCP per million parts
something else) are in virtually every freshwater fish. And even though they've been
banned by the government, there are still more than a billion pounds of PCB being used
in industry or being discarded into land fills where they can leach out and contaminate
the environment.
A Man's Job Can Put His Sperm Out of Work
Donald Whorton, M.D., a specialist in occupational medicine at the University of

California at Berkeley, was asked to study a group of men who worked with the pesticide
dibrom-ochloropropane (DBCP) when the male employees began to notice that few of
them had recently fathered children. Examination of the semen revealed a low sperm
count in 14 of the 25 men tested. Nine of the men had no sperm at all, and 2 others had
counts below 1 million per unit. Through questioning the men, it became apparent that
infertility was associated with the length of time the men worked with the DBCP. "The
relationship was striking," writes Dr. Whorton. "Workers with sperm counts below one
million had been exposed at least three years. None with sperm counts above 40 million
had been exposed for more than three months" (Lancet).
'' DBCP was the so-called eye-opener to the problem of male infertility due to
occupational exposure," Dr. Whorton told us. "It's an emerging field which will require
years of research. We do know that the damage caused by DBCP is dose dependent. And
that goes for its reversibility, as well. Where the sperm count has been decreased, it
takes three months to a year to return to normal. But where the sperm count has been
reduced to zero, it may take up to six years to come back—if ever."
Occupational exposure to lead, kepone, microwaves, chlo-roprene—all have had

documented effects on male reproduction.
Even something as seemingly innocuous as excessive heat in the work place can have
adverse effects on male fertility. Marc S. Cohen, M.D., a urologist with the New York
Fertility Research Foundation, noticed that men who worked as short-order cooks or
pizza bakers were experiencing fertility problems. Dr. Cohen thought that their
decreased sperm counts might be caused by the high temperatures to which they were
routinely exposed. In an effort to help these particular men raise their sperm counts. Dr.
Cohen has recommended cool baths and em-
WEAK SEED 507

ployed the use of a gadget that he refers to as "very experimental." His patients wear a
scrotal pouch (developed by another doctor) during their hot working hours, which
cools the testicles. "It's too soon to report results," says Dr. Cohen, "but it's worth a try."
Dr.Cohen routinely asks his patients with fertility problems about possible occuptional
hazards. Unfortunately, he's in the minority.
According the Kenneth Bridbord, M.D., of the National Institute for Occupational Safety
and Health (NIOSH) in Rock-ville, Maryland, "Right now the numbers of doctors who
actually ask questions are few. Even those questions that do get asked only touch on a
few areas like drugs and medications. The average physician doesn't know enough about
occupational medicine to ask the right questions.
"But we're working hard to improve the situation," says Dr. Bridbord. Both NIOSH and
the Health Resources Administration are funding programs to train professionals in the
field of occupational health.
Sperm Enemies in Everyday Life
But there are more than environmental and occupational hazards that threaten male
fertility. Some common medications prescribed by doctors have shown the same
disastrous effects as toxic chemicals.
Cimetidine, a drug routinely used in the management of peptic ulcers, was administered
to seven men in a study conducted at the Univeristy of Pittsburgh school of medicine.
After nine weeks of therapy (1,200 milligrams per day), there was a 43 percent average
reduction in sperm count. "This study suggests," write the researchers, "that caution be
used in prescribing cimetidine for prolonged periods to young men who may wish to
maintain their fertility" (New England Journal of Medicine, May 3, 1979).
Another drug, sulphasalazine, which is used to treat ulcerative coHtis, was also shown to
depress fertility {Lancet, August 11, 1979).
The list keeps growing. Add coffee, cigarettes, marijuana and alcohol, if you're keeping
count.
While a controlled study comparing the amount of alcohol consumed to an actual

decrease in sperm count has not been done, Jeanne Manson, Ph.D., says that the
evidence strongly suggests a connection between the two.
Dr. Manson, of the Kettering Laboratory at the University of Cincinnati, did report,
however, that there are studies which show a connection between smoking and sperm. It
seems that the percentage of abnormally shaped sperm is directly related to the number
of cigarettes smoked daily. And those smoking for more than ten years increased their
disadvantage {Work and the Health of Women, CRC Press, 1979).
Marijuana smokers have abnormal sperm, too—what's left of them. Experiments
showed that young men who smoked marijuana at least four times a week for six
months had a decrease in sperm numbers in proportion to the amount smoked, falling
to almost zero in some very heavy users {Keep Off the Grass, Pergamon Press, 1979).
Although the effect of caffeine on human sperm has not been studied, its effect on
animals has. According to Paul S. Weathersbee, Ph.D., of the University of Washington's
Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Institute in Seattle, both rats and roosters showed a
complete absence of sperm three weeks after being fed caffeine.
That could be of some consequence to the man who normally consumes greater than
600 milligrams per day of caffeinated beverages, says Dr. Weathersbee—about six to
eight cups of coffee a day.
Are we about to pollute ourselves out of existence? No, not in the immediate future. But
the warning signs are there, and they shouldn't be ignored. Neither should the steps you
can take to help yourself. Start by eliminating nicotine, caffeine and alcohol from your
life. Already your sperm are breathing a sigh
WEAK SEED 509
of relief. Now give them something to cheer about. Fortity yourself with nutrients like
vitamins A and C as well as zinc, calcium, magnesium and manganese.
In one study, male rats were fed a diet low in vitamin A from three weeks to about four
months of age. The vitamin A deficiency they developed caused degeneration and loss of
sperm cells. The dependency of cells on vitamin A was supported by the appearance of
new sperm within six weeks following vitamin A treatment {Biology of Reproduction,
November, 1979).
In another study, Earl B. Dawson, Ph.D., of the University of Texas medical branch in
Galveston, measured the effects of a vitamin C preparation (which also contained
calcium, magnesium and manganese) on 20 men with spermagglutination, a condition
in which sperm stick together in clumps and are unable to swim normally. Seven men
were used as controls and received no vitamin C. All 27 men (ages 25 to 38) had been
diagnosed as infertile; they had decreased motility (the ability of sperm to move in a
forward direction) and relatively low sperm counts, the associated factors which make
the clumping problem such bad news.
After 60 days, all 20 men taking the vitamin C preparation (1 gram per day) had
impregnated their wives, while none of the men in the control group had. And not only
had the vitamin C preparation reversed the spermagglutination, but it had also raised
sperm counts by 54 percent {Fertility and Sterility, October, 1979).
"These results,'' says Dr. Dawson, "suggest the possibility of a cooperative action
between the metabolism of vitamin C and the essential metals studied which are vital in
sperm physiology."
Spermagglutination has, by some estimates, been implicated as a cause of male
infertility in as many as 10 percent of all cases. Which means that over 150,000 men in
the U.S. population could have a spermagglutination problem affecting their ability to
father children.
"Perhaps," speculates Dr. Dawson, "supplements of vitamin C, calcium, magnesium or

manganese can reverse sper-
magglutination routinely, eliminating the need to use a donor to impregnate the wife."
So while you're waiting for the government to clean up the environment and train
professionals in the field of occupational health, concentrate on the things you can do
for yourself.
Avoid toxins that you can, be on the alert for possible pollutants in your work place, and
be sure to give yourself the advantages of vitamins and minerals. Good nutrition can
make a difference when you're trying to be reproductive—or just productive.
KIDNEY STONES CHAPTER
PREVENTING KIDNEY STONES THE NATURAL WAY
Have you ever been stoned?
Kidney-stoned, that is. If you have, then you probably remember the experience. Kidney
stone sufferers say that no pain, no torture, no desperation quite matches the jagged
agony caused by the presence of a small chip of stone inside a human kidney.
Indeed, those whose composure has been rocked by one of those attacks—which
hospitalize more than one million Americans each year—have left few stones unturned
in their search for the right diet or drug or medical device that will prevent them from
ever going through that kind of misery again.
Prevention of these stones (which have been called a "disease of affluence") is a must,
because there is no easy way to remove a stone once it forms and lodges itself in the
kidney. Open-kidney surgery is still the treatment of choice in the United States, but
people sometimes lose kidneys, or parts of kidneys, as a result.
Difficult as they are to get out, most kidney stones get in by a simple biochemical
process that anyone can understand. First, imagine a glass of water and a small
cardboard drum of table salt. Start pouring salt into the water and it will dissolve
and disappear. Pour in enough salt, however, and the water becomes saturated—it can't
hold any more salt—and you'll start to see crystals of salt falling like snowflakes to the
bottom of the glass.
Most kidney stones start the same way. The fluids that pass through your kidneys
contain different kinds of minerals and molecules. One of those minerals is calcium and
one of those molecules is oxalate, which combine to form calcium oxalate. Normally, it
floats invisibly in the fluid, but when there's too much of it, or too little fluid, it starts to
fall out of solution. Here or there a calcium oxalate crystal forms and attracts another
and another until there are enough to make a nice little stone snowball, with sharp edges
to torment its owner while defying almost every effort to get rid of it. This problem has
stumped many people, including the inventive Benjamin Franklin, who tried and failed
to shake loose his stone by eating blackberry jelly and standing on his head.
Results with Magnesium
One modern strategy for preventing kidney stones is to fight mineral with mineral. In
other words, fight unwanted calcium crystals with crystals of a similar mineral, such as
magnesium. Magnesium supplements seem to inhibit new kidney stones from forming
in people who are prone to them. And magnesium is one of the oldest cures for kidney
stones— its use has been documented as far back as 1697.
More recently, the Swedes have taken an interest in magnesium. In one study, Swedish
researchers gave 200 milligrams of magnesium per day (in the form of magnesium
hydroxide) to a group of 41 men and 14 women who individually had averaged about
one stone per year (0.8 to be exact) and who, as a group, had passed a whopping 460
stones during the ten years before the experiment.
Magnesium's effects were excellent. After two to four years of the therapy, only 8 of the
55 patients reported new stones.
PREVENTING KIDNEY STONES 513
And as a group, their average rate of developing new stones fell by 90 percent, to only
0.08 stones per year per person.
For comparison, the researchers kept an eye on a group of 43 stone sufferers who did
not use magnesium. They averaged a much higher formation rate. After four years, 59
percent of those tested had developed new stones.
Briefly, here's one theory explaining how magnesium works. Like calcium, magnesium
can bind itself to oxalate and form a mineral compound. When calcium and magnesium
are both present in the urine, they compete with each other to link up with oxalate,
almost as if oxalate were a pretty girl they both wanted to dance with.
The critical difference is that magnesium oxalate is less likely to form crystals. It usually
remains dissolved in the urine and passes out of the body—unstoned {Journal of the
American College of Nutrition, vol. 1, no. 2, 1982).
A Role for Vitamin Be
Another way to approach the prevention of kidney stones is to lower the amount of
oxalate in the urine. You can do that by avoiding foods such as spinach, rhubarb, tea,
chocolate, parsley and peanuts, all of which are high in oxalates. You can also do it by
using more vitamin B^,. By a complicated chain of reactions that still isn't entirely
understood, Bf, lowers the amount of oxalate in the urine of people who have a
disposition toward kidney stones.
Researchers in India found that a supplement of only 10 milligrams of B^ per day

lowered the oxalate content of urine "significantly" in 12 stone-prone people, all of
whom had developed at least one stone per year for the past few years {International
Journal of Clinical Fharmacology, Therapy and Toxicology, 1982).
That was a discovery worth reporting. Why? Because the Indian researchers got results
with only 10 milligrams of Bf, per day, while other scientists have prescribed as much as
100 to
1,000 milligrams per day. And they studied Be's effects for six months—longer than
anyone else.
But more important, they found that Bft achieved better, faster effects than thiazides.
Thiazides are a family of drugs commonly used to lower blood pressure and prevent
kidney stones. They do it by increasing the output of urine from the body. But they also
cause light-headedness, and they can elevate the amount of sugar and uric acid in the
blood, which can promote diabetes and gout, respectively. Thiazides can also reduce the
amount of potassium in the blood, which translates into muscle weakness and cramps.
Do magnesium and vitamin B^, work as well at home as they do in controlled

experiments? One doctor we know says they do. Jonathan Wright, M.D., a Kent,
Washington, physician who stresses natural remedies, says he's put 25 to 30 kidney
stone patients on the nutrients in the past eight to nine years and none has returned
with a new stone.
MENOPAUSE PROBLEMS CHAPTER
HOW VITAMINS HELP MENOPAUSE
Anything that can make Edith Bunker talk back to Archie must be a very big deal,
indeed. It was on the episode where Edith goes through the ''change of Hfe" and is
suddenly no longer her normal, sweet self. Archies calls her a dingbat once too often,
and she tells him where he can stuff it. Of course, this is television—Edith's ''raging
hormones" transform her into a total monster, she's that way for 30 short minutes
(counting the commercials), and by the next show she's fine again.
Things are different in real life. Menopause is a complex, three-dimensional, serious, but
altogether natural change that occurs in the life of every woman. Many of the changes
that women experience at that time, the assumption of new roles in the family, the
changes in self-image, are also experienced by men of the same age. Certainly more is
going on than can be conveyed in a half-hour sitcom.
And as with every big change in the body's chemistry, good nutrition is essential for a
smooth transition. What you eat can help you deal with some of the unpleasant side
effects of menopause and protect you against ailments that commonly afflict women
after the change is complete. As the body's chemical balance shifts, its nutritional needs
change, as well.
Menopause is the cessation of menstrual periods, which occurs in most women

sometime between the ages of 45 and 53. At that time, the body's reproductive
machinery shuts down, though the shutdown is hardly an overnight thing. Some women
may experience symptoms ten years before their periods actually cease. In some women,
their periods stop abruptly, while in others the amount and duration of the menstrual
flow tapers off gradually. The most common pattern, however, is irregular— there will
be a heavy flow one month, a scant flow the next month, several months with no period
at all, then another flow or two before the periods stop altogether.
In much the same way, the body's production of sex hormones slows down. The levels of
estrogen, the main female hormone, and progesterone, the female hormone that plays a
major part in menstruation, are reduced in the body. Often the reduction comes in fits
and starts. The body's hormonal state is shifting into a new equilibrium, and sometimes
the shift is jerky and uneven. The result can be a hormonal imbalance, the "raging
hormone" syndrome that afflicted Edith Bunker.
There are estimates that 10 to 20 percent of American women suffer no symptoms at all
at menopause. For the rest, the best-known symptom is hot flashes. Night sweats,
irritability, depression, weight gain and osteoporosis (a loss of bone density) are other
problems often encountered at menopause.
Medical science has an answer for those problems, but, as is often the case, the
conventional remedy can cause more serious problems than those it is meant to relieve.
For about 40 years, doctors have administered estrogen to women suffering the
symptoms of menopause, including hot flashes and osteoporosis. Estrogen is now the
fifth most prescribed drug in the country. Its use in menopause is designed to bring
relief by dealing with the major change taking place in the body, the drop in the levels of
naturally produced estrogen.
There is controversy over whether estrogen therapy really does everything it's claimed to
do, but there is no question about its side effects.
Estrogen therapy increases the risk of cancer of the endometrium, the inner lining of the
uterus. Furthermore, a study
VITAMINS HELP MENOPAUSE 517
published in the New England Journal of Medicine found higher rates of breast cancer
in women given estrogen during menopause. Estrogen therapy has also been associated
with an increased risk of gallbladder disease and high blood pressure.
In most cases, you don't have to subject yourself to risks like that to get relief. Take hot
flashes, for example. The phenomenon is essentially harmless, but uncomfortable and
often embarrassing. Through some mechanism that is not really understood, the
hormonal changes of menopause irritate the nerves controlling the blood vessels of the
face and neck. If something sets the nerves off, the blood vessels widen and fill up with
blood, causing a hot flash.
The flash lasts from 15 seconds up to a minute, characterized by a deep red color and a
feeling of heat, kind of like a superblush. Some women report chills after a flash, and a
few experience a tingling sensation in their fingers and toes.
Vitamin E Helped Many
Rosetta Reitz, the author of Menopause: A Positive Approach (Penguin, 1979), talked to
hundreds of women about menopause in the course of putting her book together. She
believes there is a simple, natural solution to hot flashes.
"Many women," she writes, "have found relief in two days from taking 800 I.U. of
vitamin E complex, also known as mixed tocopherols. I have seen flashes disappear
completely when the vitamin E is also accompanied by 2,000 to 3,000 milligrams of
vitamin C (taken at intervals throughout the day) and with 1,000 mg. (also at intervals)
of calcium from dolomite or bone meal. When the flashes have subsided, usually after a
week, the women reduce the vitamin E intake to 400 I.U.'"
Ms. Reitz, in talking with women in workshops on menopause, found that hot flashes
seemed to occur in many women at moments of high stress. One woman had taken
vitamin E to relieve night sweats that would wake her in bed with drenched
pajamas and sheets. The E worked against her night sweats and her hot flashes, but only
up to a point.
"After three weeks without a flash." Ms. Reitz syas, "Pris-cilla went to see her doctor and
told him about the miraculous change. He said it was nonsense. On the spot, that
instant, Pris-cilla had a huge hot flash. She tells me her present condition is not as good
as it was during the three weeks before she went to see the doctor, but that it is a lot
better than it used to be."
Anxiety, irritability and depression are other symptoms of menopause for which the
doctors have an easy fix. Tranquilizers like Valium and Librium are prescribed to many
women to help them deal with the mood swings that often accompany menopause.
Those emotional problems should be dealt with. Suicide and mental illness in general
are prevalent during the menopausal years. It's just that you don't have to become a
member of the drug culture to deal with those problems.
The B vitamins, particularly vitamin Be, have been shown to be necessary for the healthy
functioning of the central nervous system. Studies have shown that the essential amino
acid tryptophan can be effective against depression. There may be a direct link between
the depression some women suffer at menopause and a deficiency of tryptophan is in
the body.
Vitamins for a Woman's Heart
The other big health threat that overtakes women at menopause is heart disease. A
number of studies have reported an increase in the risk of heart disease in women after
menopause. One of the most striking reports was a 1978 update of the "Fra-mingham
study." That study of residents of Framingham, Massachusetts, began in 1948, when
women were enrolled, given a thorough heart examination and invited to return every
two years for new evaluations.
By 1978, virtually all of the women in the study had ceased menstruating, and it was
possible to look into the connections between heart disease and menopause. The results
were striking.
VITAMINS HELP MENOPAUSE 519
Not one of the 2,873 women in the study had a heart attack or died of heart disease
before menopause. After menopause, heart disease became a common occurrence. For
women age 45 to 54, the incidence of heart disease during or after menopause was
double the rate before menopause (Annals of Internal Medicine).
There is a big jump in cholesterol in the blood at menopause, mostly due to a rise in the
low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, the kind of cholesterol particularly associated
with heart disease. Japanese scientists have also found higher levels of triglycerides,
another fat implicated in heart disease, in the blood of postmenopausal women
(American Journal of Epidemiology, April, 1979).
Good nutrition can help you put the odds of developing heart trouble after menopause
back in your favor. Vitamin C has been used to lower high cholesterol levels. Indeed,
Emil Ginter, Ph.D., a noted Czech researcher, believes the recent drop in deaths from
heart disease in the United States might be due, in part, to an increase in the
consumption of vitamin C in this country.
And you should probably stick with the vitamin E you're taking for hot flashes even after
you've licked that problem. Vitamin E apparently works against heart disease by
lowering the tendency of platelets, special particles in the blood, to clump together. The
clumping together of platelets can lead to a blood clot in arteries feeding the heart of
brain, resulting in a heart attack or a stroke.
Good nutrition is obviously an important part of healthy living during and after
menopause. Menopause is a natural development in the aging process, a change in
women's lives that requires some special nutritional precautions, just as other life
stages, like pregnancy, require special precautions.
It's by no means the end of the world. ''A women's life is not 'normal' for the 30 years
she ovulates and 'abnormal' before and after," Rosetta Reitz says. Healthy living, with
proper nutrition, goes on uninterrupted.
MENTAL RETARDATION CHAPTER
CAN VITAMIN SUPPLEMENTS REVERSE MENTAL RETARDATION?
Out of sight for the slow of mind has been the standard operating procedure of
treatment in medical history. And while admirable strides are being made to return
some "slow" patients to the mainstream of society, for many the artificial life of the
institution is all too real.
Conventional wisdom holds that there is only so much that can be done with limited
abilities, unless . . .
Unless it were somehow possible to do the unthinkable and treat the retarded mind as
an undeveloped flower in desperate need of richer soil.
What if proper nourishment could enable it to grow and blossom?
Farfetched?
Maybe not, according to a study conducted by Ruth F. Harrell, Ph.D., research professor
at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. She and her colleagues examined the
intriguing possibility that retardation might be the result of nutritional deficiencies and
therefore could be "amenable to treatment" with supplementary vitamins and minerals.
SUPPLEMENTS AND MENTAL RETARDATION 521
Their report, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

(January, 1981), is cautiously optimistic.
Dramatic Rise in IQ
In the introduction to her study, Dr. Harrell relates the case of G.S., a severely retarded
seven-year-old who, before being treated, was in diapers, could not speak and had an
estimated IQ of 25 to 30.
After the boy's tissues and blood were analyzed, an appropriate nutritional supplement
was devised. It took several weeks of trial and error to get the ingredients just right, but
once Dr. Harrell had the correct dosage of vitamins and minerals, the boy's progress was
remarkable.
"In a few days, he was talking a little. In a few weeks he was learning to read and write,
and he began to act like a normal child. When G.S. was nine years old, he read and wrote
on the elementary school level, was moderately advanced in arithmetic and, according to
his teacher, was mischievous and active. He rode a bicycle and a skate board, played
ball, played a flute, and had an IQ of about 90," she writes.
With that heartening result in mind (and earlier successes we'll be telling you about).
Dr. Harrell enlisted the help of a team of biochemists and psychologists and recruited a
group of 16 retarded children (including four with Down's syndrome, or "mongolism"),
whose IQs ranged from 17 to 70, to participate in an eight-month study.
For the first four months, 11 children took a useless placebo while five received a six-
tablet-daily regimen of 11 vitamins and eight minerals. The supplements included the B-
complex vitamins (including folate and pantothenate), and vitamins A, C, D and E,
along with calcium, zinc, manganese, copper, iron and other minerals.
In determining the strength of most of the nutrients, "we went far beyond the
Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA),"
Dr. Harrell told us. "It was 'mega' in size and went up and up and up until we got a
mental response."
To give you an idea of just how "mega" the dosage was, the 15,000 international units of
vitamin A represents approximately 3'/2 times the RDA. The B-complex supplements
were over 100 times the RDA, while there was in excess of 25 times what is thought to be
the body's normal requirement of C and E.
Most of the minerals, however, were closer to RDA levels.
Results Too Good to Believe
Following the initial segment of the study, all of the children took the supplements for
an additional four months. And when all the data was collected and analyzed, and the
progress of the children could be examined, "The results were such that I was afraid to
believe them," Dr. Harrell admits.
"During the first four-month period . . . the five children who received supplements
increased their average IQ by from 5.0 to 9.6 points, depending on the investigator,
whereas the 11 subjects given placebos showed negligible change. The difference
between these groups is statistically significant. During the second period, the subjects
who had been given placebos in the first study received supplements; they showed an
average IQ increase of at least 10.2, a highly significant gain," she writes.
"Several children improved greatly in school achievement. For example, J.B. (age five to
six), who said only single words such as mama or hye-hye initially, could recite, without
prompting, the 'Pledge of Allegiance' after eight months of supplementation and could
read the first-grade primer. Two (T.C. and R.S.) have been transferred from programs
for the mentally retarded to regular schools and grades, on the teacher's
recommendations.
"They're not blockbusters—not superior, mind you—but I hope they can fend for
themselves in an average sort of way," she notes.
From Slow to Normal
"All of our subjects who cooperated in taking the supplements showed improvement,
sometimes dramatic and surprising to the teachers and other professionals who dealt
with them. If our findings are confirmed by more extensive experiments, they bring new
hope for improving the quality of life for the mentally retarded 3.2 percent of our
population."
In essence, nutritional supplements were instrumental in reducing the mentally

retarded portion of the study group by one-quarter. Translate that into the millions of
members of the human family considered "slow"—IQs below 75—and the billions of
dollars going into their special, and often custodial, care, and it's easy to see the far-
reaching implications of Dr. HarrelFs study.
If supplements are the key to unlocking the retarded mind— if they enable many of
those so afflicated "to make their own way, to become hewers of wood and drawers of
water," to use Dr. Harrell's words—we're clearly onto something major.
What is perhaps startling is that "everyone posted some kind of gain" across the entire
spectrum of retardation, even those with Down's syndrome.
This condition—popularly known as mongolism because the facial features take on a

distinctly Oriental appearance—is the result of too much of a necessary thing: an extra
21st chromosome.
This trisomy 21 —its official medical designation—manifests itself in a number of

unpleasant ways, the worst of them being severe retardation.
It has been thought that very little can be done for Down's syndrome children, and they
often wind up in institutions.
Unexpectedly, the supplements helped.
Three of the four children with the condition "tended to lose the accumulated fluid in
their faces and extremities. The large IQ gain observed (25 units) occurred in L.A. after
eight months of supplementation."
Sushma Palmer, D.Sc, a biochemist-nutritionist at the National Academy of Sciences in

Washington, D.C., and an expert on Down's, calls the results "suggestive" and gives at
least one possible reason for the dramatic effects.
Early Diet Critical
"Children with Down's are characterized by a number of nutritionally related problems

that may stem from a delay in feeding skills," she says. "It's frequently difficult for them
to eat food. They may eat an insufficient variety and amount, and the outcome can be an
unbalanced diet. If the nutritional status of the kids is inadequate, that will likely affect
mental performance. The younger the child, the more severe the impact, because that's
when the brain is developing faster."
If nutritional deficiencies play havoc with the mental development of these children, can
supplements reverse the damage?
Dr. Harrell's work suggests that they can.
And interestingly enough, five decades earlier, she had inadvertently done something
similar to her most recent experiment by "curing" a group of retarded boys.
The "poverty poor" diet of her first Southern students prompted her to personally
undertake a voluntary starvation regimen of nothing more than white bread and water.
In short order, "I found I couldn't learn anything new."
Putting diet and dullness together, she came up with a plan for her teenage pupils.
If she could teach them something basic, like cooking, they might become employable,
at least on a part-time basis. Her vocational education request for food to prepare was
accepted by an incredulous school board, and before long, she was training budding
chefs. But at the same time, she was encouraging them to eat the healthful meals they'd
created.
"Remember, there was no free hot lunch back then," she explains. But this one good
meal a day was enough of a nutri-
tional boost to make an enormous difference in the boys' intellectual lives.
"My 20 boys made greater gains than any others in the school system. The following
year, I lost 18 to normalcy!"
She's built on her work since then, with special emphasis on healthier minds through
healthier mothers, and more complete recovery from brain surgery with nutritional
supplements.
"You can't imagine what a cold shoulder I got," she relates.
The prevailing attitude toward the retarded was a strong "If God hadn't wanted kids to
be idiots. He wouldn't have made 'em that way."
Her steadfast refusal to accept that has led to her breakthrough research.
The immediate question, of course is "How does it work?"
Born with Special Nutritional Needs
The road to an answer remains as trackless as Stanley's path to Livingstone, but there is
an intriguing possibility that retardation is, in part, a genetotrophic disease.
Roger J. Williams, Ph.D., a University of Texas at Austin biochemist, conceived this

concept more than 30 years ago when he suggested that "biochemical individuality"
could cause problems.
"We're not born with the same genetics," he told us, "and we don't have the same
nutritional needs."
If we don't get what we require, "metabolism can't go in the right direction, and one
result could be mental retardation."
Those afflicted with a genetotrophic disease can't rely solely on the established RDAs of
the various vitamins and minerals, either, for the very nature of this inborn error of
metabolism demands an augmented supply of one or more specific nutrients.
As an example, a metabolic disorder called homocystinuria is known to cause

retardation because of an excess of the toxic
substance homocysteine. Under normal circumstances, homocysteine is degraded into a

nontoxic substance when vitamin B^ is present. Because of a failure—a mutation—in the
genes directing the entire operation, that doesn't happen.
The results are tragic—and often unnecessary.
"About half the patients with this condition are helped by large levels of Bg," explains
Willian Shive, Ph.D., of the Clayton Foundation Biochemical Institute at the University
of Texas, Austin. Providing considerably more than the RDA is essential to ensure
there'll be enough B^, floating around to keep homocysteine harmless.
By contrast with that one-vitamin genetotrophic disorder, treating the many different
metabolic causes of retardation with nutrients demands a "shotgun approach.''
"The real front in nutrition is to develop a diagnostic tool that enables us to identify
individual needs," Dr. Shive maintains. But he admits that, for now, researchers must
simply try a broad array of nutrients and hope for the best.
And while we've yet to learn the specifics, the nutritional rehabilitation of the mind is an
oasis in an otherwise drab landscape.
Brain's Metabolic Needs Are Surprisingly Large
"The brain is a metabolic hot spot," notes Donald R. Davis, Ph.D., a member of the
Harrell research team from the Clayton Foundation Biochemical Institute.
"The organ comprises only 2 to 3 percent of our body weight, yet it accounts for 25
percent of metabolism. And if it's not functioning smoothly, it can lead to trouble."
When you consider all that could go wrong, it's a miracle that, for so many of us, the
mind runs with the precision of a stationmaster's fine Swiss pocket watch. But if the
"timepiece" is slow, vitamin and mineral supplements may be the answer.
There's even the downright exciting possibility that they may prevent retardation from
occurring in the first place.
"Everybody needs to care for his or her own internal environment," Dr. Williams
advises. "And that's doubly true for the internal environment of unborn children. If all
mothers were given appropriate supplements, there'd be a tremendous decrease in
mental retardation!"
POLLUTION CHAPTER
BREATHE EASIER WITH VITAMINS A AND E
Is the air we breathe getting any cleaner? Some people, including many of the scientists
whose job it is to monitor and record the levels of various pollutants, seem to think so.
In fact, the results of a recent survey conducted by the National Wildlife Federation
indicate that air quality is one of the areas where cleanup efforts have made progress
over the last decade.
To the commuter who must drive to work each day in a backwash of auto and bus fumes,
the statistics don't mean that much.
To the suburban family in the Los Angeles basin or any of the scores of other urbanized
areas periodically bathed in a yellow-brown pall of smog, clean air is still a very precious
— and elusive—commodity.
And the same can be said for the executive forced to sit for hours in smoke-filled
conference rooms, the housewife exposed to the powerful fumes of cleaning agents, and
the factory worker who spends 40 or more hours a week inhaling solvents.
In fact, if you're like most people, your lungs are probably being subjected to so many
daily insults that any promise of a cleaner day coming is so far down the road it scarcely
makes
BREATHE EASIER WITH VITAMINS 529
any difference. So what can you do in the meantime to protect your health and hopefully
allow your lungs' hard-working natural defense mechanisms to rebuff environmental
assaults?
One of the major threats to our respiratory health is ozone, an oxidant pollutant that is
one of the main components of everyday smog. Evidence is mounting that daily
supplements of vitamin E can help safeguard the lungs against the kind of destruction
that occurs at the cellular level when ozone concentrations in the air rise too high.
Vitamin E's protective effect was clearly demonstrated in a study carried out by
researcher Mohammad G. Mustafa, Ph.D., associate professor of public health and
medicine. University of California at Los Angeles. Laboratory rats were divided into two
groups and fed diets containing either 11 parts per million or 66 parts per million of
vitamin E. After five weeks, the animals were exposed to various levels of ozone
pollution for a seven-day period.
When the animals were later inspected for signs of oxidant damage. Dr. Mustafa found
that, at higher levels of pollution, the lungs of rats receiving little vitamin E showed a
greater level of abnormal change than those of better-supplemented rats. Vitamin E is
believed to retard cellular damage, enhancing the animals' ability to withstand the stress
of pollutants (Nutrition Reports International).
Interestingly enough, the rats on the low-vitamin E diet were actually receiving about
the same concentration of the nutrient found in the average American diet. Dr. Mustafa
pointed out. Yet, that wasn't enough to totally protect the animals' lungs. "The findings
may be of relevance to human population exposed to photochemical smog," he
concluded.
A researcher whose work supports these findings is Daniel B. Menzel, Ph.D., director of
the laboratory of environmental pharmacology and toxicology at Duke University
medical center. In fact. Dr. Menzel told the Eighth Annual Vitamin Information Bureau
Seminar in Chicago that he favors daily supplementation with approximately 200
international units of vitamin E as "a wise precaution."
When Dr. Menzel exposed animals to doses of ozone equivalent to what large human
populations are exposed to, those receiving vitamin E survived 50 percent longer than
the E-deficient group.
In another study. Dr. Menzel found that animals exposed to lower levels of ozone tended
to run out of body stores of the vitamin within a few weeks, while those breathing clean
air did not. "We concluded that vitamin E is more rapidly used on ozone exposure than
with pure air." he noted.
As Dr. Menzel told the Chicago conference, there has never been a large, long-term
study to prove that vitamin E might prevent emphysema and other serious respiratory
ailments, but given vitamin E's demonstrated safety, supplementation does seem to
make good sense.
Another nutrient that now appears to play a critical role in lung health is vitamin A. In a
five-year study of 8,278 men, Norwegian researcher E. Bjelke discovered a link between
high lung cancer incidence and low dietary intake of vitamin A. And this relationship
prevailed at all levels of cigarette smoking. On the other hand, those men whose diet
included high or even moderate amounts of vitamin A were less likely to get lung cancer
(International Journal of Cancer).
More Vitamin A in the Diet
According to Bjelke, who is associated with Norway's Cancer Registry in Oslo, one of the
biggest factors in determining vitamin A intake was the amount of vegetables—
particularly carrots—that the men consumed. (According to the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Handbook No. 456, a cup of cooked carrots supplies 16,280 international
units of vitamin A—more than three times the Recommended Dietary Allowance for
adults.)
Summarizing the study, Bjelke concludes, 'The findings are in accordance with
experimental results on animals and call for further exploration of the role of nutritional
factors in the developing of human lung cancer." Perhaps, Bjelke suggests, heavy
BREATHE EASIER WITH VITAMINS 531
smokers who can't quit could be given preventive doses of vitamin A.
Further evidence that vitamin A is somehow involved in protecting against lung cancer
comes from Dr. Alex Sakula of Redhill General Hospital in Surrey, England. Writing in
the British Medical Journal, he notes that, among a group of 28 patients suffering from
bronchial cancer, levels of vitamin A in the blood were significantly lower than in
healthy persons or patients with nonmalignant bronchial disease.
A possible indication of just how vitamin A may exert its protective effect was provided
by two researchers at the State University of New York in Stony Brook. In Proceedings of
the American Association for Cancer Research, Bernard P. Lane, M.D., and his research
associate described laboratory experiments in which 200 tracheal (windpipe) tissue
samples were exposed to a potent cancer-causing chemical for two to three weeks.
Cancer-associated changes were observed in many windpipe samples immediately
following exposure to the carcinogen. But treatment with vitamin A was able to reverse
those changes in many cases.
We are trying to tame ozone, industrial chemicals and other harmful pollutants, but the
progress is slow. And new dangers have a way of popping up as old ones are eliminated.
So until clean, fresh air once again becomes more of an everyday commodity than a
sought-after luxury, we owe it to our lungs to give them the protection they deserve.
CHAPTER
A AND C: VITAMINS FOR A TOXIFIED WORLD
No one even knew the poison was there, locked away in a storage shed in BilHngs,
Montana. But in June, 1979 it leaked— into 19 states, Canada and Japan. And wherever
it turned up, destruction followed. Haifa million contaminated chickens had to be
slaughtered. Eighteen million eggs were smashed. And millions of dollars' worth of
processed food was quarantined by health officials until they could test it. Test it for
PCB.
PCB—polychlorinated biphenyl, a unique chemical formulated in 1927 that resists

destruction even by super-high temperatures or corrosive acids. A chemical that can
persist in the environment for decades—and has. It is the most widespread chemical
pollutant, found everywhere from the polar ice caps to 11,000 feet under the ocean. And
it's a chemical that, even in extremely low doses, can cause ill health—severe acne, cysts,
skin discoloration, abdominal pain, nausea and loss of appetite, impotence, bloody urine
and fatigue.
Industry has manufactured over 1 billion pounds of PCB, mainly for use as a liquid
lubricant in electrical capacitors and transformers. Every year, 100 million capacitors
are manufactured for air conditioners, refrigerators, television sets and other
VITAMINS FOR A TOXIFIED WORLD 533
products, and each one contains PCB. Over 35 million transformers in the United States
are filled with PCB.
One of them was in a storage shed in Billings, Montana.
It was an old transformer, out of use, and when a forklift accidentally hit it, a pipe on the
bottom broke. Coolant—200 PCB-loaded gallons of it—leaked out and ran into a floor
drain. That drain led to the waste-water collecting system of the Pierce Packing
Company, a firm manufacturing meat meal for animal feed. It was a cost-conscious firm
which used its waste water, gleaning it for solids, fats and grease.
They shipped 2 million pounds of contaminated meal. Eventually, over 1,000 companies
were using or selling poisoned feed. And nobody knew.
In early July, a Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspector took a tissue sample from a
laying hen in Provo, Utah. There was no special reason to take the sample. It was just a
routine random check by the USDA, part of a program to locate chemicals in the food
supply—not to stop them from reaching the public. A computer had decided on the time
and the place. The sample sat for ten days in a freezer before it was even sent to the lab.
At the lab, technicians found PCB— high levels of PCB. But that didn't mean action; it
meant forms, reports, red tape. From the time the sample was taken until the time the
USDA told the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about the problem, six weeks had
passed.
Six weeks too many. From August to November, FDA personnel tracked down PCB. To a
mayonnaise distributor in Washington. To frozen-food lockers in Pennsylvania. To
chicken soup makers in Minnesota, but they couldn't catch up with all the contaminated
food. It is possible that as many as 1,000 poisoned turkeys made it to dinner tables.
We don't mean to frighten you. In fact, we have good news. Two nutrients—vitamin A
and C—may help protect your body against PCB. And that's protection you need. This
PCB contamination wasn't an isolated incident. PCB is everywhere, and it's here to stay.
True, the government banned the manufacturing, processing and sale of PCB, a ban that
took effect in 1979. What else could they do with such a dangerous chemical? One thing
about the ban, though. There have been exemptions. A lot of exemptions.
The Environmental Protection Agency has approved almost 100 percent of the requests
from industry to continue using PCB. Worse, industry still produces PCB as a by-
product in the manufacture of other chemicals, such as silicone. Then there are the
junked refrigerators, air conditioners and TV sets which, even if buried in land fills, will
eventually leach out PCB. (There are 290 million pounds of PCB in land fills already).
Add to that the more than 150 million pounds that now pollute the soil, air and water,
pollute it with a chemical that will take years to degrade and disappear.
And because all of that PCB is odorless and colorless, it has a way of sneaking up on you
(and into you).
In 1976, for instance, an estimated 800,000 pounds of PCB-contaminated trout from

the Great Lakes were illegally caught and sold to food wholesalers. The trout were served
in cities across America. (Large areas of the Great Lakes, as well as many of the nation's
rivers, are polluted with PCB, and most of the fish caught in them are dangerous to eat.)
A few years ago, the FDA discovered lobsters from the Atlantic Ocean with PCB levels of
10 parts per million. Doesn't sound like much, does it? Well, the highest level permitted
in shellfish by the FDA is 2 parts per million.
Before the government ban on PCB took effect, many municipalities and states used
waste oil contaminated with PCB to control dust on roads and highways. During 1977,
10,000 gallons of such oil were about to be spread on Iowa's gravel roads. But, luckily,
environmental officials discovered that the oil contained as much as 6 parts per
thousand PCB—enough to kill.
The PCB-tainted waste oil illegally dumped along 211 miles of North Carolina road sides
in 1978 didn't contain quite so much of the chemical. But it had enough to be dangerous.
At first, the state planned to scrape up the poisoned soil and haul it to a rural land fill.
That plan was vetoed as too costly. Instead, they plowed
the oil into the ground, which was sprayed with activated charcoal. The theory is that the
charcoal will neutralize that PCB. But nobody really knows.
You Contain PCB
Ever lick an envelope to seal it? The adhesive could have contained PCB. Ever buy
packaged food? Food wrapping sometimes contains PCB that migrates into the food.
Coatings for ironing-board covers can contain PCB. Certain types of carbon paper
contain PCB. Some upholstery contains PCB. You contain PCB.
Over 90 percent of all Americans have detectable levels of PCB stored in their fatty
tissues, levels often as high as 10 parts per million. And Lester Crawford, Ph.D., an FDA
official who helped contain the recent PCB contamination, told us that the problem is
getting worse.
"Since there is a low-level exposure to PCB all the time, and since the chemical
accumulates in the body, body levels of PCB will go up in the future. I would project a
level of 50 parts per million in human tissue. That shouldn't cause acute illness. But" Dr.
Crawford warned, '"it may have a lot of chronic effects on health, effects we don't even
know about yet/'
Scientists, however, are beginning to discover one effect of long-term PCB intake—
infertility.
In one study, researchers gave rats PCB and found that the animals delivered fewer
young. In another study, chickens given PCB had a decrease in egg production.
But researchers didn't have to set up their own experiments to see PCB-caused
infertility. They had a bigger laboratory already available—the world.
Several species of seals are dying out in the Baltic Sea, which is heavily polluted with
PCB. A 1975 survey showed that among one of those species, ringed seals, only 27
percent of the females were pregnant compared to 90 percent in Baltic seal populations
during the 1960s. Testing the seals, scientists found
the PCB levels were far higher in nonpregnant than in pregnant animals.
Sperm Counts Declining
What about people? Well, scientists at the 1979 annual meeting of the American
Chemical Society reported that sperm counts among U.S. men are declining—and the
cause may be PCB. Measuring both the level of sperm and the level of PCB in seminal
fluid, they found that the higher the amount of PCB, the lower the amount of sperm.
James R. Allen, Ph.D., a researcher at the University of Wisconsin who had conducted
numerous studies on PCB, believes the chemical may affect ''reproductive capabilities"
by altering the normal functioning of hormones.
But, Dr. Allen told us, "even if chronic, low-level exposure to PCB has no effect in the
adult, it still has an effect on the fetus and infant."
Unfortunately, Dr. Allen's statement was proven in Japan during 1968 when a machine
containing PCB sprang a leak and contaminated rice oil. More than 1,000 people used
that oil regularly for three months.
Cysts were the first symptom—on the fact, on the ears, all over the body. But cysts were
the least of their problems. Those who used large quantities of the rice oil also suffered
from severe fatigue, loss of appetite, impotence, bloody urine, numb limbs and painful
joints. And the pregnant mothers who used the rice oil, even if they had no symptoms
themselves, were slowly poisoning their unborn children.
Researchers later studied 13 women who used the rice oil while pregnant. Of their 13
babies, two were stillborn. Birth defects blighted all the the others.
A grayish, dark brown pigment colored their skin. Five also had dark nails. Nine had
heavy eye discharges. Four had facial abnormalities such as protruding eyeballs.
After the incident, the Japanese government lowered the tolerance level —the upper
limit of PCB permitted—for food.
America's tolerance levels remain much higher than Japan's.
They're lower than the 10 parts per million of a few years ago. But you can still buy
poultry with 3 parts per million and fish with 2 parts per million. What's the reason for
these high levels?
Although the FDA admits that there is no level "of PCB exposure that can be said to
provide . . . safety," and that "it would be preferable not to have PCB in food at any
level," it has set the tolerance levels to maintain a "proper balance of safety and
economic criteria." In other words, better to put American lives on the line than
American industry in the red.
Vitamins A and C Protect
That leaves protecting yourself up to you. You and vitamins A and C.
In a study of vitamin C and PCB, researchers fed young experimental animals high doses
of the chemical. The animals grew poorly and had high levels of cholesterol. (PCB is
known to interfere with fat metabolism.) The animals also excreted in their urine 44
times the normal amount of vitamin C, a sign, say the researchers, that the animals'
bodies were synthesizing large quantities of the vitamin in an attempt to detoxify PCB.
Next, the researchers fed another group of experimental animals PCB—but also gave
them vitamin C. These animals grew normally and had normal cholesterol levels. They
also had a "normal outward appearance," compared with the sickly appearance of the
PCB animals who didn't get vitamin C (Nutrition Reports International).
In a study of vitamin A and PCB, researchers fed two groups of rats PCB for six weeks
but gave one group 3,400 international units of vitamin A. The vitamin A group "showed
better growth" than the animals not on the vitamin (Japanese Journal of Nutrition).
The researchers then fed another group of rats PCB and measured the vitamin A content
of the rats' Hvers. They found a decrease in vitamin A ''even at low PCB levels."
Citing these and other studies, the researchers concluded that "a large part of the
symptoms" of the PCB poisoning "were based on a vitamin A deficiency" caused by PCB
(Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology).
"PCB affects steroids and steroid-like compounds, one of which is vitamin A," Dr. Allen
says. "I think there is a definite likelihood that vitamin A could be involved in PCB
intoxication. Perhaps PCB blocks the vitamin A receptor sites in the cell. Believe me.
scientists have yet to detect all the ways in which PCB causes ill health."
CHAPTER
CLEANSING INTERNAL POLLUTION WITH A VITAMIN BRUSH
Bound for New York City on the New Jersey Turnpike, you'll pass through the pits of
pollution. But rolled-up windows and closed-off air vents can't stop the stench of
petroleum refineries and chemical plants from seeping into your car. The acrid fumes
make your skin crawl from the inside out.
Within the last 35 years, we have watched hundreds of chemical preservatives and
pesticides sneak into our food supply. Dangerous minerals and other toxic substances
run off the man-made wasteland into rivers, streams and springs, threatening our
precious water supply.
We've become trapped in a murky mess. But, luckily, we don't have to surrender our
health to the pollutants.
Countless studies suggest that vitamin supplementation— particularly with vitamins C

and E—can protect the body against environmental pollution.
Scientists at the State University of Londrina, in Brazil, and at Kansas State University
have tested the protective effect of various vitamins against the powerful cancer-causing
substance aflatoxin B,.
Aflatoxin is the product of a certain mold which can grow on peanuts, grains and other
foods. It frequently shows up in
samples of peanut butter. That worries public health authorities, because aflatoxins are
known to cause liver cancer in man.
But in the latest study, the addition of vitamin C and the B vitamin choline to the diet of
young Japanese quail protected the growing birds from the adverse effects of aflatoxin
Bj. Birds generally suffer stunted growth as a result of mild aflatoxin poisoning. After 21
days on an aflatoxin diet, the quails supplemented with vitamin C and choline gained
significantly more weight than those not receiving supplementation. In fact, in some
instances, they gained even more weight than those on a nontoxic diet (Veterinary and
Human Toxicology).
Whether we can translate the prevention of aflatoxin toxicity in quails to the prevention
of aflatoxin-induced cancer in humans has yet to be determined. But we stand a pretty
good chance of doing just that.
After all, vitamin C is being lauded as a natural pollution fighter. It seems to attack
chemical pollutants in our bodies in a way similar to antibodies fighting off infections.
But unlike antibodies, vitamin C cannot be synthesized by the human body, though it is
made by various other animal species. Rats, for example, synthesize vitamin C at an
accelerated rate when toxic chemicals are introduced into their bodies.
Liver Disease Linked to Vitamin C Shortage
Mounting evidence suggests that the human storehouse of vitamin C may make a
difference in our survival in a polluted environment. One survey mentioned in the
British Medical Journal links low tissue levels of vitamin C with environmentally
induced disorders of the human liver. Of 138 patients, those with the liver disease called
primary biliary cirrhosis (a rare form of cirrhosis sometimes brought on by tranquilizers
and other drugs) had low concentrations of vitamin C in their tissue stores.
Apparently, vitamin C gives the liver a helping hand in its job of detoxifying harmful
substances. According to Aniece A.
CLEANSING INTERNAL POLLUTION 541
Yunice, Ph.D., of the medical service at the Oklahoma City Veterans Administration
Hospital, and Robert D. Lindeman, M.D., now chief of staff, Louisville Veterans
Administration Hospital, Kentucky, vitamin C may, for example, increase the activity of
enzymes responsible for the detoxification of alcohol.
In the Oklahoma study, published in Proceedings of the Society for Experimental

Biology and Medicine, five rats received toxic doses of alcohol over a four-week period,
while another five received the same daily dose but were pretreated with large doses of
vitamin C. By the end of the test period, all the rats on alcohol alone died. Four of the
five on alcohol plus vitamin C were alive!
Vitamin C also seems to exert a protective effect against the wrath of nitrates. Most of us
are already aware of the cancer-causing potential of nitrate preservatives in meats like
bacon, bologna and ham. But even if we stop bringing home the bacon, we've only begun
to reduce our cancer risk. Nitrates have infiltrated our well water and streams as a result
of chemical fertilizers and animal wastes which have run off into our water supplies.
And they've gotten a hold on some vegetables and fish.
Try as we might, we can't avoid them. But researchers suggest that, if we stock up on
vitamin C, we may be able to divert nitrate from forming a cancer-causing substance.
Nitrates pose a problem only when they combine in the stomach with certain substances
known as amines. And when introduced into a simulated stomach environment with
nitrates, the vitamin C has been found to effectively compete for bonding positions.
It's no wonder, then, that large doses of vitamin C are being used with great success in
Hungary for the treatment of methemoglobinemia. That disease, in which the red blood
cells (responsible for oxygen transport) lose their ability to carry oxygen, is caused by
nitrate poisoning (Archives of Environmental Health).
Fighting the Poison Metals
But what's a body to do about the various toxic heavy metals such as cadmium, mercury
and lead that are leaking into our
environment and threatening our health? Well, here again, we can begin by looking to
vitamin C, which has been shown to counteract the toxicity of cadmium.
Unfortunately, when it comes to detoxifying mercury and lead, vitamin C is of no use.

But according to evidence cited in Federation Proceedings, vitamin E is. This vitamin,
which just happens to be your best insurance against the ravages of air pollution and the
onslaught of X-ray irradiation, has also been found to decrease the toxicity of methyl
mercury in quail.
Since 1967, scientists have concentrated on the protective effect of the trace element
selenium against mercury poisoning. However, according to vitamin E researchers Dr.
S. O. Welsh and Professor J. H. Soares, Jr., the protective effect of vitamin E against
mercury occurs independently of the selenium status of their animal subjects {Nutrition
Reports International).
Calcium has been known to get the lead out of our systems. But, again, vitamin E can
help. Orville A. Levander and colleagues at the U.S. Agricultural Research Center in
Beltsville, Maryland, explain that lead increases the brittleness of red cell membranes so
that they disintegrate easily. But with the addition of large doses of vitamin E to the diet
of rats receiving lead, the red blood cells remained normally flexible {Journal of
Nutrition).
In a separate study conducted by David S. Klauder and Harold G. Petering from the
department of environmental health at the University of Cincinnati medical center, lead
depressed the hemoglobin levels in rats whose diets were deficient in iron or copper or
both {Environmental Health Perspective).
Of course, maintaining an adequate level of iron in your diet is fairly easy with iron
supplements. For copper, turn to liver— which is also a superb source of iron.
Of course, if you've been doing your homework, you're probably already taking your
share of vitamins C and E. In that case, it's still nice to know that your efforts are paying
off with added dividends.
SCHIZOPHRENIA CHAPTER
HEALING SICK MINDS WITH VITAMINS

Peter: In the hospital, they serve me meat from the morgue and poisoned food. My
medicine is really LSD. If I smoke a cigarette, a friend will die.
Martha: God told me I was going to have Christ's baby. He told me to walk with a cane.
Then He told me to swim in the ocean; I fought with a monster for eight hours.
Mitch: They say my grandfather died two years ago, but I know better. I talk to him
every night. He comes into my room and floats above the bed. Someone turned him into
a purple ball.
Three schizophrenics. Three out of two million.
There are more people hospitalized for schizophrenia than for any other illness, mental
or physical. In schizophrenia, thought and perception are diseased.
You hallucinate, seeing what isn't there and hearing voices when no one speaks. In a
moderate case, you know you're hallucinating. But when it's worse, you can't tell the
difference between what's real and what's not. Your thoughts are bizarre and illogical,
perhaps paranoid, and you act on them. You might think there's a plot against you. You
might think you're God. You could talk of suicide and, very possibly, commit it. Schizo-
phrenics have a suicide rate about 20 times higher than the rest of the population.
A psychiatrist tries to keep a schizophrenic out of a coffin by putting him on a couch. He

wants the schizophrenic to talk things over—and over, and over. Only in this way, he
says, will the schizophrenic recognize and root out the cause of his disease: emotional
trauma during childhood. But mommy and daddy aren't always the villains the
psychiatrist thinks. Studies show that psychoanalysis almost never cures a
schizophrenic.
Instead, some are helped by having their brains stunned by electroshock therapy. Many
others live somewhat normal lives by taking powerful drugs. Those treatments have
drawbacks, of course. But they work because they affect a schizophrenic's body. They
work because schizophrenia is more than a mental illness.
Helped by Niacin
The weird thoughts and strange perceptions of schizophrenia are often the symptoms of
physical disorders. Disorders that can be healed with nutrition. Unlike the psychiatric
approach, that's not a theory. Thousands of schizophrenics have already been cured with
a nutrient—niacin.
Niacin is one of the B-complex vitamins—and one of the most important. A lack of
niacin can cause severe skin rashes and digestive problems. It can also cause madness.
Soon after processors of white flour began fortifying it with niacin, 10 percent of all state
hospital patients in the South were "cured." They had been diagnosed as schizophrenics,
but they actually had pellagra, the niacin-deficiency disease. Some of the mental
symptoms of pellagra—hallucinations and paranoia—perfectly mimic schizophrenia.
"If all the niacin were removed from our food, everyone would be psychotic in one year,"
says Abram Hoffer, M.D., a psychiatrist in British Columbia.
HEALING SICK MINDS WITH VITAMINS 545
Dr. Hoffer was a pioneer in the nutritional treatment of schizophrenia. In 1952, he and a
colleague gave niacin to eight schizophrenic patients. They immediately improved.
Continuing the study, the doctors checked their patients' progress for the next 15 years.
All were well 15 years later—and all were still taking niacin {Orthomolecular Psychiatry).
Schizophrenia can last a lifetime or a few weeks. Many patients walk out of state
hospitals only to return. To see if niacin could keep schizophrenics permanently out of
hospitals. Dr. Hoffer gave 73 hospitalized schizophrenics niacin and compared them to
98 who were not taking niacin. During the next three years, only 7 of the niacin patients
had to be readmitted to a hospital, while 47 of the non-niacin patients were readmitted
(Lancet).
The patients Dr. Hoffer treated did not have pellagra. They had what he calls a vitamin
dependency.
A vitamin dependency. Dr. Hoffer explained to us, is the need for a larger amount of a
vitamin than most people require. If you don't get that amount, you can suffer from a
variety of physical and mental ills. Schizophrenia is one of them.
The dependency could be inherited. Or if you were deprived of the nutrient over a long
period of time, you might need more of it to function normally. Many of the mental
patients with pellagra, for instance, had to take 600 milligrams of niacin every day for
the rest of their lives. Most people need only 5 milligrams.
Extra Vitamin C
Niacin isn't the only nutrient involved, however. Vitamin C is another.
When a normal person is given 5 grams of vitamin C, his tissues are saturated—he can't
absorb any more. But studies show that it takes from 20 to 40 grams of vitamin C to
saturate the tissues of a schizophrenic. They don't need that much to get better, though.
A doctor gave 1 gram of vitamin C a day to 40 schizophrenics, all of whom had had the
disease for years. Many of them showed significant improvement.
Why vitamin C and niacin?
"Nobody knows for sure," Dr. Hoffer told us. "The scientific community is only
beginning to look at the relationship of these substances to mental functioning. But even
if the role of nutrition in schizophrenia isn't completely understood, there's no doubt in
my mind that the disease is caused by a biochemical imbalance in the body that can be
corrected with proper nutrition. I've treated 4,000 cases of schizophrenia, and I haven't
ever seen one caused by psychological factors."
Another doctor who believes that schizophrenia is caused by a biochemical imbalance in

the body is Carl Pfeiffer, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Brain Bio Center in Princeton, New
Jersey.
Dr. Pfeiffer calls schizophrenia a "biochemical wastebas-ket" into which, he says, have
been thrown ten diseases, all of which were once thought to be schizophrenia (because
their symptoms are identical to those of schizophrenia) but which are now classified as
separate diseases with separate causes. Among them are brain syphilis, as well as a
thyroid disorder and a type of epilepsy.
Dr. Pfeiffer has turned that wastebasket into a filing cabinet. He believes that he has
isolated the remaining biochemical abnormalities that cause schizophrenia. There are
five, and nutrition can treat them all.
One of them is pyroluria. In this disease, a person eliminates abnormally large amounts
of the chemical kryptopyrrole. Unfortunately, on its way out, kryptopyrrole grabs onto
zinc and vitamin Bf,, both of which are crucial to normal brain function. The result is
very low body levels of those nutrients—and schizophrenia. The treatment, however, is
simple: Replace Bf, and zinc. And the cure is almost automatic—95 percent recover.
Unless they're taken off the nutrients. Then schizophrenia returns in two days.
Thirty percent of all schizophrenics have pyroluria, says Dr. Pfeiffer. And most of them
are under 20. "Stress increases the amount of kryptopyrrole that is excreted," he
explained, "and people from the ages 15 to 20 face the greatest level of stress."
HEALING SICK MINDS WITH VITAMINS 547
Another 60 percent of schizophrenics suffer from a histamine disorder, according to Dr.

Pfeiffer. Histamine, as any hay fever victim who takes antihistamines can tell you, is
involved in allergic reactions. But that's not all it's involved in. "It would take a half an
hour to explain all of histamine's functions in the body," says Dr. Pfeiffer. And one of
those functions is as a neurotransmitter, a chemical that relays information in the brain.
But when histamine levels rise too high or dip too low, the brain can relay the wrong
information: Your deceased uncle is standing in the corner; there's a plot against you;
you're the savior of the world. In short, schizophrenia.
For schizophrenics with high histamine, Dr. Pfeiffer prescribes calcium, which lowers
histamine levels and relieves the constant or frequent headaches that accompany the
disorder. Along with calcium, he gives the minerals zinc and manganese. The treatment
also includes the amino acid methionine. 'This helps to lower blood histamine by a
process known as methy-lation," says Dr. Pfeiffer.
"For patients with low histamine, large doses of niacin and vitamin C are usually
effective," he explains.
Proper nutrition seems to be the best way to treat schizophrenia. Yet, the American
Psychiatric Association and the government's National Institute of Mental Health have
been powerful opponents of treating schizophrenia with nutrition. Why?
"Resistance is the typical medical reaction to all ideas that strike out on new therapeutic
ground," says Dr. Hoffer. "The attack on nutritional treatment is illogical, unjustified,
extreme, emotional and not backed up by scientific evidence."
The scientific jury is still out on the megavitamin approach to schizophrenia. At present,
it appears to be a promising alternative.
SHINGLES CHAPTER
VITAMIN RELIEF FOR SHINGLES
Remember when you had chicken pox as a child? You were pretty miserable (not to
mention unsightly) for about two or three weeks. But finally the last scab fell off and you
went skipping back to school feeling incredibly happy to be rid of the disease once and
for all.
Or so you thought. Fact is, the same nasty little bug that gave you chicken pox as a child
can come back to haunt you decades later as an aging adult, only worse. The bug is
herpes, the disease—shingles.
It's true. The pox may be gone but the germs Hnger on. After your bout with chicken
pox, herpes zoster (the official name of this virus) may take up residence in your spinal
nerves, where it promptly goes into hibernation. You think it's gone forever, but it can
wake up at any time and start multiplying.
When that happens, the affected nerve becomes inflamed, and pain radiates all along its
path. The herpes virus then passes down the nerve and multiplies again in the skin,
causing clusters of sores to erupt.
For four or five days before the expected rash, however, you may feel anything from
numbness and superficial tingling.
VITAMIN RELIEF FOR SHINGLES 549
itching or burning sensations to severe, deep pain. Discomfort may be intermittent or

constant. At its worst, the pain may even be mistaken for appendicitis, gallbladder
attack or pleurisy. As if that's not enough, you may also run a fever for days and feel
generally out of sorts, too. All this before eruption!
When the rash does make its appearance, it starts out as small reddened areas which
quickly puff up with fluid to the size of a quarter, or larger in some cases. The skin over
the blisters becomes increasingly rigid until, finally, by about the fifth day after eruption,
the blisters burst. During the next week or two, crusts develop, but a total of two to four
weeks may elapse before you see the last scab fall off.
The sores are not randomly distributed on the body as with chicken pox. The affected
areas are always along the course of one or more of the spinal nerves beneath the skin.
Most typically, the rash progresses in a band around one side of the chest (55 percent of
the cases), the neck (20 percent), the lower back (15 percent) or the forehead and eyes
(15 percent), and all the while you may be feeling extreme discomfort.
The distribution and appearance of the sores is so characteristic of herpes zoster that no
testing is necessary to confirm diagnosis. And with a million new cases each year, it's not
long before even new doctors recognize this distinctive disease.
True, its appearance is similar to chicken pox, but shingles is not a youngster's disease.
On the contrary, it's those over age 50 who are most susceptible. In fact, it's been
estimated that half the people reaching 85 years of age have suffered from at least one
attack of herpes zoster.
Shingles Often Affects Healthy Older People
And these are not necessarily sickly folks, either. Believe it or not, shingles often occurs
in otherwise healthy older people. Sometimes it's a physical injury which precipitates a
bout with
zoster: one investigation found that 38 percent of their herpes zoster patients had had
an injury to the shingles-infected area two weeks before the appearance of sores (British
Medical Journal).
That finding, coupled with the decreased natural immunity that often accompanies old
age, may help explain the prevalence of shingles in older people. Of course, anything
which lowers your resistance may also trigger an outbreak of shingles. That means you
may be more susceptible in times of physical or emotional stress or when your natural
immunity has been compromised by another illness.
One thing's for sure, though; you can't catch shingles like you do chicken pox. Most
patients with zoster have had no recent exposure to others infected with it or chicken
pox. That's why the incidence of zoster does not increase during seasonal chicken pox
epidemics. On the other hand, a person susceptible to chicken pox can catch it from
someone suffering from shingles.
What's more, shingles is not a once-and-done disease like chicken pox. That means you
can come down with a second or third outbreak, and it can affect the same nerve as it
did the first time or a different one completely.
But no matter how or why the eruptions occur, each person is affected to a different
degree. As with most diseases, some people get off with only a mild sentence while
others wonder if they'll ever be set free.
Let us reassure you right now. Complications can be severe and quite serious, but they
are rarely fatal or even permanent.
Still, you should know that herpes zoster is occasionally associated with paralysis of the
arms, legs and chest muscles. Even when that occurs, however, adequate functioning
returns in over 75 percent of cases. Eye involvement, on the other hand, may result in
permanent visual impairment due to scarring of the cornea. Skin, too, may be
permanently scarred if the sores are very deep.
But the most common and troublesome part of shingles is pain which lingers long after
the obvious infection has gone. Doctors call this postherpetic neuralgia and believe it is
caused by scarring of the damaged nerves.
It doesn't afflict everyone, fortunately, but once again, it's the older folks who suffer the
most. As many as 70 percent of those over 60 years of age can expect moderate to severe
pain for more than two months or, in some cases, for years.
While there doesn't appear to be any definite way to ward off an attack of shingles
(except to boost your own natural immunities with good health habits), there are
numerous ways to help relieve the discomforts of zoster, if it should strike.
First of all, while the sores are erupting, wear loose-fitting clothes. "And, especially, stay
away from fuzzy garments," says Richard Mihan, M.D., from the University of Southern
California school of medicine. As a dermatologist practicing with Samuel Ayres, M.D.,
Dr. Mihan has treated numerous cases of herpes zoster and the often accompanying
postherpetic neuralgia. 'The pain may be severe at times, requiring sedation and causing
almost unbearable discomfort and loss of sleep," says Dr. Mihan. Rather than resort to
drastic measures like cutting out the root of the affected nerve or repeatedly injecting
local anesthetics into the area (which causes other negative side effects), Drs. Ayres and
Mihan found a better, safer way to relieve the prolonged suffering—vitamin E.
Over a period of four years, they treated 13 patients with chronic postherpetic neuralgia
with vitamin E, administered both orally (400 to 1,600 international units daily) and
topically (directly to the sores).
Eleven of the patients had had moderate to severe pain for over six months. Seven of
those had suffered for over one year— one for 13 years and one for 19 years! Yet, after
taking vitamin E, nine patients reported complete or almost complete control of pain.
The two patients who had had postherpetic neuralgia the longest were in this group. Of
the remaining four patients, two were moderately improved and two were slightly
improved (Archives of Dermatology).
"The mechanism by which vitamin E relieves the persistent pain of postherpes zoster
neuralgia is not known," concluded Drs. Mihan and Ayres, "but in view of its long
duration in many of our cases, we do not believe it is coincidence."
And they still don't. "Vitamin E may not be 100 percent
effective," Dr. Mihan told us, "but many of my patients get relief from persistent pain."
But vitamin E doesn't just relieve pain. It also helps stop the rash from spreading. One
woman told us, "Last August, I noticed a sore about the size of a silver dollar on my
back. When I touched the spot, it burst as if it were a blister. I thought nothing of it until
late that same evening, when I felt a rash very rapidly spreading all over my back. It was
annoying and felt as though ants were crawling on my skin.
"Not knowing how to stop it from spreading, I wondered if vitamin E might help. I cut
the tips of three vitamin E capsules (each 400 international units) with scissors, let the
oil drip into a saucer and applied it to the reddish, tender sores. Vitamin E stopped the
rash from spreading instantly and gave me so much relief that I was able to sleep well
that night. By morning, my husband was amazed to notice how the sores had begun to
heal and were already forming scabs.
"I paid a visit to our family doctor that afternoon, and he confirmed my own suspicions:
It was shingles. Healing progressed quickly and completely as I continued applying
vitamin E oil to the infected area, and during that time I was never laid up and was able
to do all of my housework. It's no wonder that vitamin E is called the 'miracle vitamin.'
Vitamin C Helps
Still, vitamin E doesn't work for everyone. But don't despair. Vitamin C may be the
vitamin that'll do the job for you.
Juan N. Dizon, M.D., of New York, has treated herpes zoster with oral vitamin C and
gotten excellent results.
"I have treated three cases of shingles with 10 grams (10,000 milligrams) of vitamin C
daily (1 gram every hour) until the lesions dry up," says Dr. Dizon. "In each case, the
lesions dried up within two to five days.
"I told another physician of these findings. When he tried the same on his patients, he
had similar results.
"I am aware that this is all anecdotal and nonscientific, but considering that there is no
good scientific treatment for herpes and that vitamin C is virtually harmless, I would
hope that others will try this method on their patients and report their results. After
enough anecdotal cases have been submitted, maybe somebody will do double-blind
controlled studies."
An outbreak of shingles is not the end of the world, but it can certainly change your
outlook on it for a while.
Keep yours bright with vitamins E and C and, hopefully, shingles will be just a short
lapse in an otherwise healthy life.
SKIN PROBLEMS CHAPTER
VITAMINS THAT
TEAM UP
FOR CLEAR SKIN
Several years ago, a 26-year-old man walked into the office of Samuel Ayres, Jr., M.D.,
looking for help. Patches of crusting, scaling, itching, wartlike growths covered most of
his torso. Scattered outbreaks appeared on his scalp, arms and legs. The young man was
suffering from Darier's disease (keratosis folli-cularis). He had battled the rare,
hereditary skin condition for 13 years with little success.
"He was certainly a mess," recalls Dr. Ayres, who maintains a private dermatology
practice in Los Angeles. The skin disease had been persistently severe and extensive. On
three occasions, it had been serious enough to put the young man in a hospital.
Corticosteroid drugs used to treat the problem provided only temporary relief. Hot
weather, sun exposure and nervous tension made the condition worse.
"He couldn't even go out and play tennis," says Dr. Ayres. "His skin was extremely
sensitive to sunlight, and he would break out disastrously whenever he went out in the
sun."
Since vitamin A supplements had been used with some success for a variety of skin
problems involving defects of the skin's outer layer, his doctors had placed him on an
average daily dose
VITAMINS FOR CLEAR SKIN 555
of 200,000 international units. He had been taking the high dosages of vitamin A for
about five years. During that time, he was monitored closely for any adverse reactions,
since the dose was considerably higher than the Recommended Dietary Allowance and
not recommended for normal use. Although he showed no signs of toxicity, there were
no signs of improvement, either. "It was a baffling situation," says Dr. Ayres. "His
doctors observed that, while the doses of A were not making him better, his skin
condition worsened without it."
After reviewing the case. Dr. Ayres advised the patient to reduce his intake of vitamin A
to 150,000 international units daily. At the same time, he was instructed to begin taking
1,200 international units of vitamin E each day. Eventually, the vitamin A dosage was
reduced to 100,000 international units and the vitamin E was elevated to 1,600
international units. After 11 months, his back was entirely clear and all other areas were
greatly improved (Archives of Dermatology).
Today his skin tans normally when he spends an afternoon outside playing tennis.
"Since taking vitamin A with vitamin E, he has been able to live a reasonably satisfactory
life. He has experienced slight relapses only when he has attempted to markedly reduce
his maintenance doses of vitamins," Dr. Ayres told us.
What had prompted the doctor to try that particular combination of nutrients when
other treatments had failed? As Dr. Ayres told us, "1 was familiar with the work of S. R.
Ames, who had lectured at a symposium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. Ames spoke on the metabolic function of vitamin A and emphasized the important
role vitamin E plays in the absorption, transport and storage of vitamin A in the body.
He reported experiments which indicated that vitamin A absorption was severely
impaired in animals that were on an E-deficient diet."
In those experiments. Dr. Ames discovered that the body's ability to use vitamin A
increased sixfold when oral supplements of vitamin E were also taken. When he took
vitamin E-deficient mice and gave them shots of vitamin A, the vitamin A levels
within their bodies remained low. But after Dr. Ames injected the mice with vitamin E,
the vitamin A levels of the mice increased markedly (American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition).
Those laboratory findings led Dr. Ayres and his colleagues, Richard Mihan, M.D., and
Morton D. Scribner, M.D., to see if vitamin E would work together with vitamin A to
treat several skin diseases involving defects in the upper layer of the skin in their
patients. In addition to Darier's disease, they've made encouraging progress in treating
two other skin conditions over the past several years {Cutis, May, 1979).
And Dr. Ayres believes that people with those particular skin problems may have a
physiological defect which raises their requirements for certain nutrients. "We may be
born with different vitamin and mineral requirements just as much as we're born with
different looks," he says.
Although Dr. Ayres warns people against taking unnecessarily high doses of vitamin A,
he believes that some individuals with chronic skin disease may need large doses. "Some
of those columnists in the newspapers will try to tell people they get all the nutrients
they need from the average American diet," he says. "That is just not true. Some
individuals may need 10 times more of a certain vitamin than other people. Or a
person's requirement may be 100 times greater."
He also suggests that the so-called average American diet may not deserve much
homage. Patients on the vitamin A and E program are advised that there's a lot more to
good nutrition. "The average American diet consists of eating enriched white bread,"
says Dr. Ayres. "Enriched bread contains inorganic iron, which combines with vitamin E
and destroys it. So people taking vitamin E for therapeutic purposes should avoid eating
enriched white breads and cereals. They also should not take mineral supplements
containing inorganic iron unless they take the vitamin E and the mineral supplement
eight hours apart." (Ferrous gluconate, ferrous fumarate, peptonized iron and iron
lactate are preferable sources since they are organic.)
Dr. Scribner has witnessed that phenomenon in his own practice. A 12-year-old boy
once came to him with pityriasis
VITAMINS FOR CLEAR SKIN 557
rubra pilaris, a skin condition the youth had had since infancy. The condition is a rare,
chronic, inflammatory skin disease in children and adults, characterized by pink, scaling
areas and prominent hair follicles.
Under Dr. Scribner's supervision, the child was given 100,000 international units of
vitamin A and 800 international units of vitamin E daily. No change was observed
during the first six months of treatment. Then the condition began to clear up, and there
was a 50 percent improvement. During that period, it was discovered that, contrary to
instruction, the boy was taking an inorganic iron supplement daily in the form of ferrous
sulfate. He discontinued the iron, which apparently was combining with and
inactivating the vitamin E. After another two months of treatment, his skin was almost
totally clear. He presently takes a maintenance dose of 30,000 international units of
vitamin A and 400 international units of vitamin E daily. His skin remains virtually
clear.
Acne vulgaris, or common acne, is another skin disorder that seems to respond well to
the combined therapy. Acne is probably one of the most common diseases of the skin. It
usually occurs on the face, with pimples and blackheads being the most obvious
symptoms. While acne has been treatable, it has remained incurable.
"Vitamin A has been used by itself to treat acne, but with little success," says Dr. Ayres.
What about combining A and E? He and his colleague. Dr. Mihan, have their acne
patients taking an average daily dose of 100,000 international units of vitamin A and
800 international units of vitamin E daily. "We've had very good results with this
treatment," says Dr. Ayres. And the doses of vitamins can usually be reduced after a few
months.
The patients also use a topical medication—benzoyl peroxide gel—and are told what
foods to avoid. "Extra iodine can aggravate acne, so we advise our patients to avoid
iodized salt. Excess milk, fats and sweets also can cause acne to flare up. Many
commercial soft drinks contain brominated vegetable oils as stabilizers, which may
irritate acne conditions, too. We tell our patients to drink fresh fruit juices."
While nutrition is a very important factor in maintaining healthy skin, problems can
erupt at any stage of life for a variety of reasons. 'The skin is a complicated organ," Dr.
Ayres explains. "There are external irritants like overbathing, using too much soap and
water or cosmetics. Internal malignancies or internal infections will sometimes reflect
themselves through skin problems. Chronic infections of the teeth, bladder or other
organs, and malfunction of organs such as the liver may cause skin eruptions, too. Some
external causes of allergy, and internal causes like reactions to certain drugs, also can
create skin trouble."
Although he has observed progress in his own practice and in the work of his colleagues.
Dr. Ayres says research on the combined A and E therapy still needs to be conducted in
laboratory settings. And despite the high dosages prescribed, he has observed no ill
effects in his patients.
"Dosages taken at those levels should be monitored by a physician, though," Dr. Ayres
stresses. "And people with high blood pressure, heart disease or diabetes should not take
high levels of vitamin E at first. Vitamin E improves the tone of the heart muscle, and a
large dose too soon can make the blood pressure rise. Vitamin E also improves glycogen
storage, so diabetics on insulin could develop an insulin shock reaction if they took too
much vitamin E too soon. People with these conditions should not begin with any more
than 100 international units of vitamin E a day. The dose may gradually be increased
under a doctor's supervision."
Dr. Ayres thinks the combined vitamin therapy may be helpful in treating other chronic
skin conditions. "There is room for further investigation. We just see unusual conditions
occasionally, and we try different things that seem to work. 1 don't know how far the
vitamin A and E therapy will go. But it's certainly given relief to some."
VISION PROBLEMS CHAPTER
LOOK TO VITAMINS FOR SHARPER VISION
"Eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart," observed St. Jerome about 15
centuries ago. And he was right, as generations of lovers (and liars) can attest. Only in
fairly recent times, though, has medicine begun to realize that the eyes reveal other
kinds of secrets, as well.
'The eye is an extremely sensitive barometer of faulty diet," says Ben Lane, O.D., a New
Jersey optometrist. "When the eye's dimension changes a single millimeter, it makes an
enormous difference in vision. Poor nutrition, in the eye, is exquisitely measurable."
The connection between good eyesight and a sound diet— or poor eyesight and a bad
one—may not be terribly obvious. But consider this: Helen Keller International, an
American voluntary agency working to prevent blindness overseas, has estimated that
250,000 Asian children go blind from malnutrition every year.
Xerophthalmia, the leading cause of child blindness, is brought on by general

malnutrition and, particularly, lack of vitamin A. For this reason, the agency has
conducted massive efforts to administer vitamin A to children at risk and to encourage
their
parents to include vitamin A-rich fruits and green leafy vegetables in the youngsters'
diets. Fortunately, the disease is now on the retreat worldwide.
Few Americans are in any real danger of losing their eyesight due to diet. But the human
eye is a device of such wondrous complexity that it requires a whole smorgasbord of
different nutrients to keep all its parts in working order. And shortages of some of them
may be more common than you think.
One of the classic signs of vitamin A deficiency, for example, is night blindness. That's
because in dim light the remarkable process we call seeing—actually chemical changes
turning to electrical impulses turning to mental pictures—requires, at one point, a light-
sensitive pigment known as rhodopsin, or visual purple. And the primary source of
rhodopsin is vitamin A.
When a Florida optometrist randomly tested 100 patients for night vision, 26 of them
failed some portion of the test. As optometrists, "we have been content with measuring
our patients' ability to see only under daylight conditions," he observed, "and
overlooking the possibility that as many as one in four may become visually impaired
when the sun goes down."
Actually, the link between vitamin A and night blindess is hardly a fresh revelation. Way
back in the sixteenth century, a Dutch poet noted, "He who cannot see at night / Must
eat the liver of the goat. / Then he see all right." Liver, of course, is a rich source of
vitamin A. But it's also a good source of many other nutrients, which may have had
something to do with the effectiveness of the poet's prescription.
Zinc Helps Vitamin A Help You See
One of those nutrients, it now appears, is the dietary mineral zinc. In a recent study at
Johns Hopkins Hospital and the University of Maryland school of medicine, in
Baltimore, researchers demonstrated that both vitamin A and zinc are key ingredients in
the chemistry of night vision.
VITAMINS FOR SHARPER VISION 561
The study involved 11 patients suffering from a type of cirrhosis of the Hver not caused
by drinking. In 9 of the patients, the researchers found blood serum vitamin A
deficiencies along with poor night vision; 4 of them were also low in zinc. Seven of the 9
were treated with oral vitamin A (25,000 to 50,000 international units daily) for 4 to 12
weeks.
(One patient died of liver failure before the treatment was completed; another didn't
return for follow-up studies.)
All seven patients who completed the course of treatment showed normal serum vitamin
A levels at the end of the study. But in three of these patients, normalization of serum
vitamin A didn't fully correct their poor night vision. After it was discovered that these
three were also zinc deficient, oral zinc supplementation brought their night vision back
to normal.
"Zinc," the researchers explain, "is important in conversion of vitamin A to its active
form, retinaldehyde, in the retina. .. . Thus, despite a normal serum vitamin A level,
impaired dark adaptation can result from inadequate synthesis of retinaldehyde from
vitamin A due to zinc deficiency" {Hepatology, vol. 1, no. 4, 1981).
Vegetables for Vision
But zinc and vitamin A aren't the only nutrients that can affect your vision, by night or
by day. A researcher at Johns Hopkins Hospital, David L. Knox, M.D., associate
professor of ophthalmology, has been exploring the effects of folate, vitamin Bi2 and
other nutrients on an unusual eye problem called nutritional amblyopia.
He told us, "I've been studying the possibility that folic acid [folate] or some other
unknown vitamin from green and yellow vegetables may be essential to the maintenance
of normal vision and optic nerve funtion." It is, he says, "extremely important for people
to eat enough green and yellow vegetables to maintain normal vision."
Some food additives, particularly monosodium glutamate (MSG). may have a less than
wholesome effect on the eye, according to John Olney, M.D., Professor of psychiatry and
neuropathology at Washington University, in St. Louis. Glutamate is a naturally
occurring substance that is harmless when it's part of a protein molecule, he told us. But
when it's added to commercial foods in large amounts (as a flavor enhancer), it may
damage nerves in the retina and parts of the brain by "exciting them to death."
Though Dr. Olney's animal studies have involved the ingestion of massive doses of MSG,
well beyond the amounts the average adult would ingest, he told us, "I would definitely
go out of my way to avoid feeding MSG to children." While adults have well-developed
barriers to the toxic effects of glutamate, he explained, a child's system is less fully
developed and thus more vulnerable to visual and brain-cell damage.
Ordinary nearsightedness (myopia), a problem so common that nearly one in three
Americans wears lenses to correct for it, is another eye condition that may have a dietary
link. Though the old theory that eye-focusing strain causes myopia still seems to hold
up. Dr. Ben Lane has data that indicate poor diet may worsen its effects. In particular,
he reports in one study, people with increasing myopia statistically eat too much sugar
and flesh protein, are deficient in chromium and do not metabolize calcium properly
{Documenta Ophthalmologica, vol. 28, 1981). "The wealth of new nutrition studies
relating to vision is staggering," Dr. Lane adds.
Vitamin E as Protector
Among those studies are a considerable number exploring the effects of vitamin E, or
the lack of it, on the health of the eye. W. Gerald Robison, Jr., Ph.D., chief of the
experimental anatomy section, laboratory of vision research of the National Eye
Institute, has been examining the effects on animal retinas
of diets deficient in vitamins E and A. Results? "A highly E-deficient animal will go blind
in time," he told us.
Although he cautions that his work so far has been with animals only, and that it's
unlikely a human would develop vitamin E deficiencies as extreme as those he's
produced in the lab, Dr. Robison's studies have produced some intriguing clues into the
nourishment of the eye.
The retina is a sheet of nerve cells at the back of the eye that changes light (via
chemistry) into electrical impulses, the language of the nervous system. The cells it's
made of, Dr. Robison explains, especially the light-sensitive or photoreceptor nerve cells
—the things we see with—contain large amounts of unsaturated fatty acids. Because
these fatty acids are readily oxidized (broken down by oxygen, or "rusted out") "we can
suspect that the retina is quite susceptible to oxidation unless it's protected by an
antioxidant," he says.
Because vitamin E is a potent antioxidant, or protective agent against organic "rust," Dr.
Robison decided to test the effect of a grossly E-deficient diet on the retinas of rats. He
also tested the effects of diets deficient in both vitamin E and vitamin A.
After five months, he told us, a diet low in E but adequate in A "produced a significant
degeneration of photoreceptor cells and an accumulation of aging pigments [highly
oxidized, insoluble fatty acids] that was five times greater than normal." Because the
visual cells were damaged but not killed, he says, "the damage may be reversible." A diet
deficient in both A and E, on the other hand, resulted in the permanent destruction of
nearly half the visual cells in eight months. "Vitamin A," he concludes, "appears to
protect against this cell loss."
In another study, at Cornell University, dogs fed diets deficient only in vitamin A were
also found to develop retinopathy, or damaged retinas. The damage first showed up on
the retina after as little as three months. Next came night blindness and finally "severe
day visual impairment" {American Journal of Veterinary Research, January, 1981).
Help for Cataracts?
The possibility that vitamin E may also help prevent cataracts in diabetics, one of the
groups most likely to develop them, is currently under study in a Canadian laboratory. A
cataract— a clouding or opacity of the eye's crystalline lens—can result in partial or total
blindness.
But John Trevithick, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry at the University of Western

Ontario, has shown that massive doses of vitamin E may prevent the formation of
cataracts in rat lenses. Five years ago, he and his co-workers began their studies by
placing rat lenses in test tubes containing a high glucose concentration, to simulate the
conditions in a diabetic's body. Vitamin E appeared to prevent the formation of cataracts
in those lenses.
Then, in live rats who had been artifically induced to develop diabetes, vitamin E was
also shown to protect against cataract formation. Rats not given vitamin E always
developed cataracts; those given vitamin E did not. However, these results were
obtained only with injections of E in extremely large amounts.
Dr. Trevithick told us he has administered vitamin E orally to animals in equally large
amounts. The oral administration, he found, results in serum levels approximately three
times higher than normal, and "the preliminary evidence is that vitamin E can almost
totally prevent cataracts in diabetic rats."
What's more, in preliminary experiments with rat lenses in lest tubes (known as in vitro
studies). Dr. Trevithick has been able to partially reverse existing cataracts with vitamin
E, rather than merely prevent their formation. Does the same thing work in live animals
(in vivo)? "So far, our preliminary in vivo work does seem to confirm the in vitro work in
some respects," he told us.
Though much about cataracts remains a mystery—no "cure" is known, so thousands of

cataract-removal operations are performed each year—one study may shed some light
on their development.
As part of a national health program in Australia, doctors examined the eyes of over
100,000 people from remote rural areas scattered all across the country. By comparing
the incidence of cataracts with zones of average daily sunshine (ultraviolet radiation) the
examiners were able to demonstrate convincingly that "cataract develops earlier in life
and also has more severe visual consequences in areas of high UV [ultraviolet]
radiation" (Lancet, December 5, 1981). This was especially true of the aborigines,
apparently because they spend most of their lives outdoors or under inadequate shelter
in the bright sun.
The researchers pointed out that UV light has been shown to produce a clouding of the
lens in other studies but that this effect "is inhibited by physiological levels of ascorbate
[vitamin C] and glutathione [a substance that carries oxygen]." This, they added,
"provides an enticing clue to the specific function of these two substances in the lens."
In research labs around the country, medical detectives are on the trail of many an
enticing clue to the mysteries of sight. In the meantime, while we await the final
unraveling, we'd do well to think of our eyes as we do the rest of our bodies— marvelous,
irreplaceable and happiest when they're well fed.
VITAMIN DEFICIENCY CHAPTER
AVOID LOW-LEVEL VITAMIN DEFICIENCY
For years, the elderly gentleman had been leading the sort of life Ebenezer Scrooge
would have found delightful. A lifelong bachelor, he lived alone and took all his meals
alone in restaurants. He despised fruits and vegetables. Instead, his diet consisted
almost entirely of fried eggs, bread and boiled potatoes, a suitably cheap, unappetizing,
Scrooge-style bill of fare.
He was 83 when his gloomy habits began to produce alarming side effects: His chronic
exhaustion reached the point where he became breathless with the least exertion, and
his legs had become painfully swollen and covered with discolored, purplish spots.
Dismayed, he sought medical help at the Thomas Jefferson University hospital in
Philadelphia.
The examining physicians found a weak, toothless, apathetic old man who showed many
of the signs of scurvy, the vitamin C-deficiency disease that was once a killer of epidemic
proportions but today is relatively rare. Still, the doctors reported later, even though
full-blown scurvy is uncommon, at least one study has shown that some 40 percent of
elderly people admitted to hospitals have subnormal body levels of vitamin C. And the
old man's dreadful eating habits made it seem all the more likely.
AVOID LOW-LEVEL DEFICIENCY 567
But the doctors were perplexed. At one point, they almost abandoned their diagnosis of
scurvy because several symptoms so common they're considered hallmarks of the
disease just weren't there. For example, swollen, scaly, raised areas around the hair
follicles with coiled or looped hair shafts, surrounded by a red halo of inflammation, are
among the most well-recognized symptoms of advanced vitamin C deficiency. But this
triad of signs was absent in the bachelor's case, as were bleeding gums and frequent
nosebleeds.
Yet, laboratory tests confirmed the doctors' original suspicions. The man was started on
250 milligrams of vitamin C daily, and later on iron, folate (folic acid) and vitamin B12
supplements. Within four days, the swelling had gone down and the purplish patches
were beginning to fade. After eight days, they'd vanished and the old gentleman was
discharged "in good spirits . . . feeling quite well and free of fatigue"
[InternationalJoiinuil of Dermatology, May, 1982).
The lesson to be learned from his case, the doctors advised their colleagues, was that
"physicians should suspect scurvy in patients who present with ecchymoses [purple
spots] and painful swelling of the lower extremities. Absence of swollen, bleeding gums .
. . congested follicles, coiled hairs, and perifollicular hemorrhages [red inflammations
around the follicles] should not dissuade one from the diagnosis of scurvy."
That the bachelor's nutritional deficiencies showed up without some of the classic signs
may not be all that unusual. "Roger J. Williams [the pioneering nutrition researcher]
speaks of metabolic differences among individuals of up to a thousand times— so,
certainly, there are also great differences among individuals inthe way they show
deficiencies," says John Gaul, D.O., Ph.D., an osteopathic physician in Davie, Florida.
Just as there is variation of faces in a crowd, each of us has our personalized version of
what it means to be healthy—or to be sick. We may show symptoms of nutritional
shortcomings in the known, expected ways—or we may not.
One problem with identifying deficits of specific nutrients is that, at least in the early
stages, the symptoms all tend to look
the same. "Fatigue, malaise, insomnia, susceptibility to colds, bleeding gums, just a poor
feeling in general—most deficiencies tend to produce those symptoms," Edward O.
Shaner, D.D.S., a preventive-dentistry specialist, told us.
It's also important to remember that, in real life, deficiencies of a single nutrient, all by
itself, rarely occur. ''Every one of the 40 or more nutrients is related to every other one,"
explains W. Marshall Ringsdorf, Jr., D.M.D., of the University of Alabama school of
dentistry. "So it's almost impossible to develop an isolated, single deficit, especially
among the B vitamins."
It's also rare (at least in this country) for a physician to be faced with a bona fide case of
deficiency disease like scurvy or pellagra. Dr. Ringsdorf told us. "If scurvy is a condition
in which the body is 100 percent free of vitamin C, then we see cases of 30 and 40
percent depletion—^just enough for subclinical problems to appear. We deal in shades
of gray."
Still, taking all those qualifiers into account, there are certain telltale signs to point to
deficits of specific nutrients, Dr. Gaul told us. Among the most common are gum
disease, "the number one reason why people lose their teeth," associated with vitamin C
deficiency; night-vision deficiency, linked to lack of vitamin A; chilosis, or cracking
around the corners of the mouth, and swelling of the ankles in women taking oral
contraceptives, both tied to vitamin B^ deficiency; poor wound healing, in zinc
deficiency; and brittle, breakage-prone bones due to a loss of calcium from the bones.
Nutritional shortcomings may manifest themselves in other ways, as well—some

common, some not so common. Here are a few of them.
The Philadelphia doctors may have better understood the elderly bachelor's case if
they'd seen the results of a study conducted at the Iowa State Penitentiary, in which
clinical scurvy was induced in five inmates. The five men, ranging in age from 26 to 52,
agreed to consume a diet totally free of vitamin C for as long as it took to produce
genuine scurvy, while researchers made careful note of the changes that took place as
the inmates'
health began to fail. It took the men from 84 to 97 days on the C-free diet to reach full-
blown scurvy.
The first signs the researchers noted were psychological: The inmates became
increasingly depressed, withdrawn and (ironically) neurotically concerned about their
health. They also reported feeling tired, weak and listless. "These changes are
characteristic of individuals who are physically ill, as the subjects were," the doctors
noted.
Then came the parade of physical symptoms, which made their debut in one man on the
29th day. Tiny, pinpoint, purplish spots called petechiae, caused by bleeding under the
skin, were the first symptoms to show up (though they never did appear in one of the
men). Larger purplish patches on the legs came next. Then came coiled hairs (in two of
the inmates) and congested hair follicles (in all five). Other symptoms included swollen,
bleeding gums, shortness of breath, swelling and pain in the joints, edema (water
retention) and muscular aches and pains— though, once again many of these symptoms
appeared in some men and not in others (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).
Vitamin A Problems
The classic sign of vitamin A deficiency is night blindness— when you see poorly or not
at all in dim light and your eyes are slow to adjust from brightness to dimness, as when
you step into a darkened movie theater.
But your eyes aren't the only place an A shortage can show up. A condition called
hyperkeratosis, or dry, scaly skin, has been linked to vitamin A deficiency, and forms of
vitamin A are being used with great success in the treatment of acne. The chronic fatigue
of anemia can also sometimes be traced to vitamin A deficits because, even if your iron
levels are up to par, vitamin A is needed to help your body make use of the iron.
Unhealthy teeth and gums, stomach upsets and increased susceptibility to infection of
the respiratory, intestinal and uri-
nary tracts, as well as the mucous membranes, can also point to vitamin A deficiency.
It's even been reported that low vitamin A may be a "significant factor" in middle-ear
inflammation, called otitis media, which usually occurs in infants or young children
after an upper respiratory infection {Western Journal of Medicine, vol. 133, no. 4, 1980).
Vitamin B Problems
Although pellagra, the niacin-deficiency disease, is almost unheard of in Western

countries today, we've learned a lot from the days when it was frightfully common
among the rural. Southern poor and in prisons. A quartet of symptoms, known as "the
four Ds," tended to follow one another in this order: dermatitis in areas exposed to the
sun, diarrhea, dementia and then death.
Today niacin deficiencies don't usually progress much beyond the early stages, but they
can be very unpleasant just the same. Canadian doctors have described dermatitis
caused by marginal niacin deficiency: It begins with a burning redness and puffiness in
areas exposed to the sun, heat or friction, most often on the backs of the hands but
sometimes the backs of the feet, arms or legs. Sometimes a "necklace" of irritated skin,
which turns a scaly, reddish purple in time, appears on the front of the neck (Canadian
Medical Association Journal).
More advanced niacin deficits can produce the personality changes formerly known as
dementia, including depression, apathy, confusion, suspicion and hostility. In fact,
writes Canadian researcher Abram Hoffer, Ph.D., M.D., "For many years it was debated
whether subclinical pellagra should be classified among the neuroses. Just as fully
developed pellagra resembles a number of psychoses, so does subclinical pellagra
resemble any one of the typical neuroses." With colleague Humphry Osmond, D.P.M.,
Dr. Hoffer has pioneered in the use of forms of niacin in the treatment of schizophrenia.
A Lack of Thiamine
Complaining of severe shortness of breath that had steadily worsened over the
preceding 30 hours, a 40-year-old Kansas City, Kansas, man was admitted to the
Veterans Administration Medical Center there. His hands, feet and the area around his
mouth had turned blue, his heart was racing and his blood pressure had fallen
dramatically. The doctors who treated him learning that he was a heavy beer drinker,
made a shrewd diagnosis and injected the B vitamin thiamine.
His blood pressure began rising almost immediately, and he eventually completely
recovered (Chest).
The man was a victim of what the doctors called "acute pernicious beri-beri heart
disease," caused by chronic thiamine deficiency due to drinking. Over the long haul,
thiamine shortages can cause a weakening of the heart muscle and, eventually, cardiac
failure.
Deficiencies also show up in the gastrointestinal system, in the form of indigestion,

severe constipation and loss of appetite, and—worst of all—in the central nervous
system. Problems may develop in the peripheral nerves—such as a tingling or burning
sensation in the toes, burning feet (especially at night), sore calf muscles and even
irritability, depression and confusion.
Quite similar symptoms have been attributed to deficiencies of vitamin B12: unsteady
gait, lack of coordination and a burning, tingling ache in the feet and legs, more
pronounced in the feet at night and in the legs by day. An electric-shock-like sensation
when the neck is bent, called Lhermitte's sign, may also be caused by B12 deficiency,
which does its damage, like an absence of thiamine, by affecting the central nervous
system.
Precisely how a deficiency will manifest itself in your body is, at least to a certain degree,
an individual matter.
But by taking care to eat right and stay fit, you can spare yourself the pain of finding that
out.
BOOK IV
The
Nutritional
Healers
INTRODUCTION
There are plenty of specialists around. In fact, when you're being shuttled from doc to
doc—the kidney man doesn't know a whit about your bones, and the bone man thinks
you need an appointment with a neurologist—it seems like there are too many. But even
with a specialist on every block, where do you go when you want to see a doctor who's an
expert on your medical problem and a specialist in that all-important field most doctors
ignore: the drugless therapy of nutrition? Well, that doctor has office hours in book 4:
The Nutritional Healers.
In the pages that follow, you'll be able to consult with experts in various health fields—
but experts who also realize the prime importance of proper diet and nutritional
supplements. A pediatrician will tell you how kids with learning disabilities can be
helped with food supplements. An eye doctor will describe his vitamin recipe for better
vision. You'll meet a pharmacist who advises patients on which vitamins to take to mute
the side effects of prescription drugs; a psychologist who uses nutrition to relieve stress.
In all, two dozen doctors and health professionals share with you their tips for a
healthier, happier life. So turn the page—the doctor is in!
AUDIOLOGIST CHAPTER
MUFFLE THOSE BELLS IN YOUR EARS
A 53-year-old auto mechanic has been totally deaf for 20 years. Yet, he still suffers from
loud buzzing in his ears—sometimes as loud as a chain saw. The noise is so annoying
that he can't relax or sleep. He has consulted several ear specialists, but they could offer
him no hope of a cure. "Try to live with it" was their advice. But often he feels so
frustrated and anxious that life scarcely seems worth living.
Over 7 million Americans suffer from the auto mechanic's problem, while over 36
million more suffer from it in a less severe form. It's called tinnitus: ringing, hissing,
buzzing or roaring in the ears. You don't have to be deaf to have it; most tinnitus
sufferers aren't. In fact, everybody has probably suffered from a temporary form of
tinnitus—when, for example, you've stood too close to a gunshot or a backfire or banged
your head on a low-hanging plant, and usually it's no big deal. But for those who suffer
from tinnitus for prolonged periods, it can be anything from a persistent annoyance to
an unbearable affliction.
The fact that most doctors can suggest only that the majority of tinnitus sufferers try to
live with their problem doesn't help. Though ear specialists have tried various
treatments for tinnitus,
576 AUDIOLOGIST
including surgery and drugs, they have had few successes. Even tinnitus maskers,
hearing-aid-like devices that drown out the noise with other sounds, only cover up the
symptom without helping the underlying problem. And tinnitus is always a symptom of
an underlying hearing disorder, which often leads to some form of hearing loss.
But now a new approach, developed in the last six years, offers hope to tinnitus
sufferers. Paul Yanick, Jr., Ph.D., a clinical audiologist and adjunct assistant professor at
Monmouth College in New Jersey, believes that tinnitus, as well as many other hearing
problems, can be traced to metabolic disturbances. And in partnership with several
physicians, he has developed this theory into a successful clinical therapy.
For instance, the auto mechanic we mentioned was eventually referred to Dr. Yanick.
Dr. Yanick began with a battery of very precise hearing and metabolic tests that are the
first step in his holistic approach. ''It's important," he told us, "that the tests be precise
enough to detect each patient's special hearing difficulty and metabolic makeup.
Everybody is a biochemical individual, and both hearing and metabolic problems vary
critically in each person. Neglecting to take account of that individuality easily leads to
misdiagnosis."
The mechanic's deafness was so profound that Dr. Yanick had to communicate with him
through written messages. Examination revealed that he had hypoglycemia—a condition
of abnormally low concentration of sugar in the blood—and suffered from a variety of
vitamin and trace mineral deficiencies.
Hypoglycemia a Culprit
Hypoglycemia, Dr. Yanick is convinced, is the most commonly underrated cause of

tinnitus and other hearing problems, including the progressive deafness that the
mechanic also suffered from.
"A diet high in refined carbohydrates raises the blood sugar level too high and too fast,"
he explains. "The pancreas over-
MUFFLE THOSE BELLS IN YOUR EARS 577
reacts to these dangerously high sugar levels by producing too much insulin. Then the
insulin drops the sugar level down too low and too fast. Since the inner ear has the
highest energy requirement of any organ in the body, the drop in blood sugar puts a lot
of stress on it. Finally, the body's stress reaction floods the system with adrenaline,
which constricts the highly sensitive vascular network in the ears—this is often what
causes the ringing of tinnitus. As a result, the ear is starved of energy and oxygen and
can't get the nutrients it needs to function."
So the next step was to remove from the mechanic's diet all refined, processed and
chemically treated foods and to take him off cigarettes and caffeine. The man was also
placed on a natural high-protein diet with supplements of vitamin A and B complex
(three times daily) as well as zinc and chromium.
''Hearing improvements with vitamin A are well documented," Dr. Yanick told us. "A
laboratory study on animals found ten times more vitamin A in the inner ear than in
other tissues of the body. Probably all sensory receptor cells, such as those in the inner
ear, are functionally dependent on vitamin A. The B vitamins, too, are important for
nerve functions. And they also play a major part in glucose metabolism."
The results were dramatic. Although there is little hope of recovery after 20 years of
deafness, within only a month and a half the elated mechanic showed a 30 percent
improvement of hearing and no tinnitus. And since then, he has had continued
improvement of hearing.
Not surprisingly. Dr. Yanick's approach has been effective also in less severe cases of
tinnitus.
Dr. Yanick told us of a 33-year-oId contractor who consulted him about fluctuating
tinnitus, a variety that seems to come and go. The ringing was worst in the quiet of the
night. Soon its distraction and his worrying made it difficult for the man to sleep. He
resorted to drugs—aspirin at first and then Valium. But the tinnitus remained. Hearing
tests revealed that the contractor was already suffering from a slight, undetected hearing
loss. Observation and questioning further revealed that the hearing loss, which was not
evident to the patient, put great strain on him in
578 AUDIOLOGIST
social situations. 'The person with a hearing problem," Dr. Yanick explained, '1s under
great stress. He's concentrating, trying to grasp every word.''
Dr. Yanick further discovered that, in the course of his patient's work as a contractor, he
was sometimes exposed to loud noises.
Metabolic and biochemical tests revealed that the contractor was hypoglycemic and
deficient in magnesium, chromium and especially zinc.
First: A Pair of Ear Plugs
The first thing Dr. Yanick did was to prescribe a pair of ear plugs. "Exposure to loud
noise is dangerous," he explains. "It constricts the blood vessels in the inner ear and
deprives it of oxygen and essential nutrients." Then Dr. Yanick equipped his patient with
a carefully fitted hearing aid. By correcting his slight hearing loss, this immediately
relieved much of the stress he felt in social situations. "And," Dr. Yanick pointed out,
"better hearing can itself drown out moderate tinnitus."
The patient's nutritional problems were also tackled. Dietary reforms were suggested, as
well as a program of fast walking. Proper exercise makes the heart and blood vessels
more efficient, helping to provide enough nourishment for the ear.
After two months of treatment, the contractor showed a 20 percent improvement of

hearing and no more tinnitus. He was now also able to get on happily without
tranquilizers and sleeping pills.
He Reversed His Own Hearing Loss
Dr. Yanick told us about another successful case: himself. At 19, doctors told him he was
going deaf. Six years later, he couldn't hear people talking across a room. His case, he
was told, was hopeless, but refusing to give up, he traveled the coun-
MUFFLE THOSE BELLS IN YOUR EARS 579
try to consult with leading endocrinologists and internists. Learning that he was
hypoglycemic, he started to improvise the treatment he now shares successfully with
others. At 30, Dr. Yanick has halted the progression of his deafness and improved his
hearing.
Dr. Yanick started to develop his theory that tinnitus and other hearing problems are
caused by metabolic imbalances in 1974, when he and E. J. Gosselin, M.D., studied the
metabolism of 90 patients with hearing loss. They found an extremely high correlation
between metabolic and hearing disorders (Journal of the American Audiology Society).
Hypoglycemia isn't the only metabolic abnormality related to hearing problems; high
blood levels of fat are, also. "High blood levels of fats," Dr. Yanick explains, "cause red
blood cells to stick together, reducing the flow of oxygen to the inner ear. When tests
reveal that a patient has this problem, we recommend supplements of lecithin, iron and
potassium, along with a diet high in grains, fruits and vegetables. That regimen has been
very helpful in lowering fat levels and increasing the supply of oxygen."
Stress-reducing techniques (such as exercise, meditation and biofeedback) and a

hearing aid that is scientifically tuned to deliver maximum clarity and comfort are also
important in Dr. Yanick's holistic program.
"For some people, tinnitus gets louder just by worrying about it," Dr. Yanick says.
"Stress is both a cause as well as a result of metabolic disturbances and plays a major
part in hearing problems, especially tinnitus. I've found that, with my patients, fast
walking or jogging usually helps to relieve ordinary stress."
Diet, nutrition, exercise, relaxation. "It's obvious that the ear is part of the body," Dr.
Yanick concludes, "and it makes no sense to treat hearing problems in isolation from the
body's general well-being."
CHIROPRACTOR CHAPTER
DR. HATFIELD-McCOY
When we heard about Milton Fried, M.D., D.C., we didn't know much about him other
than the fact that he was both a medical doctor and a chiropractor.
But that was enough to arouse our curiosity. We knew there was no love lost between
the M.D.s and the chiropractors. Medical doctors charge that "chiropractic theory has
about the same medical validity as voodoo or witchcraft" {At Your Own Risk: The Case
against Chiropractic, Trident Press, 1969). Chiropractors fire back that "the American
Medical Association is an extremist organization that is attempting to use political
power to maintain a monopolistic health care situation here in the United States"
{Chiropractic Speaks Out, Wilk Publishing, 1973).
We wondered how long someone caught in the middle of such caustic rhetoric could
survive professionally.
So when we visited Dr. Fried at his busy office in suburban Atlanta, Georgia, we were
happy to learn of the emphasis he put on nutrition in his practice and the importance he
saw in treating the whole person. But what we wanted to hear about most was what it
was like to be the man in the middle.
DR. HATFIELD-McCOY 581
Question: How does it feel to be both a chiropractor and an M.D.?
Dr. Fried: It's like being a Protestant and a Catholic at the same time in Northern
Ireland. The M.D.s love the fact that I'm an M.D., but they don't like the fact that I've
been a chiropractor, and the chiropractors love that I've been a chiropractor, but some
of them hate the fact that I'm practicing as an M.D. The more things you know how to
do, the more chance you have of offending somebody. It's a paradox.
Q: What about your patients?
Dr. Fried: Oh, they love me! At least someone does!
Q: Why is there so much animosity between doctors and chiropractors?
Dr. Fried: I think that ignorance and bigotry are things that you find in all walks of life.
You find it among some members of the AMA (American Medical Association), and you
find it among chiropractors, too. You find the sort of bigotry that's involved in being
ignorant of what the other person does and of being afraid of economic competition.
I think that the average chiropractor is a sincere person trying to help sick people, and I
think the average M.D. is, too. One of the things I try to do is bridge the gap of trust
between the two sides.
Q: How did you get yourself in this strange position?
Dr. Fried: When I finished my bachelor's degree at New York University, I wanted to be
a physician, but I didn't think I had enough money, so I got a diploma in physical
therapy and rehabilitation. In my work in that field, I began to see patients who were
getting really good results by going to chiropractors, and it didn't jibe with anything I
knew.
I wanted to learn this art, to use it in my own work. So I went to the Chiropractic
Institute of New York, and I became a chiropractor.
I practiced chiropractic for several years, but I still wanted to be an M.D. I wanted to
know more. Basically, I considered myself—and I still do—to be a healer who was
learning whatever
582 CHIROPRACTOR
ways 1 could to help patients. So I went back to school and I studied medicine. I
graduated from UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles) medical school.
Q: Do you still use chiropractic techniques, like adjustment of the spinal column, in your
practice?
Dr. Fried: Yes, but especially 1 use a lot of the philosophy that I learned—for example,
the idea that the body has the innate ability to heal itself, given the correct
circumstances. That is a tremendous thing if you really put it to use with patients.
It frees you from the fear of taking on a sick person. Also, you don't think in terms of
treating a disease; you think in terms of taking care of a human being. It's not just
words, it's actually a different way of practicing that flows from that.
When I see a patient, what I think of is not if I can cure him, but how to arrange to give
him the proper substances and circumstances so that the innate healing ability of his
body can do its work. I frequently will take on patients who otherwise I'd be afraid to
take on, and they reward me by getting well.
Q: Does your interest in nutrition tie in with that?
Dr. Fried: Absolutely. If there's anything that's the center of what I do, it's nutrition.
Nutrition is the one thing that I wouldn't want to do without.
If a person is taking a lot of garbage into his body, sooner or later he's going to be sick,
no matter what else you do with him. Anyone who takes care of people and who
observes them, who really watches them, will come to that conclusion. Anyone who
takes care of any living things knows that what you feed them has a tremendous effect
on them.
To me it seems strange that the orthodox medical profession doesn't take that much into
account. Very strange, actually.
Q: Do you pay much attention to nutrition in your personal life?
Dr. Fried: Yes, I do. Our family is very conscious of diet, and I think it's done us a lot of
good. There have been times when wc have gone away from that. I've noticed the
difference, and so has my family—what happens to us when we stop taking
DR. HATFlELD-McCOY 583
our supplements and stop eating properly. We are very health conscious in my family.
As a general rule, we stay away from sugar completely. We try to give the children fruit,
nuts and other wholesome snacks, whole grains, and they do very well that way. I'm very
proud of them.
Q: Have you ever tried a vegetarian diet?
Dr. Fried: I have and I like it. I personally lean toward vegetarianism myself. I don't
think that you must be a vegetarian to be a healthy person, but I feel very good on a
vegetarian diet. I can't get my wife to stay on one, though. She doesn't want to, and I
don't intend to change wives over it.
Q: Do you eat a lot of raw foods?
Dr. Fried: Yes, we eat a lot of raw vegetables and fruit. Raw things have enzymes in
them, and also vitamins, that are destroyed by heat.
One of the exciting things in nutrition, that I'm writing about is an enzyme called
superoxide dismutase. It's found in raw vegetables. It helps prevent damage to the cell
membrane. It's a very exciting nutritional find and, like all enzymes found in raw food, it
is destroyed by heat.
We also take raw milk in our house. We have a dairy in Atlanta that has a certified herd
and produces a really good raw milk.
Q: You mentioned food supplements. What supplements do you take?
Dr. Fried: I take brewer's yeast, bone meal, desiccated raw liver. I take vitamin C. I take
rutin. I take para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) and pantothenic acid (pantothenate). I
take some kelp. I take some alfalfa. I drink ginseng tea. . . .
Shall I continue?
Q: By all means.
Dr. Fried: I take niacin in a long-acting form. I think niacin is remarkable. The first time
I ever took it, I had such a feeling of well-being that I knew I always needed more niacin.
It has done me a lot of good.
584 CHIROPRACTOR
I also take vitamin Bf,. I take a very balanced B complex, but with additional amounts of
B^, niacin, para-aminobenzoic acid and pantothenic acid.
Q: How does your interest in nutrition carry over into your practice? How does it affect
the things you do with patients?
Dr. Fried: Well, 1 practice holistic medicine. I'm interested in using the physical,
psychological and nutritional things that are needed for a person to achieve a state of
health. 1 check every person's nutritional and biochemical status, always. I'm always
interested in what's going on in their head, what's happening on the job, what's
happening at home.
If I have someone come in with high blood pressure, I'm not happy with just giving him
a high blood pressure pill. I want to find out what's happening with his boss, with his
workers, with his colleagues, with his wife, what he's worried about, what he's doing.
If you have a man who's working two jobs that he hates, coming home after driving an
hour through bad traffic, smelling exhaust every day, plopping down in front of a TV set
with a six-pack, smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, eating a greasy hamburger for
lunch, and then he gets high blood pressure—I think it's the height of idiocy to treat him
with an antihypertensive alone.
Q: Could you mention some cases that illustrate this holistic approach?
Dr. Fried: I recently had a little girl who was having seizures despite the fact that she
was on very high doses of Dilantin, an antiseizure medication, and a good one. She
couldn't talk, she was drooling, and she couldn't pay attention to anything. Her balance
was so bad that her father had to carry her into the office.
Among other things, I did a complete neurological workup on her. I checked her for
vitamin levels and also for mineral levels. I did a hair and a nail analysis on her.
Now, this little girl, even though she was on Dilantin, had never been given any folic acid
(folate). She was extremely low
DR. HATFIELD-McCOY 585
in folic acid. She was very high in copper, very low in zinc, and had a lot of lead in her.
Just by removing the lead, increasing her zinc, decreasing the copper and giving her lots
of folic acid, as well as other B-complex vitamins, I had this girl off Dilantin within two
months' time. She's walking on her own now. It's very gratifying. In fact, when her
parents got her off the Dilantin, they came in here with a big bottle of champagne to
celebrate.
I'm not saying that Dilantin should never be used, and I'm certainly not saying take
everyone off Dilantin and give them folic acid and zinc. If you take someone off Dilantin
right away, you can cause tremendous seizures. The point is that everybody who is given
Dilantin should be given extra folic acid, and doctors who prescribe Dilantin should
have enough knowledge of nutrition and biochemistry to know that. Unfortunately,
some of them don't.
This child was treated basically nutritionally and by keeping in mind the ecologic factors
that are involved in medicine.
For example, what toxic substances did she have in her? She had too much copper. She
got that from her copper pipes at home and from the fact that she wasn't taking enough
zinc. She had a big magnesium shortage, too, incidentally, and we had to get her
magnesium up. These are the kinds of things that physicians are going to be doing more
and more. They're going to be looking for ecological causes of illnesses.
Q: Do you think the medical profession is prepared to make these changes?
Dr. Fried: I think there should be some very big changes in medical education. Together
with medical educators and some other physicians who specialize in nutrition and
metabolism, I'm working to set up an American Board of Nutritional Medicine and
Metabolism. It's pretty close to being formed. The purpose is going to be to examine and
certify people who want to practice as nutritional medical people. We want to certify
them so that the public will know that the person has an expertise in what he claims to
be doing.
586 CHIROPRACTOR
We also want to stimulate the education of physicians along nutritional lines. We'd like
to get nutrition into the medical schools as a separate clinical science, so that people can
really learn how to take care of patients by using nutrition and clinical biochemistry.
I think medical education has not gotten better over the years. 1 think it has gotten
worse. It has become very narrow. You get people today who are graduating who know a
tremendous amount about practically nothing. They're like people with tunnel vision.
That's not an educated person; that is a technician who's ignorant of even the things that
his own work accomplishes, except in terms of his own procedures. And that's the fault
of the medical schools.
DERMATOLOGIST CHAPTER
WANTED: A SCIENCE OF OPTIMAL HEALTH
Milton Saunders, Jr., M.D., is a man with a mission. Just don't call him a zealot. What
drives him is not his unshakable belief in a given set of principles, but the fact that he
doesn't know what to believe. Ask Dr. Saunders a question about nutrition, and the
three words you will most likely hear in reply are / don't know.
The Virginia Beach, Virginia, dermatologist wants to know, badly, and is in the process
of setting up a nutritional research organization, the Optimum Health Foundation, to
give us all an education. The first of the foundation's centers is to be established in the
Virginia tidewater region, with the possibility of further expansion into California, Texas
and Massachusetts.
The nonprofit foundation will be designed to help the patients of participating doctors
maintain the best health possible through individualized programs of nutrition and
exercise. Research at the foundation's center will attempt to nail down the specific
effects of nutritional therapy and find new ways for people to achieve optimal health
through nutrition and physical activity.
588 DERMATOLOGIST
Question: How do you establish what will produce optimal health in a particular
individual?
Dr. Saunders: I don't know the answer to that. That's something that will have to be
figured out through the foundation's efforts. Our objective is to be totally scientific about
this, and totally specific if we can.
Nutrient levels which may be normal for you and make your system function at its best
may be too high or too low for me. The Recommended Dietary Allowances for various
nutrients laid down by the government are only the most crude guidelines that can't
really tell you much about yourself.
To be able to be totally specific, to be able to meet your needs exactly for each nutrient,
is something that will take a lot of time and effort. But it can be achieved, if only we
channel the kind of talent and brainpower that took us to the moon toward furthering
our own health, preventing disease rather than waiting for it to occur.
Q: How did you get the idea for this kind of research effort?
Dr. Saunders: It started a long time ago, actually, when I was back in dermatology
residency. I began to notice that certain diseases that we just couldn't treat with
standard medicine seemed to be very amenable to nutritional approaches. I started to
use vitamin E in a couple of dermatologic disorders that don't respond to conventional
therapy at all. One is called necrobiosis lipoidica diabeticorum.
Q: What does it do?
Dr. Saunders: It causes ulcerative patches on the shins of patients, usually women in
their 30s and 4()s with a predisposition to diabetes. Standard therapy for this disease is
very poor, and the results of allowing it to go forward without check are catastrophic for
some of these people.
At one point, out of desperation, I put several patients with necrobiosis on a relatively
high dosage of vitamin E. Lo and behold, all but one of the patients in the initial trial got
better. I tried the same regimen on patients with rheumatoid nodules, a disorder that
occurs when people have rheumatoid arthritis
SCIENCE OF OPTIMAL HEALTH 589
but which, as far as the tissue is concerned, is related to necrobiosis. Again, some of the
patients, a smaller percentage, responded to the vitamin E.
My interest was stimulated, and I turned to other derma-tologic problems such as hair
loss. Some of these cases were obviously nutritional problems, such as women on crash
diets who suddenly began to lose their hair three to six months later. Also problems
caused by nutritional deprivation due to the fetus' development in the last trimester of
pregnancy. Others were a little less obvious, such as the women who were losing hair as
a result of birth control pills and subsequent vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
I just sat down and said to myself, "What is needed for hair growth?" Well, I'm not a
biochemist, but I had a basic idea that we needed the essential amino acids, we needed
some zinc and we needed some vitamin E. I tried this regimen on some of my patients,
and blam! They started growing hair.
Q: It is pretty impressive.
Dr. Saunders: Well, for a long time I just went along being satisfied with the fact that I
was doing something effective, even though I didn't really understand how or why.
Then an arthritis specialist referred two of his patients to me because they also were
suffering from necrobiosis. I put them on my usual vitamin E therapy. Both these
patients had been on all kinds of arthritis medications, most of which had significant
amounts of potential toxicity and side effects, to say nothing of the expense.
When they came back in about a month, their necrobiosis was somewhat improved,
maybe 20 percent or so, but they were ecstatic. I didn't understand why.
One patient said, ''Dr. Saunders, can't you see, my hands were crippled before, and now
I can move them! I'm off medication; all I'm taking is vitamin E!" Not only was her
necrobiosis getting better, but she was essentially cured of the debilitating part of her
arthritis.
I convinced these two women, both of whom had responded in the same way, to go off
the vitamin E and see what would
590 DERMATOLOGIST
happen. Both of them called, one in about six days, the other in about ten, and said they
were right back where they started. They had constant pain and asked that I allow them
to go back to vitamin E. I did and, of course, everything cleared again.
Q: Have the things you've discovered about nutrition caused any changes in the way you
live?
Dr. Saunders: Well, Tm still learning things about nutrition and how it affects me
personally.
In March of 1978. I was in the hospital with a cardiac problem. 1 had ventricular
arrhythmia, an abnormal beating of the ventricle of the heart. It was the kind of thing
where I suddenly realized that nutritionally and physically I was in sad shape. I had
been getting fat and sloppy. I'd been drinking a lot. I wasn't an alcoholic, but I was a
pretty regular drinker.
I had already begun experimenting with the effects of vitamins on my own health. Now I
limited my diet and quit drinking. I began to feel better but not outstandingly better. But
when I started jogging, combining good physical activity with the nutritional
approaches, 1 really began to feel like a million bucks.
If you pump nutrients into a person and don't accompany that with physical activity, it's
like putting gasoline in a car and having it sit in the driveway. It isn't doing anything. It's
when you get th^ metabolism of the body going that you are able to utilize nutrients to
their maximum efficiency.
I now run 2'/: miles a day. I have a pulse of 68, a slow, powerful, regular pulse. I'm
literally running fo: my life, if you want to look at it that way.
Q: What nutritional supplements do you need to keep yourself in condition?
Dr. Saunders: The formula I've arrived at is without any real scientific basis. As a matter
of fact, I think it's not unlikely that I'm presently way off base, so I'd rather not tout what
I do. I will say that when I take multivitamins, minerals and amino acids, as I do
regularly, I find that my ability to function, both physically and mentally, is considerably
enhanced.
In the last couple of days, I stopped taking everything, for
a reason. I wanted to see if there was any difference. I don't want to get into a rut
thinking, "It's obvious that this is helping me." Well, this morning my usual 2'/2 miles
felt like 20. 1 mean it really was tough. It's the first time I've had cramps in ages.
One thing I might mention is the effect of red meat. I've always been a big carnivore. It
was nothing for me to sit down and eat a 2-pound steak in one sitting. Afterwards,
though, I would always feel a kind of nonspecific malaise. So we've cut back the
consumption of red meat in my family to once or twice a week. We eat fish and poultry
at other times, and I feel like a different person. It's made a big difference.
Q: How has the medical community reacted to your plans for the foundation?
Dr. Saunders: I think we're beginning to get an awareness in the medical community of
the importance of nutrition. There is a growing number of closet nutritionists out there,
doctors who use nutrition but don't make a big noise about what they're doing. I talked
to a fellow the other day who's an ophthalmologist. He was telling me how you can't find
salt, sugar or sweets of any kind in his house. His wife makes their bread, and makes it
with unrefined flour. They make sure they get their supplements.
So I said, "Gee, that's great. Have you been spreading the word?"
"Oh, no!" he said. "You're the only one 1 can talk to about this!"
Q: Why wouldn't these doctors want to talk about nutrition?
Dr. Saunders: They're afraid that they'll be laughed at, that they'll be maligned, that
they'll be thought of as being weird.
I think the medical profession has failed to recognize that there's a great deal more
potential in nutrition than is being tapped. We are suffering today from the effects of
having too many wonder drugs, too many "magic bullets." We don't cure disease
anymore, the pharmaceutical companies cure it.
As a result, the average physician has not been educated enough in nutrition. It's not any
fault of his own but really the fault of the establishment through the years. The magic
bullets
592 DERMATOLOGIST
were there. Why should you have to turn to the prevention of strep throat when all you
have to do is shoot the patient up with penicillin?
But I think people are ready for a change. They're almost demanding it. They're just this
side of pounding on the doors of the physicians and saying, "Get thee to a nutritional
course!"
Q: Other people seem too busy breaking down the doors of their local fast-food outlet to
start lobbying for nutrition.
Dr. Saunders: Yes, that's outrageous, really. That's very bad. Here we are, one of the
most affluent nations on the face of the earth, and we're nutritionally deficient. We eat
gluttonously of the wrong types of things. We eat 125 pounds of sugar a year per capita
in the United States. One hundred twenty-five pounds a year—that's a lot of sugar.
It's ironic. We should be the greatest nation in the world in terms of our physical and
emotional states, and yet we have high levels of mental and physical illness.
One thing I find disturbing is the possible connection between sugar and learning
disabilities in children. When our daughter first started school, we thought she might
have minimal brain dysfunction. She was hyperactive and had a very poor ability to
concentrate. We put her on Ritalin, and she went through a very difficult period for a
while. Her teacher asked us to take her off the medication because it just turned her into
a zombi.
Then she suddenly came out of it. We didn't know what had happened. In retrospect, we
realized that she had made considerable changes in her diet on her own. She stopped
eating sweets and cut down on meats tremendously. We don't know why she made the
changes. It was as if something inside her was telling her to do this. That's kind of
strange, isn't it?
Q: It is, and fortunate.
Dr. Saunders: I think kids are an important aspect of this fight. Take the fifth and sixth
graders in a New York City school who were given a nutritional course and got so turned
on they petitioned the school administration to change the diet in their cafeteria. They
succeeded, limited the serving of french fries, got more salads, fresh fruits and yogurt all
by themselves. It was
Kid Power. If we can reach the kids at an early age like that, we can really make a dent.
Q: Do you think we're making any progress in nutrition?
Dr. Saunders: We're only scratching the surface right now. Just think of the increase in
the human resources of our country that would result if we could prevent a significant
percentage of the illnesses we suffer. If we could increase the effectiveness of the average
person to a point where he is superproductive, where he enjoys life, where his emotional
problems are no longer a drain on our society—it's very challenging.
INTERNIST CHAPTER
DEATH'S DOOR OR LIFE'S DOOR?
If most medical schools are ivory towers, then the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in
Baltimore, Maryland, is an ivory fortress. Since its opening in 1893 when, according to
the Encyclopaedia Britannica, "it set a higher standard for admission than any other
medical school in the country," the name Johns Hopkins has come to stand not only for
medical excellence, but for medical orthodoxy.
So it was with some surprise—and a little hesitation—that Barbara Solomon, M.D., an

internist from the Baltimore area, whose approach to medicine is anything but
orthodox, found herself speaking to doctors and students of the Johns Hopkins School
of Medicine on a subject which the organizer of her lecture, a graduate student at the
Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, aptly called ''new to the Hopkins
community"—nutritional therapy.
"I've been interested in nutrition since I was a child," the energetic Dr. Solomon told the
group of over 300 who had gathered for her lecture. "My aunt was a so-called health
food faddist. My father was a doctor. And they were in constant debate— my aunt for
treating diseases with good diet and supplements,
DEATH'S DOOR OR LIFE'S DOOR 595
my father for the conventional methods." She paused and added with a smile,
"Sometimes it seems as if my whole career has been nothing more than an attempt to
find out which one of them was right—but I think my aunt is right about some things."
That career has included earning an M.D. from George Washington University in 1960
and a master's degree in biochemistry from the University of California in 1954. It was
her knowledge of biochemistry—and the experience of curing her own migraine
headaches through a change in diet—that first led Dr. Solomon to make nutrition the
mainstay of her practice.
She Cured Her Own Migraines
"While I was doing my residence at George Washington, I had terrible migraine

headaches," Dr. Solomon told her audience. "I would have them three or four times a
week. They were really putting a dent in my effectiveness. At the time, I was working
with terminal cancer patients, most of whom were nauseated, vomiting and rapidly
losing weight. What a situation that was! They were vomiting, I was vomiting. Well, at
that time, a friend of mine recommended I take a course in modeling for a change of
pace. I took her advice and, after listening to a presentation on diet, thought it would be
a good idea to improve mine, especially since it had consisted solely of hospital food for
the previous four years. So I followed the same diet as my modeling teacher, who ate
only fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and fish. I not only stopped eating beef, but gave up
poultry, too—for good measure. Within a week, I stopped having migraines! Not only
that, whenever I ate beef, they came back. Was I excited— and relieved! Then I had the
thought. If eliminating these meats from my diet cured my headaches and nausea,
perhaps doing the same to my cancer patients' diets might help rid them of the same
symptoms."
Translating that thought into action. Dr. Solomon removed both beef and poultry from
the diets of some of her cancer patients. "They stopped feeling nauseated, they stopped
vomiting.
596 INTERNIST
they started to gain weight. Often they stopped having pain. I was, to say the least, very
pleased.''
An article by Dr. Solomon in an issue of the Maryland State MedicalJoiirnal reported

similar experiences with three terminal cancer patients.
With two of these patients, however, she eliminated not only beef and poultry from their
diets, but all solid food. Fed nothing but fresh fruit juices or vegetable juices, the
patients quickly stopped vomiting. Dr. Solomon then put them on progressively heartier
diets until they could eat—and tolerate—normal meals which offered eggs, cheese, nuts
and seafood as main sources of protein.
'The improvement in these patients—and other cancer patients I have treated who are
not mentioned in this study—was dramatic. In fact, sometimes their tumors actually
regressed. Other doctors couldn't seem to get it into their heads that it was the patients'
diet that was causing this to happen. They often insisted that the original diagnosis had
been wrong!"
To this day. Dr. Solomon eats no other meat than fish. And at lunch after the lecture, we
sat next to Dr. Solomon as she ate a tuna salad—or at least tried to. Between bites, a
crowd of medical students, doctors, health professionals and health seekers besieged her
with questions about nutrition.
'Ts too much vitamin C toxic?"
"My uncle is constipated, should he take bran?"
"Dr. Solomon, is vitamin E good for varicose veins?"
In a rare lull, when the consultation room turned back into a cafeteria, we asked Dr.
Solomon if she was always showered with questions about nutrition when she appeared
in public.
"Always. Almost everyone knows that diet is important for health, but very few can get
specific information about their own diet from a doctor, information they feel safe with.
Nutrition is the basic dimension, and I can't see why doctors remain so ignorant about
its importance. In fact, most doctors' knowledge of nutrition lags about 20 years behind
their knowledge of biochemistry. But even though 1 treat patients mainly with
nutritional therapy, there's nothing I can do for them unless they
change their dietary habits—stop eating white sugar and white flour, start taking the
nutritional supplements I suggest. The first thing I tell patients when they come into my
office is: 'You are responsible for how you feel. If you eat unbalanced meals, you'll feel
unbalanced.' "
"Dr. Solomon. . . ?" someone asked.
Luckily, we had a personal interview scheduled that evening.
The First Step to Health
And that evening, over a fish dinner. Dr. Solomon told us more about her use of
nutritional therapy in private practice.
'The very first thing I ask every patient is to stop eating refined carbohydrates—white
sugar and white flour. Now, most of the people who come to see me have already seen
other doctors and have been treated with conventional methods. But they still feel lousy.
When I explain to them that their problem— arthritis, diverticulosis, depression,
whatever—probably has its basis in many years of wrong eating habits and that the first
step in treating their disease is to change the most damaging of these habits—eating
sugar—they're usually eager, or at least they say they are eager, to modify their diet.
"So they stop eating white flour and white sugar. This change alone makes a big
difference in their health. White sugar and white flour bum up vitamins and minerals
without replacing them, lower immunity, foul up the digestive tract and complicate
diabetes, kidney stones, osteoporosis. Also, they cause fatigue.
"In a week or two, they often experience a decrease in pain and an increase in energy.
Then, of course, they cheat. They binge on ice cream or cake or cookies. And the next
day, they feel terrible. Headachy. Sluggish. Depressed. It's at this point that they begin
to really understand, through their own experience, that they can actually control how
they feel by what they eat. And for most of my patients, this is a real revelation, a
startling discovery."
598 INTERNIST
Not eating white sugar and white flour is a real boost for those with osteoporosis, a
crippler of thousands of elderly women. In osteoporosis, bones lose their strength and
mass, and break easily.
''Eating white sugar really steals calcium from the bones, and it's calcium that gives
bones their strength," Dr. Solomon told me. "So in addition to getting the sugar out of
the diet of those with osteoporosis, I give them a calcium supplement and a trace
mineral supplement. Also a multiple vitamin."
Arthritics May Have an Allergy
Arthritis is another bone disease that cripples millions. Dr. Solomon has had striking
success relieving the pain of arthritic sufferers by eliminating from their diets not only
white sugar, but citrus fruits and eggs, as well.
"There's nothing unusual about this. Over and over again, arthritic patients would come
to me and say, 'When I eat oranges, my joint pains are worse.' 'When I eat eggs, my
arthritis flares up.' So I've experimented. I always eliminate these foods from the diets of
those I see with arthritis. And by and large, they do better. Also, I've heard of quite a few
other doctors who are doing the same. It seems obvious to me, on the basis of my
experience, that for some reason arthritics are hypersensitive to—that is, they have an
'allergy' to—citrus fruits and eggs."
Along with eliminating fruits and eggs. Dr. Solomon gives arthritics mineral
supplements. "Zinc, in particular, relieves bone pain," she said. She also gives a calcium
supplement that contains vitamins C and D.
Psoriasis, a skin disease, is another disorder which often yields to dietary restriction. "I
have found that my psoriasis patients do much better when 1 take them off dairy
products and anything with gluten in it. That includes wheat, oats, barley and rye."
All doctors treat diabetes at least partly with diet, and Dr. Solomon is no exception. "I
give diabetics the conventional diet: no sugar, no honey, no molasses, more protein. I
also substitute whole grain bread for white bread. And I give them a supplement of
brewer's yeast because it has been shown that diabetics are low in chromium, and
brewer's yeast is the best source."
Nutrition and Outlook
Dr. Solomon recommends a daily dose of brewer's yeast as one of the best all-around
nutritional supplements.
"It not only contains all the B vitamins but is a cheap source of the important trace
minerals, as well, and an excellent source of protein. So you're getting all three things at
once."
Dr. Solomon's treatment for patients with heart conditions focuses on lowering their
cholesterol and triglyceride levels. "I always prescribe a low-carbohydrate diet for my
patients with heart troubles. If they must eat bread, I only allow them to eat whole wheat
bread. I also give my heart patients niacin, a B-complex vitamin, because it is a natural
vasodilator—it improves circulation. If nutrition doesn't work, then I go to drugs, but
only after I've tried nutrition first."
But Dr. Solomon puts another aspect even before nutrition.
"I must say that over and above the physical aspects of healing there is the mental aspect
—both the attitude of the patient and my attitude. If the patient has a negative attitude
toward the possibility of his being healed, or if he dwells on his disease, moping and
pouting in self-pity, constantly complaining, then although nutrition will of course help,
it will be very difficult for that person to get better.
"Of course," she added with a smile, "I don't have any controlled studies that actually
prove this. But over and over again I have seen patients with positive attitudes quickly
improve while patients with negative attitudes continue to be sick.
600 INTERNIST
"It's really fulfilling to see my patients improve," she continued. "Not all of them do, of
course. But many, many come back to me after three or six months of eating very little
junk and taking supplements and they are, well, new people. They're alive again, not just
merely living. They have purpose, energy, they are enjoying themselves instead of barely
making it.
"So many doctors can do nothing more than keep their patients—if the disease is serious
—from death's door and often worsen or simply mask a patient's illness with drugs. But
in my practice, people actually become healthy. And that makes my work tremendously
enjoyable."
CHAPTER
HOW VITAMINS REVOLUTIONIZED MY PRACTICE
by Harvey Walker, Jr., M.D., Ph.D.
During my first ten years in the practice of internal medicine (1957 to 1967), I was very
frustrated to discover how many of my patients had health problems for which I had no
solutions. Then in 1967, while convalescing after a hernia operation, I read Adelle
Davis's book Let's Get Well, which was given to me by a friend. After reading the book,
nonstop, I realized that, even though I had gone to one of the most prestigious medical
schools in the country, the few hours my instructors had spent discussing nutrition were
totally inadequate to meet the needs of my patients. From that point on, I vowed to learn
everything I could about the rapidly expanding field of nutrition and health.
I began experimenting on myself with vitamins and minerals, particularly the B

vitamins, vitamin E, lecithin and vitamin C. I discovered that large doses of the latter
helped reduce serious allergy problems which I had been experiencing. As the results
became evident and my health and confidence grew, I began recommending nutritional
supplements for my patients.
rd like to share with you some typical case histories that illustrate how vitamins have
revolutionized my medical practice.
602 THE NUTRITIONAL HEALERS
A number of years ago, my wife, Kay, complained about her hair becoming thinner and
thinner. It became so bad that she had to wear a wig for two years. But after several
weeks on large doses of every B-complex vitamin known, the hair fall stopped, and her
hair became thicker and more manageable.
A 57-year-old chief engineer came to me complaining of severe fatigue. I started him on

a B-complex formula containing 10 milligrams of vitamins Bi, B:. Bft and para-
aminobenzoic acid (PABA); 20 milligrams of niacinamide (a form of niacin); 10
micrograms of biotin; 100 milligrams of calcium pantothenate; 50 micrograms of folic
acid (folate); 5 micrograms of vitamin Bi^; and 500 milligrams of vitamin C. He took
two of these tablets four times a day. Within a few days, he called me to complain that he
now had so much energy, he was unable to sleep at night! After eliminating his bedtime
dose of B complex, this man was able to work hard in the daytime without tiring and still
sleep at night.
Vitamin C and Viruses
Since I started emphasizing nutrition in my practice, requests for flu vaccine by my

patients have declined markedly. In former days, they would come in and ask for flu
shots every fall. More recently, however, they say that, as long as they take 500 to 1,000
milligrams of vitamin C four times a day, they are able to avoid colds, flu and respiratory
infections. And they would much rather take the vitamin C than have a flu shot.
I'm convinced that vitamin C is nature's virucide (an agent that kills viruses). When my
oldest son was a junior in high school, he had a severe case of infectious mononucleosis
which caused him to miss about four weeks of school. Unfortunately, 1 knew little about
nutrition at the time. Later, when his younger sister developed mononucleosis, it was
after I had become familiar with the great power for good of megavitamin therapy. I
placed her on 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C every two hours, and within one week she
was back in school and feeling fine.
VITAMINS REVOLUTIONIZED MY PRACTICE 603
A boy of 18 developed infectious hepatitis. Once again, I turned to my newfound ally,

vitamin C, prescribing 1,000 milligrams every two hours. Within one week, his liver
function tests had returned to normal and he was back on the job. I have not seen
remarkable results like this reported in the standard drug-oriented medical literature.
A 58-year-old laborer came to me for help. His job required him to walk at least 3 or 4
miles a day through the factory where he was employed as a maintenance man. He said
he was going to have to take a disability retirement because pains in his legs were
preventing him from doing his work. I started him on vitamin E, 400 international units
four times a day. He was also given lecithin capsules, 1,200 milligrams each, four
capsules four times a day. After about a month, he reported his legs had improved so
much that he had canceled his application for retirement.
I feel that vitamin E and lecithin make a good pair to be used together. Vitamin E helps
to improve blood circulation, while the lecithin seems to solubilize fats in the blood that
would otherwise precipitate and form deposits. I have many diabetic patients taking
both vitamin E and lecithin who report much better circulation in their lower
extremities. If they stop taking those nutrients, their feet get colder and feel less
comfortable.
Using Vitamin E to Protect the Heart
Another man in his mid 50s reported terrifying anginal pain in his left chest when he
walked uphill into the wind on his way to the local hockey arena. Although he was
popping nitroglycerin tablets under his tongue, he still had anginal symptoms severe
enough to force him to cancel his season tickets for the hockey games. After a few
months on vitamin E, lecithin and other supplements, his chest pain subsided. He no
longer needed nitroglycerin and was able to make it to the hockey games without pain.
He achieved this result even though he was overweight and smoked heavily.
Incidentally, the use of nitroglycerin among my heart patients has practically ceased.
But those who have stopped taking their vitamin E—or reduced the dose—have had a
severe recurrence of their problems.
A young mother who consulted me had an enlarged heart and an abnormal

electrocardiogram. I sent for the records of her previous health care in various hospitals,
and she and 1 were amazed to discover that her heart problems had been known by
doctors for three years, but no one had ever told her about it. Her heart problem was
now causing her so much pain and disability that she was admitted to one of our local
university teaching hospitals where cardiac catheterization was performed. It was
determined that she was suffering from cor pulmonale, which is heart disease caused by
lung disease, and that she had less than five years to live. This put her young husband
into shock as he contemplated life without his wife and with two preschool children to
raise.
It was theorized that, during the four years that this woman had been on the Pill,
showers of pulmonary emboli traveled as tiny clots from her legs and pelvis into the
arteries of her lungs, clogging many of them and greatly raising the circulatory pressure
in her lungs. I placed her on large doses of vitamin E, along with B complex and the
other usual supplements, and am very pleased to report that, five years later, her heart
and lung function have improved. Yet, the university experts predicted she would be
dead by now.
I believe that if all women on the Pill would take 1,200 international units of vitamin E
daily, the incidence of complications like heart attack, stroke and thrombophlebitis
would be greatly reduced.
Once, when my wife had been sitting at a desk for a long time typing, she got a blood clot
in her leg. I sent her home with a bottle of vitamin E, and she was back to work in a
couple of days. My experience before with thrombophlebitis was that people were in the
hospital for three weeks getting over it.
One of our most tragic cases was a young diabetic girl who was almost blind and came to
St. Louis for an eye operation. It
was successful, but the doctors at the hospital where she went completely ignored my
pleadings to put her on the nutritional regime which she had been on before she went in
the hospital, and they sent her home without it. They did not tell me when she was
discharged, and her nurse-sister did not realize how vitally important we felt these
supplements were. And a week after she was discharged from the hospital—she'd been
off her vitamin E then for about three weeks—she had a stroke and has never recovered
from it. I think that was preventable, and it's just a tragedy. I think the world is full of
tragedies like that.
Of course, vitamin E isn't the whole story in my practice. I've already mentioned the
value of the B complex. And for those who have special skin and mucous membrane
problems, I've found that vitamin A may be helpful. For those who have difficulty
assimilating calcium, extra vitamin D may also be indicated.
The vitamin C dosages I recommend vary from 250 milligrams twice a day for a young
child to as much as 1,000 milligrams every one or two hours for an adult battling a
severe virus infection or the stress of surgery, burns, fractures or other major trauma. I
recommend a routine adult dose of 1,000 milligrams four times a day and believe that,
at this level, very few if any virus infections will occur.
I start most adults on 400 international units of vitamin E three times a day. (There is
one precaution, however, regarding vitamin E. Those with rheumatic heart disease or
high blood pressure should start with 100 units and gradually increase the dosage while
watching their heart function and blood pressure levels closely.)
You will probably need more vitamin E if you are taking birth control pills, have had a
heart attack, are very sedentary or have severe arteriosclerosis.
During the first ten years, I had some patients die from heart attacks, strokes and
postoperative pulmonary emboli. Since all my medical colleagues had similar
experiences, 1 was resigned to accepting those deaths. However, looking back over the
last ten years, when most of my patients have been on an adequate
nutritional regimen. I have had very few patients die from heart attacks or strokes. I
have read that the noted surgeon Alton Ochsner, M.D., used vitamin E in his practice for
several decades and reported excellent results with no postoperative blood clots in his
patients. I have told my local surgeon friends of Dr. Ochs-ner's good results, but 1
cannot get them to try vitamin E. My patients, of course, receive vitamin E before,
during and after surgery, and they have had no postoperative blood clots.
I build up all my patients prior to surgery. 1 give them extra zinc before and after the
operation, along with vitamins A and E for better scar healing. Almost every surgeon
consultant I have comments to me on how rapidly my patients get well and get out of the
hospital and how few complications they have compared with other patients.
A Thorough Exam
In dealing with new patients, I believe that there's no substitute for a very careful,
thorough examination and personal-history taking. Each new patient who comes to our
St. Louis office first fills in a comprehensive health questionnaire with 1.566 questions.
This is then processed by computer. He or she may also complete a computer-processed
nutrition and activity questionnaire, which gives the patient a thorough analysis of
previous diet with suggestions for improvement. This second questionnaire also
analyzes the patient's exercise habits and prescribes additional exercises as needed.
After the questionnaire printouts are back, the patients are examined in the office by me
or my associate. We review the quesionnaires with each patient and do a complete
physical exam at that time.
Since food allergy is proving much more common than earlier believed, many of our new
patients receive a food intolerance test. Many patients also have a hair analysis test,
which gives us good guidance in prescribing mineral supplements. It is our goal to have
all our patients knowledgeable enough about their
own conditions and their own health so that they can take good care of themselves and
avoid the need for extra office visits or hospitaHzation.
But they have to reahze that, unhke drugs, natural treatment methods take time—
sometimes several months—to produce important results. Since beginning to prescribe
vitamins and minerals for my patients, I have observed a lot of remarkable things that I
can't explain. 1 have a lot left to learn, and I probably always will. But practicing
medicine has become much more pleasant since I now know that there are simple
dietary measures and nutritional supplements that can benefit so many of my patients.
Because the nutritionally oriented practice of medicine is increasingly popular with the
public, requests for such services are multiplying. I urge any physician who is interested
in joining such a practice to contact me.
CHAPTER
MUNG BEANS AND COTTON SWABS
From the cross-legged patient paging through Good Housekeeping to the proud
diplomas displayed next to the nurses' niche, it looks like any other doctor's office.
But this one belongs to Victor L. Pellicano, M.D.—the soft-spoken, Lewiston, New York,
internist who carries a bottle of vitamin C instead of a prescription pad in his coat
pocket. And it may well be the only M.D.'s office you'll step into where you'll find a jar of
mung beans sprouting next to a canister of cotton swabs.
'Td been preaching the nutritional value of sprouts so often that a couple of my nurses
decided to take up sprouting," the slim doctor chuckled warmly during our visit. "Now,
when I get hungry for a snack, they whip me up a sort of sprout sandwich on Triscuits,
and I have that with a cup of Red Zinger tea. It's just delicious. And, more than that, it's
a highly nutritious snack!"
Actually, Dr. Pellicano is the last person you might expect to be expounding on the
benefits of sprouts or good nutrition. A long-standing member of the American Medical
Association, Dr. Pellicano has also served as president of both the Western New York
Heart Association and the Society of Internal Medicine.
MUNG BEANS AND COTTON SWABS 609
"It's true," says the kindly doctor, "I haven't always been geared toward nutrition.
Medical school didn't train us in it the way it should have. And, let's face it, most doctors
are pretty closed minded when it comes to vitamins and minerals.
"It took my youngest daughter—who was just entering college at the time—to introduce
me to nutritional therapy. She asked me what I knew about organic food. I really didn't
know too much about it. So she bought me Adelle Davis's book Let's Eat Ri^ht to Keep
Fit. Reading that book set me off on sort of a nutrition hobby. I read more books and
attended meetings on nutrition. Gradually, I changed my own dietary habits and began
to incorporate nutritional therapy into my medical practice."
Of course. Dr. Pellicano continues to practice conventional medicine. He'll prescribe

conventional treatment when it's indicated but, he told us, that's often after he has given
nutritional therapy a chance.
"There are many times when conventional therapy is absolutely indicated and when
nothing else will do. But there are other times when vitamin therapy works just as well—
and better because it doesn't subject the patient to the risk of conventional drugs."
Vitamin C Stops Shingles
"A few years ago, I was visiting my daughter in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and I
developed shingles. So I took between 10 and 12 grams [10,000 and 12,000 milligrams]
of vitamin C a day. It stopped them almost dead in their tracks. Which really isn't so
surprising, since shingles are caused by a type of virus, and vitamin C has already
demonstrated itself in a number of viral diseases—including the common cold.
"All my patients who come into the office with symptoms of a cold are told to take 1
gram (1,000 milligrams) of vitamin C every hour for the first day and every other hour
for the next few days thereafter. I've found that in most cases the vitamin C reduces the
severity of the cold, and most of my patients can
get through the course of a cold without the extra boost of an antibiotic.
"I also prescribe vitamin C for my patients with back trouble. They heal faster and their
problem doesn't usually come back, as it does in patients who get the same treatment
but who do not take vitamin C.
"You see, vitamin C is essential for maintaining collagen, the fibrous connective tissue
between the bones. So if you've got disk trouble, it makes sense that vitamin C would
help by strengthening the connective tissue in these joints."
You can probably tell by now that Dr. Pellicano is a real believer in the power of vitamin
C. How much does he take each day to maintain his good health? Dr. Pellicano smiles as
he pulls a bottle of Cs from his coat pocket and pops a jelly-bean-size vitamin C tablet
into his mouth. "Each of these tablets contains 1 gram of C, and I take three to five of
them every day." That's a far cry from the RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance).
Preventing Scurvy Isn't Enough
"The trouble with the RDA is that it keeps changing. I think right now it's about 60
milligrams of vitamin C. That much will prevent scurvy, but it won't keep you in good
health. When you compare the human body, pound for pound, with the body of an
animal capable of synthesizing its own vitamin C, you realize that man would have to
take between 5 and 12 grams of vitamin C each day to be on the same level."
And our basic requirement is one thing. What about the need created by outside
influences like smoking, drugs and stress? "One cigarette neutralizes 25 milligrams of
vitamin C in the body," Dr. Pellicano warns. "So if you're a pack-a-day smoker, you have
to take 500 milligrams of C just to break even."
Don't believe those reassurances that if you eat a well-balanced meal you don't need the
supplements. "In the first place, 90 percent of the people—especially the doctors—don't
know what a well-balanced diet is," charges the Lewiston in-
MUNG BEANS AND COTTON SWABS 611
ternist. "It's unfortunate that much of the nutritional information we have comes to us
from industry. So, naturally, it's slanted in their direction.
"The reason we don't hear more about the benefits of vitamin C from the medical world
is that there's no money in it. Look at the trouble Linus Pauling has run into with his
work on vitamin C and cancer. No one is willing to give him financial backing. Yet, his
work definitely seems to be leading to something. After all, we know that vitamin C has a
beneficial effect on the white blood cells, which are involved in the body's immune
mechanism. Apparently, the vitamin helps the white blood cells engulf harmful
organisms more readily and render them harmless. And if this is the case, well then, why
not help cancer victims? That is, if we accept the theory that cancer is caused by viruses
and that persons who are cancer prone have flaws in their immune mechanism."
Good Health Starts with Cutting Out Junk Food
"I know what's right for me and my patients. For one thing, Lve cut out all junk food—
that includes everything that contains refined flour and sugar. I don't eat much meat
anymore, either. Or poultry, for that matter. When I dine out, I try to order vegetarian
platters, and if that is impossible, I order fish. And when it comes to fresh produce, I
think organic is better. Here in New York State, we have a Natural Food Association
which certifies organic produce—that way you can be pretty sure that, when you pay for
organic, that's what you're getting.
"In the summer, however, I don't have to rely on those producers. I've got my own little
garden in the back yard. It isn't much. But it's amazing how much you can get out of
even a small plot such as mine. Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash. I've even got
some Jerusalem artichokes—a patient gave them to me."
And what about vitamin supplements? "I take almost everything. Actually, it varies from
day to day. Usually, 1 try to include brewer's yeast and lecithin in my morning grapefruit
juice and crystalline vitamin C in my Tiger's Milk. I also take 3 to 5 grams (3,000 to
5,000 milligrams) of vitamin C each day as well as a multivitamin and mineral tablet,
400 to 800 international units of vitamin E and 25,000 to 50,000 international units of
vitamin A."
Is that how he manages to stay so slim and healthy, we asked. "Yes, that and exercise. I
do 15 minutes of calisthenics each morning, and then I make it a point to get as much
walking into my day as possible. I don't take any elevators. If I have a patient in the
cardiac intensive care unit, I run up the seven flights of stairs to see him.
"I know it all pays off," Dr. Pellicano smiles. "I weigh the same now as I did in college."
NUTRITIONIST CHAPTER
THE "HEALTHY
HOUSEBOAT"
IS MAKING WAVES
IN NUTRITION
"All aboard!"
Johanna Hall's voice is as clear as the cool waters of the Chesapeake Bay, her tone as
warm as the sunshine that bounces off the water's surface and lights up her blond curls.
Like a vision out of Mark Twain, she stands on the deck of a white wooden houseboat,
beckoning to the 30 or so visitors who are approaching from shore.
Cast her as Huckleberry Finn's mother; the fictional waif would adore her. One thing she
would do is feed him well. That's because Mrs. Hall is no ordinary skipper, and this is no
ordinary houseboat. She's a teacher, dietetic assistant and nutritional counselor; the
houseboat is her office and lecture hall. Twice a month, people crowd the two-story
ship's cabin to hear her tell how making a small change in their diets can make a big
change in their lives.
She makes it easy for her listeners: The advice is sensible and her step-by-step method is
sound; her houseboat is moored in a cove that's an easy 10 minutes from downtown
Norfolk, Virginia.
But Mrs. Hall, herself, walked the plank to get where she is now.
614 NUTRITIONIST
Seven years ago, she was a typical Virginia Beach housewife with two kids, a husband
and a home to look after. She had never planned on getting a job. But then, her husband
Don had never planned on getting hemorrhoids, either.
"What hit us as a misfortune turned out to be a blessing in disguise," she recalls. It was
bran—and Mrs. Hall's hobby of reading every new book that comes to her local library—
that saved Mr. Hall from the surgeon's knife.
"He came home from the doctor in despair. My husband Don is a big man, but he
crumbled like a little boy at the thought of an operation. His hemorrhoids were
prolapsed and the doctor scheduled the surgery for three weeks from then.
"It just so happened that I was reading a book called The Save Your Life Diet by David
Reuben, M.D. (Random House, 1975). The gist of the book is that you can protect
yourself from many degenerative diseases by eating a lot of high-fiber foods, especially
bran. Normally, I would have thought. That's interesting,' and then forgotten all about it
a week after I finished the book and took it back to the library. But the book mentioned
conditions such as Donny's, and so I figured, 'What have we got to lose by giving it a
try?' "
For the next two weeks, Mrs. Hall put bran in nearly everything her family ate: breakfast
eggs and cereal, baked goods, casseroles and meat loaf, soup and salad, evenjuice. Three
times each day, she had her husband drink 2 tablespoons of bran in a glass of orange
juice: at breakfast, at bedtime "and after work, when I would meet him at the door with
a glass of orange juice laced with bran instead of a cocktail!
"I did it partly to humor him," she confides, "to lift his spirits and get him to laugh about
his condition. I really never expected it to help.
"A week before he was to undergo surgery, my husband started saying he felt so much
better, he thought his hemorrhoids were gone. I didn't believe him; I figured it was just
wishful thinking on his part. But he went back to the doctor, and the doctor agreed with
him. The doctor called off the surgery and said, T don't know what your wife is doing,
but tell her to keep doing it.'
THE "HEALTHY HOUSEBOAT" 615
''When Don came home and told me that, I was elated. And then I was scared. It was as
if I had been handed a marvelous trust, a secret weapon, and I had no idea how to
handle it."
So she went back to the library and read every book on diet and health. Then, she came
home and purged all her kitchen cabinets of things like white flour and sugar, salt,
convenience mixes, hydrogenated fats and oils, cookies and candies, coffee and soda.
She replaced them with whole grains, wheat germ and bran, honey and molasses, herbs
and spices, brewer's yeast and lecithin granules, fresh and dried fruits and nuts, herb
teas and spring water.
Her husband supported her. Her kids did not.
"Danny was five and Michael eight and 1 had raised them on chocolate chip cookies and
soda pop. They craved those things as if they were addicted. In America, we are
consuming about 75 pounds of sugar (sucrose) per person per year, and they haven't
declared that dangerous. Well, if that isn't dangerous, I don't know what is!"
Mrs. Hall knows what she's talking about when she inveighs against sugar. After getting
her own kitchen in order, she enrolled in a degree program in dietetics at Tidewater
Community College.
Her studies included a coordinated practice in the kitchen of a local hospital. After
graduation, she started teaching nutrition to elementary-grade children at the Virginia
Beach Friends School. Meanwhile, a manager at her favorite health foods store told her
that the owner was looking for someone to edit a nutrition newsletter and conduct a few
seminars in healthy eating. She made quite an impression on the owner. Bill Colonna,
and her knowledge made quite an impression on Virginia Beach audiences. When her
following grew, he asked her to set up shop on his old family houseboat.
Gaining Energy
During her lectures, she talks openly about her past: 'T was the biggest junk-food junky
in Virginia Beach. Now, my husband is strong and healthy, my kids don't get cavities
anymore and
616 NUTRITIONIST
they're better behaved." And she herself has lost a sinus condition and several pounds,
gaining worlds of energy and the kind of figure that women envy and men admire. She
freely admits her age: It's 39. She smiles when people say she doesn't look it.
"Often, they're the same people who say life is too short to deprive yourself, and 1 say,
'Sure, but don't you want to stay healthy and good looking well into your old age?'
"And besides, who says the foods I eat don't taste good?"
Mrs. Hall lugs pans of delicious, wholesome bread and cookies to her lectures so the
audience can sample wholesome treats made from wheat germ and carob, molasses and
peanut butter. There's always more than enough, and while her listeners feast, she fills
them with helpful tips.
She tells them how to "make your own peanut butter in a blender, using fresh peanuts
and a tiny amount of unsaturated vegetable oil, just enough to keep it smooth."
She also tells them how to shop at the supermarket: "in a U. Go up the dairy and
produce aisles that form the perimeter of the store. That way, you'll avoid most of the
convenience foods and all their temptations. That way, it's also 'out of sight, out of mind'
for the kids," she adds. "Did you ever notice how all the cookies, sugary breakfast cereals
and soda pop are shelved low? The processed-food industry is wise. But you be wise, too.
Learn how to say no."
She also shows people how to read labels, locating hidden sugar in everything from
catsup to canned beans. She uses charts to show how much salt you can easily consume
without ever once lifting a shaker, while explaining what salt can do: "Sodium can raise
your blood pressure and lead to coronary artery disease. I lost my mother at age 58 from
a stroke. I have no doubts that she would be alive today if I knew then what 1 know
now."
By the time Mrs. Hall is finished talking, her audience is convinced, willing to jump right
in and do anything she says. She says, "Take it easy. Don't expect to change years of
habits and acquired tastes overnight. I did, but that way is drastic and I don't advise
anyone to do it that way."
THE "HEALTHY HOUSEBOAT" 617
Start off by getting rid of white sugar and all store-bought sweets, she tells them.
"Introduce whole grains gradually. Start off by substituting half whole wheat in any
recipe calling for flour." Going off salt should also be done slowly, by replacing it with
herbs and spices. "Be creative. Experiment with new flavors,'' she tells them. She also
suggests they buy a copy of Confessions of a Sneaky Organic Cook by Jane Kinderlehrer
(Rodale Press, 1971). "The book offers good hints and recipes and is fun to read."
To ease people through the transition, she and other Virginia Beach mothers have
formed SNAK. The acronym stands for Sharing Nutrition and Knowledge, and the group
is basically a recipe exchange club. Members also discuss common problems and give
each other support. Mrs. Hall thinks mothers should consider forming similar groups in
their own communities.
Not all SNAK members are quite as fastidious as Mrs. Hall. "It takes time. It's the
awareness that counts." She is trying to help people increase their awareness, but
sometimes her mission takes a strange turn. Recently, a television news crew came to
the houseboat to tape a feature that called for her to be shown throwing out a bag each
of white sugar and white flour.
"I hadn't used those items in seven years, so I had to go out and buy them as props for
the show," she recalls. "But I saved the receipts and, when the taping was over, I took
them right back to the store and got my money back.
"I told the clerk that buying them had been a mistake."
CHAPTER
A THOROUGHLY MODERN NUTRITIONIST
She calls herself the Billy Graham of the Parkersburg, West Virginia, nutrition scene.
But intelligent and charismatic Rebecca Riales (rhymes with dials) is more. She's a
thoroughly modern nutritionist. And it didn't take us long to find out why.
No sooner have we settled down to chat in her comfortable professional quarters when
confrontation strikes. A registered nurse from the local hospital rushes into her office
bemoaning some flap among the hospital dietitians over a peculiar diet ordered for a
teenage diabetic. The diet was ordered by Dr. Kenton Harris, Rebecca's physician-
husband. But there is no mistaking the architect behind its design. It is Rebecca Riales'
work, all right!
A far cry from the long-accepted American Diabetic Association diet, this diet is
unusually high in carbohydrates. And, as everyone "knows," diabetics can't tolerate
starch.
Or can they?
Rebecca Riales listens calmly. Then—as the nurse's recounting of dietitian opposition
winds down—she sighs almost disbelievingly, ''Don't they know that every medical study
which
A MODERN NUTRITIONIST 619
puts a diabetic on a high-carbohydrate diet finds that the diabetic improves?"
By carbohydrate, she explains to us later, she doesn't mean a carte blanche to sugary
desserts. On the contrary, she bids her patients to make do on less of that powdery white
stuff. What she'd like to see more of on everyone's plate is complex carbohydrates. Beans
and potatoes and whole grains. Starch with fiber as opposed to sugar without. To her,
the difference is like day and night.
And Rebecca Riales has the know-how to know why. With a master's degree in biological
science and a Ph.D. in human nutrition, she boasts a background which neither the
American Medical Association nor health food enthusiasts can find fault with.
But as that enthusiastic sparkle in her eye tells you, Rebecca Riales doesn't lean much on
laurels of past degrees. Instead, she prides herself on her open-mindedness and on her
unquenchable thirst for new scientific information on nutrition. Moreover, with these
solid scientific facts and a little friendly persuasion, she's hoping to integrate nutritional
biochemistry into the heads of practicing physicians.
One wedge she has in the medical establishment is her husband, Kenton Harris, M.D., a
practicing internist with whom she shares an office and clinical practice. Another is her
position as an assistant professor at Ohio University where, one morning a week, she
teaches nutrition to sophomore medical students.
In fact, the day we visited, Dr. Riales fortified herself with a morning meal of melon,
raisin bran muffins and skim milk before embarking on the 45-minute drive across the
state line to Ohio University. School had just let out for the summer. But two students
who missed the final exam made an appointment to discuss the make-up final.
Interestingly enough, what began with questions like "Did we cover this or that?" and
"How much text material are we responsible for?" ended up with probing inquiries on
nutritional therapy for actual patients the students were managing in other courses.
620 NUTRITIONIST
One woman brought up the case of a physically active young man with a lactose (milk)
intolerance who repeatedly broke bones in his ankles and wrists. The other student
inquired about supplements for pregnancy.
Dr. Riales was, of course, eager to discuss nutritional alternatives. But she was careful to
point out that her role has certain innate limitations. "Total care is in the hands of the
physician. And technically you—not I—are the ones with the authority,"' she told the two
students. 'T just want you to be aware of the fact that total medical care is a big,
multifaceted endeavor and that nutrition is one of those facets.''
From the intent expressions on the students' faces and their interested remarks on
nutrition, it was obvious that Dr. Riales had raised the consciousness of these two
doctors-to-be.
Heading back to Parkersburg, Dr. Riales talked about the clinical practice which keeps
her busy the remaining 4'/2 days a week. She accepts patients on referral from her
husband and other open-minded M.D.s. She then talks to these persons (mostly
diabetics and cardiac patients) about how they might alter their diets and perhaps take
some vitamin and mineral supplements to improve specific conditions.
"It's more analogous to marriage counseling than a physician's appointment," says Dr.
Riales. 'T don't just sit behind a desk and say. Take this and this and this.' First we must
chat. I want to know what the patient is already eating. What he likes and dislikes. Then
I try to tailor a more optimal diet around his."
That's a major difference between a typical hospital dietitian and this unusual
nutritionist, we found out.
A dietitian merely instructs the patient in standard diets taken from the hospital diet
manual or the American Diabetic Association manual. Dr. Riales explained. And by
"merely instructs," she means just that. A hospital dietitian has no say in the selection of
the diet. It is predetermined by a written order from a physician who, of course, has no
academic background in nutrition, in most cases.
But because Rebecca Riales is not affiliated with a hospital, she writes her own diet
orders. She gets the lab work and medical
histories of a patient and chats with the patient's doctor. Then, utihzing the latest
nutritional information, she personalizes a healthful diet to fit the individual's lifestyle.
"I'm very cognizant of the fact that you can't change people very much," she admits. "So
I start with the patient's own diet and modify it to its best advantage. I look at it this
way: If a person doesn't like milk, what good would it do to write four glasses of milk on
his menu? I'd just as soon have him take a calcium supplement—which, incidentally, is
another difference between a dietitian and me. A dietitian never prescribes
supplements."
But Dr. Riales does—and quite liberally if the need is there. That afternoon, while we
played dormouse and listened in on a counseling session with a 61-year-old gent. Dr.
Riales recommended dolomite for his nighttime leg cramps, vitamin E for intermittent
claudication (leg pain after exertion), vitamin A for poor night vision and vitamin B^ for
numbness and tingling sensations in his hands.
"The leg cramps will probably vanish overnight with dolomite, but the intermittent
claudication will take longer to remedy," she told him. "Don't get discouraged. Just keep
taking the vitamin E. And remember, because vitamin E is an oil-soluble vitamin, it
cannot be absorbed by the body unless it's taken with a fatty food—like salad oil, cheese
or whole milk. Never on an empty stomach."
She also proposed that he take a good multivitamin and mineral supplement with folate,
an extra dose of vitamin C and a course of brewer's yeast every day to offset nutrients
missing in his low-calorie diet.
"Vitamins and minerals piggy-back on calories," she advises her patient with motherly
concern. "Based on what you filled in on the diet questionnaire I gave you, I think you've
gotten yourself into quite a few nutritional deficiencies as a result of your extremely low-
calorie diet. Only 800 calories! You can understand why I'm asking you to take these
supplements."
The elderly man nods his head and smiles approvingly. Rebecca Riales has won over
another patient—not so much because
622 NUTRITIONIST
she has taken the time to explain why she is prescribing all those pills, nor because she
has given equal time to his minor complaints, but because, by the end of the session, she
has tailored a diet around his favorite foods: bread and potatoes.
A little background on the patient we'll call Mr. Samuels: First and foremost, he is a
diabetic—has been for more than four years, ever since his third heart attack. He's 5 feet
11 inches tall and weighs 191 pounds. A little on the heavy side.
Mr. Samuels says his biggest problem is weight. "The only time I can lose weight is if I
have the flu and don't eat at all," he tells Dr. Riales. "Otherwise, every doggone time I eat
something, it goes to weight."
She leans over the desk as if she's about to let him in on a secret. "Are you aware that the
high levels of insulin you're taking to control your diabetes are working against you on
your weight problem?" she asks. "Insulin's role is to get sugar out of the blood and into
the cells that need it for fuel. But if you have more blood sugar than the cells need for
fuel after lunch, insulin also helps to convert the extra blood sugar into fat, which is
stored for future fuel. So if we can reduce the amount of insulin you take each day by
virtue of improving your diet, then it may be possible to help you lose some weight."
And how does Dr. Riales propose that Mr. Samuels improve his diet? By stepping up his
carbohydrate intake, of course. Mr. Samuels looks puzzled. "You mean I can lose weight
on bread and potatoes?"
Losing Weight on Bread and Potatoes
"People make the unfortunate assumption that a carbohydrate is a carbohydrate when,

in fact, there are four very different types of carbohydrates," says Dr. Riales. "There is
sugar with and without fiber and there is starch, again, with or without the fiber.
"The rationale used to be that if starch turned to sugar then the diabetic can't have either
one/' says Dr. Riales. "But the rate at which the complex carbohydrate or starch turns to
sugar is very slow—so slow, in fact, that the benefit derived from eating starch is as great
as the harm derived from sugar.
"So everything you've ever been told about staying away from sugar still holds. But the
diet that I'd like to see you go on has a very high proportion of calories in starch—
especially starch with fiber."
With that. Dr. Riales sets off on her favorite spiel—on fiber. "I have this bias that, aside
from indolence and inactivity, the biggest single contributor to obesity is eating foods
without fiber," she says. "The reason is simple: Fiber fills you up on fewer calories. If you
eat a lot of fiber, you won't have room in your diet for fat (which pound for pound or
gram for gram is IVa times as fattening as carbohydrates), for animal protein (which is
innately bound up with fat) or for simple carbohydrates without fiber.
"Besides, medical studies have shown that, all else being equal, the diabetic (whether on
insulin or not) has lower blood sugar on a high-fiber diet than he does on a low-fiber
diet.
"Unfortunately, between the grain in the field and the white dinner roll you eat is the
mill which throws away the fiber. And between the apple on the tree and the juice you
drink is the juice-making factory which throws away the fiber. What I'm saying is that
you're better off eating whole food—whole grain products (like whole wheat and rye
bread) versus refined; whole baked potatoes with their jackets, in place of instant potato
flakes; whole fruit instead of fruit juice."
Mr. Samuels cheerfully agrees to the diet—"I should have come to you a long time ago!"
Just as Mr. Samuels leaves. Dr. Harris approaches and entreats his nutritionist-wife to
see a patient in his office. Then he turns to me. "Eighty percent of the patients I see have
self-inflicted problems," he shakes his head. "If they took care of themselves and ate
right, they wouldn't need my help in the first place. Rebecca's gotten me into a lot of
good habits. For one
624 NUTRITIONIST
thing, we practically never eat meat. She makes delicious vegetarian casseroles. And
although 1 still eat meat occasionally, I don't enjoy it anymore."
With Dr. Riales returned from her impromptu counseling session, we head for home.
And home for Rebecca Riales and Kenton Harris is an ultramodern house of natural
cedar and glass, situated in the shady midst of an old oak forest—just one more
extension of their wholesome life style.
The Little Yeast Study with Big Results
We sink down into a modern sectional next to the baby grand (our clinical nutritionist
admits to being a not-bad classical pianist). Her eyes light up. "June 19th was the biggest
day of my life, and I've been 6 feet off the ground with excitement ever since," she
exclaims. "That's the day I received a letter from Walter Mertz about the results of my
little study on brewer's yeast and HDL [high-density lipoprotein] cholesterol."
She plops a large box of clippings from medical journals in my lap. On top is the letter
from Dr. Mertz, the prominent chromium researcher and chairman of the USDA's
Nutrition Institute.
"Dear Dr. Riales: . . . Thank you so much for your letter and the outstanding results that
you reported," Dr. Mertz writes. "To my knowledge you are the first person who has
shown a clear-cut dietary effect on HDL. My sincere congratulations."
Before we could read further. Dr. Riales interrupts with a backtracking to the details.
For some time, she explained, she had been fascinated by research done on the glucose
tolerance factor, or GTF, a chromium-containing compound found in large amounts in
brewer's yeast. Convinced of its importance in improving the efficiency of insulin, she
prescribed a trial course of brewer's yeast (2 teaspoons or 12 tablets a day) to the
majority of her diabetic patients. While some of her patients did not seem
to benefit, many did. Their too-high blood sugars came down to normal.
Meanwhile, she had been reading everything she could get her hands on about HDL
cholesterol. Total blood cholesterol is made up of three types of globules: low-density
lipoprotein (LDL), very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) and high-density lipoprotein
(HDL). The HDL fraction appears to actually protect against heart disease, so the higher
your HDL cholesterol level, the slimmer your risk of heart disease.
Gradually, all this GTF and HDL information began to congeal. Dr. Riales reasoned that,
since insulin has important roles in connection with fat metabolism (in addition to sugar
metabolism), perhaps something which improves the efficiency of insulin might have
beneficial effects on blood fats, too—especially on the most important blood fat fraction,
HDL.
"Last January, 1 persuaded Kent to take a daily dose of brewer's yeast so that I could
measure any changes in HDL cholesterol," Rebecca smiles as she glances over toward
her hubby on the other side of the room. ''His HDL cholesterol levels were high-normal
to begin with. But after six weeks on brewer's yeast, they jumped from 50 to 66—higher
than any jump anyone else had ever reported. You can imagine my excitement!
"So I enlisted the cooperation of eight physician friends. Believe me, I couldn't have
found a more skeptical group, but with a little persuasion they agreed to take yeast for
me for six weeks. All but one were healthy, physically active, nonsmoking men between
the ages of 35 and 45. The exception was a man of 50 recuperating from a heart attack."
Dr. Riales methodically measured 2 teaspoons of yeast per vial and placed a six-week
supply of vials in a shoe box to give to each participant. To boost the morale and
motivation of the troops, she added a touch of Rebecca Riales humor on the lid— a
cartoon picturing a store front with a sign in the window reading Health Food Store
Closed: Due to death of family member at age 106.
626 NUTRITIONIST
All went well. All but one participant completed the study. And all but one of the seven
subjects completing the study showed increased HDL levels after six weeks of brewer's
yeast supplementation. In fact, HDL cholesterol levels rose an average of 17.6 percent.
In one person, the level increased by almost 38 percent!
"Another significant finding from my little yeast study was that, as HDL cholesterol
levels rose, total fat in the blood decreased by 10 percent," Rebecca explains. "This just
happens to be in perfect harmony with the studies in the literature which suggest that
HDL removes fats from the body."
Of course, research aimed at HDL cholesterol-raising treatments is still in its infant

stage. Quitting smoking and losing weight seem to be of some benefit. And we know that
vigorous exercise can have a very positive effect on this cholesterol fraction. But not
everyone is willing to go the route of a marathon runner. We also have some evidence
that vitamin C and lecithin may help boost HDL cholesterol. But so far, Rebecca Riales'
glowing results boast the most potentially astounding effects.
"Right now, there isn't really a whole lot Kent can tell a patient with low HDL
cholesterol," Dr. Riales notes but then adds with a disclosing smile, "except that he's
married to me and I tell him this crazy thing about taking brewer's yeast!"
OPHTHALMOLOGIST CHAPTER
YOUR EYES ARE WINDOWS TO HEALTH
We're sitting in a modern medical conference room, not far from Peachtree Street in
downtown Atlanta. Morgan B. Raiford, M.D., founder and one of the leaders of the
Atlanta Eye Clinic and Atlanta Hospital and Medical Center, is explaining—with the help
of a globelike plastic model of a human eyeball—some of his findings about nutrition
and disease. An independent thinker and dedicated healer. Dr. Raiford has reached
some basic fundamentals about the foods we eat that go far beyond the traditional
domain of an eye doctor.
Dr. Raiford likes to paraphrase the words of the eminent 19th century British scientist
Thomas Henry Huxley: "If everybody thinks alike, nobody's thinking very much."
Question: As an ophthalmologist, your primary interest is the eyes. Yet, your findings
have broad implications for all doctors. Why is that?
Dr. Raiford: It's been said, 'The eye's a mirror of our soul." Now we can also say, 'The
eye's a mirror of our physiology." Modem ophthalmology gives us a window through
which we can observe the body's inner workings.
For example, the greatest killer, the greatest crippler, and the greatest cause of blindness
in this country is atherogenesis—
628 OPHTHALMOLOGIST
the clogging up of our blood vessels that causes heart disease. And it's increased
tremendously in the last 50 years.
Now, the eye is the only source where we can view the blood vessels directly. Under
magnification, we can see these harmful changes taking place in the vessels of the eye
long before the classical signs of high blood pressure and coronary heart disease appear.
We can also see inflammations and other problems that may be emulating other organs
mirrored in the eye's blood vessels, nerve fibers and connective tissue. You could say
that the eye is like our bodies' Yellow Pages, an index of activities elsewhere in the
system.
Q: But how do you read those Yellow Pages?
Dr. Raiford: Here at the clinic we've pioneered a technique for taking color photographs
of the eye and magnifying them many thousand times. We've taken nearly 100,000 such
photos over 14 years. We've also made color video tapes.
Using this technology, about 3,000 different disease entities could be evaluated. This is
a whole new era, a whole new ball game in understanding what's going on in the
circulatory system.
Q: Where does nutrition enter the picture?
Dr. Raiford: The eye is an extension of the central nervous system, which makes up a
total of only 2 percent of our body weight but demands 25 percent of our total nutrition.
So the visual pathway requires more fuel input than any other organ system. The
photoelectric cells in the eye, for example, do not wear out. They are programmed to last
as long as the proper fuel mix is provided.
We have to have the right food ingredients. Those of us who grew up in rural areas know
that. We know full well that, if farm crops and livestock are to develop, they must have
the right ingredients. Well, human beings are no different.
Q: What happens if they don't?
Dr. Raiford: To understand what can go wrong, let's take a look at the tiny vessels called
capillaries that make up 99.99 percent of the body's 60,000 miles of blood vessels.
These capillaries are very delicate structures, and they all carry a very tiny negative
electric charge. Now, the red blood cells that pass through
EYES ARE WINDOWS TO HEALTH 629
the capillaries also carry a negative charge—it's a very small electric current, but it's
there. So it's just like two little magnets. If we put two negatives together, they'll repel
each other. That repulsion helps push the red cells through the capillaries. It makes it
easier for the heart to pump blood.
But when we eat junk foods such as refined sugar (which I consider to be the greatest
culprit in America today), we throw ourselves out of chemical and electrical balance. The
little capillaries gradually lose their negative charge and become neutral or positive.
Then the red cells, calcium molecules and other material floating in the bloodstream are
attracted to the vessel wall. They adhere to it just like soap on a windowpane.
Gradually, they clog up and block the capillaries. Multiply that process many times over,
gradually and quietly through the years, and you'll eventually see atherogenesis
throughout the body.
The heart starts pumping harder to overcome all that resistance, and finally it goes into
a spasm that we call a heart attack. There's no great mystery to it.
But the important thing is we can detect these changes in the eye in the very early stages.
We've seen this literally thousands of times in the human eye, and we have photographs
to prove it.
Q: So what we eat can be a critical factor?
Dr. Raiford: Absolutely. And not just in terms of heart disease. People who are excessive
sugar eaters during the first 40 years of life are much more prone to develop diabetes.
They wear out the pancreas trying to produce enough insulin. It's just like whipping a
tired horse.
The human body is just not geared to eat the amounts of sugar that we are eating today.
And when we upset our body chemistry, we are going to have to pay the price. It's like
trying to drive an automobile 80 miles an hour in a residential area instead of on a
raceway. You're going to damage something before you get through.
Nutrition spills over into other areas, as well. Without the proper fuel, for example, our
visual reception, interpretation and storage—the whole learning and educational
process, in other
630 OPHTHALMOLOGIST
words—is impaired. So you could say that the total social structure of our nation suffers
from inadequate fuel nutrition to the visual pathway.
We must learn how to provide a high-quality fuel mix to our cells if we wish to maintain
our tissues and our immunity over the course of a lifetime. To disregard such basics is
inviting bankruptcy.
Q: What turned your own efforts in this direction?
Dr. Raiford: In 1955, I heard a lecture by Dr. J. R. Max-field, a pioneer in nuclear

medicine, which really opened my eyes. I realized how limited I had been in my
perspective on the health sciences, and I knew that I would have to restructure my entire
education. From that day on, I have endeavored to find out why certain things happen at
the cellular level.
In some health circles, asking the reason why may make some people uncomfortable.
But a sense of inquiry has to be established in life to get anywhere.
Q: So it all comes back to the cell?
Dr. Raiford: All of our 100 trillion body cells have basic similarities, whether they be
brain, bone, eye or liver. To function properly, they all need good nutrition.
Q: Can you be more specific?
Dr. Raiford: We're just beginning to realize that collagen, or connective fiber, is a
common denominator for practically everything in the body. It's like the steel
scaffolding in a large office building that holds everything up. Collagen supports the
retina, ligaments, capillaries, everything. It holds the cells together.
Each collagen molecule is made of four different amino acids or building blocks. Let's
compare them with four freight cars on a track that are not coupled together yet. In
order to link them, we need certain essential cofactors that are not found in the body
itself. We have to get these cofactors from our food—nutrition, if you please. These
essential cofactors are the couplings that lock those four freight cars together. They're
the binding units. Without these cofactors, we fall apart.
Q: Have these cofactors been identified?
Dr. Raiford: Yes. These factors—which are absolutely es-
sential to life—include ascorbate (vitamin C), zinc, magnesium, manganese, copper, iron
and vitamin E.
The interesting thing is that, when we get many of our patients off junk foods and
increase their intake of cofactors, we see reversals of disease—reversals we can measure
in the eye.
Q: Can you give us some examples?
Dr. Raiford: One patient was a schoolteacher who enjoyed her alcohol a little in excess.
Her mind had become so dulled, she couldn't carry on her teaching duties. When she
came to us, we saw clogged-up blood vessels in the retina. We got her off the alcohol and
junk food and started her on high doses of ascorbate and other cofactors. Her blood
vessels cleared up. Her memory is all right. She's intellectually alert. And she's gone
back to teaching.
Another patient was a pilot, entrusted with testing a new military aircraft that
represented billions of dollars of investment. He was under so much stress that his
blood pressure went up and he had a blood leak in the eye. That's when he came to us.
We discovered that the stress of his work schedule had undermined his eating habits. He
was way out of chemical balance. We got him back in balance, and he's perfect again.
His vision is 20/20. He's all right. No problems. Last time I saw him he was a brigadier
general.
There are other benefits. We find in our eye surgery that, if we put people on a good
nutritional program, they will require fewer sedatives and they will heal faster—
especially the elderly.
Q: What specific dietary advice do you give?
Dr. Raiford: You have to treat each person as an individual. But basically, I recommend
four things.
First, they have to get rid of junk foods, especially sugar. When my great grandfather
practiced medicine in the 1850s, the average American consumed between 15 and 18
pounds of sugar a year. Today, it's more than 100. If we can cut out sugar alone, we've
eliminated a tremendous cause of ill health.
Second, I tell people to minimize alcohol consumption. Alcohol is also a sugar, an

incomplete sugar.
Third, never use a cooking fat that is solid at room tem-
632 OPHTHALMOLOGIST
perature. Vegetable oils are good, but if the same oil is reheated over and over again, it
forms little globules of fat, called wax. When the melting point of this wax is higher than
body temperature, the globules can make the circulation sluggish and clog up capillaries.
The retina of the eye can also be affected, particularly the macular region where the
circulation is rather unique. We get many patients coming to see us with macular
degeneration. The tragic thing is that we can't turn back the clock 30 or 40 years; we can
only teach them about the proper foods and cooking oils.
The fourth recommendation we make is to increase the intake of nutritional cofactors.
Q: How can we do that?
Dr. Raiford: First of all, you have to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and whole
grains. One of the greatest criminal acts we have in America today is refining flour. Why
take out 23 nutrients, put back 2 or 3, and call it enriched? Meanwhile, the food
processors sell the nutrient-rich by-products to the cattle and poultry industry to double
their profits. That's stupid! We need the whole grains.
We can also learn a lot from our Asian friends and not cook foods to death. The
Japanese and Chinese do a beautiful job in food preparation.
Q: Do you ever recommend food supplements?
Dr. Raiford: Many times we have to. When we see people with acute swelling of the
retina, for instance, we can suspect a chemical imbalance. And as the old saying goes,
you can't drive a railroad spike with a tack hammer. You've got to start giving them
nutrients in large amounts to make up for the deficit.
At times like that, you don't have time to play around with diet alone. When the barn's
on fire, you don't go around wondering who did it. You put the fire out and you save the
barn.
Q: Speaking of fire, what about smoking?
Dr. Raiford: We've taken a moving picture of a person's eye with a television camera and
asked him to smoke a cigarette. We can see the blood vessels contract! I tried to get a
major
tobacco company to finance a research project on this, but I got turned down real fast.
Victory over Allergies
Q: Has nutrition helped you personally?
Dr. Raiford: I happen to have many allergies. My oldest brother died of a milk allergy, in
Virginia, before we understood it. When I was a little kid, I always liked to climb the
magnolia trees at my uncle's farm. But when I got to a magnolia blossom, I would have
an acute headache and become nauseated. That was my first recognition of personal
allergies.
I also found out, as I got older, that I would eat chocolate and break out in a rash. And
then my ligaments would get stiff. But 1 can eat carob and it doesn't bother me.
I'm allergic to ragweed, too. I found out that, in order to build up my resistance to
ragweed, I also have to avoid the other things. I had a flare-up of my right eye in 1955
due to ragweed. The retina was swollen. That really scared the daylights out of me. I was
under a great deal of stress in my work and not eating the right foods.
So I got to work on it and reversed the swelling.
Each day during ragweed season, I take ascorbate in powder form—anywhere from 4 to
6 grams. I even take it at bedtime. I also take some zinc and magnesium for support. I
haven't taken an antihistamine for my allergy in over 11 years.
Q: If enough people did that, the health care system as we know it would be turned
upside down.
Dr. Raiford: Traditionally, the health sciences have been treating the tip of the iceberg
and having no idea what keeps the iceberg afloat.
We now have many of the tools to create a whole new approach to keep us well, rather
than to go from crisis to crisis, as present health care is structured. Nutrition is the
answer. This is the medicine of the remainder of the 20th century.
634 OPHTHALMOLOGIST
When a patient can understand what's happening to his blood vessels, he's going to start
rectifying his life style and his health maintenance—which is basically nutrition. That's
when prevention will reach its zenith.
Of course, getting each patient to take some responsibility requires time. It slows you
down because you've got to take a lot more time with each patient. When I was doing
graduate work in New York, the hallmark of a successful ophthalmologist was how many
patients he could see in a day. My philosophy is: How much can I see in a patient?
So we have a challenge here that is absolutely fascinating— what can we do to help our
fellow man? And that's what life is all about.
CHAPTER
SEEING BETTER, FEELING BETTER
"It's so trite because it's been said so many times," Robert Azar, M.D., said to us, "that
the eyes are the mirrors of the soul, but they're also reflectors of the physical condition
of the whole body. When the eyes start to go, you almost invariably find that there are
other degenerative disorders present in the body."
Dr. Azar, his young nutritionist colleague, Mackie Shil-stone, Ph.D., and the other
doctors at the Azar Eye Clinic in New Orleans have found that treating the deterioration
of the whole body may be the best way to respond to the degeneration of the eye. A
change in diet and scientific use of vitamin and mineral supplements have led to
postponement and even cancellation of costly eye surgery.
A good many of the patients Drs. Azar and Shilstone see suffer from a disorder called
macular degeneration. The condition, which commonly occurs in the aging process, is a
deterioration of the central part of the retina of the eye. The retina is the screen at the
back of the eyeball that registers the images we receive through the lens of the eye. The
central part of the
636 OPHTHALMOLOGIST
retina, called the macula, receives the central part of our vision— what we see when we
look directly at something.
Macular degeneration cannot be corrected with glasses or surgery. "But," Dr. Azar told
us, "with the nutritional approach, we've even seen that we can stop the progression of
the disease, and we've seen some regression of the process. I think that's an exciting
thing."
Even more exciting are the side effects of that nutritional therapy. Lester Villa, 72, came
to the Azar Eye Clinic complaining not only about his eyesight, but of a general sense of
fatigue, as well. "I felt very tired. I wanted to lie down all the time," he says. Dr. Azar
examined Mr. Villa's eyes and then sent him to Dr. Shilstone for a complex series of tests
to determine his nutritional status.
"There are a whole host of different things we're looking for to try to pinpoint the
problem," Dr. Shilstone told us. "We recommend specific doses, micrograms and
milligrams, of different vitamin and mineral supplements, depending on what we see."
Dr. Shilstone routinely takes a dietary history and requests tests of his patients' blood,
urine and hair. He describes it as a "detective program," a sifting through of all the
available clues to arrive at a solid determination of the patient's nutritional needs.
In Mr. Villa's case. Dr. Shilstone found that his intake of refined sugar and starches was
five times what it should have been. Mr. Villa's diet history showed a low intake of a
number of vitamins and minerals, and the biochemical tests indicated that he was
deficient in chromium. Dr. Shilstone and Dr. Azar prescribed a number of dietary
supplements, including chromium, bioflavonoids, and vitamins Bi, B2 and C. They also
put Mr. Villa on a low-fat, low-sugar diet. In two months, Mr. Villa's fatigue vanished,
and he was able to return to his job.
Mr. Villa's eyesight has not yet improved, but Dr. Shilstone has not given up on the case.
"It doesn't happen overnight," he says. "Dr. Azar deals with a lot of elderly patients
whose nutritional support system is below par. We see over and over what a lifetime of
misuse of the body can do. You're asking patients to try to stop some of their bad habits,
and they're asking for a
SEEING BETTER. FEELING BETTER 637
miracle. It appears they're asking you to reverse their Hfe. You can stop the macular
degeneration process or slow it down. You can help the body catch up, but you'll seldom
reverse the process."
Drs. Shilstone and Azar were able to turn things around in another patient, whose body
responded very well because she was younger. That patient, a vigorous woman in her
60s, came to the clinic suffering from cataracts, cloudings of the lens of the eye that can
result in blindness.
Dr. Azar regularly performs cataract operations at a local hospital in which he removes
the clouded lens and installs a clear plastic replacement. The procedure is called an
intraocular implant. This particular patient also showed degeneration of the macula,
and Drs. Azar and Shilstone wanted to see if nutritional therapy might improve that
condition before they resorted to surgery.
"We decided to really go the full route," Dr. Shilstone told us. "We put her on a complete
supplementation program, vitamins and minerals in the right balance, and I started her
on a walking program, four times a week for 20 minutes, because she had a circulation
problem. She came back later. Dr. Azar examined her eyes and said, 'We've lost a
surgery patient.' " The circulation to the macula at the back of her eyes had improved so
much that surgery could be postponed.
To Dr. Azar, the loss of a surgery patient is no great tragedy. "The ideal here is to cancel
the surgery cases," he told us. "This morning, I performed nine cataract operations with
nine intraocular implants, a very sophisticated type of treatment. We have finer
equipment and finer surgical instruments today than ever before, so in a sense we're
performing surgical miracles on a daily basis.
"But for every one of those patients that I operate on, there are at least several that I
can't help. 1 can take out the cataract and give them a plastic lens, but the retina and the
inner lining of the eye have been so affected by the degenerative process that the
operation is simply not going to help them. I got into the nutritional approach out of
frustration at my inability to help the majority of the people that were coming in for
help.
638 OPHTHALMOLOGIST
"We're realizing that, if a patient comes in and he doesn't have advanced disease, we can
schedule our surgery a couple of months ahead of time. We have a chance for eight
weeks to build him up with the appropriate vitamin and mineral supplements. I think
more and more we're going to find an increasing number of these people who are going
to be able to avoid surgery." Even now. Dr. Azar estimates, less than a quarter of the
patients who come to him requesting surgery eventually get it.
For people suffering severe macular degeneration as well as cataracts, nutritional

therapy might improve their condition to the point that corrective surgery can really
benefit them. With his cataract patients. Dr. Azar estimates a value called the target
acuity, which represents the best vision that might be achieved through replacing a
patient's clouded lens.
Diseases like hardening of the arteries, high blood pressure and diabetes can lower
target acuity by disrupting circulation to the retina of the eye. "If someone comes in with
diabetic bleeding, high blood pressure, advanced arteriosclerosis, any of these
degenerative conditions, then the retina of the eye is generally completely shredded,"
Dr. Azar says. "The target acuity on people with the degenerative diseases is very low,
and they won't benefit from surgery. But if we treat them nutritionally and the conditioji
of their retina improves, we may reach a point where they would get some benefit from
putting in a new lens."
Both Drs. Azar and Shilstone say the partnership has been especially rewarding. "We're
a funny team," Dr. Shilstone says. "You will rarely see nutritionist and M.D. work so
closely, so close sometimes that you don't know which of us is pushing nutrition harder.
It's a nice meshing of two fields that have been fighting each other for years. The
partnership gives credence to what I do, and it gives Dr. Azar a way to treat problems he
couldn't do anything about until now."
Dr. Azar has benefited personally from the relationship. He first got in touch with Dr.
Shilstone after seeing him on a local TV station, where Dr. Shilstone served as the news
department's health editor.
SEEING BETTER, FEELING BETTER 639
"I had gotten up to about 196 pounds," Dr. Azar recalls. "One evening, 1 was watching
television, and they had Mackie and one of the other announcers running the marathon,
it just embarrassed me that two healthy people were out there doing that while I was
getting fat."
Dr. Azar called Dr. Shilstone and asked for his help in getting back in shape. Dr. Azar
says his weight has now dropped to 170, and "Mackie and I ran two miles in 13 minutes
the other morning. Of course, he walks backwards while we do this, but for someone my
age that's a remarkable feat."
Dr. Azar says his diet has changed radically since he has known Dr. Shilstone. "In the
beginning, it was a little difficult," he says. "It's a form of addiction, really. You almost
get withdrawal symptoms when getting off junk food, but after a period of time the sight
and smell of it is sickening rather than enticing.''
Dr. Shilstone does his best to stress the importance of staying active at the same time
that he counsels patients on nutrition. "They generally can't go out and run," he told us,
"but if they can walk, fine. Any type of activity can help." Walking to the market is better
than driving; taking stairs is better than taking the elevator. "We try to show them that
you don't always have to take the easy way, that maybe the easy way isn't as good for you
as the hard. It's just a matter of getting used to something."
It's not always an easy message to get across. Patients have a hard time understanding
how changes in activity and diet can improve their eyesight, and many are perplexed by
an approach that may take months to yield positive results.
"That's part of the American mentality," Dr. Azar says. "It's always been that, if we feel
tired, we go down to the drugstore and get a quick fix. The younger generation is
accused of being the 'now' generation, but older people are the same way. It's the whole
society. Those are the attitudes we're trying to change, and it's not going to be easy.
"Mackie isn't coming in here with some sort of miracle cure for everything. He's sitting
people down and saying, 'Look, you've got to be part of the team now. You're going to
have to
640 OPHTHALMOLOGIST
get down and work/ It's understandable that a man would be perplexed by that. It's a
totally different approach.
"In an operating room, we take a diseased part and replace it, but we can't replace all the
parts. We can only do so much mechanically. The rest of healing is all regenerative. You
have to, in some way or another, assist the body in repairing itself, and that's where
nutrition comes into play. It's an embryonic science, to say the least, but I think we're on
the verge of a tremendous explosion in nutritional medicine."
CHAPTER
BETTER VISION NATURALLY
Honey and vinegar, cod liver oil, vitamins and bed rest. In an age of expensive and
sophisticated therapies like laser beams and corticosteroids, most physicians ignore
these cheap and simple remedies. But in a small town in New York State lives one old-
fashioned doctor who still uses natural cures—and seems to use them effectively—in the
treatment of serious eye diseases such as cataract, glaucoma and corneal ulcers.
He's an ophthalmologist, Henry O. Little, M.D., and, at 83, he's virtually a legend in
Hudson, New York, a village on the Hudson River north of Manhattan, where he's
practiced since 1943. A salty old Yankee who wears lumberjack shirts and bow ties,
Harry Little keeps office hours four days a week and gets around town in an old black
Lincoln. He's still vigorous in spite of two hip operations, and his hair is remarkably
brown. Only the sideburns are white. He's descended, he says, from a long line of
Scotch-Irish ''bone setters" as durable as he is.
''I believe in him," says a 73-year-old patient whom Dr. Little treated for an eye-related
neurological problem. ''A lot of people say, 'Oh, Little and his vitamins,' but I respect
him. He takes time to sit and talk to you." Another patient, who went
641
642 OPHTHALMOLOGIST
to Dr. Little with corneal ulcers, says, ''Some people say he's just a country quack, but I
have a lot of faith in him. He's quite a remarkable guy."
In a time when a lot of ophthalmologists spend only a few minutes with you. Dr. Little
might talk for a half hour or as long as it takes to explain his prognosis. And where few
ophthalmologists ask about personal habits. Dr. Little wants to know whether you
smoke, whether you eat oatmeal for breakfast, whether you eat white or whole wheat
bread, if you "burn your candle at both ends" or if you can stand the taste of cod liver oil.
He also advises everyone to start taking a vitamin tablet of B complex with C daily.
"Everyone who comes in here gets put on vitamins," Dr. Little declares. "Unless they're
stubborn."
Less Cataract Surgery
In the standard treatment of cataracts, a surgeon removes the clouded lens from the eye
and replaces it with an implanted lens, a contact lens or special eyeglasses.
But any artificial lens is a poor substitute for the one we were born with, and surgery
sometimes fails.
Surgery is also expensive. About 400,000 cataracts are removed annually in the United
States at an estimated cost of $1 billion, or an average of $2,500 per operation.
Preventing or arresting the growth of cataracts, many people agree, would be a much
cheaper and safer route to take.
Dr. Little believes that he can arrest cataract growth with vitamins and cod liver oil.
Fifteen years ago, he says, he performed cataract operations at the rate of one a week,
but in the past five years, using nutritional therapy, he's seen only four cases that he felt
called for surgery. "Since I've been in practice," he says, "I've gradually come to discover
that cataracts are not entirely a surgical condition.
"Cataract is a sign that you're slipping. Your tissues are giving way, and you're getting
closer to dying.
BETTER VISION NATURALLY 643
"So I arrest the dying. I've arrested thousands of cataracts in the last 35 years with
vitamins, and for the last 5 years I've also used cod liver oil. Ninety percent of the
cataracts respond to this treatment, and I can almost guarantee that, if I can catch them
when their vision is still 20/40, they'll never need a cataract operation.
"But they've got to stop smoking, too. Tobacco causes more blindness than anything
else," Dr. Little told us.
He calls for surgery only when a patient's vision is already seriously diminished in both
eyes. His policy is to detect the cataract early and arrest its growth with vitamins and
cod liver oil. "In my opinion," he says, "cataract is almost an entirely preventable
disease."
Two of his cataract patients, a woman in her 90s and a man who is 79, both told us that
they were satisfied with Dr. Little's nonsurgical approach. The man, Harold Pepoon,
who retired to Hudson after having been in the plumbing business in Yonkers, came to
Dr. Little with cataracts in his left eye and with very limited vision in his right eye.
But the growth of the cataract in his left eye was arrested, he says, when Dr. Little put
him on vitamins B and C and cod liver oil three years ago.
He can still drive a car. "If anything, it's slightly better," Pepoon said.
A Lucky Discovery That Saved Lives
Vitamin D is what attracted Dr. Little to cod liver oil. Forty-five years ago, while
practicing general medicine in what was then the wilds of Saskatchewan, Canada, he
said, he used it to save the lives of twin brothers dying of rickets, the vitam D-deficiency
disease.
In 1939, when he returned to New York after studying ophthalmology in London, he
used cod liver oil—not having any-
644 OPHTHALMOLOGIST
thing better to use—to treat a phlyctena, or blister, on the eye of a 15-year-old girl.
His discovery of the value of B vitamins was equally lucky. Again, not knowing what else
would help, he gave a sample jar of B-complex tablets, left behind by a salesman, to a
man suffering from iritis. Iritis is an extremely painful inflammation of the iris. "He took
them," Dr. Little tells the story, "and in ten days, by golly, it was cured! And that's how I
got into B vitamins and eyes."
A concoction he calls "Dr. Little's cocktail" is another plank of his eye health platform.
The cocktail consists of an ounce of hot water, 2 or 3 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar
and a "gob" of honey. "I can't prove it," he says, "but 1 believe the vinegar enhances the
effectiveness of the vitamins B and C you take by mouth. It's also a wonderful cure for
rheumatism, and it cured the arthritis in my fingers."
He feels just as strongly about whole grains. "For breakfast," he declares, "you should
eat oatmeal every day, and white bread should be eliminated." He also favors yogurt,
raw milk, vitamin E and a reduced amount of coffee.
A few more case histories demonstrate the range of Dr. Little's vitamin therapy:
Eleanor Whitbeck, a 45-year-old nurse who lives in Hudson, came to Dr. Little about
two years ago suffering from severe iritis.
She'd already seen another ophthalmologist, who prescribed prednisone, a cortisonelike

anti-inflammatory drug. But the prednisone's side effects forced her to stop taking it.
Dr. Little gave her a series of daily injections of megadoses of vitamins B and C. He also
prescribed B complex and cod liver oil orally, and he told her not to shop or clean house
or do anything very stressful.
The condition got worse. Her eye filled frighteningly with pus. but then it got better. By
the third week, the pain in her eye began to subside and gradually her eye healed. Her
friends say the eye would have healed by itself, but she doesn't think so. Two years later,
she's still taking vitamins and cod liver oil.
BETTER VISION NATURALLY 645
Austin "Pete" Hull is a former school bus driver from Durham, New York, who first saw
Dr. Little in 1964, when he was 52, for dendritic ulcers of the cornea. These ulcers are
usually caused by a herpes virus infection. They often resist treatment and can lead to
blindness.
Hull had 13 ulcer attacks in 16 years, and he says that Dr. Little cleared up 11 of them
simply with a series of daily injections of B vitamins. Twice, the ulcers also had to be
cauterized with carbolic acid. Hull says the ulcers left a little scar tissue, but not enough
to prevent him from driving a school bus, which he did until his retirement. Since then,
he said, he's been driving the town ambulance.
George A. Hutchings, who is in his 70s and lives in Valatie, New York, met Dr. Little at a
free eye clinic set up by the local Lions Club.
Dr. Little diagnosed glaucoma and put Hutchings on vitamin C and B complex. He later
performed surgery to reduce pressure within the eye.
''My sight had deteriorated to the danger point, and he arrested it," Hutchings says.
"He's one of the great men to come down the pike, as far as I'm concerned. He instills
faith and confidence in you."
Another patient, Frank Crocco, suffers from diabetic retinitis, or pinpoint hemorrhages
on the retina. Laser beam therapy reputedly shrinks the hemorrhages, but Crocco told
us that several laser treatments in Albany didn't help him. 'Tt got so bad 1 couldn't see
myself in the mirror," he said. 'T could barely see to walk."
After the laser failures, Crocco went to Dr. Little and began receiving a weekly, then a
biweekly, injection of B and C vitamins. He also takes E at night, vitamins B and C in the
morning and a tablespoon of cod liver oil daily.
Crocco doesn't know how it works, he just knows that he can now read headlines and
can mow his lawn, things he couldn't do before.
One more patient, Chester Groat, a 75-year-old resident of Hudson, came to Dr. Little
with a paralyzed nerve in his left eye which doubled his vision and forced him to wear an
eye
646 OPHTHALMOLOGIST
patch. Like the others. Groat started taking B complex, C and cod Hver oil.
He was also told to relax and stop smoking. The vitamins took as much as four months
to work, but Groat told us, "I had faith in them.
"Now we usually go all winter without a chest cold," says Groat about himself and his
wife. 'T really believe in Dr. Little. Personally, I think he's a very smart man."
Dr. Little himself does not know exactly how the cod liver oil or the vitamins work or
which of the two does what. And, perhaps for that reason, he's been unable to convince
other doctors that they work. "Maybe future generations will know why it works," he
says.
He admits that his remedies do not work for everyone all of the time and that, like many
natural therapies, they may take several days, weeks or sometimes months to effect a
cure. They don't offer what he called the "dramatic improvement" that people have come
to expect from modern medicine.
While Dr. Little does not rule out surgery, he regards it as a last resort.
First, he'd rather see people relaxing, giving up cigarettes and eating rolled oats—or any
whole grain of their choice.
"Altogether, from my 52 years in practice," he says, "I am beginning to believe that all
diseases are associated with a lack of vitamins.
"And in the practice of ophthalmology, I have gradually come to realize that vitamins
and good food are a large factor in the control and cure of many eye diseases."
ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON CHAPTER
A NEW BREED OF SURGEON
Everybody knows there are just two kinds of doctor. The "conventionaF' doctor is active
in the county medical society; he plays golf on his afternoon off. Disease, to him, is
something to be cut out with a knife or beaten down with drugs—the stronger the better.
Nutrition? Mention it in his office and you'll be sorry.
Then there's the "holistic" doctor. He puts the American Medical Association in the
same class as the American Nazi Party, and his colleagues put him in the same class as
Oral Roberts. He runs a few miles every morning and does yoga in the afternoon. Drugs
are evils that may occasionally be necessary, but nutrition, stress reduction and life style
counseling are the heart of his practice—not just to help his patients get better, but to
keep them well.
So much for fantasy. In reality, there are also doctors like Grant Lawton, M.D., who
practices orthopedics in Salem, Oregon. He performs surgery and plays golf—but when
he appears at lunch lime in the surgery locker room, it's generally to change into his
running gear. Dr. Lawton isn't just active in his county medical society, he's its
president. His is a "relatively orthodox practice," he says. But he treats some common
orthopedic prob-
648 ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON
lems with high doses of vitamins, and he hasn't written a prescription for Valium in
three years.
Ringing the door bell at Dr. Lawton's suburban home, one recent evening, meant
interrupting a passionate cascade of music—ragtime piano. The pianist was Dr. Lawton
himself. Playing ragtime is one way he relaxes—something as important for doctors, he
says, as for their patients.
Dr. Lawton seemed relaxed as we sat on the patio of his home, well into the night, and
talked about health and medicine. Tall, slim and fit, earnest in conversation about his
profession, he described growing out of his conventional medical school training into an
approach that also embraces nutrition, stress reduction and exercise therapy. 'T'm
looking," he said, "for the best of both worlds."
How did he get from there to here? Even orthopedic surgeons, it seems, can learn
something from their mothers. ''Up until four years ago, Fd never thought much about
nutrition," he recalled. "My mother was interested in it, though—she had bottles of
supplements next to the refrigerator and copies of Prevention and other magazines lying
on the table. She'd ask me questions about nutrition—she looked to me for answers,
since I was the doctor, and my answer was T don't know.'
Dr. Lawton started reading his mother's magazines, and one evening he found himself
sitting down to write to Prevention columnist Jonathan Wright, M.D. 'T said I was
interested in nutritional approaches to orthopedic problems. If he knew of any specific
conditions that responded well to this approach, I asked him, could he let me know?"
Three days later. Dr. Wright was on the phone to Dr. Law-ton, and the orthopedist's
nutritional education had begun. 'T spent some two years just reading and digesting all
the information I could, trying to make up for lost time. I wrote to William Kaufman,
M.D., in Bridgeport, Connecticut, for a copy of his book on niacinamide la form of
niacin]. 1 got to know Jeffrey Bland, Ph.D., a nutritional biochemist. He supplied some
solid information for me, which allowed me to build up a bibliography."
A NEW BREED OF SURGEON 649
Learning this new approach to health problems was exciting. Dr. Lawton recalled. 'Then
you start trying these things and you get results and that makes it even more exciting.
"The initial successes really got me going," he said. He gave niacinamide to several
patients with osteoarthritis (the most common form of arthritis, and one that afflicts
many older people). "Over a period of months, it became clear that my patients could
turn their symptoms on and off with niacinamide. It worked. It worked just the way
Motrin or any other antiarthritic drug would work, but without the potential side effects
that these drugs have."
In his practice now. Dr. Lawton gives osteoarthritis patients nutritional therapy that
includes niacinamide, vitamin C, calcium and vitamin D. Patients with carpal tunnel
syndrome—a painful inflammation of nerves at the wrist—receive large doses of vitamin
85. For Dupuytren's contracture, an often disabling thickening of cords in the palm, he
uses vitamin E. He has had encouraging results giving vitamin C to victims of
degenerative disk disease: "When I put people on vitamin C, it seems that I see them
much less than I used to—they don't have as many recurrent problems."
Among its other advantages. Dr. Lawton says, nutritional therapy makes it easier for
him to avoid using drugs. For carpal tunnel syndrome, for example, the standard
treatment would probably be Butazolidin, "the most effective, most potent and most
hazardous of anti-inflammatory drugs. If you sat down and read the potential side
effects, you would never take it. I would never take it. And I can't honestly expect my
patients to take it either—when there are alternatives. So I say, 'First, let's try something
that won't hurt.' I've managed, in the last three or four years, not to write a single
prescription for Butazolidin."
When pain is involved—as it often is, in the injuries and conditions that he sees—Dr.
Lawton will carefully explore alternatives to pain-killing drugs. For acute injuries, he'll
try ice massage or transcutaneous nerve stimulation (a technique that uses electrical
impulses to short-circuit pain) instead of auto-
matically writing out a prescription for narcotics. Or he will use the simplest and most
basic of healing techniques—compassion. "Say a patient comes into the emergency room
with a shoulder dislocation. It's typically a painful injury, and he's tense and uptight.
The natural reaction is to say, 'Let's give this guy an IV dose of Valium, or a phenobarb.'
I've found I get much better results simply by reassuring him, talking with him quietly,
explaining that, if he can let his muscles relax, the bone will go right back into place. And
it happens every time. The fact is that if a patient has control—if he's not drugged up
with Valium or phenobarbital—this is much more effective."
Dealing with Stress
In general. Dr. Lawton says, helping patients deal with stress is an essential part of
orthopedics. For one thing, the acute injuries and chronic illnesses that he treats create a
lot of stress.
"You have a young man who's married and has two kids and is wiped out on his
motorcycle. He has multiple fractures, and he's lying there in traction wondering, 'Will I
work again? Can I pay the rent?' There's a tremendous amount of stress involved. For
me just to focus all my energies on getting his bones straight and ignoring the rest—
that's a good deal less than what can be done. You just can't take good care of an
individual without considering him as a whole.
"It's a matter of awareness. Asking'How's your wife doing? How are the kids?'
Reassuring him. Just being sensitive to his problems, to the fears that are running
through his mind."
Ignored and unmanaged, the stress of an injury may, in combination with a generally
high stress level, trigger other illnesses, he speculates. "If an orthopedist is aware of his
patient's problems, he may be able to prevent development of an ulcer."
Many orthopedic conditions are themselves caused or aggravated by stress, according to

Dr. Lawton. "The most common is the upper back strain. This may start with a minor
lifting
episode, but it goes on for weeks and weeks of muscle tightness. Typically, this is a
stress-related disorder—some people say it's symbolic of trying to carry the world on
your shoulders. Rheumatoid arthritis, too, very possibly has its basis in stress."
What Dr. Lawton does in such cases, he says, is "provide the patient with some degree of
insight.'' He'll help him to understand what stress is, how to deal with it and prevent it
from wreaking damage. ''When someone gets some insight into stress, often he can look
at his life, realize, 'Gosh, maybe I am trying to do too much,' and make appropriate
adjustments in his schedule." Dr. Lawton may also suggest specific relaxation
techniques to relax muscles. He'll make sure his patient has the support of a sound,
nutritious diet, with special emphasis on the B vitamins. CT concur with the general
feeling that these are in greater demand in times of higher stress.")
Nutrients before Surgery
In orthopedics, holistic methods like stress reduction and nutrition aren't always
enough. Dr. Lawton admits. Surgery is "something you avoid unless it's necessary."
When it is necessary, he'll perform it—and make sure that the patient has the benefit of
"the best of both worlds." At least two weeks before surgery is scheduled, when possible,
he'll put his patient on sizable doses of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E and zinc.
"There's good evidence that zinc and vitamin C are important for tissue healing and
wound healing. Vitamin A, again, helps wound healing and skin repair. I suggest vitamin
E to reduce the danger of blood clots."
Far better than treating orthopedic problems, of course, is preventing them. And this.
Dr. Lawton says, can be done, particularly in the older years—when osteoporosis (bone
loss) and osteoarthritis are major dangers.
"You'll see one person, who has remained active and is eating well, fall out of his ladder
and not break anything. He fell
6 feet, landed on his hip, and you think it's got to be broken! But it's not. His bones are
strong and he was able to absorb the impact. The next fellow, who's inactive, whose diet
is low in calcium, who doesn't get outside and doesn't get vitamin D from sunlight, is far
more likely to sustain a fracture. As for osteoarthritis, there's some evidence that people
who are active, who maintain a full range of motion in their joints, have a very low
incidence of the disease.
'*So the answer here, in terms of prevention, is for people with advancing age to get out,
get some sun and some activity— perhaps do some stretching exercises or yoga—and eat
a sound diet, one that is rich in calcium. And probably take calcium supplements in
addition."
Preventing orthopedic disorders also means weight control. Dr. Lawton adds. "This is
especially important with the weight-bearing joints of the lower extremities. When you
walk, the force across your knee is some three to five times your body weight. When you
run, it's seven times, perhaps ten. So if you lose 30 pounds, it's like taking a hundred
pounds off that knee joint. That can make the difference in whether or not someone
needs to have surgery for arthritis in his knee or hip."
A special source of Dr. Lawton's enthusiasm for holistic approaches quite possibly is
firsthand experience. In recent years, his family's diet has come to reflect his knowledge
of nutrition. ''We've gotten away from sugar and refined foods; we eat less fatty meats
and more fish, and we keep a lot more fresh fruit and vegetables around." Since he's
taken to eating a heartier breakfast and snacking on an orange or apple at mid morning
and mid afternoon, he's seen a definite improvement in his ability to function
throughout the day. He gives himself a hefty dose of vitamins C and E each day, and a B
complex. ('Tf I'm looking at a tough day, I'll take an extra one, without hesitation.")
His health, he says, is better than ever.
At lunch time, he'll walk the block from his office to the hospital, change into his
running clothes in the surgery locker room, do 2 miles and be back for a light lunch. 'T
guard that
time," he says. "I try to keep the lunch hour open so I can get my run in."
To reduce the stress in his life. Dr. Lawton does what he asks his patients to do: keeps
aware of what's causing him tension and adjusts his attitudes when he can. "I ask
myself: 'Why am I getting uptight? What unrealistic expectation or goal am I placing on
myself?' " He also practices autogenics, a relaxation technique akin to self-hypnosis.
"Once I get into a relaxed state, I imagine myself going through the day. I picture myself
absorbed, concentrating with a clear mind while talking with a patient, or responding
well to a problem in surgery. It works."
Whenever the opportunity arises. Dr. Lawton tries to share with his patients what he's
learned about going beyond "normal" good health "and down the wellness road."
"When a patient's symptoms are gone, he's feeling better, he's looking good, then I'll
suggest to him, 'Maybe you'll never have to come back and see me if you can develop a
healthy life style.'
The limitations of a busy practice, he laments, make it impossible to get deeply into such
subjects as good nutrition, stress reduction and exercise, "so I keep to the basics. What I
hope to do is build a little motivation, perhaps, strike up some interest, give references
—'I suggest you read this and this'—and get the ball rolling so they can learn on their
own."
The effort is often discouraging. Being a specialist, not a family doctor, his contact with
most patients is fleeting. And people come to see him not because of his interest in
nutrition, or their own, but because he's an orthopedist and they have orthopedic
problems. "Most," he says, "do not want to assume responsibility for their health. They
would rather smoke, they'd rather sit around and drink beer and eat chocolate sundaes
and, when they get sick, come to me and have me fix them. A doctor has a lot of
influence on people, but at times like these I wish I had more."
Making fundamental life style changes is a lengthy process. Dr. Lawton realizes, and
motivation is not easy to stimulate.
"So I don't walk away depressed when they don't seem interested. I like to think that
maybe down the road someone will remember what I said and think 'Hey, maybe that
guy was right'— and it might help to get something going."
Educating Other Doctors
As important as educating his patients, Dr. Lawton believes, is opening the eyes of his
colleagues to holistic medicine. "Doctors may not ask about it or talk about it, but I get
the impression they're interested. Instead of the that's-a-lot-of-baloney attitude that
many people ascribe to the standard physician, I think there's real interest in nutrition
and how it relates to health."
Among his colleagues, for example. Dr. Lawton has found more curiosity than hostility
toward his use of nutritional therapy. "When I'm off call, a patient may call up the
doctor who's covering and ask, 'Should I continue taking my vitamin C?' And Monday
morning, the doctor will ask me, 'What's he doing that for?' and I'll explain. And some
have even begun asking me, 'How much Bf, did you say you prescribe for carpal tunnel
syndrome?' "
Remaining "in the mainstream" of medicine. Dr. Lawton says, he can continue to share
his holistic ideas with other doctors. At an executive committee meeting of his county
medical society, he suggested bringing nutritional biochemist JefTrey Bland down to
speak on nutrition, "and I got a very positive response.
"Promoting interest in nutrition at our county medical society pleases me as much as

helping an individual in my office," he says. "The potential for benefits, actually, is much
greater."
The gradual change in his practice has been particularly satisfying—but also frustrating
—Dr. Lawton says. He prefers the equal-to-equal relationship that holistic medicine
fosters to the "dominant, sitting on a pedestal" role of the conventional physician. ("Five
years ago, if a patient called me 'Grant,' it might have annoyed me. Now I like it.") And
he's happier with

the idea that he can "encourage wellness, and that my patients may not have to come
back/"
The frustration, he says, is in the fact that "I can only take a first step—I may want to
talk about stress with a patient in detail, but there just isn't time, and he goes out the
door. I'm frustrated because I can't take the second and third step, too.
"But at least," he says hopefully, "I am taking that first step forward."
OSTEOPATH CHAPTER
THREE HEART
ATTACKS
BY 29: A PHYSICIAN'S
PERSONAL DRAMA
by John Cappello, D.O.
My grandfather had a heart attack when he was in his 60s. My father had one when he
was in his 40s. I was only 29. It couldn't happen to me, I thought. But it did happen. On
June 25, 1970, I was suddenly awakened about two in the morning with a crushing pain
in my chest.
I was having some serious business problems at the time, and I was eating poorly—lots
of fatty and fried foods—and drinking more alcohol than I should have. What's more, I
was not getting the exercise and rest I needed. The total stress of this situation was
apparently too much for my body's weakest link— the heart.
At first, when it hit, I didn't know what was happening. 1 thought that if I could just
move my bowels the pain would go away. (I learned that this is a common symptom
with heart attacks.) I was wrong. Even a bottle of citrate of magnesia did not help, and
the pain lasted until four. With great relief, I went back to bed for a few hours and woke
up at seven to go to the office.
There were no recurrences for the next few days. Then on
A PHYSICIAN'S PERSONAL DRAMA 657
June 29, it started again. I was having an early morning snack in the company's coffee
shop when I felt the pressure building on my chest; this time the pain radiated down
both arms to my fingertips. I waited about a half hour, conversing with friends, not
being able to sit still, before I decided to go to a physician. After all, I had never been
sick, so 1 did not know what 1 was experiencing.
Another "great" experience awaited me as I got into my car to drive the 20 miles home.
The power steering in my new Buick had failed. The car handled like a Mack truck and,
as I look back on it, I sure wasn't doing myself much good. Mother Nature wasn't on my
side either; the mercury hit 96°F that day and, with Philadelphia-area humidity, the
perspiration was just pouring off my body.
After a torturous half-hour drive, I finally made it to the local hospital. Curiously, the
pain started to relent as I walked into the emergency room. When I told the emergency
room nurse what had happened to me, I was immediately seen by the physician, who set
me up for an electrocardiogram. Five minutes later, 1 got the bad news.
"You have had a heart attack," the emergency room physician told me. "So we are going
to have to keep you in the hospital for a couple of weeks." A few tears came to my eyes as
I thought of my father and grandfather and how 1 had seen their activities greatly
curtailed after their heart attacks. But just as quickly as these thoughts came to mind, I
promised myself that this would not and could not happen to me.
I was taken right to the intensive care unit. There I had what was unquestionably the
most frightening experience of my life. In the middle of the night, I was awakened with
the most severe pain I had ever had; it was chest pain so excruciating that I cried out for
help, I learned later that the damage to my heart muscle was extending, or in medical
terms, additional heart tissue was undergoing infarction. The nurse was not permitted
to give me anything for the pain until she reached my physician, who ordered a strong
pain killer.
658 OSTEOPATH
Heart Medicine—A Life Sentence
The rest of my hospital stay and initial recovery were laborious. But, somehow, I got to
the point where I became an outpatient and was put on my daily dosages of''heart
medicine":
• Coumadin—an anticoagulant also known (in error) as a "blood thinner,"
• sublingual nitroglycerin—thought to dilate coronary blood vessels,
• Nitro-Bid—a long-acting nitroglycerin,
• Valium—an antianxiety agent.
Still, I was never totally free from chest discomfort. Anxious thoughts or a hard day's
effort would cause that old tingling feeling in my chest and arms.
My physician, who had done such a valiant job in helping me overcome the acute stage
of my illness, was of little help in my efforts to rehabilitate myself. "John," he said, "even
if you jump into the African jungle on a parachute and live with the natives, make sure
you bring a good supply of the medications you are taking." He made no mention of diet
or supplements, which were discussed in the lay press. Nor did he question my habits
and life style, which I knew must be changed. But I did not know what or how to change
and needed guidance. I realized then that perhaps his acute-care training was what 1
needed to get me over the initial hump, but now to further improve 1 must seek other
avenues.
Discovering Medicine and Nutrition
It was during this four-year search (1970 to 1974) that I decided to make a career
change. I had always wanted to be a physician, but 1 did not want to go through all of the
red tape. Now, somehow the hassle of preadmission testing, letters of recommendation,
interviews and waiting did not seem to matter. Fortunately, I had completed all of the
necessary premed courses.
SO I was not confronted with that roadblock. And my reasoning that I should further
pursue medicine as a career was further spurred, as I felt sure my background in
laboratory research would be of great assistance in uncovering the answer to improving
my own health as well as the health of others. Eventually, I was accepted at a well-
known Philadelphia school of medicine for September, 1974—the class of 1978.
Luckily, the summer before I started school, I came across a book by Naura Hayden. In
it, Adelle Davis was discussed and a couple of her books—including Let's Get Well and
Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit —were mentioned. 1 eagerly read these books and a new
world was opened up to me. What I found particularly interesting was the research on
vitamin C, the different vitamins of the B complex and anti-stress studies. At last, I had
some leads to work with.
While I studied the various aspects of medicine and the human body at school, I devoted
practically all of my spare time to studying human nutrition. My body became a
laboratory. And as 1 studied and experimented, I realized that I was overfed the wrong
foods and essentially undernourished to cope with the demands I was placing on my
body.
Gradually, over six months' time, I weaned myself from all of my heart medication by
following much of the nutritional advice I uncovered during my research. Of course, this
approach is not for everyone. I was pursuing a career in medicine and by this time was
quite sure about what I was doing. I don't want to leave the impression that the average
person who has a serious medical problem should try to go it 100 percent along.
But what a different some of these health-oriented changes made for me!
My typical day began at 5 a.m. and I was home at around 8 P.M. A few hours of studying
usually took me to bed around midnight. If there was an exam the next day, I could
easily be up to 2 or 3 A.M. Somehow, I did it without chest pain or discomfort. Before, if
I tried to keep such hours, my body would cry "uncle." Now I was building endurance,
and each month saw further improvement.
660 OSTEOPATH
During the course of my journey to better health, I also discovered Prevention. I guess I
kind of identified with this magazine, since its founder also had health problems and
was looking for a better way. The inspiration of others with an active interest in
preventive medicine helped to spur me along the way.
Many people have asked what the regimen 1 used consisted of. These were the main
nutrients during the initial phase of my personal program:
• brewer's yeast with calcium and magnesium,

• lecithin,
• corn oil.
Also included as supplements were:
• pantothenate,
• vitamin C,
• vitamin E,
• B complex,
• magnesium oxide.
Here is the way I started and my reasoning at the time:
Brewer's yeast is a known source for balanced B vitamins. This balanced source is
important because during illness the need for all B vitamins seems to increase. If you
increase one and not the others, you may cause a B vitamin imbalance. I started with '/>
teaspoon of brewer's yeast the first week, then built up slowly to 2 heaping teaspoons
per day over a four-week period.
Lecithin I used to aid in the transportation of fat and cholesterol in my bloodstream.

Many of the cases of hardening of the arteries that 1 researched were typified by
increased ratios of cholesterol to fat in the bloodstream. While experimentally
unconfirmed, the premise I worked with was that lecithin could conceivably help restore
a proper fat-cholesterol balance.
Corn oil is a natural source of linoleic acid, an essential fatty acid. It is believed that this
essential fatty acid helps reduce the amount of cholesterol circulating in the blood.
Depending upon what I had in stock, 1 would use 8 ounces of either skim milk or fresh
orange juice as a base. Then using a blender, I'd add 2 teaspoons each of brewer's yeast,
lecithin and corn oil and whip it up into a healthful froth.
After my one-two-three blend, I would then take the following supplements:
Pantothenate, 100 milligrams and vitamin C, 500 milligrams—my studies revealed that
both are stored in the adrenal gland and are known requirements in stress-related
diseases.
Vitamin E, 300 international units, appears to act as an antioxidant by reducing the

need for oxygen in the heart muscle.
Multivitamin with B complex —one of these was taken as an added safety factor.
Magnesium oxide, 250 milligrams, was taken since magnesium is found in muscle tissue
and is involved in many energy-producing reactions in the body.
In addition, my life style was drastically altered.
I sharply cut down on refined sugar and animal fat and, instead, switched to a diet high
in whole grains, fresh vegetables and fruit in season.
Because of these and other life style changes, I no longer need to stick as closely to my
crisis regimen. Under especially distressful conditions, though, I usually go back to some
variation of my initial formula with rather good personal results.
PEDIATRICIAN CHAPTER
THE SUGAR GENERATION
When, 12 years ago, Hugh W. S. Powers, Jr., M.D., a general pediatrician in Dallas,
Texas, started interviewing the parents of ''problem" children, he heard many angry
complaints about the generally accepted medical treatments for children with learning
disabilities and behavior and hyperactive disorders.
"And they were dissatisfied for one very good reason: lack of results," Dr. Powers told us.
'The conventional treatment for these problems is the drug Ritalin. Now, the use of
Ritalin has had considerable success with certain children. But the statistical breakdown
is that only 50 percent partially benefit from it, while 25 percent don't get any benefits
and another 25 percent get worse. And the only alternative to Ritalin that the
conventional physician will usually consider is other tranquilizers or psychiatry.
"But what really galls these parents," he continued, "is the physician's attitude that there
isn't some other solution when his methods fail. Here they are with a child who's doing
poorly in school or running wild all over the place at home, and the physician is, in
effect, telling them: 'My methods may not work, but I'm not going to try something else.'
"
THE SUGAR GENERATION 663
Dr. Powers is a physician who is willing to try something else. "You could say I've had a
lifetime interest in nutrition. One of my aunts worked with E. V. McCombe of Johns
Hopkins, one of the fathers of nutritional medicine in this country, and so I was getting
vitamins even as a kid. Then, at medical school, I studied the physiology of nutrition.
But it was about 12 years ago that I became interested in functional problems of the
nervous system and learned that changes in levels of blood sugar affect behavior. So I
got interested in how to manage blood sugar. I started educating myself further in
nutrition, going around the country joining organizations, reading Adelle Davis, Carlton
Fredericks and Prevention magazine."
From that beginning. Dr. Powers's background as a general pediatrician broadened

naturally to a multifaceted nutritional approach. He now uses nutrition to treat not only
problem children with learning or behavior difficulties, but also those with allergies or
those who simply get sick a lot with minor illnesses.
The first thing Dr. Powers does when parents bring their children to him is to sit down
with them for two hours and take a detailed case history, including family, pregnancy
and past medical history, as well as a record of the family's daily diet. He does that for
several reasons. "One is to rule out any serious hidden medical problem. Then, too, I
want to know whether there's a hereditary pattern to the child's problem—whether his
parents and siblings have had something similar.
"But most enlightening is to find out what sort of dietary examples the child is being
given at home. Not only what his diet consists of, but also what kinds of foods he sees his
parents eating. I need to know whether Fm going to have a hard time getting a child to
cut down on sugar because his father sits at the dinner table eating tubs of ice cream."
Following indications in the case history. Dr. Powers may want to conduct a complete
physical examination or laboratory studies such as blood count, urinalysis and a five-
hour glucose tolerance test. These will help to narrow down the child's specific problem.
"In most cases," said Dr. Powers, "I begin treatment with
664 PEDIATRICIAN
a general nutritional program. That consists of eliminating sugar, other simple

carbohydrates and caffeine—including cola drinks— starting the day with a high-protein
breakfast, and using appropriate vitamin supplements. I start with this because it's safe
and effective with a wide variety of problems. Now, if the child's problems continue, I
won't hesitate to try other treatments. But I seldom have to—the nutritional program
usually takes care of the problem. In fact, I've had parents tell me that the results are
often amazing."
Low Blood Sugar a Frequent Problem
"Take the case of learning and behavior difficulties," he continued, ''kids who are either
too tired or too restless to pay attention in school and those who are either mopey or
running all over the place. In their extreme forms, such symptoms often indicate
hyperactivity. Kids with these problems respond remarkably well to a diet that
eliminates sugar and limits other simple carbohydrates—syrup, molasses, honey, corn
sugar and so on. That's because the root problem here appears to be their blood sugar
levels."
In a study that Dr. Powers conducted with 260 problem children, he found that blood
sugar levels consistently correspond to behavior and performance in school. Sugar made
them irritable or listless. "But after starting the general nutritional program," said Dr.
Powers, "there was consistent improvement. One 15-year-old girl was a poor reader,
doing badly in school, and had a history of headaches, fatigue and needing more sleep
than normal. After a year on the program,she underwent a striking change. She gained
three years in reading comprehension and became bright, cheerful and outgoing."
When you know these children's typical diet, it's not surprising that Dr. Powers's sugar
control program helps their problems.
"These kids usually eat a terrible diet. Sugared cereal, jelly
on cinnamon-sugar toast, cookies, cake and colas with almost every meal and lots of ice
cream. Their consumption of whole grains, fresh vegetables and sources of protein such
as legumes, fish and fowl is generally minimal. For a child to think and behave well, he
needs to have the right food."
Caffeine is also a problem. ''Kids are doing themselves a lot of harm by the way they
down colas," says Dr. Powers. 'There's about half a cup of coffee in a 10-ounce bottle of
Coke— not to mention 6 tablespoons of sugar. Some kids drink the stuff by the quart.
They're practically poisoning themselves. A quart of cola contains about 300 milligrams
of caffeine; a toxic dose of caffeine is 500 milligrams."
Children who consume large amounts of caffeine as well as sugar may be plagued by
chronic irritability, inattention, poor memory, psychosomatic complaints and
hyperactivity, all culminating in severe academic or even psychological problems. "I've
treated several psychotic teenagers who reported drinking 2 or 3 quarts of cola a day,"
said Dr. Powers. "But another of my patients, whom I call the 'queen of all cola addicts,'
outdid even them. She used to consume a variety of soft drinks straight from the
dispensing machine that her well-meaning father had placed in their home. That and a
heavy load of sugary food were really fouling her up. She refused to do schoolwork, was
sullen and fatigued, and would often break out into unprovoked crying. 'I just yelled out
loud and broke my pencil in half,' she told me about one of these incidents. When she
was brought to me, she'd already been seeing a psychiatrist. I put her on the general
nutritional program, but she followed it very erratically. Still, the last word from her
father was that she's definitely better without sugar and colas."
Foods That Build the Immune System
In addition to eliminating bad foods from the child's diet. Dr. Powers aims at increasing
the good food. "Good dietary
666 PEDIATRICIAN
management should build up the child's resistance as well as limit harmful foods/" Dr.
Powers explained. "One of the most ignored problems in pediatrics is the chronically
sick child who has no serious physical disease. Sometimes the condition is mistaken for
an allergy. The child just gets a lot of minor illnesses— colds, sore throats, ear infections,
bouts of diarrhea and vomiting.
"Now, sugar is often the culprit here, too. Research has shown that all sugars lower the
phagocytic index, an important immune response in the body. Reducing dietary sugar
helps, but it's only the first step. Real treatment must aim at producing a state of full
health that will help prevent relapse. That means building up resistance."
How does Dr. Powers help children boost their resistance? 'T prescribe a diet of fish and
chicken, organ meats like liver, fresh vegetables, unsweetened yogurt and small servings
of cheese. These are resistance foods. They provide the body with its raw materials and
arm it against infection. And it's no accident that they also help to stabilize blood sugar,
so the child will also feel better."
Resistance foods are especially important for the chronically sick child, but a good diet is
obviously good for all children. Together with a group of his patients' mothers. Dr.
Powers has compiled the guidelines shown in the accompanying table for a diet for
children.
"I'll often supplement this diet with vitamins and minerals," the physician says. "Since
most problem children aren't eating well, they need vitamin and mineral supplements to
get proper nutrition. For instance, vitamins contribute to the physiological use of
protein, in which these kids are frequently deficient. So I give a general supplement. But
since these kids are under a lot of stress, I'll also give them a big dose of C and a B
complex."
If you've ever tried sticking to a diet yourself, you might wonder whether it isn't
especially hard for kids. Dr. Powers is the first to admit that it is.
Winning the child's cooperation is essential. "If you can't sell the child, he's not going to
stick to his diet. And in the end, it's the child who has to do it. It's different from the
conventional
[continued on poge 670\
Dr. Powers's Diet for Low-Blood-Sugar Control
Food Category Foods to Use
Foods to Avoid
Meats
Vegetables
Beef, lamb, veal, pork, chicken, turkey, any fish.

All kinds, at least two at a time.
Any processed or cured meat.
None.
Vegetable Juices All.
Processed with any additives.
Fruits
Fresh fruit in limited quantity (one-quarter piece per day for younger children).
Excessive amounts.
Fruit Juices
All natural. Dilute to 1 ounce of juice to 3 ounces of water one to three times a day for
small children.
Added sweeteners.
Breads
Cereals
Including rolls, muffins, crackers, biscuits all made from whole grains.
Any made from natural, whole, unrefined grains.
Breads with two or more sweeteners.
Additives or preservatives.
668 PEDIATRICIAN
Dr. Powers's Diet for Low-Blood-Sugar Control — Continued
Food Category
Foods to Use
Foods to Avoid
Rice
Pasta
Natural, whole grain.

Spaghetti, noodles, etc., all natural, whole grain, can be egg, spinach or Jerusalem
artichoke enriched.
Processed.
Those made from white flour.
Beverages
Sweeteners
Desserts
Emphasize water. Milk, herbal teas, diluted fresh fruit juices, vegetable juices
acceptable. Sugarless, caffeine-free (light-colored) sodas infrequently.
Fructose, tupelo honey, molasses, carob syrup, rice syrup, corn syrup only in small
amounts and only in low-sugar dessert recipes.
ideally all no-sugar such as nuts or
Coffee, tea, all dark-colored sodas. Anything sweetened with sugar, sorbitol, mannitol,
xylitol.
White refined sugar, brown sugar, honey,
confectionary sugar in recipes. Any sugar or sugar straight out. Sorbitol, mannitol,
xylitol.
All sugar-containing desserts.
Dr. Powers's Diet for Low-Blood-Sugar Control— Continued
Food Category Foods to Use
Foods to Avoid
popcorn. Low-sugar desserts (made with the allowable sweeteners listed above) in small
portions and only on special occasions not to exceed twice a week.
Chewing Gum None.
All gums of any kind.
Condiments
All spices and herbs. Ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard in small quantities due to their high
sugar content.
Excessive amounts. Remember that most ketchups, dressings, sauces contain 25 to 50

percent sugar.
Fats and Oils
Only lean
unprocessed meats, lean fish, poultry without skin, low-fat and part-skim cheese.
Fried foods and snacks dipped in oil for crispening. All oily foods. Excessive use of
butter and margarine.
670 PEDIATRICIAN
treatment with drugs. I can't be in control all the time. The parents can't be in control all
the time. We need the child's active cooperation. He has to want to take responsibility
for getting better."
Dr. Powers has found that the whole tenor of nutritional medicine is different from the
conventional medical practice. "It's cooperative medicine. I have to work differently with
the parents, too. When 1 had a conventional pediatric practice, there were 40 kids in the
office a day. But when you're using a nutritional approach, you have to sit down for a
couple of hours and get to know a lot of things about your patients and their families."
But that's not the only reason Dr. Powers believes his nutritional practice has helped
him, as well as his patients. "It's more fun," he says, "because the approach is more
successful. And that's gratifying."
CHAPTER
GROWING UP
HEALTHY—
THE NATURAL WAY
Something was wrong with the baby. Seriously wrong.
The infant had come from the dehvery room to the nursery 30 hours eadier and he
wouldn't—couldn't—stop screaming. Not a normal baby's cry, but a high-pitched howl.
He couldn't eat or sleep, only stare and scream.
The hospital's nurses and obstetrician were at a loss. The general physical exam didn't
show them the problem. The newborn's head resisted rotation. His tiny thighs were
drawn up to his chest and couldn't be made to relax. They couldn't guess at a remedy for
the squalling infant's misery. The obstetrician called Dr. Dunn.
When Paul Dunn, M.D., arrived, he located the problem quickly. The child's cranial
bones, compressed during the process of birth, were misaligned. Usually, a newborn's
first deep breath expands the bones and they settle into place alongside one another.
This time it hadn't worked. Dr. Dunn placed the struggling baby on a table and
instructed two nurses to hold the infant carefully still. He stood at the child's head,
turned it slowly to one side as far as he could, and held it in place, waiting.
Soon he felt a little movement building up under his hand, then quieting down. The
movement stopped and he felt a little
672 PEDIATRICIAN
tremor of release. Moving the infant's head to the other side, he felt the process of
movement and relaxation repeated. After five minutes of Dr. Dunn's manipulation, the
baby stopped crying and fell into the first sleep of his young life. Dr. Dunn worked on for
another ten minutes while the baby slept. He gently massaged the baby's head and neck
until he could rotate the head easily from side to side and draw down the once-rigid legs.
From that time on, the child slept normally, ate normally, and behaved like a normal
newborn.
Dr. Dunn's osteopathic therapy was a double blessing for the youngster. It not only
ended his suffering swiftly and effectively, it did so without recourse to drugs and their
potential side effects. 'Tm sure if the hospital had done the 'usual' things," Dr. Dunn
said, "the kind of things I'd have done a few years ago—put him on phenobarbital and
belladonna to calm him down and put him to sleep—he'd have gone home a colicky baby
and at least have grown up to become a hyperactive child with a learning problem, if not
something more serious."
Dr. Dunn is a pediatrician with a difference. He feels the medical profession has fallen
short in fulfilling its responsibilities to its youngest patients. He chose pediatrics as his
own specialty after his internship exposed him to the complaints of hundreds of adult
patients who lived careless and unhealthful lives. After years of self-inflicted damage,
they came to Dunn as they might bring a poorly maintained car to the repairman. "I
didn't want to spend my life with these worn-out adults, listening to all their
complaints," he says. Working with children, he decided, he could make an important
difference early in their lives and help them grow into a robust adulthood.
Raising an unusually large family—he's a father often—Dr. Dunn became progressively

more dissatisfied with the narrow approach to health offered by conventional medical
training. He wanted to do better for his own children and the children in his practice, to
incorporate as broad a field of knowledge as possible into his working methods. As Dr.
Dunn's wife and partner, Kath-ryn, puts it, "We're just middle-of-the-road people who
looked for better answers for our children than anyone else provided."
In his Oak Park, Illinois, office. Dr. Dunn employs, in ad-
GROWING UP HEALTHY 673
dition to general pediatrics, a comprehensive program of testing and treating children

with brain injury and learning disability. The program includes osteopathy, psychology,
biochemistry, au-diology, Montessori education, developmental optometry, physical
education and nutritional guidance in an interdisciplinary effort designed for the needs
of each patient. Dr. Dunn stresses the importance of such cross-disciplinary cooperation
with these children. "Let's pool our knowledge and not be afraid that another disciple
will steal our thunder."
The importance of proper nutrition in his overall treatment program is obvious even
before visitors leave the reception room. One newspaper clipping on the bulletin board
notes that undertakers find human bodies do not deteriorate as quickly as they used to.
The reason, they believe, is that today's diet contains so many preservatives that the
chemicals interfere with the natural process of decomposition. Beside it, another advises
parents on a method to steer their youngsters away from heavily advertised snack foods,
make them label conscious and improve their eating habits. The writer suggests taking
the kids to the supermarket to read the labels, with the understanding that, if they can't
pronounce the ingredients, they can't eat them.
Clearly, Dr. Dunn is interested in teaching parents new nutritional ideas so their
children will stay healthy.
"Sometimes we assume everybody already knows the basics of sound nutrition," says
Mrs. Dunn. "But there are a lot of people out there who think sugar is energy and our
breakfast cereals are just great.
"When you consider how easy it is to shop when you don't care," she continues, "it only
takes a minute to fill your cart with instant groceries for all week. But when I shop, there
are whole aisles that I skip!"
Nutrition for the Whole Family
Many of the learning problems and other disorders Dr. Dunn is asked to treat can be
traced back to parents who habitually push their shopping carts down the wrong aisles.
According to
674 PEDIATRICIAN
Dr. Dunn, the solution is "a nutritional program set up for the whole family, not just
Johnny and Mary, so the entire family gets to feel better.
"From the newborn period on, I'm talking to the parents about the types of nutritional
principles you read about in Prevention all the time," Dr. Dunn explains. "I advise
sticking as much as possible to fresh fruits and vegetables, serving chicken and fish in
place of beef and pork, serving some seeds and nuts— although, for the little ones, they
should be ground up and mixed with something else, like applesauce. Serve eggs boiled
rather than scrambled or fried. Avoid bleached-white-flour products and refined sugar
products. Give kids additional vitamin C to prevent colds."
Mrs. Dunn acknowledges that this may mean asking a family to change their long-time
marketing habits. They should also be prepared for some initial squawking at the table.
"There's a lot of emotion wrapped up in the foods we're used to eating," Mrs. Dunn
observes. But by changing the family's diet gradually, one daily meal at a time, the
transition to healthier habits can be accomplished with a minimum of fuss.
How can children be weaned away from the junk foods their peers enjoy? Get them
involved, urges Mrs. Dunn. Teach them what to look for, and let them help with the
shopping. Encourage them to help prepare meals. Set a good example. Above all, don't
try to impose good food on them, or there'll surely be resistance. Mrs. Dunn chuckled to
recall one little boy who cleverly found a way to frustrate his insistent, health-minded
parents. "He'd always trade his whole wheat sandwich full of everything good for his
lunchroom friend's peanut butter and jelly."
"Once they find out the connection between what they eat and how they feel, they'll
learn," says Dr. Dunn.
Early Stimulation
Dr. Dunn also reminds parents that children need more than good food to grow to their
full potential. They have a tremendous
appetite for stimulation, too. And in his opinion, it can't start too early.
"Playpens make great firewood," he declares. "The child's body, senses and capabilities
develop through use, and without use they don't develop." It has been found in animals
that 80 to 90 percent of the microneurons that deal with the thinking process develop
after birth, mainly during infancy, and in proportion to the amount of stimulation the
baby receives. "You can see how important it is to give the baby every opportunity to
move through the environment from very early on," Dr. Dunn says. The more a baby is
allowed to move, the more it can learn about its world.
"When I talk to mothers of newborn babies in the hospital, I tell them that even next
week they can put the baby down on a blanket on the floor. Of course, he'll just stretch
and look around, but he'll be getting accustomed to that level so that, when the time
comes for crawling, he'll be able to do it as much as he needs to. The time may come at
one or two months, or three or four. No one but the baby knows. So you can't say, 'I'll
wait until he starts doing it' —you might miss the beginnings of it.
"From very early on, let him spend much of his time crawling on the floor, and more and
more time as he gets older. Don't just let him spend hours sitting up immobilized in an
infant seat, a playpen, a walker or a swing seat, because it restricts his early
movements." Infant seats and the like are fine, he continues, so long as they don't
become the place where the child passes most of his time. These early movements,
incidentally, can also help prevent learning problems.
Dr. Dunn is a firm believer that youngsters from early infancy should spend time
outdoors. "Try to get the child out every day except in severe weather," he recommends,
"so he can see, hear, feel and experience as many things as possible. Walk him along the
same route regularly, so he becomes used to orderly repetition. It's like listening to a
favorite song over and over again. He knows what's coming next, and that's the
beginning of attending."
676 PEDIATRICIAN
And parents should not forget the importance of exposing their young ones to good
speech. Read to the child, don't just cuddle and coo, even if he's only two months old.
Dr. Dunn suggests. "He may not understand reading aloud, but it's still good language
going in. And what goes in is what the mind stores and what later comes out."
For six years, Dr. Dunn was away from pediatric practice, working exclusively with
children with special problems. After his return to the field, he remembers, he
commented to Mrs. Dunn that the children looked different to him and acted differently.
There seemed to be more irritable babies, more crying babies. "They don't seem to be at
home with themselves. It probably has to do with prenatal nutrition and pollution.
Alcohol consumption by the mother during pregnancy can have an effect. She doesn't
have to be an alcoholic. There's evidence now that just a regular drink or two a day
during pregnancy can make a difference.
"About 45 percent of the kids with learning problems that I see have increased lead
levels from car and airplane exhausts in the atmosphere, hair sprays, newspaper print
and about 100 other sources. We handle it with vitamin C and sulfur-containing amino
acids. These pull lead out of the system and counteract other toxins in the environment.
Vitamin E is another antioxidant that will counteract the effects of lead."
Overweight from Addictive Eating
Many of Dr. Dunn's preteenand teenage patients suffer from that almost universal
American disease—overweight. Much of the time, he says, the problem is one of
addictive eating caused by sensitivity to particular foods. Mrs. Dunn describes the
therapy: "The doctor will oftentimes put adolescents on a complete detoxification
program. This appeals to them because it's a very distinct change. We've used a juice-
and-vegetable nine-day fast to get them away from the things they usually eat, get a
thorough
cleansing, break the old habits and get organized to start something new. It's amazing
what this will do for kids."
To a large degree, nutritional problems for adolescents begin early, when they're making
their first independent decisions about diet, and end when independence matures them,
the Dunns feel.
"Once kids get out in their own apartments—at least ours— they go in for the wok, the
brown rice and vegetables, and making food becomes the center of their social life. They
eat better because they're poorer," says Mrs. Dunn.
One of the greatest rewards of his work for Dr. Dunn is that he has very few in-all-the-
time patients. "With the basic approaches I use, nutritionally and otherwise, I don't have
nearly the number of sick kids that 1 used to have. I rarely get more than three or four
phone calls over the weekend. I'll go weeks and weeks without having to put anybody in
the hospital. They just don't get that sick." Today he's spending much of his time
treating children with specialized learning problems, visual problems, and others
suffering from hyperactivity. And despite his long-standing resolution to work only with
kids, he has considered bringing his brand of preventive medicine to adults, but his
present busy schedule prevents that.
'T feel sorry for them," he chuckles. "At the end of their children's exam, parents often
sheepishly come forward and say, 'Er—um—I've got that problem, too!'
Fortunately, as the former president of the International Academy of Preventive

Medicine, Dr. Dunn had the opportunity to encourage a growing number of other
physicians to work with parents who are willing to take responsibility for their own
health.
PHARMACIST CHAPTER
A COMPLETE PRESCRIPTION FOR BETTER HEALTH
The woman walked into the prescription department of a Leavenworth, Kansas,

department store, intending to buy a package of over-the-counter diet pills. She walked
out with two bottles of vitamins and some sensible advice on weight control.
A local farmer received a crash course in vitamin therapy when he came in to pick up his
wife's duodenal ulcer prescription. "A lot of research says vitamin C and zinc help the
medicine work better," consultant pharmacist Tom Liederbach, R.Ph., told the farmer,
who glared at him suspiciously. As Liederbach started to ring up the cash register, the
farmer's glance shifted to a nearby vitamin display. He surreptitiously lifted a bottle
from the rack, turned it over in his palm to read the back label, then returned it. He
faltered, snatched the bottle again and plunked it on the counter.
"Exactly what does it do?" he demanded.

Liederbach told the farmer that zinc and vitamin C requirements are increased with
mucosal wounds such as ulcers. Vitamin C, he explained, is needed for the collagen of
connective tissue to cement the healing cells. The zinc also aids in wound healing and
helps oxygenate the blood, which helps the healing
A PRESCRIPTION FOR BETTER HEALTH 679
process even more. "Until we see her progress, they are no substitute for your wife's
medication," he warned. The farmer nodded, looked at the small plastic bottle with the
typewritten label and child-proof top, then examined the larger, brown glass bottle with
its fancy label and cellophane-sealed cap—and bought both.
As the day wore on, people dropped by to have prescriptions filled, buy vitamins or just
chat with the pleasant young man in the white coat, name embroidered over one pocket.
They found it easy talking to this pharmacist, who handed out affection and advice the
way pediatricians do lollipops.
"People often feel they didn't get their money's worth if they walk out of a doctor's office
without a prescription," Lied-erbach told us. "They may feel their complaints aren't
being taken seriously. These people are often the victims of worries, stresses and
depressions that no drug can help.
"What they often need is counseling. But most doctors honestly haven't the time for that,
and when they do, usually it doesn't have the beneficial effect it could because patients
aren't receptive.
"But here," he continued, indicating the expanse of store where his professional wares
were housed in clinical array next to the tangled greenery of an adjacent plant
department, "it costs them nothing. They are more relaxed when they come in here than
when they walk into a doctor's office, and therefore they're more open. Too, they often
are more responsive to the advice 1 give them about getting proper exercise, nutrition
and rest than they are when the same advice comes from their doctor."
The physician's office, Liederbach contends, often presents an artificial environment

substantially different from the patients' day-to-day lives outside. They endure it
temporarily, in order to obtain symptomatic relief for what they hope is a temporary
problem. Long-term solutions and radical changes are unwelcome; many patients are no
happier accepting a diet or exercise program than a verdict of terminal illness.
A pharmacy, especially a pharmacy such as the one Liederbach manages, overlooking

the toys and trinkets, tires and
680 PHARMACIST
trowels that are displayed in the store, makes change seem more palatable than when it
is demanded by the awesome patriarch they call "doctor."
• People find it easy to relate to Liederbach, perhaps because his curls and boyish smile
are so disarming, perhaps because his strong body is a testimonial to healthy food and
regular exercise. He and his wife, Theresa, who rode her bicycle to the obstetrician's
office through the ninth month of her last pregnancy, plan to open a preventive
pharmacy center, incorporating a unique pharmacy practice with natural therapeutic
alternatives including food, herbs and nutritional supplements.
Working with natural foods at a Kansas City health foods restaurant introduced
Liederbach to herbs. His fascination grew. "I'm a voracious reader; I learned that a lot of
medicines are naturally based. Penicillin, for example, comes from cultures of certain
common molds. Digitalis is extracted from the foxglove plant.
"I sold my restaurant with the intention of becoming a physician," but he changed his
mind when he saw how little emphasis the profession placed on disease prevention
through nature and nutrition. In order to help people in that way, he decided to return
to school and become a pharmacist—with a major emphasis on pharmacognosy (the
study of medicinals made from herbs and other natural, biological sources).
Although his sounds like a new approach to pharmacy and medicine, "it's actually the
oldest way," Liederbach explains. "Originally, pharmacists were herbalists—
pharmacognosy is the word for what they practiced—and in addition to drugs with
questionable efficacy, they employed the use of herbal extractives as effective remedies.
Only in recent years, with the advent of chemical pharmaceutics, has the importance of
pharmacognosy been sidestepped.
"There is a new approach coming to medicinals, however. A specialized consultant

pharmacist in conjunction with the physician will prescribe the proper remedy, and a
less highly trained retail pharmacist will dispense or compound the medicines.
A PRESCRIPTION FOR BETTER HEALTH 681
"Physicians are not able to keep up with the enormous amount of pharmaceutical
literature while maintaining their expertise with diagnoses/' Liederbach thinks. "A lot of
younger physicians realize this and are becoming increasingly concerned. A significant
amount of what doctors know about drugs and medications has been told to them by
drug salesmen. Perhaps that is one reason why three independent sources estimated
that from 10 to 18 percent of all hospital inpatients studied were suffering from adverse
medical reactions classified as iatrogenic [physician-induced] diseases."
A pharmacist, Liederbach believes, should make it his business to know about drug side
effects.
"Did your physician tell you you need potassium with that?" Liederbach asked the
woman who was buying over-the-counter diuretics on the recommendation of her
physician. "Without additional potassium, there's a chance it could cause leg cramps."
He told her bananas were a good source of potassium.
"So much potentially dangerous stuff is sold over the counter. A pharmacist should be
aware of the danger they pose. For instance, a person who buys a dubious 'diet aid'
containing phenylpropanolamine (PPA) could be in for serious trouble if he also is
taking decongestants containing the same ingredient. And if he also drinks coffee. ..."
Liederbach shakes his head. On several occasions, he has intercepted such purchases
and warned people of the possible consequences, including possible cardiac
abnormalities.
Similar situations arise when people buy a prescribed medicine and also buy cold
remedies or aspirin, which may interact with it. "Doctors realize I'm doing them a
favor," he says, because most patients don't think to tell their physicians about over-the-
counter preparations they consume regularly, because they are either embarrassed or
ignorant of how dangerous these so-called safe drugs can be.
"That's one reason why you should always go to the same pharmacy and get to know
your pharmacist. Usually, he knows a lot more about these things than either you or
your doctor."
682 PHARMACIST
Concerned that the strength of his views may lead to misinterpretation, Liederbach
stresses, "I am not out to undermine the medical profession or to disparage physicians."
He just wants people to realize there are certain limits to what their doctors can do—in
terms of time and training. There is nothing wrong with that. An architect is not a
carpenter.
Patient, physician and pharmacist form a trinity that works to benefit them all, in
Liederbach's view. Since he can get a glimpse of a person's life style that a doctor may
never know, he can help the doctor's treatment reach its desired end. When he calls
himself "a liaison between doctor and patient, medicine and nature," he means human
nature, too.
PREVENTIVE MEDICINE CHAPTER
THE DOCTOR
WHO FOUND
WHAT HE WAS MISSING
"I thought I was hving my hfe to the fullest. I had no nutritional orientation at all. I
believed that to restore health you had to take drugs. If my friends would ask me about
the need for vitamins, I would tell them not to bother, since they would urinate them all
away." These are the words of Kenneth Hodge, M.D., of Sacramento, California. Dr.
Hodge is now a nutrition-oriented physician. The following interview with Dr. Hodge
tells the story of his conversion, the story of how a potentially fatal stroke brought him
face to face with death or lifelong paralysis— and the power of nutrition to bring back
health.
Question: Before your stroke, what was your attitude toward nutrition?
Dr. Hodge: My concept of nutrition was eating the four basic food groups and that was
it. I told my patients they got plenty of vitamins from their foods. I preferred white flour,
and I really enjoyed coffee and alcohol.
Q: Was there any warning that you might suffer a stroke?
Dr. Hodge: Yes. My father died of the same kind of stroke in 1951, while I was serving in
Korea as a battalion surgeon. I had some symptoms, too. About three years before my
stroke,
684 PREVENTIVE MEDICINE
I began experiencing jagged lines of light around my field of vision. This is called
scintillating peripheral optic scotoma. The zigzagging lights would move inward until
my whole field of vision was pulsating.
Another symptom that started about that time was something called dyslexia. I was
reading a medical text one day when I realized that I was unable to tell the meaning of
the words. It was as though a portion of the word was missing. That was rather
disquieting, especially when 1 saw that some of the words were simple ones, like the. I
was also suffering from frequent left-sided headaches.
Q: Did you consult a doctor?
Dr. Hodge: Oh yes, a neurologist. He took a brain scan, but back then the scan was not
very accurate as a diagnostic tool. The test came back normal. So I asked for an
arteriogram, but the neurologist didn't want to do that test. It's very dangerous: Strokes
or heart attacks sometimes follow it. I knew that, so I didn't insist. But 1 wanted to have
something. I knew something was wrong with my brain. But I was able to function more
or less normally for the next two years.
Q: Then what happened?
Dr. Hodge: About a year before the stroke, I went out into the kitchen one night to talk
to my wife. I talked for about a half hour, and during that time she didn't understand a
word I said. Words like doo and dah were coming out of my mouth.
Finally, my wife asked me if I had any idea what was wrong with me. I said the first
English word she could understand: aphasia. She asked me what that meant. So I said
the second English word that night: Stedman, which was the name of the medical
dictionary I had in the house. She looked up aphasia in Stcdman's and found that it
means the inability to speak. That's all the book said, though, so she didn't find out the
connotations of what was going on. But as the night passed, my speech slowly returned,
but never quite to normal.
We never discussed that night very much, since I lost the word power for an in-depth
conversation. My memory would
THE DOCTOR WHO FOUND NUTRITION 685
lapse, too, now and then. I couldn't remember the punch lines of jokes.
Q: What did your doctor do this time?
Dr. Hodge: More tests. But all the results were normal.
Q: What did you do? Did you think there was anything you could do to prevent a stroke?
Dr. Hodge: No. There was nothing I thought I could do. Hearing from two competent
medical doctors that the blood flow to my brain appeared normal, I began to think
maybe there was something else wrong with my brain. Besides, 1 had always thought
there was nothing that could be done about a stroke.
Q: What finally happened?
Dr. Hodge: Finally, about a year later, I was watching TV one night. 1 got up to change
the channel, squatted in front of the set and fell over to my right side. As I fell, I put out
my right hand to break my fall. But my right limb didn't have any strength. I could move
it, but I couldn't support anything. So 1 lay there stupidly on the floor, looked at my wife
with a sick grin on my face and said, ''Honey, something's wrong here." I wasn't having
any trouble talking then. 1 said, 'Tt's too late to call the neurologist now, let's hold on
and see how I am in the morning." Right after 1 fell, I was able to get right up.
At 7 A.M., I woke up and went out to get the paper. As I squatted to pick it up, 1 fell
again. Same as the night before. I got up and walked through the bedroom and told my
wife it was back again. 1 went into the bathroom and just as I went in, 1 fell again.
The neurologist came over and gave me a quick examination. He said I was probably
cooking a stroke if not having one, so I'd better get into the hospital.
Q: What happened there?
Dr. Hodge: I had an arteriogram. A thin plastic tube was inserted in a leg artery and
threaded through to the base of the neck, and a dye was injected. X rays then show any
blockage of the blood vessels.
Q: What were the results of the test?
Dr. Hodge: 1 wasn't getting too much blood to my brain. My left cerebral artery was 90
percent blocked—so only 10 percent of the blood flow was getting through to the speech
center and the motor center for the right side of my body. Both my common carotid
arteries were 50 percent blocked, and both my vertebral arteries were 50 percent
blocked. And two of my three coronary arteries were massively blocked. If coronary
bypasses had been in vogue at that time, I would have been on the operating table as
soon as my paralysis went away.
After the arteriogram, I found myself in this terrible predicament. I couldn't talk,
couldn't move my right side and couldn't think very well, either. The only thought that
came into my head for a long time was that I wished I would die. And actually, according
to the tests, that could very well have happened.
Two hours after the test, the stroke got worse. The blood vessels apparently spasmed in
response to the dye. It felt like somebody had put a red-hot poker in my brain. The
doctors considered performing a bypass operation on my cerebral artery. When they
mentioned the possibility to my wife, she asked one of my good friends, who is a
neurosurgeon. He said, 'The best thing that could happen to Kenneth is death."
Q: That was the very bottom, wasn't it?
Dr. Hodge: That's right. But my introduction to nutrition was to come soon. My
daughter came in to visit me soon after my stroke and saw the hospital food, which at
that meal happened to be pancakes and syrup. She asked me if I would take something
nutritious if she made it and brought it in. I said yes, because I didn't want to start an
argument. Then she asked the doctor and he said she couldn't do it, and he gave three
reasons: It was against hospital policy; there was a dietitian who could look after my
nutritional needs quite adequately; and he had no belief in it at all. Neither did I.
But my daughter did. So she went underground. She smuggled the pep-up drink—a
brewer's yeast milk shake—into the hospital a quart at a time.
Q: How did you like that?
Dr. Hodge: It was a new taste thrill for me. I could hardly stomach it. But I drank it
dutifully, in small sips. Of course, a quart of that stuff has enough nutrition to last you
for a day, so pretty soon I was eating hardly any of the hospital chow at all. I stopped
drinking coffee; I stopped drinking wine. I stopped pasta, pastries and syrups. I started
physiotherapy. And a couple of weeks later I went home, I was able to walk. I walked to
my 50th birthday party.
Q: Is that unusual?
Dr. Hodge: Pretty much, yes. Beyond that, though, it gets into the fantastic. Two months
after my stroke, you could have looked at me from across the street and not have noticed
anything that would give away that I had suffered a stroke—unless you stopped and
talked to me. I was still very depressed, so much so that I was trying to think of cute
ways to kill myself so my wife could still collect my life insurance. At that point, I was
crying at the drop of a hat. If somebody would say something to me that was nice or not
nice, I would cry. My emotions were extremely labile, which is typical of a stroke victim.
My wife thought a change of scenery might do me good. She knew I liked the seashore,
so we went to stay at her parents' beach house.
Q: And there you found something that changed your life?
Dr. Hodge: On the bookshelf in the beach house was a book called Food Is Your Best
Medicine by Henry Bieler, M.D. My wife said I should take a look at it, which I did—
simply to avoid being pestered about it any further. I thought the author was nuts. No
way in the world can he be right about foods causing disease, I thought.
Q: Apparently, something happened to change your mind.
Dr. Hodge: On the way home from the beach house, we had to pay a visit to my sister-in-
law. I didn't want to go because she was the kind of woman who was always complaining
about her health. But—to my surprise—she was a different woman! She didn't have any
of her neurotic complaints. Her skin color was good and she was in good spirits. An
entirely changed woman.
It seems she had despaired on conventional medicine, which had yet to do her any good,
and had started going to chiropractors, faith healers—anyone who would hold out a
shred of hope for her. Finally, she went to a biochemist-nutritionist. And that's when her
problems started clearing up.
Q: Did your sister-in-law suggest that you see the nutritionist, too?
Dr.Hodge: Did she! It was my sister-in-law who had planted Food Is Your Best Medicine
at the beach house!
Q: How did you feel about that?
Dr. Hodge: Well, I suggested—with my limited word power—that my wife ought to see if
this nutritionist could do anything for her rheumatoid arthritis and her peptic ulcer. But
while she was on the phone making the appointment, I told her I would go, too. I figured
I had nothing to lose and probably nothing to gain.
Q: So you went to the nutritionist.
Dr. Hodge: We both went and spent an hour apiece talking about our health and dietary
histories. Then we were each given individual diets to follow, including supplements.
Q: And the results?
Dr. Hodge: Two days later, Joyce, my wife, had no ulcer pain. Within a month, she had
no joint pain. But what happened to me was even more fantastic. The first thing I
noticed that was different was that mosquitoes were ignoring me—because I was taking
a lot of B vitamins. The second thing I noticed was that two different types of backache
I'd had since I was a teenager were gone. The perennial sneezing that I'd suffered since I
was even younger was gone. My sinusitis disappeared. My intermittent hives also
disappeared. Both the zigzagging lights in my field of vision and the left-sided headaches
that had come before and after my stroke also disappeared. The prostatitis that I'd had
for five years disappeared.
But the most beautiful thing of all was that my depression started to lift. As soon as we
got home, I started to assemble a couple of bicycles we had bought. It took me a week to
get them together, and I struggled for several days just to get mine to
move forward. 1 was riding on a gravel yard, and when I lost my balance and fell—well,
the front yard was a bloody mess because I was taking a blood-thinning medication at
the time. But within a week, I was making the half-mile trip to the speech therapy class.
And a month later, I was cycling 27 miles a day.
Four months later, I was getting into arguments with my speech therapist, so she
decided I didn't need therapy anymore. I had totally lost my depression. And my
memory was returning.
Q: And that's when you decided to return to your practice?
Dr. Hodge: Well, I decided 1 would take another whack at anesthesiology, which was my
specialty before the stroke. But I was looking at things with new eyes. I started to see
things about medicine that 1 had never noticed before. Physicians think of levels of
disease; they don't think of nondisease. I was thinking about health.
I was thinking that if I'd been eating as I was eating now, I would never have had the
stroke in the first place. That was a brand-new concept for me, thinking about health
instead of disease. And I saw that many people who came into the hospital were turned
out in worse shape than when they came in.
So slowly, but surely, that started to get to me. I would look at these physicians in their
youth, with their pedantic authoritarian tones, telling patients how to do things, what to
do, and not brooking any nonsense from them at all. And 1 thought, 'Ts that the kind of
guy I was? If so, I don't want to be one anymore." So after nine months, I decided to
quit.
Q: And you began your nutritionally oriented practice?
Dr. Hodge: Cautiously at first. I read every book I could lay my hands on that dealt with
nutrition. Little by little, though, I accepted more patients.
Q: Do you remember your first patient?

Dr. Hodge: Yes, the nutritionist who gave us our diets referred a man to me. He had
joint pain and angina. He was taking seven or more nitroglycerin tablets a day for relief
of the heart pain. But within a week on the diet I gave him, he cut down on the
nitroglycerin, and during the following month he took only two. His joint pain also
improved.
Q: Now your practice is full time?
Dr. Hodge: 1 usually run from nine in the morning until five-thirty. But I don't see too
many patients in a day. On a busy day, maybe 24 people. But if I have 2 or 3 new
patients, I don't see more than 6 or 8 people that day.
Q: Do you ever prescribe exercise?
Dr. Hodge: Oh, yes. I think that exercise is also very important. And when I say exercise,
1 don't mean you have to be an athlete. Just exercise to your capacity. Extend your
capacity as much as you can, little by little. Strength is not essential, just a good,
pumping, functioning heart is essential to carry oxygen and nutrients to various parts of
your body. A good wide-open cardiovascular system is essential, too, for clear thinking
and proper functioning of the other organs.
Q: I suppose your experience has taught you a lot about the medical profession and
health?
Dr. Hodge: Well, like the average physician, I was well educated, self-assured and felt I
had the answer to everything. Today I realize that I did not have the answer to
everything; as a matter of fact, 1 had the answer to almost nothing. My attitude toward
life has changed drastically since the stroke, and I consider the stroke a beneficial event.
I think that optimism is essential. Pessimism creates illness. Negative thinking of any
kind— whether it's anger or pessimism or depression—ruins people. Any disease is
made worse by negative thinking, whether it's cancer or arthritis or an ulcer or angina.
Q: Do you ever help motivate your patients to adopt a healthier life style by telling your
own story?
Dr. Hodge: Sometimes I do. 1 kind of go at it briefly. I usually just tell them they don't
have to suffer from depression, that they could lead their lives with much more
enjoyment. I simply describe to them what they're missing in life.
CHAPTER
MAKE YOUR BODY A SAFER PLACE TO LIVE

When Harry T. had his car accident a few years ago, he considered himself pretty lucky
to get out with only a minor case of whiplash. But after several weeks, he wasn't so sure
about his luck anymore. By that time, his neck had completely stiffened up. So had his
shoulders and hands.
Instead of getting better, he was getting progressively worse. After visiting

rheumatologists and other specialists at several prestigious California medical centers,
he was told he had developed osteoarthritis of the spine. His doctors prescribed the
usual anti-inflammatory drugs, pain-killers and physical-therapy treatments, but
nothing seemed to help. He just got stiffer and stiffer while living with constant chronic
pain in his neck, shoulders and hands.
For two years his suffering continued, and he adapted to it as well as possible. But Harry
didn't give up. He had been a successful business executive for years and wasn't about to
let this illness do him in. Besides, he was only 60 years old—much too young to sacrifice
the rest of his life to pain and misery.
Lucky for him he found out about the Commonweal Clinic in Bolinas, California. "We
first saw Harry about 20 to 24 months
after the car accident," says Charles Thompson, M.D., former medical director of the
clinic. "His range of motion was severely limited. He had a very hard time turning his
head. In fact, he couldn't even move his chin a quarter of the way down to his chest.
"When I found out that Harry's arthritis had come on very quickly after his car accident,
I couldn't help but wonder if there wasn't some physical and psychological connection
between the two. Harry suspected the same thing, but he couldn't figure out exactly
what it all meant. So we worked both tracks with him— the biophysical track and the
psychosocial track," explains Dr. Thompson.
"From counseling, Harry discovered that he still had not dealt with the aftermath of his
divorce. His guilt had immobilized him emotionally just as the shoulder and neck pain
did physically. Clearing up the psychological problems produced some pain relief.
"As for the biophysical track, first we tested him for food, chemical and inhalant
sensitivities in the laboratory. A number of the things he was tested for, particularly
certain foods, produced a significant increase in the arthritis symptoms in his neck and
hands. We immediately took him off the offending foods and then put him on vitamins
C, A and D, as well as B complex and calcium.
"It took about six weeks until Harry noticed improvement, but then he knew he was on
the right track.
"After about three or four months, he was incredibly improved—completely free of pain.
And his emotional well-being was the best it had been in years," Dr. Thompson told us.
An Alternative to Despair
Even if Harry were an isolated case, the results would be worth pondering. But the
practitioners at the Commonweal Clinic say that they've almost come to expect
significant improvement in otherwise hopeless situations.
MAKE YOUR BODY A SAFER PLACE TO LIVE 693
"We see lots of patients who have reached Harry's level of despair," says Susan
Rutherford, clinic administrator, "and two-thirds of those people complain of three or
more chronic illnesses. By the time they come to us, they have usually been through the
million-dollar workups and been everywhere trying to find help. Often their doctors
have just told them there's nothing that can be done for them and sent them on their
way."
"We go about things differently here at the clinic," says Dr. Thompson. "Sure, we'll run
the routine blood tests (if they haven't been done within the past six months) plus a
thorough, overall examination. But where most traditional doctors leave off is where we
really begin."
"An initial visit to the clinic takes about two hours," says Ms. Rutherford. "And
subsequent visits usually take at least an hour each."
"That's because we do so much more than just a physical exam," continues Dr.
Thompson. "We want our patients to become active participants in their own healing
process, not the passive people that other physicians have come to expect. It is our aim
to empower people, as much as possible, to understand more clearly whatever disease
process they're dealing with, both physiologically and psychologically."
To do that. Dr. Thompson and Ms. Rutherford work as a team with each patient. They
actually started the teamwork idea about five years ago in their preventive medicine
practice in Seattle. Now, it's a routine procedure here in the Bolinas clinic, too.
Dr. Thompson brings his training in internal medicine into play, while Ms. Rutherford
acts as a counselor and health educator with training in drug and alcohol abuse,
nutrition and stress management. Eight other colleagues, including a child health care
specialist and a clinical ecologist, round out a staff that includes both medical and lay
practitioners.
"There's a certain amount of overlap in our expertise, but together we cover a lot of
bases," Ms. Rutherford told us. "Besides, we find the patients appreciate having both the
male and female perspectives on a given situation. And patients can relate
to a lay professional; they're relieved to know there is someone here who speaks their
language. Of course. Dr. Thompson does, too, but they may not realize that at first.''
Their innovative ideas in treating the chronically ill have led them into the classroom as
well as the examining room. Medical students, nurses and doctors have been learning
from Dr. Thompson and Ms. Rutherford.
"We've taught classes at the University of California medical center and, before that, in
the Seattle area," says Ms. Rutherford. "We've also taught our ideas in the local school
districts, at colleges in this area and at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center," adds
Dr. Thompson.
"Through all of that contact I have come to sense that most of the people we see live in
their bodies as if they were dangerous places to be—that their bodies are essentially a
scary, unknown collection of organ systems and chemicals that could just go haywire at
any moment. They believe that, without the skill and knowledge of a sort of 'factory-
trained mechanic' (an M.D.) to manage it, their life is in peril.
"Actually, it's more likely the other way around. That is, recognizing what's good for you
and what isn't, what makes your symptoms feel worse and what makes them feel better,
can be used as an opportunity to learn and grow in terms of medical self-care," Dr.
Thompson told us.
Trust Your Hunches
"Therefore, a lot of our work has to do with reawakening body awareness so that people
can learn to trust their own hunches and intuitions about the physical and psychosocial
causes and effects of their problems."
And most do have hunches. "The majority of our patients have had an intuitive sense
(sometimes for years) that what's going on in their bodies physically has something to
do with how they think and feel emotionally about themselves, their lives and their
world. Unfortunately, not one of the physicians they've seen has ever felt it was
important to pursue that line of reasoning."
Yet, that's exactly where Dr. Thompson begins when a patient first comes to the
Commonweal Clinic. "To make it easier to bring out all the information needed, we have
a detailed questionnaire that every patient is required to fill out," he explains. "It asks
patients about their basic life style choices and medical, nutritional and exercise history.
Then, at the end of each section, we include open-ended questions such as: Do you have
any suspicion that your symptoms are related to certain foods, or to your menstrual
period, or to life style changes such as divorce, or even a promotion?
"You'd be surprised how many people have these strong, nagging intuitive hunches
about their illnesses. Not long ago, we treated a young woman who was a classic
example of that. She had been under psychiatric care for about ten years, and her family
had a strong history of all kinds of physical and emotional problems. Yet she 'knew'
there was a physical cause. She had spent thousands of dollars on various treatments by
the time she came to see us. But she still suffered from periodic psychotic depressions
that lasted at least five days at a stretch. During an episode, she would experience
hallucinations and very strong out-of-body experiences. She was quite immobilized in
the midst of an otherwise normal, active life.
"These attacks would occur every 30 to 40 days. What's more, whenever something like
final exams or a date would come up (which added stress), she could almost count on
having one of these psychotic breaks. After we completed a detailed medical history, it
turned out that the attacks were most strongly correlated with her menstrual cycle and
obviously correlated with other psychosocial stresses. She also had a long history of
dysmenorrhea [painful periods], premenstrual tension, water retention and breast
soreness."
Helped by B Vitamins
"I immediately started her on daily Bf,, niacinamide [a form of niacin] and tryptophan
supplements," Dr. Thompson continues, "and it completely broke the psychotic pattern.
Vitamin B^
is thought to be the cofactor necessary to convert tryptophan [an amino acid] to

serotonin [a brain neurotransmitter], and a lack of any of these can cause severe
depression.
''It bothers me that, during all those years, no one ever took a decent enough history to
uncover what her real problems were— not the psychiatrists she saw and not the
neurologists or endocrinologists, either.
'That's why we emphasize the importance of a good, thorough history. For example, as a
part of all initial workups, we also evaluate the patients' total stress load by having them
fill in a life-adjustment rating scale. This test assigns a certain number of points for
major life changes such as marriage, divorce, death of a spouse, moving or promotion.
The higher your total score, the more stress you are under and the greater your risk of
illness or accident.
*Tf we see that someone scores high, we may suggest an adjustment in nutritional
intake," says Dr. Thompson. "The tendency is for most people to have little or no
breakfast, a light lunch and then pack in two-thirds of their daily nutrients and calories
at dinner. But by then, roughly two-thirds of their total output of physical, emotional
and mental energy has already occurred, so that they are running on a deficit. That can
be critical for someone whose recent history contains 250 or 300 of those life-
adjustment rating points. Statistically, that person is much more likely to experience a
major illness or accident."
"We attempt to match input of nutrients with output of energy by having our patients
spread out their calories more evenly over the day," continues Ms. Rutherford. "We
suggest that they eliminate foods that contain a lot of preservatives, artificial colorings
and other chemicals, as well as overprocessed foods like sugar and white flour. Those
foods are stressors in themselves and don't always provide the kinds of nutrients
(especially the B vitamins and minerals) that might be depleted during times of stress."
"Of course, complaints about stress are usually not what brings people in," Dr.
Thompson points out. "But stress is often related to the other chronic ailments they may
be suffering.
Whether it's asthma, gastritis, coHtis, high blood pressure, psoriasis or whatever, we
approach each patient as an individual. Even people with the same disease will probably
be treated differently. That's why it's so hard to generalize. We don't have a special diet
for this ailment or a special nutrient for that disorder."
Listening to the Body
"Each of our patients learns to use his or her uniqueness to help uncover the underlying
answers to a particular problem. In other words, the body becomes its own biofeedback
system," Dr. Thompson explains. 'This is especially evident when we check for food
sensitivities. From the history taken, we determine which foods are suspect. Then we do
allergy testing for those specific items. During the testing, the subjective symptoms are
noted—mental fogginess, agitation, anger, dizziness. We also note whether the
symptoms they originally came in with are increased by the food in question. From all of
that, we are able to determine what level of allergy response or hypersensitivity the
person shows.
"Food sensitivities really matter," Dr. Thompson emphasizes. "Two or three years ago, I
would have said. That's a lot of hokum.' But not anymore. Fm completely convinced.
Our own laboratory experiments have confirmed the effects that foods can have on
susceptible people. I have seen the elimination of allergic foods reduce the symptoms of
migraine, depression, psoriasis, recurrent ear infection, colitis, arthritis, even high blood
pressure.
"That last one was a real surprise to me. We've had four patients in the last year with
moderately high blood pressure who did very well with food allergy elimination. Two,
who were on antihypertensive medication, were able to cut their dosage in half."
In fact. Dr. Thompson is still amazed by the number of people who have been
significantly helped at the clinic. "In the
chronic disease population, the expectation is that you may be able to help 10 to 15
percent. If you can get that percentage up to 20 or 25, you are doing extremely well. Yet,
in our experience with the chronically ill, we have better than 50 percent with significant
improvement. And that includes a decrease in symptoms, a decrease in dependence on
medication and an increased sense that the body is a decent place to live."
CHAPTER
THE MEDICAL SCHOOL WHERE NUTRITION ISN'T A DIRTY WORD
'The graduates of today's medical schools know more about heart transplants than they
do about basic nutrition. I would guess 90 percent of them couldn't describe an
adequate, nutritious diet that was appropriate for people at various stages of life."
That was the reply of Philip R. Lee, M.D., director of the institute for health policy
studies at the University of California medical school at San Francisco, when asked by
Senator George McGovern whether today's new doctors were properly trained in the
importance of nutrition.
This bad news about America's medical schools was also aired in another important
forum, the official voice of the American medical establishment, the Journal of the
American Medical Association. Esther S.Nelson, M.D., commented in the editorial
column on the sad fact that, while every single veterinarian in the country had been
thoroughly trained in nutrition, nine out often of the country's medical schools didn't
adequately cover the subject.
That's the bad news. But there's good news, too. There is a doctor who's making sure
every medical student that passes
through one of the East Coast's most prestigious medical schools appreciates the
importance of nutrition in maintaining good health.
Dr. Willard Krehl, although he is carrying on something of a revolution in the medical

school curriculum, does not personally carry on like a revolutionary. The noise from the
construction ten stories below, as the medical college at Thomas Jefferson University
expands to fill up yet another two blocks in the center of Philadelphia, reaches up into
his office but does not disturb his concentration. Dr. Krehl is a scientist, not an angry
revolutionary. He has both a medical degree and a doctor of philosophy degree. His
writings have appeared in nutrition and medical journals and in nutrition textbooks. He
has the facts.
"I doubt there are ten hospitals in the country that can give a comprehensive nutritional
evaluation of a patient. The idea that we're really all so well fed isn't true. Many of us are
overfed. But many don't measure up to even a conservative estimate of what we need. As
doctors, we should find out who these people are and educate them," Dr. Krehl said,
commenting on "the skeleton in the hospital closet."
"But we often don't spend time with patients to see them through their troubles. Instead,
we prescribe drugs."
Dr. Krehl doesn't want his students to make the mistake of ignoring nutrition. "All too
often, one finds the nutritional status dismissed with the statement that the patient is
'well nourished' and 'well developed' or that the patient 'seems to be getting a balanced
diet.' Nutritional deficiencies exist but not necessarily in the obvious form of
traditionally recognized deficiency diseases.
"One may have malnutrition without obvious evidence of nutritional disease. The
deficits may begin early in life and continue for long periods of time. It's just as
important to diagnose these problems of malnutrition before these diseases develop in
full-blown proportions as it is to diagnose appendicitis before the appendix ruptures.
You know, preventive medicine is not new. Hippocrates said that the physician 'must
look after the patient's regimen while he is yet in health.'
Dr. Krehl admits to his students that "the concept of treating healthy—symptomless—
patients is rather foreign to traditional
NUTRITION ISNT A DIRTY WORD 701
concepts of medical practice," Hippocrates notwithstanding. But he also tells them, "It
can be done. Illness can be prevented."
How? Well, the students are not left hanging on that question too long. "Frequently, the
practice of preventive medicine involves efforts to change the behavior or life style of the
individual. He may be advised to exercise more, eat less, relax more, discontinue
smoking or the use of alcohol, or to change some behavioral pattern which may lead to
future illness. The patient may also be encouraged to learn to swim or reduce weight."
The important act on the part of the physician. Dr. Krehl points out, is to communicate
with the patient. "A huge communications gap exists between the doctor and his patient
because the role of teacher is unfamiliar to most physicians. But to get the patient to
take greater personal responsibility for health may require much greater skill, more time
and understanding than knowing how to prescribe drugs."
Actually, Dr. Krehl believes, all medical care is preventive, even crisis-oriented care. The
difference, he points out to his students, is in the moment when the physician intervenes
in the patient's life to prevent further illness. Obviously, Dr. Krehl wants his students to
learn to intervene before the patient needs crisis-oriented care.
To this end. Dr. Krehl instructs his students in how to investigate a patient's record and
identify health problems that might develop in the future. For instance, students are
taught to find out what patients eat, whether they use drugs, alcohol or tobacco, what
occupational hazards or environmental pollutants they're exposed to, what they like to
do with their leisure time and what psychological adjustments they make. The students
also learn to look at a patient's record and identify what health problems might have
been prevented by earlier attention.
Naturally, they are also taught to look for the signs of nutritional deficiencies. Dr. Krehl
tells them, "Nutritional disease due solely to inadequate intake is rare, but it does occur
if faulty dietary habits persist. Marginal nutritional deficits may occur commonly
because of improper diet, poor absorption, decreased utilization, increased excretion
and increased nutritional require-
ments. Moderate illness or injury does not necessarily cause nutritional catastrophe
unless these stresses are prolonged or unless the nutrient reserves are too depleted. For
temporary demands, reserves may meet the need. When stress becomes sufficiently
great, the reserves no longer suffice and illness can result."
Dr. Krehl believes that "there is a great deal of variability in the nutritional needs of
individual people. Some people may need many times the Recommended Dietary
Allowance."
As his students learn to assess the nutritional status of their patients, they learn not only
how to perform standard laboratory tests for nutrient levels, but also what to look for in
a patient's appearance that might give a clue to a nutritional problem. "A number of
complaints are often, but not always, associated with what we might call
'undernutrition'—fatigue, apathy, loss of appetite, burning or tingling sensations,
palpitation, nervousness, headache, irritability, upset stomach, depression, muscle
weakness, apprehension, lassitude, abnormal changes in weight, and, in a child, failure
to grow."
Quickly, Dr. Krehl ran through some of the classical symptoms of vitamin deficiencies
which he teaches his students to look for: "The skin very frequently gives the first signs
of malnutrition. Not all skin changes are nutritional in origin, however. Certainly, dry,
scaly skin should bring to mind the possibility of inadequate vitamin A. Seborrheic
dermatitis in the area of the lips and nose could be a sign of inadequate pyridoxine
[vitamin Bf,] and riboflavin. Dryness and opacity in a patient's eyes could be caused by
vitamin A deficiency.
"Anemias will commonly show up as a generalized pallor of the tongue and mouth. In
fact, abnormal appearance or inflammation of the tongue or around the mouth should
lead one to at least suspect nutritional deficiencies.
"A doctor should also be alert to the mental and emotional abnormalities associated
with deficiencies of B vitamins, particularly thiamine and niacin.
"Muscular weakness, particularly if generalized, could be a result of nutritional deficit.

The simplest test for muscular
NUTRITION ISN'T A DIRTY WORD 703

weakness is to have the patient squat and then attempt to stand. In thiamine deficiency,
muscular weakness is severe enough that the patient cannot rise from the squatting
position. Absence of the reflexes, particularly the ankle jerk, may also be present."
On the subject of meganutrient therapy. Dr. Krehl says he believes some beneficial
effects may occur when high doses of vitamins are taken. "But,'' he adds, "I don't believe
it's necessarily a nutritional effect. Using high doses of vitamins is really more like using
a pharmaceutical. You create a 'mass action' effect on a particular biochemical process in
the body, one which normally uses a vitamin in the first place. Of course, not too much
is known about the biochemistry involved. But some of the effects are well documented.
For example, the treatment of intermittent claudication, a condition in which walking
becomes extremely painful, is possible with 400 to 600 international units of vitamin E
per day. There's little doubt that it works. I've used it myself on patients with
intermittent claudication. Another good example is that the Canadian epidemiologist
Terence Anderson has proved that vitamin C—while not actually preventing colds—
significantly reduces the number of days lost to cold symptoms."
Of course, not all physicians accept the importance of nutrition in health or that using
large doses of vitamins might help a patient. As a matter of fact, on the day we visited
Dr. Krehl, he was scheduled to debate another doctor on the merits of meganutrient
therapy. The debate was part of a series of nutrition seminars set up by Dr. Krehl and
Robert Karp, M.D., a pediatrician who was a member of Dr. Krehl's department, to
expose the hospital staff to important issues in nutrition.
The outcome of the debate was best expressed by a young medical student who raised
his hand during the question-and-answer period and told Dr. Krehl's opponent, "For
someone who is supposed to represent the scientific position of honest skepticism, you
have really failed to bring to the argument any real scientific information thatmight
discredit anything Dr. Krehl says. All you've done is generalize from newspaper
clippings, while Dr. Krehl has offered scientific evidence backed up by a stack of medical
journal articles."
Apparently, the strength of Dr. Krehl's careful, scientific concern about nutrition
promises to carry the day not only with his students, but also with the hospital's dietary
staff, formerly under the direction of Gwendolyn Acker, R.D. Together with Mrs. Acker's
department. Dr. Krehl's staff revised the diet manual for the hospital. Although it wasn't
in print the last time we spoke to Dr. Krehl, according to him it takes into consideration
a great deal more than the usual ''four food groups" idea of nutrition. And in the
community health aspect of his work, Dr. Krehl is trying to teach people how to avoid
serious illness by taking care of themselves, rather than waiting for a crisis to arise.
Dr. Krehl reports that the response from other medical schools has been favorable. At a
recent symposium held at Jefferson medical college, many administrators from other
medical schools expressed interest in Dr. Krehl's program.
The vision of a new generation of doctors who pay attention to the nutritional needs of
their patients can no longer be dismissed as an impossible dream. Dr. Krehl and his staff
are making it come true in Philadelphia. And when you think about it, you realize that
it's really not too much to ask, since, as Dr. Krehl says, "Food, aside from the air we
breathe and the water we drink, is the most important environmental factor influencing
our health. When a doctor is evaluating the health of a patient, the most important thing
he can do regarding nutrition is to think of it."
CHAPTER
THE DOCTOR WHO TAKES HIS OWN MEDICINE
"I was just another medical doctor who followed the textbooks and did what he learned
in medical school," admits August Daro, M.D., of Wilmette, Illinois. 'Then, about ten
years ago, I became interested in applying nutrition to medical problems. 1 bought
myself books on nutrition and books on biochemistry. I read all I could on the subject. I
taught myself.
''Now, around that time, a very high executive of a baking company called me in. I was
doing general practice at the time. He had suffered from osteomyelitis of the leg for
about 18 years. That is a bacterial infection which can often result in the actual
destruction of parts of the bone. I told this man that I didn't know why he called me,
since Tm not a bone specialist. He said, 'I know that. I've been to the bone specialists. I
want you to tell me what you would do if you had this leg.' Without any hesitation, I told
him I would try to heal it from within. So I put him un a good diet. Raw vegetables, and
some cooked just a little. Vitamin D and multivitamins. Liver two or three times a week.
In a year's time, that leg healed up and the problem has never returned."
Though Dr. Daro hasn't always been what you might call a nutrition-oriented physician,
he has always seemed to notice nutritional deficits causing problems in his patients.
''I once had a very large prenatal clinic, visited by 150 pregnant women in an afternoon.
I observed two things. One: Some of the women had beautiful teeth and some had really
rotten teeth, full of cavities, and swollen gums. Two: Those who had good teeth ate their
vegetables. I questioned all the women about this. And those that did not eat vegetables
or drink milk—their teeth were bad. But there was a third group. They ate a lot of
vegetables and their teeth were still bad. So I asked them how long they cooked the
vegetables. They said they cooked them until they were done. So 1 had to find out what
that meant. It meant they cooked the vegetables anywhere from a half hour to an hour
and a half! No wonder their teeth weren't helped by the vegetables."
Needless to say. Dr. Daro's present patients are no strangers to fresh, natural foods and
vitamin-mineral supplements.
'T had a housewife of about 30 years of age come in complaining of nervousness and
headaches. She'd had these problems for several years. 1 could find nothing wrong with
her in the physical exam. I put her on a supplement containing magnesium, calcium and
vitamin D, which controlled the headaches and nervousness.
"One of my patients was a 38-year-old woman who had been plagued all her adult life
with premenstrual tension and severe cramps during her period. She was completely
relieved with a supplement of magnesium, calcium and vitamin D. She was so happy
when she came in after taking the supplements. She said it was the first time in her life
she was without symptoms."
Treating Infections, Cysts
"I had a 40-year-old woman who was always bothered by sore throats and bronchitis.
Now, 1 don't use antibiotics for that sort of thing. I treat them with vitamin C and
vitamin A. I had
AN M.D. WHO TAKES HIS OWN MEDICINE 707
her take 3,000 milligrams of vitamin C and 20,000 [international] units of vitamin A
daily. She has remained free of both problems since.
"You know," the doctor continued, "breast tumors are of great concern to both doctors
and the women that come into the office. The most common tumors we see are called
chronic cystic mastitis. They're not malignant, but they may lead to malignancy. A
number of women with these tumors are deficient in thyroid. These women were helped
by thyroid supplements. But not all the women were helped. I began to use vitamin A for
sebaceous cysts of the skin. And I thought that, since the breast tissues derive from the
skin, maybe the breast tumors will respond to vitamin A, too. I noticed that these
women had dry skin. So I gave them vitamin A, and it worked. I've seen cysts of the
breast 2 to 3 centimeters in diameter disappear with vitamin A. I've had enough cases to
be absolutely sure, too. And in some cases, I've taken a mammogram before and after
the treatment to demonstrate the disappearance of the tumor."
Vitamin A and the Skin
"I use vitamin A for any cyst that appears on the skin. A 50-year-old woman came in for
a gynecological exam and asked me to recommend an ophthalmologist that would
remove a cyst from the upper right lid of her eye. I asked her if she was in a hurry to
have it out. She said no. I asked her if she would like to try vitamin A to see if that would
make it disappear. She said she'd like to try it. So I had her take 40 to 50,000 units per
day and I also gave her an injection of vitamin A once a week. In about eight months, the
cyst disappeared.
"There were never any adverse reactions to the vitamin A. As a matter of fact, I was in a
confrontation once with a 'doctor of science' who was the chairman of the nutrition
department of a large medical organization. The newspaper got us together and
questioned us. They asked him about vitamin A first. He said it was dangerous because
it can be toxic. Then they asked
me. Now, I knew this man was not an M.D., so he had no clinical experience. So 1 said,
Tve been in practice for a long, long time and I have never seen a case of vitamin A
toxicity. However, I have seen thousands of people who had a deficiency of vitamin A.'
That took care of him. Some people are sensitive to vitamin A, of course. But you can be
sensitive to anything—strawberries, eggs, milk. If someone is sensitive to it, you don't
give it, that's all."
Some of the people Dr. Daro helps with the healing wonders of nutrition happen to be
other doctors. "One day I noticed another surgeon getting ready for surgery and his back
was covered with acne. I told him to try some zinc. He knows me, has confidence in me,
so he tried it. About three months later I saw him, again getting ready for surgery. His
back was completely clear! It was as though he had never had any acne.
"Soon after that I played golf with the head of the dermatology department at one of the
medical schools in Chicago. It made for some interesting conversation, believe me. I
convinced him, and now we're doing some work together on the use of zinc in
dermatology. I use zinc and vitamin A on acne—not only on older people, but on young
women, as well. Women come in from age 14 to 30 with acne. The zinc and vitamin A
are very helpful for most of them."
Helping Other Doctors
"I took a trip to Florida a little while ago. A great surgeon, who is no longer practicing,
came along. He didn't seem as active as I am, though. So while I had him in my
apartment, I made sure he saw me taking my supplements every day. So pretty soon he
started to cup his hand and hold it out and say, 'You can give me some of those to take,
too.' Now, here was a man who had never prescribed vitamins and minerals. All of a
sudden, he became interested. On the way down, we had talked a little about it—the
value of vitamin A and zinc. He's very sharp. He
AN M.D. WHO TAKES HIS OWN MEDICINE 709
wanted the names of the supplements I take. When we came back, he immediately went
to the drugstore and got some for himself. And you know, I talked to him yesterday and
his voice sounds stronger and he admitted that he feels much better since he's been on
the supplements."
These men weren't the only doctors helped by Dr. Daro's nutritional counseling. Dr.
Daro takes his own medicine. "The medical profession says: 'Cut cholesterol out of the
diet to lower blood cholesterol.' They usually include eggs which I think are a most
wonderful food. I eat two eggs a day. But I also reduce saturated fats, meats and creams.
I eat lots of low-fat meat, lots of fish. I eat fish six times a week. And I use lecithin, 2
tablespoons of granular lecithin in the morning. I use safflower oil on salads. About two
years ago, I took my cholesterol count for the first time. It was 280, which is high-
normal. But with this diet, I've gotten it down to 180. And as a matter of fact, I went into
the hospital about two months ago for a cataract operation, and they took my cholesterol
level as part of the routine examination. It was down to 150!"
Did Dr. Daro prepare for his own surgery in any special way? 'T increased my intake of
zinc. With zinc, tissues heal better, faster. My regular supplements are magnesium, Bf,,
vitamin A, vitamin C. I amazed the doctors, you know. Just two weeks after surgery, I
was back out on the golf course. Some people can't get back to their regular routine for
months after cataract surgery.
"And you know the funny thing about this, the surgeon who operated on me is a good
friend of mine. He never believed in supplements before. But when I was in there for a
follow-up exam, his wife also happened to be there and I noticed she had a bit of a skin
condition. So I mentioned to him that she should take some zinc and some vitamin A.
And he took notes on this himself, what she should take. This amazed me. I think he saw
the effect of the supplements on my healing. I kept telling him that the supplements and
the good eating had something to do with my recovery. I said, T'm not trying to take
away from your
fine operating technique, but you've got to have tissues that will heal/ I saw his wife just
yesterday, and she's taking the vitamins and minerals and improving/'
Dr. Daro's healthful diet works its wonder outside the hospital, too. "1 graduated from
medical school in 1925. I started practice in 1928. And I have a lot of energy. Yesterday,
1 was in the office here and I saw about 28 patients. I do that three days a week. I owe it
to nutrition. I eat properly. I don't smoke or drink. And I try to get my sleep."
Other things are important, too. Dr. Daro says. "1 have a theory that it's just as
important to exercise as it is to sleep. So 1 tell my patients to jog, even at home. Start
slowly. Or use a bicycle either outside or in the home if they have a stationary cycle. I tell
the older people to do some walking."
Nutrition, Humor and Kindness
"1 think a good sense of humor helps, too. If you're serious all the time, you get too much
tension. What people don't know about stress is that, if you don't have any stress at all,
you collapse. You need a certain amount of it.
"Not enough medical schools teach nutrition. But something else that interns and nurses
should be taught is that the patients are human beings. You need to have a human
hospital. One of my earliest experiences was at Chicago Lying-in Hospital. One morning,
as I was just getting off my rounds, a husband who had both arms full of presents came
up to me. He said, 'My wife said you were so wonderful to her that she made me go out
and get you these presents.' 1 didn't know who it was, so I had to go out on the floor to
find out. It turned out to be a young woman who had been crying the night before. I had
said, 'Now you don't have to cry; you're in a good hospital, one of the best in the country.
Your doctor is one of the best. And I'm on duty tonight and I'll watch you close to make
sure nothing happens to you.' All I did was what any kind person would have done."
CHAPTER
Dr. "Live-Right"
What do you find in your doctor's waiting room? Chairs and tables? Stacks of old
magazines? Perhaps a radio playing soft music?
Well, how about lunch? Not just any old lunch, but a nutritious whole-foods meal
prepared by your doctor's staff and served without charge. If you were a patient of Ray
Wunderlich, M.D., of St. Petersburg, Florida, who specializes in preventive medicine,
that's exactly what you'd be likely to find.
"We serve lunch every other week, and sometimes every week if the demand is great,"
Dr. Wunderlich told us on a recent visit to his office. Slender, bearded and, at age 53,
obviously in great shape. Dr. Wunderlich is a runner, and several of his trophies are
displayed in the office. (He had just run 15 miles before we met him!)
"We serve anywhere from 7 to 30 people right here in the waiting room," he continues,
"and they share. They share experiences. My wife, Elinor, who's a registered nurse, or I
give a short talk about the foods we're presenting. We'll explain why we're having
vegetable quiche or buckwheat sprouts or whatever it might be.
"And the patients love it because it's very tasty stuff, and they're interested in getting the
recipes. It's just a great way to convince people that nutritious food not only tastes good
but is easy to prepare."
But that's not all. Just about everywhere you turn in Dr. Wunderlich's office you find
useful and important health information—on bulletin boards in the waiting room and
treatment rooms, in pamphlets that Dr. Wunderlich has prepared and in tape recordings
that you can play at home. "Actually, right now we're in a period of transition," he says.
"We hope to have an even better way of giving nutrition education soon with a slide-
and-tape machine for the patients.
"Yes, we do an awful lot of passing out of material. First, there's a folder we give to every
new patient. It contains basic information, such as practical suggestions about which
foods to eat and which to avoid, how to gradually adjust your diet to get out of the
typical American processed-food rut, what to pack in your lunch box, plus an important
note about dietary supplements.
"Then we have more specific materials: signs of visual problems, biosocial factors in
learning disabilities, suggestions for the food-allergic patient and much more."
Dr. Wunderlich graduated from the Columbia University college of physicians and
surgeons. How much training in nutrition did he receive? "Not much," he says. "1 don't
remember any course on nourishment.
"Even today you won't find many articles about general nutrition in the journals that
physicians read. You might find something on a highly specialized topic—for example, a
fatty-muscle chemical and how it relates to a certain disease of infants. And that's called
'nutrition.' But those articles are for super-specialists. How it all relates to beans and
peas and squash and milk and soils and fertilizers is seldom addressed.
"There's a sign up on one of my bulletin boards," says Dr. Wunderlich, grinning. "It says.
The specialist is someone who learns more and more about less and less, until pretty
soon he knows everything about nothing.' It's a beautiful saying. It's the
DR. "LIVE-RIGHT" 713
old blinders business. We certainly need specialists and their skills, but not to the
exclusion of generalists."
Emphasis on Prevention
In order to practice full-time preventive medicine for both adults and children, Dr.
Wunderlich gave up a large pediatric practice about six years ago. "I found that patients
who ate properly and took appropriate nutritional supplements were healthier than the
rest.
"I could treat disease very well, indeed. However, I decided to turn my efforts toward the
development of bright eyes, gleaming bodies and alert minds. I learned that wrong living
habits discourage health and that right living habits generally lead to well-being.
"Of course, I still do treat disease. I'd say two-thirds of the people who come to me have
chronic diseases. They aren't satisfied with the way they're functioning and the way they
feel.
"Their diabetes doesn't get better, their arthritis doesn't get better, their lupus doesn't
get better, their depression doesn't get better, their schizophrenia doesn't get better,
their periodontal disease doesn't clear up. They don't want to take a bunch of
medications over a long time, but they can't get well. I offer them the nutritional option
with attention to body chemistry, allergy, nutritional supplements and possible toxic
substances.
"And I also treat kids with learning disorders and hyperactivity. So we see most
everything except very acute illness. We're always trying to educate the patients. We try
to get our licks in, you know, and get them reinforced, because when the patients get out
there in the world, they're not going to get reinforced too often. These people need all
the help they can get to give up old bad habits and replace them with healthier new
ones."
Patients come from as far away as Oregon to see Dr. Wunderlich and, of course, from all
over the state of Florida. "I had
one fellow in here from the center of the state," he says, "and he was scheduled to have a
triple coronary bypass in a few months. We began to work on him, changing his diet and
giving him nutrients. And he came back about eight weeks later, and his hair, which was
white, was turning black!"
What was Dr. Wunderlich doing to him? "If I could do it again. I would!" he says. "Td
grow my own hair. But everything isn't the same for each one of us. Different factors
operate in different people. With him, we had just the right combination of diet and
nutrients. This gentleman had a rather dramatic change. He stood up straight, grabbed a
new lease on life—and his hair began to darken. You could see it within an eight-week
period.
"So he went back to his cardiologist. And his cardiologist talked to him for a long time
and looked over all the things he was doing, and this fellow said his cardiologist was
going to start coming to see me!"
Did he ever have the coronary bypass? "No, he never had the operation," says Dr.
Wunderlich, "and we don't think he's ever going to need it. We think his blood vessels
are going to open up."
Treating the Individual
Dr. Wunderlich does a good deal of his nutritional testing for allergies and vitamin levels
right in his own office. "We do a vitamin C test with urine, which is very important," he
says. "We can find out if a patient is excreting a lot of vitamin C or whether he isn't.
Some patients are taking up to 10 grams a day and not spilling any vitamin C. So they
usually need more.
"What we're doing is individualizing supplements for each patient. You see, what you
have to always remember is to treat the individual patient—and not the patient's
nutrient test. Everyone's needs differ. We've been giving lip service to that for a long
time. But the more you can do it, the better results you get.
"Take me, for example. I know how to stay in balance pretty well, but what I do for
myself doesn't necessarily apply to my
DR. "LIVE-RIGHT" 715

patients. If I gave them what I take myself, it might not work. You have to look, and then
you have to share information between patient and doctor."
Dr. Wunderlich is quite excited about a new test for nutrient sufficiency. ''It's done with
the eyes," he says. "A friend of mine. Dr. Jack Pierce, a professor of optometry at the
University of Alabama, told me about it.
"I put a stain in the patient's eyes with a little stick of paper. It's not harmful and not
traumatic at all. Then I take an ultraviolet light, shine it in the eyes, and look at the
illuminated tear film of the eyes with a magnifying glass.
"I watch that tear film, and that tear film should hold in front of the cornea for ten
seconds without breaking up. If the tear film breaks up before ten seconds, it's an
indicator of nutritional deficiency. The biggest component in it is vitamin C, but the B
vitamins are also involved—the water-soluble vitamins.
"So just that little test is an index," says Dr. Wunderlich, "and that's so important.
Because a patient might say, 'Oh, I'm taking my vitamins.' And you might say, 'Oh, that's
good.' But the fact is, you don't know whether it's too much or too little. So we look at
physical signs in the patient, we measure blood levels, we measure what we can in the
urine, we do hair mineral tests and we do the eye test. Plus we talk to the individual
about past history, family history, allergies, intolerances and progress with nutrient
supplements.
"You look at the tongue, you look at the skin, you look at everything. Then you put all
that information together and say, 'OK, the evidence says you're just about right in your
nutrient levels.' Or, 'The evidence says you're low in these areas.' And that's what we try
to correct."
Hands-On Therapy
But there's still more. In addition to all those things. Dr. Wunderlich is now becoming
involved with manipulative medicine. "I'm involved in what we call counterstrain, which
is a
form of hands-on therapy," he says. "It's a technique in which you find tender spots in
the body pressure points. Then you position the body and hold it in a certain position,
and those tender points go away, and the patient feels better. You relieve pain with
practically no discomfort on the part of the individual. We're also doing deep muscle
therapy, as well as counterstrain, because it helps people.
"Manual therapy is a great help in muscle inflammation and muscle tension. Sometimes
also in osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is usually considered a disease of wearing out and
degeneration. But it doesn't appear to be that way at all to me. It appears to be a disease
of wrong living.
"Why? Because sometimes I can stop the Heberden's nodes— the tender swellings in the
finger joints—in their tracks when the patients eat correctly and when their vitamin-
mineral needs are met. And sometimes I can help to break up the nodes by appropriate
physical therapy.
"For example, if you're using a high dose of alfalfa, and if you're using appropriate
manual therapy on those nodes, sometimes you can mobilize the deposits. But the
patients must be eating perfectly. They must have much of their food as raw food, they
must have no foods to which they are sensitive, and they must have their mineral and
vitamin needs met.
"Furthermore, they must be sure they have proper circulation in the arms. That means
rehabilitation of all the muscle groups from the shoulder to the hand. Altogether, it
means nutritional therapy, and it means consideration of sensitivities. That's not easy to
come by, but that's what it takes."
What about osteoporosis? "We don't see osteoporosis in physically active women," says
Dr. Wunderlich. "Of course, you have to be pretty active. You have to be stressing the
body daily. But you don't have to jog. Walking can do it.
"In the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis, what you're looking for is a pull or
stress on the bone. That's what stimulates bone to function. As soon as you have it, then
that bone is going to keep rebuilding itself. It's similar to what happens in the
DR. 'LIVE-RIGHT" 717
muscles—tearing down and building up. It's a continual turnover. That's how we keep it
fresh, live and young."
Helping Problem Children
Although he no longer practices pediatrics as a specialty. Dr. Wunderlich still has an

abiding interest in the health of children. He has authored several books on the subject,
and he has delivered a paper to a meeting of the Association for Children with Learning
Disabilities.
"I see problem kids all the time," he says. "Kids who don't learn, who can't sit still, who
have attention deficit, who have behavioral problems, who have minimal brain
dysfunction— whatever you want to call the specific syndrome that they have.
"Now, when I see a child with a learning disorder, he will usually also have a language
disorder: He can't spell or write.
"People recognize the language disorder—they call the kids dyslexic. And they recognize
the learning disorder because those kids are different from other kids. But what they
don't recognize is the living disorder they have.
"When you go into their homes or look into their lunch boxes, you see that they're not
eating correctly. Or if you do body chemistry probes, you find that they're not absorbing
food or they have serious allergies or vitamin-mineral deficits.
"And," Dr. Wunderlich continues, "they frequently have toxicity. The toxicity is all kinds
of things. It may be chemical food additives. It may be toxic minerals—cadmium, lead,
aluminum, copper, mercury and so on. So those kids have nutrient deficits, and they
have toxicities. Some may have nutrient deficits along with minimal toxicity, and some
may have major toxicity, but all of them have nutrient deficits of major degree.
"So when I see a kid with a learning disability, I say, 'Let's not just look at the LD that is
a language disorder or the LD that is a learning disorder. Let's look at the LD that is a
living disorder.'
"That's what's been overlooked all these years. The educators are looking at the kids, but
they don't really see that what they eat before they come to school affects what they do
there or that what they did yesterday affects what they do today. You see, all American
children are born deficient."
We thought that was a fairly provocative statement.
"I firmly believe it has more truth than fiction in it," Dr. Wunderlich says staunchly. "My
thesis is that many of us are drifting along on adequate nutrition but not on optimal
nutrition.
"And so I see more and more children with puny chests. I see more and more children
with failure to thrive. I see more and more children with allergies or behavior problems.
More, not fewer. And I think the rates are rising absolutely, not relatively."
What, you may ask, do the Wunderlichs themselves dine on? We found out when they
invited us to their home for dinner.
This is a very busy family, so Elinor Wunderlich prepares many meals ahead of time.
Her freezer is chock-full of such goodies as a concentrated seafood gumbo to which fresh
okra and tomatoes can be added, a black bean and cheese casserole, carob brownies . . .
you get the idea.
For dinner that night, we had the black bean and cheese casserole as a main dish, and it
was wonderful. Also included were alfalfa and lentil sprouts, beet greens and a salad
with fresh everything in it. For dessert there were baked apples and muffins.
It was the perfect end to an enlightening day with a doctor who practices what he
preaches.
PSYCHIATRIST CHAPTER
BRAIN FOOD-IT REALLY WORKS
Sarah never left her home. She couldn't, because she spent 12 hours each day grooming
and washing her body. Mostly she washed her hands. From the elbows down, the skin
was raw, chapped and at times even ulcerated. She used incredible quantities of creams
and ointments, but it didn't do much good.
Sarah underwent ten years of psychoanalysis. She took every antidepressant available,
as well as every major and minor tranquilizer on the market, in an effort to break out of
her destructive behavior. She even underwent six series of electroshock treatments and
was hospitalized for three of them. And still the washing continued.
Yet, today Sarah is free of her obsessive-compulsive disorder and leads a normal,
productive life.
What made the difference?
In Sarah's case, says Jose A. Yaryura-Tobias, M.D., it was doses of the amino acid
tryptophan, niacinamide (a form of niacin) and vitamin B(, (pyridoxine). Dr. Yaryura-
Tobias, a native of Argentina and medical director of Bio-Behavioral Psychiatry in Great
Neck, New York, says the therapy increases the blood level of serotonin, an agent
responsible for promoting nerve impulses which, in the brain, dictate much of our
behavior. Tryp-
720 PSYCHIATRIST
tophan is a precursor of serotonin and is also a source of niacin, a vitamin. When

niacinamide is given with the tryptophan, less tryptophan will be converted into the
vitamin, and more of it will be used to make serotonin. Vitamin 85 is essential to that
conversion.
"But there's more to it than that," says Dr. Yaryura-Tobias. And he should know. For
over 20 years, he's been doing research while practicing medicine, first as an internist
and then as a psychiatrist with a strong background in psychopharmacology (drug
therapy). "I realized early in my practice," says Dr. Yaryura-Tobias, "that psychoanalysis
and drugs were not enough.
"In medical school in Argentina, we had to take one year of nutrition. We could not
practice medicine if we didn't study nutrition first. When we examined a patient, we not
only had to make a diagnosis at the bedside, we also had to prescribe an appropriate
diet. After all, if you have a gallbladder problem, you must follow a certain diet. If you
have diarrhea, you need a certain diet. As a psychiatrist, I reasoned. Why not a diet for
the brain? That's as much a part of the body as the gallbladder or intestines."
Still, psychological problems are as varied and complex as the people afflicted. Faulty
nutrition may play an important role in the development of symptoms, but so do
childhood trauma, genetics, society and environment. The solutions to those problems
must therefore involve numerous therapies in order to gain the maximum chance of
recovery. No one method covers it all. Rather, a mixing and blending of philosophies is
the best bet.
"And that's what we practice here," says Dr. Yaryura-Tobias. "I call it an integrated
approach to psychiatry. We have 15 people on our staff, including 2 psychiatrists, 6
psychologists, 1 neuropsychologist, a nutritionist, 2 research assistants, an art therapist,
a psychiatric social worker and an EEG-EKG [electroencephalogram-electrocardiogram]
technologist. We each contribute our special area of expertise to the diagnosis and
treatment of our patients so they get the benefit of the various disciplines. By working
together, we find the best approach for each particular case. Because people are
different, what works best for one may not work for another.
BRAIN FOOD REALLY WORKS 721
"Take the case of Sarah, for example. For her, diet alone was enough. For others, a
combination of diet and medication may be necessary. But even if a drug is used, adding
the appropriate nutrients allows us to cut the dose of the drug by about half, eliminating
annoying or damaging side effects."
For still others, a behavioral approach might be added to the nutrition and drug therapy.
Fugen A. Neziroglu, Ph.D., specializes in behavioral therapy and is the clinical director
of Bio-Behavioral Psychiatry. She explains that traditional behavioral therapy focuses on
changing a person's habits without trying to form a diagnosis or explain the cause.
"My behavioral approach is somewhat different from that," she says. "We want to rule
out physical illness, and in order to rule it out and to see what treatment is really
appropriate, we have to have a diagnosis."
"To aid us in that area, each new patient is given a physical examination," adds Dr.
Yaryura-Tobias. "Our psychiatric social worker, Audrey Harbur Bershen, takes a
complete social history. Blood tests measure liver and kidney functioning, vitamin and
amino acid levels and proteins. A five-hour glucose tolerance test is done to rule out
hypoglycemia [low blood sugar] or diabetes. We do an electroencephalogram and an
electrocardiogram and hair analysis for trace minerals and toxic chemicals. And, of
course, we conduct a thorough neuropsychological evaluation.
"When a patient is diagnosed as an obsessive-compulsive, the nutrients that we use are

tryptophan, niacinamide and vitamin Bft. Those elements appear to participate in the
biochemistry of the illness. We don't say that obsessive-compulsive disorders are a
unique disease of the tryptophan-serotonin metabolism, but our research has shown us
that a good amount of people with that problem could be categorized in a biochemical
classification."
Help for Depression

"A person suffering from depression may also do well with tryptophan," he continues. "I
like higher doses of vitamins B|
722 PSYCHIATRIST
and B(,, though, because they help activate the energy transport system in the body. We
also use phenylalanine. That is an amino acid which in the body is converted to
phenylethylamine, an antidepressant. At times, drugs are a necessity, but they are never
used without the nutrients.
"The point is we don't limit ourselves to one type of therapy. It wouldn't make sense to
do that. Illness has many causes, so how can we expect to help all our patients with only
one method of treatment?
"The patient must understand, too, that results will take longer with the natural
therapies than with the drugs. When a drug is used, the results are very dramatic. But
you can have bad side effects, too. With the tryptophan and vitamins, results will be
gradual, taking maybe ten weeks to reduce symptoms completely. But the benefits here
are obvious—no side effects to mess you up in other ways."
Still, those methods may not work completely, and other therapies will be called into
service. Here's where behavior modification comes in.
"Behavior therapy is really down-to-earth," Dr. Yaryura-Tobias told us. "It's faster than
psychotherapy. It goes into the problem and modifies the habits that have become
imprinted over the years. After all, you can take away the chemical reasons for the
illness, but the behavior has been learned for years and has to be unlearned."
When behavior therapy is called for, it is usually in conjunction with a proper diet and
supplements, most often tryptophan, niacinamide and vitamin 65. The behavior
modification itself begins with an intensive two-week program, after which symptoms
are reduced by about 60 to 70 percent.
"For example," says Dr. Neziroglu, "we had a patient who was afraid of glass. He feared
that glass would get on his hands, then circulate through his body and contaminate
everything he touched, including his wife. His fear of glass caused him to wash
everything in sight. He had freshly washed dollar bills hanging on a clothes line in his
house. His dry-cleaning bills were over $200 a month.
"We went to his house, and we put glass everywhere. He even had to carry a piece of
glass in his pocket all the time, and he slept with fiber glass under his pillow. This
process is called flooding. We flooded him with anxiety. His level of anxiety remained
elevated for two hours or so. And then we saw, after that time, the anxiety just came
down. He began to see for himself how ridiculous his fears had been all along. After
about two weeks, there was a tremendous reduction in his symptoms. And after several
months, all symptoms were gone.
"And what's so encouraging," Dr. Neziroglu told us, "is that relapses are infrequent, even
though some of these people have been ill for many years."
The Bio-Behavioral Psychiatry group has done wonders also with people suffering from
severe aggression associated with hypoglycemia. Of course, not all people with low blood
sugar have a violent nature. But the ones who are violent often have an abnormal EEG
(brain wave test), too. Just giving them an anticonvulsant to straighten out the EEG
(which is what most doctors do) won't bring results.
"What we did," Dr. Neziroglu told us, "was to divide 45 patients with this disorder into
four groups. One group was placed on a special diet to alleviate the hypoglycemia;
another group got an anticonvulsant for their abnormal EEG; the third group got
traditional tranquilizers; and the fourth got a combination of the diet, vitamin B^ and
an anticonvulsant. The only group that improved statistically was group 4, the one
receiving the combination.
"We believe that about 33 percent of all aggressives can be helped by the combination of
diet, B^ and an anticonvulsant," she adds.
Brain Fatigue Is Cominoii in Everyday Life
Fortunately, most of us never reach such a desperate stage. Still, we all go through our
own daily cycles of highs and lows.
724 PSYCHIATRIST
It's important, says Dr. Yaryura-Tobias, to recognize your own symptoms so they don't
get out of hand. Specifically, he is referring to a condition we've probably all had at one
time or another—brain fatigue.
"The brain tires like a muscle," explains Dr. Yaryura-Tobias. "When a muscle is fatigued,
it gives you a signal—pain or cramps—which is due to the lack of oxygen in the muscle.
You have to rest to recover.
'The brain will also give you signals when it is overtired— inability to concentrate,
inability to put thoughts together, a sense of irritability to minor things. You feel jumpy,
nervous. You may have difficulty in falling asleep or staying asleep. You go from lows to
highs. The brain cannot control itself any longer. The brain works by excitation and
inhibition. When there is fatigue, those things begin to be altered, and they do not
coordinate. The incoordination of the brain will bring incoordination in the thought
process, in the mood, in intellectual capacity—in all the functions that you have."
For most of us, brain fatigue is part of our normal daily cycle. But then we eat a good
dinner, read a book, do some exercises. We have switched from doing one thing to doing
another that is unrelated, and that rests the brain so we are ready for the next day's work
load.
But for many others, brain fatigue becomes a chronic condition.
Fatigue builds upon fatigue with no recovery period in between. You can't catch up with
just a night's sleep anymore. You find yourself unable to concentrate or put thoughts
together. You have pushed yourself to an extreme and you can't return any longer.
'T think there is an amazing amount of brain fatigue that exists," Dr. Yaryura-Tobias
told us. "People come here and I tell them they must stop working right now. It's
reached that level.
"Unfortunately, because brain fatigue is not a visual thing, no one believes it exists, not
even the patients who are describing the symptoms. They keep on trying to work, and to
do that they
take stimulants—coffee and amphetamines. They go out at night and have cocktails.
"A lot of them are on tranquilizers and sleeping pills. They do all that because without it
they could not function."
Daily Exercise Is Important
"By the time they come in for a consultation," he continued, "they may have a drug
problem to go along with the brain fatigue. That is when I feel the nutritional approach
is best, along with resting the brain. We give supplements, especially the B-compIex
vitamins, and a program of exercises along with a good diet. Physical exercise is very
important, too. It is one of the most perfect things to reduce anxiety and tension.
"When I recommend physical exercise and nutrition, it's not for one week—it's forever.
It's a life style that one has to adopt permanently to remain in good mental health."
But, of course, good habits should be started before you reach the breaking point.
"I exercise every day," Dr. Yaryura-Tobias points out, "and I take supplements—about
1,000 milligrams of vitamin C, plus B complex and dolomite. And I give my brain a
vacation by switching to nonpressure pastimes such as reading novels or poetry,
listening to music or watching a good program on television. Then I am able to resume
my schedule refreshed.
"That's important because most of the people we treat here are very sick. They've usually
been all over trying to find help. When a patient brings us 30 years of illness, we must
work out 30 years of illness. Sometimes it's almost impossible.
"But I can tell you this, something we are doing here is good, because even with the very
sickest patients, we get about 50 percent to improve. And it's not the medication. As a
psy-chopharmacologist, I am sure of that. It's the addition of the vitamins. I'm positive.
We also see that behavior therapy is helpful and so, too, is working with the patient's
family.
726 PSYCHIATRIST
"That's our approach and it works. I think that an integrated practice is in medicine of
the future."
Apparently others are starting to agree.
"Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, sought us out when we started our group
here." Dr. Neziroglu told us. 'They sent a faculty member to observe our methods and
asked us if they could send interns. Now we have four interns working with us toward
their doctoral degrees."
"Setting up this type of practice is not easy," warns Dr. Yaryura-Tobias. "It's very
difficult to have real teamwork. Your pride has to go down a little. You get embarrassed
if you make a mistake. But don't tell me that there is no chance to do this type of work.
The fact that it is not done doesn't mean it will not work. Because it will work if you try.
We are living proof of that."
PSYCHOLOGIST CHAPTER
PSYCHOLOGICAL HELP THROUGH BETTER DIET
If you suffer from a stress-related complaint such as depression or anxiety or even

ordinary insomnia and you'd liice to find a treatment more natural than antidepressants
or tranquilizers, there's an herbalist-psychologist in the Philadelphia area whose ideas
might interest you.
His name is Arthur Hochberg, Ph.D., and he tries to provide what he calls "an
alternative to conventional psychology and medicine." For him, that means using herbs,
food, vitamins and minerals instead of prescription drugs. It also means treating the
whole person by combining psychology and nutrition.
"How people feel emotionally and how they feel physically are absolutely connected,"
Dr. Hochberg told us. "In every physical problem there's a psychological counterpart."
The attitude of the therapist seems to matter, too: "People are happy to talk to a doctor
who listens to them. Ultimately, what heals patients is compassion."
For one of Dr. Hochberg's patients, a 49-year-old woman who teaches at a high school in
a depressed part of Philadelphia, his method provided an alternative to using estrogen
for menopausal symptoms.
728 PSYCHOLOGIST
"I was skeptical. I frankly didn't think it would work," the teacher (she requested
anonymity) told us. "I was planning just to 'wait out' menopause without medication. I
don't normally go to a doctor. I'm a no-nonsense person."
She waited it out successfully for two and a half years, but finally stress in the classroom
brought on overwhelming hot flashes. ''A tremendous depression would sweep over me,
and I'm not normally depressive at all. The heat would rise from my feet, go up through
my body and hit my face with a shock. My face turned beet red. I felt incredible heat,
nausea and dizziness that lasted two to three minutes. It happened 20 to 30 times a
day."
Dr. Hochberg questioned her about her diet and medical history and suggested brewer's
yeast, pantothenate and vitamins 85, A and E, along with tea made from rue (in very
small amounts), horsetail and black cohosh root. Although she discontinued the tea
after the first day ("It was bitter"), within a week she felt an improvement, and after a
month her symptoms subsided to four or five mild hot flashes a day.
"He was square with me," the teacher told us. ''He said the herbs and vitamins wouldn't
eliminate the symptoms, just reduce them. He said, 'See what happens and if it works, it
works.'
For Cathy Bath, a 30-year-old mother of two with one more on the way. Dr. Hochberg
offered an alternative to cortisone and several years of postpartum fatigue.
Mrs. Bath had suffered from eczema on her hands since the age of nine and had
controlled it with a standard prescription— cortisone cream. In early 1981, however, the
skin condition spread to her face and she was catching colds every couple of months.
She sought medical help.
Dr. Hochberg advised her to cut white flour and sugar out of her diet and recommended
large amounts of brewer's yeast, vitamin C and water-soluble vitamin A. The regimen
also included chamomile tea, kelp, spinach and beet greens, cod liver oil and the
exclusive use of olive and safflower oils in cooking.
"Now my face is perfect," Mrs. Bath says. "It used to be awful, it was swollen, it itched, it
was red and scaling. Now my only problem is protecting it from the sun.
PSYCHOLOGICAL HELP THROUGH DIET 729
"I also feel energetic for the first time since my first pregnancy. I don't need naps in the
afternoon anymore." She has cut her use of cortisone. "It amazes me that I only have to
use it once or twice a week, because I was one of those people who couldn't go anywhere
without a tube of cortisone."
Battle with Depression
In one especially dramatic case. Dr. Hochberg helped a 37-year-old insurance executive
overcome half a lifetime of depression and dependence on candy bars and caffeine.
The executive, Dave Richards, had suffered from mood swings and depression since
high school. He could barely keep awake in class and relied on coffee to pep him up. He
was a top student, but his self-image was very poor and life was "a daily battle." He saw
several psychiatrists without success.
About three years ago, he went to Dr. Hochberg, who spotted a severe problem with
sugar intolerance. He prescribed tea made from small amounts of licorice root or
goldenseal or juniper berries and hops, or a mixture of valerian and other herbs. He also
put Richards on a strict low-sugar diet of fresh vegetables and whole grains, fruits,
seeds, garlic and spring water.
Now when he starts to feel moody or "unbalanced," Richards says, he sips herb tea. "It
smooths me out, helps me to avoid mood swings. I like that."
About Dr. Hochberg's natural therapy, Richards says, "It really changed my life."
Dr. Hochberg's forte is herbs and he used a battery of them, along with a broad
spectrum of nutrients, to help one woman recover from severe intestinal pain and
anxiety.
He advised the woman, Zainab Bauman, a 33-year-old mother of one, to use a lot of
garlic. It cleans the system, he said, to boil a bulb of garlic every day with parsley, then
drink the broth and eat the bulb. The therapy also called for a relish of turmeric,
spearmint, cayenne, tamarind and lemon. He suggested teas from slippery-elm bark,
fenugreek and other herbs, as well. Mrs. Bauman says it worked.
730 PSYCHOLOGIST
"In about three weeks, my whole state of mind changed," she says. "Everything changed.
I felt like a cloud had been lifted off of me. I realized that my depression was rooted in
my mind, not in reality."
Another young woman, who also requested anonymity, told us that Dr. Hochberg helped
her recover from anxiety and depression with tea from sage, raspberry and chamomile.
Her therapy, which included vitamins, minerals, papaya enzymes and bran, also relieved
a long-standing problem with water retention. "Whatever it was he did, Vm grateful,"
she said.
Herbal Formulas
Dr. Hochberg was willing to share some of his herbal formulas, which are used in
conjunction with exercise and the elimination of white flour, sugar, caffeine, alcohol and
nicotine.
For colds, nausea and headaches: Dr. Hochberg suggests preparing a tonic by mixing
small pieces of ginger root, coriander seeds and garlic with water and honey to taste.
Then boil off half the liquid. Throughout the day, periodically drink what's left.
For instant stimulation: Mix '/s teaspoon of cayenne, 2 tablespoons of apple cider
vinegar, a cup of warm water and 'A teaspoon of molasses.
For insomnia or tension: Steep half a teaspoon of valerian root in hot water for five
minutes (do not boil the root). Sip it gradually through the day or take at bedtime. For
taste, valerian should be mixed with honey, spearmint or clove. One precaution:
Valerian is a strong herb and should be used moderately.
For cleansing the body: Garlic, dandelion root tea, chamomile tea or valerian root tea (in
small amounts).
For low blood sugar: Licorice root tea (also to be used in moderation), juniper berry tea
(again, in small amounts), spearmint tea or dandelion root tea.
For migraine headaches: Strong peppermint tea and niacin.
PSYCHOLOGICAL HELP THROUGH DIET 731
Dr. Hochberg says he often tries several combinations of herbs and nutrients before
finding the blend that suits the patient best, and sometimes he uses hair analyses to
pinpoint deficiencies. About 70 to 80 percent of his patients achieve good results in
about two months if they stick to the program, he says.
People who can purge themselves of anger. Dr. Hochberg says, also stand a better
chance of recovery. And it helps if they participate in their own cure by preparing teas
and keeping busy with gardening, exercise and other activities.
Dr. Hochberg, who is 40, traveled a long and winding path to his present office on the
second floor of a small building in Bala-Cynwyd, a suburb of Philadelphia. Born in
Brooklyn, he earned a doctorate at the University of Utah and later learned how to live
on herbs and berries in the wilds of California. He has taught at colleges in Indiana and
New Jersey and has worked at several health clinics in eastern Pennsylvania.
He has visited Africa, Mexico, Israel, Switzerland and the Far East, looking, he says, for
bits of wisdom about the human mind and body.
A good part of his zeal as a therapist. Dr. Hochberg notes, comes from dissatisfaction
with conventional medicine. His patients often tell him horror stories about undergoing
unnecessary and expensive tests and about meeting doctors who refuse to listen to their
opinions.
"I feel strongly," he says, "about people being harassed and intimidated and
manipulated by the medical profession. The more patients I see and the more stories I
hear, the more I realize that part of their illness is fear.
"Doctors pretend that there's a great mystery about illness. And when they don't know
what to do, they tell their patients that nothing can be done. The patients suffer from
helplessness and abandonment. Distrust of doctors is one of the most rampant feelings I
see in patients.
"What heals patients is compassion," he emphasizes. "The patient must trust the doctor,
and the doctor must have confidence in the patient. It's distrust that makes people seek
alternative treatment."
VASCULAR SURGEON CHAPTER
A LIFE-EXTENSION PROGRAM FROM A DOCTOR WHO'S BEEN THERE
Forty years ago, future physicians learned even less about nutrition in medical school
than they do today. "Until four years ago, 1 didn't know enough about nutrition to help
myself, much less my patients," Robert I. Lowenberg, M.D., of Atlanta, Georgia, a
vascular surgeon for 31 years, told us. "My diet consisted of beef two or three times a
day, lots of margarine, lots of salt, and candy bars when 1 was in a hurry. The best
nutritional advice I could give my patients was: Lose a little weight and stop smoking.
Most physicians don't realize the importance of nutrition until they're slapped in the
face by it."
Dr. Lowenberg was jolted into nutritional awareness four years ago by a heart attack.
Though he recovered, a year later he started having chest pains and suffering from
fatigue. Tests indicated that blood vessels to his heart were blocked and that he needed a
coronary bypass. "I began to realize that I wasn't headed in the right direction, and I
became interested in what nutrition could do to help me."
He started listening to things other people were saying about nutrition and degenerative
diseases, and he started reading and researching. "I soon discovered that the nutritional
factors in
A LIFE-EXTENSION PROGRAM 733
degenerative disease had been pretty well worked out. But each researcher had put his
work into a a small pigeonhole and left it there to be forgotten. A better approach
seemed to be putting it all together into a nutritional program people could live by."
As a former vascular surgeon. Dr. Lowenberg used to treat with the scalpel the diseases
he now treats with nutrition. "Tve been in there—I know how the blood vessels of
someone with heart disease, angina, atherosclerosis and diabetes actually look. Vascular
surgeons know that if one blood vessel is narrowed or blocked, chances are that others
in other parts of the body are, too. Atherosclerosis, for example, affects not just one set
of blood vessels—it affects many of them. It's only that one vessel occludes before the
others. Symptoms don't appear until the blood vessel has narrowed 70 to 80 percent.
But if someone has trouble in the left leg, he almost certainly also has trouble in the
right. It may be two or three years behind, but arteriograms will usually show significant
narrowing in both legs.
"Now, surgery can help only blood vessels in the certain area operated on. If I perform a
bypass in someone's left leg— at great cost—I haven't done anything for the right leg or
the aorta or the renal artery or the brain."
But the former surgeon sees no contradiction between surgery and nutrition. "It's a
question of which comes first. In emergencies, of course, surgery is necessary. But many
other cases could be treated nutritionally. Surgery can open a vessel to the point where it
was when the patient was 25 years old. But that's not always necessary. Often, an
increase in flow of 5 or 10 percent is enough to start improvement, and proper nutrition
can often do that. If nutrition should fail, you can always go on to surgery."
Keeping Bypasses Open
Yet, even people who do undergo corrective surgery should. Dr. Lowenberg believes,
change their diets afterwards to prevent recurrences. "Everybody who has a coronary
bypass—and this
734 VASCULAR SURGEON
year there will be about 100,000—should go on a nutritional program immediately after

the operation to keep the new graft open. Risk of closure is high: A significant number of
bypasses close each year, and a high percentage of patients die of stroke within 5 years.
One reason is that bypass grafts harden five times faster than their parent vessels. After
1 year, they're equivalent to 5 years old—after 5 years, 25 years old. A proper nutritional
program can undoubtedly delay closure of those grafts.
''A good case in point is a 44-year-old man I treated before I knew anything about the
importance of nutrition in degenerative diseases. He was a heavy smoker and had hardly
any blood flow in his left leg. The threat was gangrene. I had to operate, and fortunately
the leg was saved. But I didn't run enough tests on his blood chemistry or even ask him
about his diet to discover how those factors were affecting his condition. Nor did I alter
his diet. Over the next 13 years, he suffered additional occlusions in the upper as well as
the lower extremities. All in all, I had to perform 43 further operations on this patient,
including diagnostic probes. And still, he continued to suffer complications— some of
which involved those operations.
'Tf I knew then what I know now about nutrition, I feel confident that I could have
spared the poor man many operations. That's because a nutritional approach, unlike
surgery, affects every blood vessel in the body."
Fats are blood vessels' big enemies. "High levels of fat in the blood do two things," Dr.
Lowenberg explains. "They leave deposits on the arterial wall, narrowing the blood
vessel; and they neutralize the negative charge that separates red blood cells, making
them stick together like a stack of wet dishes. In a healthy person, red blood cells float
through blood vessels in single file, absorbing oxygen and discharging it to the tissues.
When high fat levels make them stick together, a lot of surface is lost for picking up and
delivering oxygen. Tissues begin to suffocate. To make matters worse, the clumped
blood cells also get jammed at bends in the capillaries."
Unfortunately, most of us are up to our eyes in fat. "The typical American diet derives
most of its calories from fat—45 percent. Another 15 percent comes from protein, with
the bal-
ance being supplied by carbohydrates. The main goal of a life-extension diet is to cut fat
calories down to 15 percent or less. Simultaneously, one should reduce cholesterol
intake from 600 milligrams a day—the American average—to 100 milligrams a day, a
very safe level. Another important step is the elimination of simple carbohydrates, such
as sugar, and the substitution of complex carbohydrates. In addition, fiber intake of 25
grams a day is advisable. That's because fiber has been shown to control fat levels and to
help prevent blood clotting and reduce the impact of diabetes, as well.
"Reducing the deposits on the arterial wall may take months or years, but with this diet
the microcirculation improves within days. And that in turn helps everything."
Dr. Lowenberg has treated many patients using a life-extension diet and has seen
impressive results. "A 61-year-old man who had already suffered several heart attacks
and one stroke came to me for help. He was a nonsmoker but overweight and also had
diabetes. He could barely walk—he used a cane and had to be helped into my office.
"The first thing I did was get him to cut down on fatty foods. No butter, margarine, eggs
or salad oils. But the biggest reduction came from eliminating meats, which I do entirely
in high-risk cases, at least at first. Meat has no fiber. And as for protein, legumes can
supply, pound for pound, just as much protein as steak—but without the fat.
"Next, I increased his fiber intake: whole grain cereals— millet, brown rice, bran, whole
wheat.
"Then I concentrated on getting him off less obvious troublemakers—sugar, salt, coffee
and tea. Sugar is a nutritional no-no. For people with blood sugar problems, it's even
worse. Salt makes the body retain water, putting a burden on the circulation. It also
makes it hard to lose weight. Caffeine is a stimulant—it speeds up the heart rate, putting
unnecessary stress on it. It's good to put a little stress on the heart by exercising.
Exercise speeds up the heart for only a few hours and builds up endurance. But a big
coffee or tea drinker stresses his heart all day."
This regimen improved the patient's condition within days.
736 VASCULAR SURGEON
"As soon as he was able to walk without aid, I started him on a regular exercise program.
Ideally, the aim is to exercise three to four times a week for 20 minutes or more—just
walking or, if possible, jogging. Exercise is an important part of a vascular health
program because it builds up collateral blood vessels. These are little blood vessels, the
size of a hair or two, that enlarge and take over the function of blocked vessels. If those
collaterals can be opened, you can save a leg.'"
Within three weeks, the patient's fat levels dropped from dangerously high to the
normal range, without hospitalization. And he showed the difference. 'The next time I
saw him," says Dr. Lowenberg, "he almost jogged into my office. Without the diet and
with his indications, he would have probably succumbed to another stroke or heart
attack."
That patient's renewed vitality is characteristic of people on the program. "They become
more alert, more interested, because now they are able to be more active," says Dr.
Lowenberg. "Many take up old hobbies. They feel that now there's a point to going on
and living."
But when it comes to sticking to a special diet, motivation is a problem. Dr. Lowenberg
uses an ingenious incentive—a computer readout.
On a desk-top computer, he punches in the patient's data regarding risk factors

established through several studies—weight, cholesterol and triglyceride levels, miles
walked a day, stress at home and office. The computer then promptly matches that data
with the optimal figures and calculates the risk of heart disease.
"The difference between the actual figures and the optimal figures gives the patient a
goal to shoot for. There it is in black and white. He can see that he's eating too much
beef or that he's 20 pounds overweight and the likelihood of what this might lead to. He
can see what he should be doing."
But to persuade patients to actually change their habits. Dr. Lowenberg finds a human
touch as essential as a data sheet. "I'm telling my patients that they should change their
entire life style—habits of eating, of exercise, even of work and personal relations if
they're too stressful. That requires time to put across.
I take several days with each patient, explaining what his disease is, how he got it, and
what he can do now to improve his condition and prevent further problems."
Despite heart attack and bypass. Dr. Lowenberg himself is still active, indeed vigorous,
at 65—running a nutritional consultation practice, playing a mean game of doubles
tennis and pursuing several hobbies, including poetry. He's a doctor who takes his own
medicine and enjoys it.
BOOK V
Vitamin-Rich
Foods and
Recipes
INTRODUCTION
Hundreds of cookbooks are published in the United States every year. That's a lot of
recipes. Recipes just for men, artists, athletes, singles—even for specific astrological
signs. Recipes for microwaves and barbecue grills. For foods from the pantry, the
freezer, the garden.
Yes, you can find a recipe for a low-cal, gourmet Italian vegetarian meal that can be
cooked in 15 minutes while camping out in Alaska. But it's next to impossible to know if
that recipe (or any other) supplies lots of thiamine. Or vitamin A. Or B^,.
And that's knowledge you need. What if you're feeling tense and want a meal high in
nerve-calming niacin? What if you're trying to shake a cold and want a lunch packed
with vitamin C? That's what book 5—Vitamin-Rich Foods and Recipes—is all about.
First, you'll find lists for every vitamin that tell you which foods supply extra-big doses
of that nutrient. Second, you'll find a recipe section with meals we've singled out for
their high vitamin content. (We'll tell you which vitamin the recipes are richest in, of
course.) An added benefit is that the recipes are natural—no salt, no sugar, no additives,
just healthy foods. By the way, you might want to read this section in the kitchen— the
urge for a vitamin-packed meal just may overwhelm you!
CHAPTER
BEST FOOD SOURCES OF VITAMINS
Best Food Sources of Vitamin A
742 VITAMIN-RICH FOODS AND RECIPES
Best Food Sources of Vitamin A— Continued
Food
Portion
Vitamin A
(International
units)
Best Food Sources of Thiamine
BEST FOOD SOURCES OF VITAMINS 743
Best Food Sources of Riboflavin
Best Food Sources of Riboflavin— Continued
Food
Portion
Riboflavin (milligrams)
0.2
0.2 0.2
Best Food Sources of Niacin
Best Food Sources of Niacin— Continued
Food
Portion
Niacin (milligrams)
Navy beans, dried 'A cup
Soybeans, dried 'A cup
Kidney beans, dried Va cup
Chick-peas, dried Va cup
Dates V4 cup
1.2 1.2 1.1 1.0 1.0
Best Food Sources of Vitamin B,

Food
Portion
Vitamin 65 (milligrams)
Banana
Salmon
Mackerel, Atlantic
Chicken, light meat
Beef liver
Sunflower seeds
Halibut
Tuna, canned "
Broccoli, raw
Lentils, dried
Brown rice, raw
Beef kidney
Brewer's yeast
Filberts
Buckwheat flour, dark
1 medium
3 ounces
3 ounces
3 ounces
3 ounces V4 cup
3 ounces
3 ounces
1 medium stalk Va cup V4 cup
3 ounces
1 tablespoon V4 cup Va cup
0.89 0.63 0.60 0.51 0.47 0.45 0.39 0.36 0.35 0.29 0.28 0.24 0.20 0.18 0.14
Best Food Sources of Vitamin B12
Food
Portion
Vitamin B12 (micrograms)
Beef liver 3 ounces
Lamb 3 ounces
Beef 3 ounces
Tuna, canned, drained 3 ounces
Yogurt 1 cup
Haddock 3 ounces
Swiss cheese 2 ounces
Milk, whole 1 cup
Cottage cheese V2 cup
Egg 1 large
Cheddar cheese 2 ounces
Chicken, light meat 3 ounces
93.5 2.6 2.0
1.8 1.5 1.4 1.0 0.9 0.7 0.7 0.4 0.4
Best Food Sources of Folate

Best Food Sources of Biotin
Best Food Sources of Choline
Food
Portion
Choline (milligrams)
Best Food Sources of Inositol
Best Food Sources of Inositol— Continued
Food
Portion
Inositol (milligrams)
Beef liver 3 ounces
Green pepper, cooked Vi cup
Tomato, raw Vi cup
Zucchini Vi cup
Pork chop 3 ounces
Onions, raw Va cup
58 57 54 53 38 22
Best Food Sources of Vitamin C
Food
Portion
Vitamin C (milligrams)
124 96
93
85 73 70 66 50 45 45
44 39
37 31
Best Food Sources of Vitamin C— Continued
Food
Portion
Vitamin C (milligrams)
Tomato, raw Cabbage, chopped, raw Blackberries Spinach, chopped, raw Blueberries
Cherries, sweet Mung bean sprouts
1 medium
V2 cup V2 cup V2 cup V2 cup V2 cup 1/4 cup
28 21 15 14 10 8 5
Best Food Sources of Vitamin D
Best Food Sources of Vitamin E
Best Food Sources of Vitamin K
20 18
15 9
Sources for Vitamin Tables
Nutritive Vqlue of American Foods in Common Units, Agriculture Handbook No. 456,
by Catherine F. Adams (Washington, D.C.: Agricultural Research Service, U.S.
Department of Agriculture, 1975). Vitamin A, Thiamine, Riboflavin, Niacin, Folate,
Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Vitamin K.
Composition of Foods: Dairy and Egg Products, Agricultural Handbook No. 8-1, by
Consumer and Food Economics Institute (Washington, D.C.: Agricultural Research
Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1976). Vitamin A, Riboflavin, Vitamin B|2,
Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin K.
McCance and Widdowson's The Composition of Foods, by A. A. Paul and D. A. T.

Southgate (Elsevier North-Holland Biomedical Press, 1978). Biotin, Vitamin D, Vitamin
E.
Pantothenic Acid, Vitamin B(, and Vitamin ^12, Home Economics Research Report No.
36, by Martha Louise Orr (Washington, D.C.: Agricultural Research Service, U.S.
Department of Agriculture, 1969). Vitamin B^,, Vitamin B,:, Pantothenate.
Composition of Foods: Poultry Products, Agriculture Handbook No. 8-5, by Consumer

and Food Economics Institute (Washing-
ton, D.C.: Science and Education Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1979).
Pantothenate, Biotin.
Introductoiy Nutrition, by Helen Andrews Guthrie (St. Louis: C. V. Mosby, 1979).

Thiamine, Niacin.
Composition of Foods: Spices and Herbs, Agriculture Handbook No. 8-2, by Consumer
and Food Economics Institute (Washington, D.C.: Agricultural Research Service, U.S.
Department of Agriculture, 1977). Vitamin A.
"Folacin in Selected Foods," by Betty P. Perloff and R. R. Butrum, Journal of the

American Dietetic Association, February, 1977. Folate.
Human Nutrition, by Benjamin T. Burton, Ph.D. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976).

Vitamin D.
Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, by Robert S. Goodhart and Maurice E. Shills
(Philadelphia: Lea and Febiger, 1980). Vitamin K.
"Myo-inositol Content of Common Foods: Development of a High-myo-inositol Diet," by

Rex S. Clements, Jr., and Betty Darnell, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,
September, 1980. Inositol.
"Pantothenic Acid Content of 75 Processed and Cooked Foods," by Joan Howe Walsh,
Bonita W. Wyse and R. Gaurth Hansen, Journal of the American Dietetic Association,
February, 1981. Pantothenate.
U.S. Department of Agriculture and Nutrient Data Research Group, 1981. Choline.
"Vitamin E Content of Foods," by P. J. McLaughlin and John L. Weihrauch, Journal of

the American Dietetic Association, December, 1979. Vitamin E.
VITAMIN-RICH RECIPES CHAPTER

BREAKFASTS
Choo-Choo Granola (Muesli)
This tasty breakfast—actually a muesli —gets its name from two characteristics: One, it
makes you use your jaws, and two, it goes through you like a freight train. To serve it,
add milk and top it with several slices of fresh apple, if desired.
vitamin E thiamine
2 cups rolled oats
-A cup wheat germ
V2 cup sunflower seeds
Vi cup walnuts, chopped
'/> cup hulled pumpkin seeds
Vi cup figs, chopped
Vi cup dried apricots, chopped
Combine all of the ingredients and store the mixture in a tightly covered glass jar in the
refrigerator.
Serves 10.
From The Natural Healing Cookbook by Mark Bricklin and Sharon Claessens, Rodale
Press, Emmaus, Pa., 1981.
Cottage Cheese Pancakes with Pineapple Yogurt Topping
vitamin B,2 riboflavin
Topping
1 cup crushed pineapple 1 tablespoon orange juice
concentrate Va, cup yogurt
Pancakes
1 cup cottage cheese Va cup yogurt
2 eggs
Ml cup whole wheat pastry flour '/4 cup wheat germ '/: teaspoon baking soda pinch of
ground allspice fresh mint leaves (garnish)
To make the topping: In a small bowl, combine the pineapple, orange juice concentrate
and yogurt.
To make the pancakes: Combine the cheese, yogurt and eggs in a food processor or
blender. Blend them until smooth. Combine the flour, wheat germ, baking soda and
allspice and add them to the cheese mixture. Blend the batter just until combined.
Using about Va cup per pancake, pour the batter onto a hot oiled or buttered pan or
griddle. When it's bubbly, turn it and brown the other side. Serve the pancakes with the
topping and garnish with the mint leaves.
Serves 2 to 4.
BREAKFASTS 757
Breakfast Cereal Mix
Not only can you prepare a custom-made cereal mix in five minutes, but you'll have
enough made up to last a week of mornings!
Customize your mix by adding a few tablespoons of seeds, such as sesame or sunflower,
or by adding chopped nuts.
thiamine
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup bran
'/2 cup wheat germ
'/2 cup soy flakes
'/: cup raisins
1 tablespoon brewer's yeast
(optional)
2 teaspoons cinnamon (optional)
Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Store the mix in a tightly covered
container in the refrigerator.
Makes 4 cups.
CHAPTER
APPETIZERS AND HORS D'OEUVRES
Combine the fish, spinach, egg white, nutmeg and basil in a blender or food processor
and puree them. Refrigerate the mixture for 1 hour, then beat in the yogurt, vigorously,
until smooth and fluffy.
APPETIZERS AND HORS D'OEUVRES 759
Boil the carrots and peas for 30 seconds. Drain and fold them into the fish mixture. Pour
the mixture into a lightly oiled 8 X 4-inch loaf pan. Smooth the top, then cover the pate
with buttered wax paper and wrap it with foil.
Place the loaf pan into a deep baking dish. Fill the baking dish with water to within 2
inches of the top of the loaf pan. Bake at 375° for 40 minutes, then remove the loaf from
the oven, uncover it and let it cool for 10 minutes.
Remove the pate from the pan by covering it with an inverted platter, then turning it
upside down. Blot away any excess liquid before it's served. Garnish with parsley.
Makes 1 loaf.
Sunflower Seed Spread
Use this as a sandwich spread, a filling for stuffed celery or as a dip for raw vegetables.
vitamin E thiamine vitamin B^
1 cup ground sunflower seeds '/4 cup peanut butter 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix them until smooth.
Makes IVi cups.
From The Complete Book of Minerals for Health by Sharon Faelten, Rodale Press,
Emmaus, Pa., 1981.
Chicken Liver Pate
Perfect in a sandwich, this pate can double as an appetizer. Formed into a ball and rolled
in chopped fresh parsley, it makes a pretty party spread.
vitamin A riboflavin pantothenate
niacin thiamine vitamin C
1 onion, diced
V2 cup diced celery Vi green pepper, diced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh
parsley 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or
butter 1 pound chicken liver 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon
brewer's yeast Va cup mayonnaise
In a large skillet, saute the onions, celery, peppers and parsley in the oil or butter until
the onions become translucent. Add the chicken liver and continue sauteing for a few
minutes. Cover the skillet and cook until the liver is done.
Drain off any excess liquid and reserve it. Puree the liver mixture using a food mill or
blender. (If you use a blender, add a little of the reserved liquid to facilitate blending.)
Stir in the brewer's yeast. Let the mixture cool, then stir in the mayonnaise. If the pate is
too thick, add a little of the reserved liquid.
Makes 2 cups.
CHAPTER
SOUPS
Welsh Cock-a-Leekie
Place the chicken, stock and veal bones in a soup pot. Bring them to a boil, then lower
the heat and skim off the foam. Simmer

for 5 minutes. Tie the celery, carrots. 1 leek and the parsley together, and add them to
the pot with the cloves and bay leaves. Cover the pot and simmer for 45 minutes.
Remove the chicken and let it cool. Continue cooking the soup for 30 minutes more,
then remove the vegetable bouquet and veal bones and discard them. Bring the soup to a
boil, slowly add the barley and lower the heat. Trim the leeks, leaving 1 inch of the green
part. Cut the leeks into 1-inch lengths and add them to the pot along with the curry and
allspice. Simmer, covered, for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the barley is tender.
Meanwhile, remove the skin and bones from the cooled chicken and tear the meat into
chunks. Add them to the soup and cook them for 5 minutes, or until heated through.
Remove the bay leaves and cloves.
Serves 6 to 8.
From Creative Cooking with Grains and Pasta by Sheryl and Mel London, Rodale Press,
Emmaus, Pa., 1982.
Fresh Tomato Soup
vitamin C vitamin A riboflavin
V2 cup minced onion Va cup minced celery Va cup minced carrot 2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons butter or vegetable
oil 2 pounds tomatoes, peeled, seeded
and finely diced 1 bay leaf
'/4 cup minced fresh parsley 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme or
Vi teaspoon dried thyme
SOUPS 763
1 teaspoon minced fresh marjoram or Vi teaspoon dried marjoram 1 tablespoon minced

fresh basil 4 cups chicken stock or tomato juice sour cream or yogurt (garnish) minced
fresh herbs such as parsley, chives, basil or chervil (garnish)
In a soup pot, saute the onions, celery, carrots and garlic in the butter or oil until the
onions are translucent.
Add the tomatoes, bay leaf, parsley, thyme, marjoram and basil. Cover and cook over
low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the mixture is soft and thick.
Gradually stir in the stock or juice. Cover the pot, bring the soup to a boil, reduce the
heat and simmer gently for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft. Remove the
bay leaf. If desired, puree the soup, then return it to the heat and warm it thoroughly.
Serve it garnished with a little sour cream or yogurt and minced fresh herbs.
Serves 6.
Pennsylvania Dutch Corn Chowder
After a hard day in the fields—or at the office—this traditional chowder and a hunk of
whole grain bread make a meal by themselves. Just remember to start it early in the
morning or a day in advance.
niacin riboflavin vitamin A
1 3-pound chicken, cut up 1 onion, chopped 1 carrot, sliced
1 Stalk celery, sliced
1 sprig fresh thyme or V2 teaspoon
dried thyme 1 sprig fresh sage or '/: teaspoon
dried sage
1 sprig fresh rosemary or '/:
teaspoon dried rosemary 6 cups water
2 potatoes, cubed 2 cups corn
Va cup minced fresh parsley
(garnish) 2 hard-cooked eggs, sliced
(garnish)
Place the chicken, onions, carrots, celery, thyme, sage and rosemary in a soup pot. Add
the water. Cover the pot and simmer for 1'/: hours, or until the chicken is tender.
Remove the pot from the heat. Remove the chicken and reserve it. Strain the broth and
return it to the soup pot. Remove the chicken skin and bones and discard them. Cut the
meat into bite-size pieces and return them to the broth. Refrigerate the broth overnight.
Discard the layer of fat that forms on top. Heat the broth to boiling. Add the potatoes,
reduce the heat and cook just until the potatoes are tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Add
the corn and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, or until the corn is tender. Serve the chowder
immediately, garnishing each serving with parsley and egg.
Serves 6 to 8.
CHAPTER ,
I
EGGS
Eggs Baked in Leeks
vitamin C
3 or 4 large leeks, split and cut into 1-inch lengths
2 teaspoons chopped fresh
rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
3 tablespoons butter
4 eggs
Va cup grated Parmesan cheese '/> cup shredded provolone cheese
1 cup tomato sauce (optional)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh
parsley (garnish)
In a large skillet, saute the leeks and rosemary in the butter until tender. Transfer them
to a 1 V2- or 2-quart casserole.
Make four wells in the leeks and carefully break an egg into each. Sprinkle the eggs with
the Parmesan and provolone cheese. Bake at 375° until the eggs are set, about 10
minutes. Top the eggs with tomato sauce, if desired, and garnish with parsley.
Serves 2 to 4.
Curried Eggs and Avocados
Serve over rice, bulgur or whole wheat toast.
vitamin E pantothenate vitamin B12
riboflavin
3 tablespoons butter V4 cup minced onion 3 tablespoons whole wheat flour 2 teaspoons
curry powder (or to
taste) 2 cups milk
12 hard-cooked eggs, quartered 2 avocados, thickly sliced
chopped fresh parsley (garnish)
In a medium-size skillet or saucepan, melt the butter until it is bubbling but not brown.
Add the onions and saute until they are tender and translucent, about 5 minutes.
Add the flour and curry powder and cook, stirring constantly to form a paste. Do not let
it brown. Add the milk gradually and continue to stir until the sauce is smooth and
medium thick, about 8 minutes. Add the eggs and avocados. Cook, stirring gently, just
until they're heated through. Garnish with parsley.
Serves 4 to 6.
Broccoli-Stuffed Eggs
vitamin K vitamin C vitamin A
2 broccoli stalks (each about 3 inches long)
4 hard-cooked eggs, halved
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon cottage cheese
1 teaspoon French-style mustard
1 teaspoon minced scallions '/2 teaspoon tamari or soy sauce
(preferably reduced sodium) Va teaspoon paprika
Peel the thin, tough skin from the broccoli stems. Steam the broccoli until tender.
Carefully remove the yolks from the eggs. Place the yolks in a blender with the water,
lemon juice, cottage cheese, mustard, scallions, tamari and paprika.
Trim off about V2 inch of the broccoli florets and reserve them for a garnish. Coarsely
chop the broccoli and add it to the other ingredients in the blender. Process them on low
speed until smooth.
Stuff the egg whites with the yolk mixture, and garnish each half with some of the
reserved broccoli florets. Serve them chilled.
Serves 4.
CHAPTER
MAIN DISHES
MAIN DISHES 769
1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses dash of cayenne pepper (optional)
Soak the beans in water overnight. Place the beans in a large saucepan with enough
water to cover them, bring them to a boil and simmer them gently until soft, about Wi
hours. Drain them, reserving Wi cups of the cooking liquid.
Brown the beef in a large, hot, lightly oiled skillet. Place the liver in a blender with a
quarter of the onion, and process them on low to medium speed until smooth. Stir the
liver into the browning meat. Chop the remaining onion. When the meat is cooked
through, add the chopped onions and peppers, garlic, chili powder, cumin and oregano.
Cook until the onions become translucent.
Stir in the tomato paste, cooked kidney beans, reserved cooking liquid, corn, tamari,
molasses and cayenne, if used. Simmer the chili until the onions and peppers are tender.
Serve it hot.
Serves 8.
Oxtail, Barley and Braised Cabbage Stew
Here's a hearty one-pot stew from the British Isles that's best eaten on a stormy night in
front of a warming wood fire.
vitamin C vitamin K vitamin 8,2
pantothenate vitamin E niacin
riboflavin vitamin B^
IVi pounds oxtails, cut into 1-inch pieces

3 tablespoons whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 cloves garlic, minced
4 thin leeks, split and thinly sliced 2 stalks celery with leaves, thinly
sliced 3 or 4 tomatoes, chopped 2 bay leaves
1 cup barley
Va, teaspoon dried marjoram
2 cups beef stock or water V/i pounds cabbage, coarsely
chopped 8 cups boiling water
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons minced fresh dill sour cream or yogurt (garnish)
Dredge the meat in 2 tablespoons of the flour. Heat the oil in a skillet and brown the
meat on all sides. Transfer it to a 3-to 4-quart heavy stew pot. Add the garlic, leeks,
celery, tomatoes, bay leaves, barley, marjoram and stock or water. Cover the stew and
bring it to boil. Then lower the heat and simmer for 1 hour.
Meanwhile, place the cabbage in a deep bowl and add the boiling water. Let it stand for
5 minutes, then drain it, reserving the liquid.
Heat the butter in a heavy saucepan until it turns brown. Add the onions and remaining
tablespoon of flour and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is browned. Add the
cabbage and stir. Cover the saucepan and simmer for 15 minutes, or until the cabbage
turns pinkish in color. (Add a few tablespoons of the reserved liquid if necessary to
prevent scorching.)
Add the cabbage mixture to the stew along with 4 cups of the reserved liquid. Cook for
20 minutes or until the meat is tender. Remove the bay leaves. Sprinkle in the dill and
serve
MAIN DISHES 771
the Stew hot, garnishing each serving with a dollop of sour cream or yogurt.
Serves 6.
Tocana (Romanian Onion Stew with Beef and Peppers)
If you have a penchant for onions, this stew is for you. Serve over cornmeal mush or
brown rice.
vitamin B12
Dredge the meat in the flour. Heat the butter and oil in a heavy 4-quart stew pot and
brown the meat on all sides. Lift out the meat with a slotted spoon and set it aside. Add
the onions, stir and cover the pot. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the onions are soft.
Uncover the pot and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions are
dark brown. Add the vinegar, stir, and return the meat to the pot. Add the pureed
tomatoes, cayenne, green peppers and boiling water. Cover the
Stew and bring it to a boil, then lower the heat to simmer, stir and cook for 45 minutes,
or until the meat is tender. Check it during cooking, adding more water if necessar\ (the
stew should be fairlv thick).
Serves 4.
Middle Eastern Wheat Kernel, Lamb and Navy Bean Stew
Lime and mint cool this steu.
vitamin B,; niacin vitamin C
thiamine
2 tablespoons butler
2 large onions, sliced
2 lamb shanks, cut into 2-inch
pieces 4 cups water
pinch of cayenne pepper '/: teaspoon turmeric '/: cup dried navy beans, soaked in
water overnight Va cup wheat kerneN. soaked in
water o\ernighl 2 tomatoes, cut into chunks Va teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 potato, cubed
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint juice of 1 lime
Heal the butter in large stew pot and saute the onions until wilted. Add the lamb and
cook, stirring frequenth. unlil it's brown. Add the water, cayenne, turmeric and beans.
Bring the stew to a boil, lower the heat. co\er it and simmer for 1 hour.
MAIN DISHES 773

Add the wheat kernels, tomatoes and nutmeg and cook for 15 minutes more. Then add
the potatoes and simmer for 45 minutes more, or until the wheat kernels and potatoes
are tender. Stir in the mint and lime juice. Cook for 5 minutes more.
Serves 4 to 6.
Millet and Parmesan Casserole
Millet is a light, tasty grain that can be used in most dishes that call for rice.
riboflavin thiamine niacin
2 tablespoons butter 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 small onion, minced 1 stalk celery,
thinly sliced 1 cup millet Vh to 3 cups chicken stock 1 bay leaf
1 strip lemon rind
'/4 cup pine nuts or walnuts
'/4 cup currants
10 medium mushrooms, thinly sliced
'/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan or
Romano cheese
Heat the butter and oil in a 2-quart flameproof, ovenproof casserole or ovenproof
saucepan, and saute the onions and celery slowly until they are wilted, about 15 minutes.
Add the millet and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add Vh cups of the chicken stock, the
bay leaf, lemon rind, pine nuts or walnuts and currants and bring them slowly to a boil.
Cover the casserole and bake at 325° for 20 minutes.
Carefully fold in the mushrooms and '/: cup of Parmesan cheese. If the millet has
absorbed all of the stock, add just enough more stock to make the mixture moist. Reduce
the heat to 300° and continue cooking for 10 to 15 minutes more. At serving time,
remove the bay leaf and lemon rind, and fluff the millet gently with a fork. Sprinkle the
top with extra Parmesan or, for a contrasting flavor, grated Romano cheese.
Serves 4.
Stuffed Zucchini
vitamin C
4 medium zucchini Va cup vegetable oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced V2 green pepper, finely diced
1 Vi cups cooked brown rice
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar
cheese '/^ cup tomato sauce V2 teaspoon minced fresh basil
Cut the zucchini in half, carefully scoop out the pulp and reserve Vi cup. Heat the oil,
add the onions and green peppers and saute. Add the rice. Cook and stir it over high
heat until it's lightly browned. Add the zucchini pulp, 1 cup of the shredded cheese, the
tomato sauce and basil. (Add a little hot water if the mixture is too dry.)
Stuff the zucchini halves with the mixture. Place the zucchini, stuffed-side up, in a
greased baking pan. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes. Top the zucchini with the remaining
cheese and return it to the oven for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the cheese melts.
Serves 8.
MAIN DISHES 775
Hot Vegetable Provencal
vitamin C vitamin A vitamin K
Va cup olive oil 2 cups sliced onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 green peppers, cut into thin strips 3'/2 cups cooked tomatoes
1 package (9 ounces) frozen
artichoke hearts '/4 head cabbage, sliced Va teaspoon thyme
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
(garnish)
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute the onions, stirring occasionally,
until pale yellow and soft. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the green peppers,
tomatoes, artichoke hearts, cabbage and thyme. Reduce the heat to low. Simmer
uncovered for 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer everything to a serving dish and garnish with
the parsley.
Serves 6.
Down Home Potato Casserole
thiamine vitamin C
3 pounds potatoes, thinly sliced
2 medium onions, thinly sliced 2'/2 cups peas
Va cup shredded Monterey Jack
cheese Vi cup shredded sharp cheddar
cheese
'/4 cup wheat germ
1 teaspoon dried thyme
V2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 3 tablespoons butter, softened
2 cups milk
Dry the potato slices. Arrange a third of them in the bottom of a well-buttered 9 x 13-
inch baking dish. Top with a third of the onions and sprinkle a third of the peas over the
onions.
In a small bowl, combine the Monterey Jack and cheddar cheese, wheat germ, thyme
and cayenne. Sprinkle a third of this mixture over the peas. Dot with 1 tablespoon of the
butter.
Create two more layers of the ingredients in the same fashion, beginning with potatoes,
then onions, peas, cheese mixture and butter. Pour the milk over the top and bake for 30
minutes at 400°. Then reduce the heat to 350° and bake for 20 to 30 minutes more,
until the potatoes are tender and the top is golden brown. Let the casserole stand for 15
minutes before it's served.
Serves 6 to 8.
Cheese Souffle
vitamin B12
3 tablespoons butter 3 tablespoons whole wheat flour 1 cup milk 5 eggs, separated 1 '/>
cups grated or crumbled farmer cheese
Melt the butter in a skillet, stir in the flour until smooth, then remove it from the heat.
Slowly stir in the milk until smooth. Return the sauce to the heat and cook until
thickened.
MAIN DISHES 777
Beat the egg yolks until thick, then add the milk sauce to the yolks a little at a time,
beating well after each addition. Stir in the cheese.
Beat the egg whites until stiff, then fold them into the cheese mixture, working in plenty
of air.
Pour the mixture into a buttered l'/2-quart casserole. Bake at 325° for 45 minutes, or
until the souffle is tall and golden brown.
Serves 4.
From The Complete Dairy Foods Cookbook by E. Annie Proulx and Lew Nichols, Rodale
Stir-Fried Peppers and Tofu
This is a colorful dish and if you can use both red and green peppers, it is even more
attractive. It is the perfect centerpiece for a vegetarian dinner.
vitamin A vitamin C vitamin B^
vitamin E
2 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger or
V2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 carrots, cut diagonally into '/4-
inch slices 2 green or sweet red peppers, cut into 1-inch pieces 5 or 6 scallions, cut into
2-inch pieces 2 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
(preferably reduced sodium) 1 tablespoon vinegar V2 pound firm tofu, cubed
Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok. Add the garlic, ginger and carrots and stir-fry for
about 2 minutes. Add the peppers and stir-fry for about 3 minutes. Add the scallions and
stir-fry for about 1 minute. Add the tamari and vinegar and gently stir in the tofu. Cover
and steam the mixture over low heat for about 6 minutes.
Serves 4.
Buck-Corn Burgers
thiamine niacin
2 cups buckwheat groats, cooked Vi cup corn germ 1 egg (optional) 1 small onion, grated
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
Puree the cooked groats coarsely in a food processor or with a potato ricer. Combine
them with the corn germ, egg (if used), onion and poultry seasoning, then form patties.
(If the mixture is too dry to form patties, add a little stock or tomato juice. If it is too
soft, refrigerate it for a few hours for easier shaping.) Brown the patties slowly on a well-
oiled or buttered griddle or pan until crisp on both sides; or brush them with oil and
broil, turning once.
Makes 10.
Lentil Loaf
This lentil dish is good served with broiled tomatoes, a leafy green vegetable, baked
winter squash, a big tossed salad—or
MAIN DISHES 779
just about anything else. It's as good cold as it is hot, and it makes deHcious sandwiches.
vitamin C
1 onion, minced
'/4 pound mushrooms, minced 2 tablespoons butter
1 cup lentils, ground
'/: teaspoon dried thyme pinch of ground clove pinch of ground nutmeg pinch of
cayenne pepper
2 eggs, beaten
Va cup tomato juice 2 tablespoons slivered almonds
Cook the onions, garlic and mushrooms in the butter until very soft. Remove them from
the heat and stir in the lentils, thyme, clove, nutmeg, cayenne, eggs, tomatojuice and
almonds. Pour the mixture into a buttered 9 x 5-inch loaf pan and bake at 350° for 30
minutes, or until the top is lightly browned and the loaf is dry.
Serves 6.
Brown Rice, Cheese and Nut Loaf
A delightful medley of tastes and textures, this hearty, crun-chy loaf needs only a salad
to make a wholesome meal.
thiamine
tablespoon vegetable oil tablespoon butter
1 onion, chopped
3 large stalks celery with leaves,
chopped '/2 cup chopped cashews '/2 cup chopped walnuts '/2 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 cup ricotta cheese
2 teaspoons chopped fresh chives 2 tablespoons chopped fresh
parsley 1'/: teaspoons dried thyme 2 eggs, beaten Va cup wheat germ Va cup sesame
seeds
In a large skillet, heat the oil and butter, then saute the onions until limp. Add the
celery, cover the skillet and cook for 5 minutes.
In a mixing bowl, combine and mix the cashews, walnuts, sunflower seeds, rice, cheese,
chives, parsley, thyme and eggs. Add the onions and celery.
Sprinkle half the wheat germ on the bottom and sides of a greased 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.
Turn the mixture into the pan and sprinkle the remaining wheat germ and the sesame
seeds on top. Bake at 350° for 1 hour.
Serves 6 to 8.
CHAPTER
FISH
Haddock with Ginger Glaze

vitamin B12 niacin ^
Va to V2 cup water
V4 pound haddock fillets I
1 teaspoon cornstarch '
Va cup cold water
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons tamari or soy sauce
(preferably reduced sodium) I V2 teaspoons cider vinegar {
1 V2 teaspoons honey 1 scallion, thinly sliced ^
) Bring Va cup of water to a boil in a medium skillet. Add the \
haddock and lower the heat. Poach the fish on one side for 2 to 3 minutes, then turn the
fish and poach until it is opaque throughout. Add more water, if necessary.
Dissolve the cornstarch in the cold water. Transfer the fish gently to a warm serving
platter. Pour off any water remaining in the skillet. Place the cornstarch mixture, ginger,
garlic, tamari, vinegar and honey in the skillet. Over medium heat, stir the sauce until
slightly thickened and reduced by almost a third. Pour the ginger sauce over the fish
fillets. Top the dish with the scallion, and serve it immediately.
Serves 2.
Peachy Fish Amandine
vitamin E
'/3 cup almonds, sliced or chopped
1 pound filleted fish
3 peaches, sliced
Saute the almonds briefly in the butter. Remove the almonds when they are golden. Add
the fish to the hot butter and saute for 6 to 8 minutes, or until the fish is just opaque
throughout. Transfer it to a serving platter. Top it with the almonds and sliced peaches.
Serves 4.
Salmon Croquettes
vitamin B,2 pantothenate vitamin B^
vitamin D
1 medium onion, chopped 4 scallions, chopped 1 tablespoon butter
FISH 783
1 can (15'/2 or 16 ounces) pink salmon, drained and flaked
1 cup cottage cheese 3 eggs
2 egg yolks
2 cups whole wheat bread crumbs 1 tablespoon minced fresh chives
or 1'/: teaspoons dried chives 1 tablespoon minced fresh dill or
1 '/2 teaspoons dried dill 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
or 1 Vi teaspoons dried parsley Va teaspoon paprika
Saute the onions and scallions in the butter until the onions are translucent. Transfer
them to a large bowl. Add the salmon, cottage cheese, eggs, egg yolks, bread crumbs,
chives, dill, parsley and paprika to the bowl and mix well.
Form the mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time, into small croquettes. Place them on a greased
cookie sheet and bake at 350° for 20 minutes. The croquettes are done when they're firm
to the touch. Or saute them in butter until browned.
Makes about 35.
Steamed Fish with Spinach and Parmesan Cheese
There's only one word to describe this dish— sensational!
vitamin A vitamin K vitamin C *
vitamin B|2 niacin 1
1 pound halibut, haddock or cod fillets, cut into four portions

1 pound spinach, chopped and
cooked 1 egg yolk, beaten
1 small onion, grated
'/s teaspoon ground nutmeg Va cup yogurt
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Vi cup grated Parmesan cheese mushroom slices (garnish) lemon wedges (garnish)
Arrange a piece of cheesecloth along the bottom and up the sides of a perforated or
bamboo steamer. Add the fish and steam it over boiling water for 5 to 8 minutes. When
the fish is almost done, use the cheesecloth to transfer the fish to a buttered ovenproof
casserole.
Drain the spinach. Mix the spinach with the egg yolk, onions, nutmeg, yogurt, lemon
juice and half of the Parmesan cheese. Spread the mixture over the steamed fish.
Sprinkle it with the remaining cheese and slip it under the broiler until the cheese melts
and is lightly browned. Garnish with mushrooms and lemons.
Serves 4.
CHAPTER
POULTRY AND LIVER
Turkey Pie ]
vitamin A vitamin C niacin
pantothenate vitamin B^ ^
1 green pepper, minced j 4 carrots, thinly sliced
2 stalks celery, chopped *
2 onions, minced « 10 to 12 mushrooms, sliced
3 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 cups peas
Vi teaspoon dried sage ,j

1 teaspoon dried thyme *
1 teaspoon dried basil
'/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter '
'/4 cup whole wheat flour ^
2 cups turkey or chicken stock ^
1 cup half-and-half Va teaspoon ground nutmeg
pinch of cayenne pepper ''
4 cups cubed cooked turkey
6 potatoes
'/2 to Va cup milk
'/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Saute the green peppers, carrots, celery, onions and mushrooms in the oil until limp.
Blanch the peas in simmering water for 3 minutes, then drain them and add them to the
other vegetables. Add the sage, thyme and basil.
Melt Va cup of the butter in a saucepan and cook until foamy. Stir in the flour and cook
for 1 to 2 minutes over low heat. Whisk in the stock and continue cooking, stirring
constantly, until the mixture begins to thicken. Stir in the half-and-half and cook until
thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Add the nutmeg and cayenne. In a large bowl,
combine the sauce with the cooked vegetables and turkey. Then pour the mixture into a
buttered or oiled 9 X 13-inch baking dish.
Cook the potatoes in simmering water until tender. When they're cool enough to handle,
peel the potatoes, if desired, and mash them. Beat in the milk, the remaining butter and
half of the Parmesan cheese. Spread the potatoes on top of the turkey mixture (or pipe
them on with a decorative pastry tube). Sprinkle the top with the remaining cheese.
Refrigerate the pie until you're ready to bake it. Bake at 350° until the pie is warm and
bubbly and lightly browned on top, about 1 hour.
Serves 6 to 8.
Liver with Mixed Vegetables
vitamin B,2 vitamin A riboflavin

vitamin K pantothenate vitamin C
niacin folate vitamin E
vitamin B^ thiamine
V4 pound calf liver or baby beef liver
POULTRY AND LIVER 787
3 tablespoons whole wheat flour 2 teaspoons dried basil 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 small zucchini
2 scallions, chopped
10 cherry tomatoes, halved 2 teaspoons tamari or soy sauce (preferably reduced sodium)
Cut the liver into long, thin strips. Combine the flour and basil on wax paper, and dredge
the liver slices in the mixture.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a medium skillet, and saute the liver over low to medium
heat. It should be cooked just until the inside of each strip remains pink. Do not
overcook. Transfer the liver to a serving plate and keep it warm.
Cut the zucchini in half crosswise, then lengthwise. Cut each section into long, thin
strips. Add the remaining oil to the pan, then add the scallions and stir and cook. When
the scallions wilt, add the zucchini. Add a few spoonfuls of water if necessary to keep the
vegetables from sticking.
When the scallions and zucchini are slightly softened, add the tomatoes and tamari and
stir to combine them. Place a lid on the skillet and allow the vegetables to steam until
tender, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes. At serving time, arrange the
vegetables on two sides of the liver.
Serves 2.
From The 20-Minute Natural Foods Cookbook by Sharon Claes-sens, Rodale Press,
Emmaus, Pa., 1982.
Oven-Baked Chicken and Vegetables
vitamin A niacin vitamin C
vitamin E vitamin B^ pantothenate
2 carrots, cut into large pieces 1 large potato, thickly sliced

1 sweet potato, thickly sliced
1 whole chicken breast, halved and
skinned 1 onion, thinly sliced '/2 cup water
Place the carrots, potatoes and sweet potatoes in a casserole, arranging the chicken
breasts on top. Cover them with the onions. Pour the water over all. Cover the casserole
and bake at 350° for Wi hours, or until the chicken and vegetables are tender.
Serves 2.
Cashew Chicken with Brown Rice
niacin pantothenate vitamin B^
1 cup chopped onion 1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 Vi cups cottage cheese
Va cup chicken or turkey stock
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
breast '/> cup toasted cashews
dash of nutmeg 2 teaspoons tamari or soy sauce (preferably reduced sodium) 1

tablespoon chopped fresh parsley 4 cups hot cooked brown rice
In a large skillet, saute the onions and garlic in the oil until tender. In a blender,
combine the cottage cheese and stock. Process them on medium speed until smooth.
POULTRY AND LIVER 789
Add the blended sauce to the vegetables. Stir in the chicken, cashews, nutmeg, tamari
and parsley. Over low heat, stir constantly until the ingredients are hot, but do not let
them boil because the cheese sauce may curdle. Serve the mixture over the hot cooked
brown rice.
Serves 4.
CHAPTER
SIDE DISHES
Brussels Sprouts with Sesame Casserole
vitamin C vitamin E
1 small onion, diced
1 green pepper, minced
1 medium leek, split and chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon dried oregano
I cup cottage cheese
1 tablespoon whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons wheat germ juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon tahini (sesame butter) 1 teaspoon sesame oil '/4 cup stock
SIDE DISHES 791
3'/2 cups shredded Brussels sprouts, steamed V2 teaspoon paprika
Saute the onions, peppers, leeks and garlic in the oil over medium-low heat for 10
minutes, or until soft. Stir in the sesame seeds and oregano, and saute for 3 to 5 minutes
more. Remove the vegetables from the heat and set them aside.
In an oiled, deep, 2-quart baking dish, combine the cottage cheese, flour and wheat
germ. Mix them well. Fold in the vegetable mixture. In a small bowl, combine the lemon
juice, tahini, sesame oil and stock. Blend them well, preferably with a whisk. Alternate
folding the tahini mixture and the Brussels sprouts into the cottage cheese mixture. Pat
it all down. Cover it tightly. Bake at 300° for 15 minutes, then sprinkle the top with
paprika and bake for 15 minutes more.
Serves 4 to 6.
Hawaiian Vegetable Medley
2 teaspoons cornstarch 2 tablespoons water 1 can (4 ounces) water chestnuts, sHced
Heat the oil in a medium skillet and saute the onions, green peppers and celery for 3 to 5
minutes. Do not let them brown. Add the carrots, green beans and stock. Simmer,
covered, until the vegetables are tender, about 10 to 12 minutes. Add the snow peas,
pineapple and tamari, and simmer for 2 minutes more. Dissolve the cornstarch in the
water. Add the water chestnuts and cornstarch mixture to the skillet. Cook, stirring
constantly, until the liquid is thickened.
Serves 4.
From Rodale's Basic Natural Foods Cookbook edited by Charles Gerras, Rodale Press,
Emmaus, Pa., 1984.
Orange Rice Pilaf
This is a grand production, it takes a little longer, but the delight with which it is always
received justifies the extra effort. Make it for a special occasion, or just make it—and
dinner will be special.
vitamin C
2 tablespoon butter
1 onion, minced
2 cups brown rice
2 cups orange juice
2 cups boiling water
2 cloves
1 small piece cinnamon stick
SIDE DISHES 793
Va teaspoon ground ginger 3 tangerines or oranges, peeled and sectioned
Vi cup raisins
Va cup sliced almonds 1 tablespoon honey

In a large saucepan, heat the oil and I tablespoon of the butter and saute the onions until
soft. Add the rice and continue cooking for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the
orange juice to the boiling water. Pour that over the rice. Add the cloves, cinnamon and
ginger. Cover the saucepan and simmer for 40 minutes, or until the liquid is absorbed.
Remove the cloves and cinnamon stick.
Reserve 6 tangerine or orange sections. Stir in the remaining sections and the raisins. In
a small skillet, heat the remaining tablespoon of butter and saute the almonds until
golden. Place the rice in a serving dish and top it with the reserved fruit and the sauteed
almonds. Drizzle the top with the honey.
Serves 6 to 8.
Asparagus Amandine
vitamin K vitamin E vitamin C
1 tablespoon butter '/( cup sliced or slivered almonds
1 cup sliced mushrooms
Va cup minced fresh parsley
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind 1 pound asparagus
In a large frying pan, melt the butter. Add the almonds and mushrooms. Cook over low
heat, stirring often, until the almonds are golden and the mushrooms are tender. Stir in
the parsley and lemon rind.
Using white kitchen string, tie the asparagus spears into small bundles about 2 to 3
inches in diameter. (Make sure all of the spears in each bundle are about the same
thickness.)
Bring a very large pot of water to a boil. Carefully lower the bundles into the water. Cook
at a boil just until the asparagus is tender, about 5 minutes.
Remove the asparagus from the water. Remove the string and place the asparagus on a
serving platter. Cover it with the almonds and mushrooms.
Serves 4.
From Cooking with the Healthful Herbs by Jean Rogers, Rodale Press, Emmaus, Pa.,
1983.
Applesauce-Filled Squash
Cut the squashes in half and remove the seeds. Combine the applesauce, lemon juice,
raisins, molasses and walnuts. Fill the squashes with this mixture. Dot the tops with the
butter and sprinkle them with the cinnamon. Place the squashes, filled-side up, in a
baking dish. Pour hot water into the dish to a depth of about '/: inch. Cover the dish and
bake at 375° for 30 minutes. Then uncover the dish and bake for another 30 minutes.
Serves 4.
SIDE DISHES 795
Carrots, Cauliflower and Pumpkin Seeds
vitamin A
1 medium onion, sliced into thin
rings
2 cups cauliflower florets
2 medium carrots, sliced diagonally
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley '/4 cup hulled pumpkin seeds
In a large skillet, heat the oil, then add the onions. Saute them over medium heat for 1 to
2 minutes. Stir in the cauliflower florets and carrots. Add a few spoonfuls of water and
steam the vegetables until tender, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. (Add a little
more water if necessary.) Toss the vegetables with the parsley and pumpkin seeds. Serve
them hot.
Serves 4.
Gingered Apples and Sweet Potatoes
vitamin A vitamin E vitamin C
2 medium sweet potatoes 2 tart apples
'/2 cup apple cider or chicken stock V2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger dash of cinnamon
Cut the sweet potatoes in half lengthwise, then cut them crosswise into thin slices.
Quarter the apples and cut them into thin slices.
Place the sweet potatoes and apples in layers in an 8 x 8-inch baking dish. Pour on the
cider or stock, sprinkle the top with the ginger, and dust it with the cinnamon.
Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are tender.
Serves 4.
Spinach with Wheat Germ, Nuts and Raisins
Even those who profess to hate spinach will love this su-pernutritious version.
vitamin K
Immerse the spinach in boiling water, then drain it immediately. Chop it coarsely and
reserve it.
Heat the butter or margarine in a large skillet. Add the garlic and cayenne and saute for
2 minutes. Stir in the raisins and sunflower seeds or walnuts. Mix the skillet contents
until well blended. Place the mixture in a 1-quart ovenproof casserole. Combine the
wheat germ and cheese. Sprinkle them over the top of the casserole, and broil until the
cheese is lightly browned, about 2 minutes.
Serves 4.
II
SIDE DISHES 797
Creamy Potato Salad, Utah Style
1 cup heavy cream, whipped
Toss the potatoes, hard-cooked eggs and onions in a large bowl until well mixed. Chill
them.
Blend the mustard and honey in the top of a double boiler, then stir in the beaten eggs.
Stir in the butter and vinegar. The mixture should be smooth. Cook it over simmering
water until it's thick enough to coat a spoon. Cool it to room temperature.
Fold in the whipped cream. Stir the vinegar mixture into the salad and chill it all
thoroughly before it's served.
Serves 4 to 6.
From The Complete Dairy Foods Cookbook by E. Annie Proulx and Lew Nichols, Rodale
Green Beans with Dill and Walnut Sauce
Give green beans a gourmet touch.
vitamin C
1 pound green beans Vi cup walnuts

3 tablespoons mild vinegar 1 Vi tablespoons chopped fresh dill Va teaspoon French-style

mustard 1 tablespoon minced sweet red pepper
Steam the green beans just until crisp-tender. While the beans are steaming, place the
walnuts, vinegar, dill and mustard in a blender. Process them on low to medium speed
until they make a relatively smooth sauce. When the green beans are done, toss them
with the sauce and the minced pepper. Serve them hot or chilled.
Serves 6.
CHAPTER \
SALADS
Brown Rice Tabbouleh
vitamin C riboflavin
2 cups cooked brown rice 1 Vz cups chopped fresh parsley Vi cup chopped scalhons Vi
cup chopped fresh mint Va cup chopped tomatoes Va teaspoon cinnamon '/4 cup lemon
juice '/4 cup ohve oil
In a medium-size mixing bowl, combine the brown rice, parsley, scallions, mint,
tomatoes and cinnamon. Combine the lemon juice and oil. Pour them over the
tabbouleh and toss it to coat it evenly.
Serves 4 to 6.
Cauliflower and Pine Nut Tomato Salad
vitamin C vitamin E vitamin A
2 pounds tomatoes, peeled, seeded and minced
2 tablespoons lemon juice '/: cup olive oil '/s teaspoon cayenne pepper 10 fresh basil
leaves, minced '/4 cup minced fresh parsley '/2 cup pine nuts
1 large head cauliflower, broken into florets

Place the tomatoes in a ceramic or glass bowl. Mix in the garlic, lemon juice, oil,
cayenne, basil and parsley. Cover the bowl and let it stand at room temperature for 2
hours. Stir the mixture occasionally. Then chill it for 1 hour.
Spread the pine nuts on a baking sheet and toast them at 300° for 10 to 15 minutes,
stirring occasionally. Bake just until golden, being careful not to overbrown the nuts. Set
them aside and let them cool.
Steam the cauliflower just until tender, about 7 minutes. Cool, cover and chill it.
To serve the salad, arrange the cauliflower on a serving dish, pour the tomato mixture
over it and sprinkle the top with the pine nuts.
Serves 6.
From Rodale's Soups and Salads Cookbook and Kitchen Album edited by Charles
Gerras, Rodale Press, Emmaus, Pa., 1981.
SALADS 801
California Chicken and Almond Salad
niacin vitamin E
3 cups cubed cooked chicken 1 Vz cups coarsely chopped celery 2 scallions, minced '/>
cup almonds, coarsely chopped Vi cup mayonnaise Vi cup yogurt 1 tablespoon lemon
juice
1 avocado, mashed
2 tablespoons minced fresh dill 6 lettuce leaves
In a large mixing bowl, combine the chicken, celery, scallions and almonds. Cover and
chill them.
In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, yogurt, lemon juice, avocado
and dill. Beat the dressing until creamy. Cover and chill it.
Just before serving time, arrange a lettuce leaf on each plate. Toss the dressing and salad
together and place a mound on each leaf.
Serves 6.
From Rodale's Soups and Salads Cookbook and Kitchen Album edited by Charles
Gerras, Rodale Press, Emmaus, Pa., 1981.
CHAPTER
BEVERAGES
Icy Melon Delight
vitamin C
Vz cup chopped cantaloupe '/2 cup chopped pineapple
2 tablespoons yogurt or buttermilk
3 ice cubes
'/4 teaspoon vanilla extract dash of nutmeg fresh mint sprigs (garnish)
Place the cantaloupe, pineapple, yogurt or buttermilk, ice cubes, vanilla and nutmeg in a
blender and process them on high speed until smooth. Serve the drink over ice in two
tall chilled glasses. Garnish with mint.
Serves 2. 802
BEVERAGES 803
Bananaberry Shake
This shake is thick, creamy and better than a milk shake. And you can use whichever
fruits are in season.
Combine all of the ingredients in a blender and process them until fairly smooth. If
necessary, thin the shake with a little more milk.
Makes 4 cups.
CHAPTER
DESSERTS AND SNACKS
Sunflower Sesame Treats
vitamin B^ pantothenate
V4 cup ground sunflower seeds Va cup tahini (sesame butter) V2 cup shredded coconut
Va cup honey
'/? cup toasted wheat germ I cup minced dates or raisins
In a medium-size mixing bowl, combine the sunflower seeds and tahini. One at a time,
mix in the coconut, then the honey, wheat germ and dates or raisins. Mix everything
together thoroughly. Separate the mixture into two portions. Place each portion on a
separate piece of wax paper. Form each into a roll about 4 inches long. Wrap it securely
in wax paper and chill it thoroughly. For serving, unwrap the rolls and cut them into V2-
inch slices. Store them in the refrigerator.
Makes about 16. 804
DESSERTS AND SNACKS 805
Lemon Walnut Frozen Yogurt *
This keeps well in a 0° freezer for two or three days.
vitamin B,2
2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
2 tablespoons boiling water ,
2 cups yogurt
V2 cup nonfat dry milk .'
'/3 cup honey
grated rind of 2 lemons V4 cup lemon juice
1 egg white ^
Va cup chopped walnuts
Dissolve the gelatin in the boiling water. In a mixing bowl, combine the yogurt, dry milk,
honey, lemon rind, lemon juice 1
and dissolved gelatin and mix them well with a whisk. Chill the mixture for 45 minutes.
Transfer it to the drum of an ice cream maker and process it until it's half-frozen. Beat
the egg white ^
until soft peaks form, fold it into the half-frozen yogurt mixture ^
along with the walnuts, and continue processing until the mixture is firm. Transfer it to
a freezer container and store it at 0° in the ,
freezer. Before it's served, let it soften a little.
Serves 4.
From Cooking with Fruit by Marion Gorman, Rodale Press, Emmaus, Pa., 1983. I
Apple Crepes with Raspberry Syrup
•1
vitamin C
Crepes
3 eggs [ -A cup whole wheat pastry flour
Syrup
'/> teaspoon honey 1 cup water
2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries 2 tablespoons honey '/> teaspoon vanilla 2 teaspoons
arrowroot or
cornstarch Va cup water
Filling
5 tart apples, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons butter 1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons raisins Vi teaspoon cinnamon
fresh or frozen raspberries (garnish)
To make the crepes: In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs. Add the flour and mix well.
Add the honey and water and mix to a smooth batter with the consistency of light cream.
Pour the batter into a pitcher and let it stand for 30 minutes.
To make the syrup: In a small saucepan, combine the raspberries, honey and vanilla.
Stir them over low heat until just below boiling. Mix the arrowroot or cornstarch and
water and add them to the raspberry mixture. Cook the syrup over low heat until
thickened, about 5 minutes. Strain it through a coarse sieve.
To make the filling: Saute the apples in the butter until slightly soft. Stir in the honey,
raisins and cinnamon. Remove the filling from the heat and cover it to keep it warm.
Pour V4 cup of the batter into a lightly buttered 8-inch skillet or crepe pan and tilt it to
spread the batter evenly. Cook the crepe for 1 minute on each side. Remove it from the
pan and place it on a towel. Repeat the procedure with the remaining batter. Do not
stack the crepes.
Using about 3 tablespoons per crepe, spoon the filling down the center of each crepe and
fold both sides over. Garnish with raspberries.
Serves 4.
Banana Wheat Germ Pudding
A delicious dessert that's great for breakfast! vitamin E
2 cups milk
1 cup mashed bananas
2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons honey V2 cup raisins
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind V2 cup wheat germ
Scald the milk in a large saucepan. Mix in the bananas, eggs, honey, raisins, lemon rind
and wheat germ. Turn the mixture into a buttered 1-quart casserole and bake at 350° for
50 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the pudding comes out clean. Let it stand for 15
minutes before it's served.
Serves 6.
Almond Cheesecake
The flavor is so extraordinary, you won't believe this is a "health" dish—with about one-
half the calories and one-third the fat of ordinary cheesecake.
vitamin E
Crust
Va cup sunflower seeds
V2 cup wheat germ

1 teaspoon honey
Filling
2 cups ricotta cheese
1 cup low-fat cottage cheese
3 eggs
2 egg whites Vi cup honey
Wi teaspoons vanilla extract
Va cup blanched almonds, chopped
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 tablespoon whole wheat flour
To make the crust: Grind the sunflower seeds in a blender with short bursts on high
speed. In a small bowl, combine the ground sunflower seeds and wheat germ. Add the
oil and honey and stir the mixture with a fork until combined. Press it into a lightly oiled
9-inch springform pan, covering the bottom and halfway up the sides.
To make the filling: Remove any lumps from the ricotta and cottage cheese by mashing
them with a wooden spoon against the sides of a large mixing bowl. (The cottage cheese
can also be pressed through a sieve for smoothness.)
Beat the eggs and egg whites together in a medium-size bowl until light. Add them to the
cheese mixture along with the honey, vanilla, almonds, lemon rind and flour. Stir the
mixture until it's combined. For a light-textured cheesecake, beat the mixture for 5 to 10
minutes on high speed with an electric mixer.
Pour the cheese mixture into the prepared crust and bake at 350° for 45 to 60 minutes.
Turn off the heat and let the cheesecake cool in the oven with the door ajar for about an
hour. Remove it from the oven and let it cool to room temperature before chilling it.
Chill the cheesecake for at least 6 hours before it's served.
Serves 12.
Butter Almond Cookies

Delicate and delightful.
vitamin E
Vi cup butter, at room temperature Vi cup honey
1 egg, beaten V2 cup blanched almonds
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat flour
Beat together the butter and honey. Beat in the egg. Place the almonds in a blender and
grind them with short bursts on high speed. Stir them into the batter with the vanilla.
Add the flour and stir just until the batter is smooth.
Drop the batter by the tablespoon onto two lightly oiled
baking sheets. Bake at 375° for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are
brown.
Makes 2 dozen.
From The 20-Miniite Natural Foods Cookbook by Sharon Claes-sens, Rodale Press,
Emmaus, Pa., 1982.
CHAPTER
138
BREADS AND MUFFINS
Super Squash Muffins
Moist and delicious, these muffins are best piping hot from the oven. Any leftovers can
be reheated for later enjoyment.
Mix the brewer's yeast, flour and baking soda in a large *
bowl. Combine the squash, honey, butter or oil and egg in a %
small bowl. Pour the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture.
Stir in the nuts and raisins. Spoon the batter into greased muffin cups, filling each about
two-thirds full. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes.
Makes about 16.
Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns
thiamine niacin
'/4 teaspoon plus 2 tablespoons honey pinch of ginger '/: cup warm water 1 tablespoon
dry yeast 5 to 5'/2 cups whole wheat flour Va cup nonfat dry milk 1 egg
Va cup vegetable oil l'/3 cups milk 3 tablespoons butter, melted sesame seeds (garnish)
In a small bowl, stir Va teaspoon honey and the ginger into the warm water until they're
dissolved. Add the yeast but do not stir it in. Set the bowl aside until the yeast is foamy,
about 10 minutes.
In a large mixing bowl, combine two cups of the flour with the dry milk. Add the yeast
mixture, egg, oil, 2 tablespoons of honey and the milk. Blend the mixture thoroughly.
Begin adding more flour, 1 cup at a time, until the dough is too stiff to beat with a spoon
or electric beater. Then mix the dough with a dough hook, or knead it by hand for about
5 minutes. The dough should be somewhat sticky, neither runny nor dry. Cover it and let
it rise until doubled, about 45 to 60 minutes.
BREADS AND MUFFINS 813
Divide the dough into 15 equal pieces and shape them into balls. Place them on a well-
oiled baking sheet. Flatten them slightly, brush the tops with the melted butter, and
garnish them with sesame seeds. Allow them to rise until puffed, about 30 minutes.
Bake at 350° for 15 to 20 minutes.
Makes 15.
From Bread Winners by Mel London, Rodale Press, Emmaus, Pa., 1979.
Whole Wheat Biscuits
thiamine niacin
2 cups whole wheat flour 2 teaspoons baking powder Va cup butter % to V4 cup
buttermilk
In a medium-size mixing bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder. Cut in the
butter until the mixture is the consistency of coarse cornmeal. Make a well in the center
of the mixture, and mix in just enough buttermilk for the dough to hold together. With
lightly floured hands, knead the dough lightly. Press or roll out the dough until it's Va
inch thick, then cut it into 8 pieces with a floured biscuit cutter. (If you don't have a
cutter, roll the dough into 8 balls and flatten them slightly.) Place the biscuits touching
one another in a well-buttered 8 x 8-inch baking dish. Bake at 400° for 20 to 25
minutes. Eat them as soon as possible, since they do not keep well.
Makes 8.
Double-Barreled Oatmeal Bread
We call this loaf double-barreled because it's loaded with lots of fiber from the oats, in
addition to lots of yeast. Yet, for all its hardware, it's an amazingly light bread.
thiamine folate pantothenate
niacin
1 tablespoon dry yeast V2 cup warm water
V4 cup buttermilk or milk Va cup honey
2'/2 to 2y4 cups whole wheat flour Va cup rolled oats 1 egg, beaten
V4 cup plus 2 tablespoons brewer's yeast
Sprinkle the tablespoon of yeast over the warm water. Set it aside until the yeast
bubbles. In a small saucepan, combine the buttermilk or milk, honey and butter. Heat
them until the butter melts. Cool the mixture to lukewarm, then stir in the bubbling
yeast.
Combine 1 V2 cups of the flour and the oats in a large bowl. Stir in the yeast mixture and
the egg. Beat vigorously to combine them. Stir in the brewer's yeast and enough
additional flour to make a stiff dough. (Go easy; too much flour will make the bread
heavy.) Work the dough together well, but do not knead it. (It will be too sticky to
knead.)
Transfer the dough to a well-oiled bowl. Brush the top with oil. Cover the bowl and'let
the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Punch it down, then
transfer it to a well-greased 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Let it rise until doubled again.
about 45 minutes. Bake at 375° for about 35 minutes. If the top browns too fast, cover it
with foil.
Makes 1 loaf.
Bravo Banana Bread
thiamine folate
1 V2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
V4 cup brewer's yeast
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup mashed bananas
'/3 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
'/3 cup honey
V3 cup orange juice
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
Butter a 9 X 5-inch loaf pan. Line the pan with a piece of parchment paper cut to cover
the bottom and extend up the 9-inch sides to about V2 inch above the edges. Butter the
paper.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, brewer's yeast and baking soda. In another bowl,
combine the bananas, oil or butter, honey, orange juice, egg and vanilla. Mix the liquid
ingredients into the dry ones. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake at 325° for
50 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the
bread from the pan and immediately peel off the paper.
Makes 1 loaf.
Abruptio placentae, 246 Absorption of nutrients, factors
affecting, 23-28 Acetaldehyde, in cigarette smoke,
46, 64-65 Acetylcholine, 233 Acne, 557
vitamin A in, 390-93, 569, 708 zinc in. 391-92, 708 Addiction to heroin, and
detoxification with vitamin C, 299-302 Additives in food
affecting absorption of
nutrients, 27 eye problems from, 562 Yellow No. 5, 163 Adolescence
delinquency in, 449-54 folate deficiency in, 461 weight problems in, 676-77 Adrenal
glands, 502 Adriamycin side effects, prevention with vitamin E, 50-51 Advertisements,
misleading
statements in, 14 Aflatoxins, 539-40 Aging, 401-14

absorption of nutrients in,
27-28 antioxidants affecting, 394-400 biotin deficiency in, 229 capillary problems in,
305 folate deficiency in, 212-13 malnutrition in, 434 nutrient needs in, 33-39
osteoporosis in, 318 pyridoxine levels in, 177, 466 shingles in, 550, 551 thiamine
requirements in, 126 vitamin B,: deficiency in, 188 vitamin D metabolism in,
324-26 vitamin E needs in, 373, 397-400
Alcohol intake. 44-46
folate deficiency from, 213
in pregnancy, 676
protective effects of vitamin C
in, 541 sperm count affected by, 508 thiamine loss from, 127 vision affected by, 87-88
vitamin C absorption after, 252
Aldose reductase, inhibitors of, 306-7, 428
Allergies, 633
bioflavonoids in, 314 to food, 451-52, 697 hay fever in, 483-87, 633 pantothenate in, 219
Amblyopia, nutritional, 561
p-Aminobenzoic acid, 222-24
interaction with sulfa drugs, 69
Anaphylaxis, vitamin C in, 486
Anemia
in folate deficiency, 460 megaloblastic, 204 pernicious, 67-68, 184, 214 in riboflavin
deficiency, 144-45 sickle cell, vitamin E in, 361-62
Angina pectoris. Sec Heart disease
Antacids, effects of, 44, 414
816
INDEX 817
Antagonists, vitamin, 42-43 Antibiotics

biotin deficiency from, 229 folate deficiency from, 213 Anticoagulants, 497
in pregnancy, affecting infants,
383, 384 as vitamin K antagonists, 383, 385 Antihistamines, natural, 246, 314,
484-87, 633 Antioxidants, 394-400
protective effects of, 395-400 selenium, 395, 398 vitamin A, 399 vitamin C, 74, 395, 398
vitamin E, 347-48, 360, 362, 371, 395, 398 Appetizers, recipes for, 758-60 Arginine,
food sources of, 436 Arteriosclerosis, 732-37
cholesterol levels in. See
Cholesterol coronary bypass in, 733-34 plaque formation in, 278 platelet activity in, 496
protective effects of vitamin C
in, 278-79 in pyridoxine deficiency,
171-77 in smokers, 61-62 Arthritis, 598
bioflavonoids in, 305-6 niacinamide in, 649 osteoarthritis
manual therapy in, 716 prevention of, 652 rheumatoid, vitamin C in, 251 vitamin E in,
589-90 Ascorbic acid. See Vitamin C Aspirin
affecting platelet function, 497 interaction with vitamins, 414 nutritional problems from,
36, 48-49 Asthma, bioflavonoids in, 314, 486 Atheroma, 172 Atherosclerosis. See
Arteriosclerosis
Autoimmune diseases, 397 Azar, Robert, 635-40
Backache, vitamin C in, 610, 649 Bacterial infections. See Infections Baking Soda,
thiamine loss from, 8 Barbiturates, nutritional problems
from, 34 Bedsores
vitamin C in, 249, 491 vitamin E in, 366 Behavior therapy, 721, 722-23 Benzene
exposure, and protective
effects of vitamin C, 271-72 Beriberi. 127, 133. See also Thiamine
heart disease in, 571 Beverages, recipes for, 802-3 Bile, 470
Bioflavonoids, 303-17 as antihistamines, 314 in arthritis, 305-6 in bleeding disorders,

307 in cancer prevention, 313 in capillary problems 304-6 in cataract prevention, 306-7,
427-28 in cold sores, 315-17 food sources of, 311-12 in hay fever, 483, 485-86 hematocrit
levels affected by,
312 preservative action of, 308-9 in retinal inflammation, 306 vitamin C with, 313, 315
Biotin, 225-31
deficiency of, 225-31 in aging, 229 in athletes, 229 in hospital patients,
229-30 immune responses in, 227,
228 sudden infant death syndrome in, 230-31 dosage of, 228
recommended dietary allowance in. 228
818 INDEX
Biotin (continued)
food sources of, 228, 748 Bladder cancer
prevention of, 74 vitamin C effects in, 421, 422 Bleeding disorders, bioflavonoids
in, 307 Blindness, night, 87-88, 560, 569 Blood
clotting of. See Clot formation transfusions of, and hepatitis prevention with vitamin C,
250-51 vitamin E affecting, 332-34 Blood cells
clumping of, 734
bioflavonoids preventing, 308 lymphocyte blastogenesis
affected by vitamin C, 425 riboflavin affecting, 147 vitamin A affecting white cell
count, 90, 104-5 vitamin B12 affecting, 190-91 vitamin C affecting neutrophils, 245, 296-
97, 438 vitamin E affecting, 347-49, 360, 379, 396 Blood vessels, 714, 732-37
arteriosclerosis of. See
Arteriosclerosis capillaries, 628-29
bioflavonoids affecting, 303-6 in eye, nutrition affecting,
627-34 thrombosis in. See Thrombosis Bone
in osteomalacia, 323
in osteoporosis, 318. See also
Osteoporosis in rickets, 327 vitamin C affecting, 478 vitamin D affecting, 319-20 vitamin
K affecting 381-84 Boric acid, vitamin depletion from, 31, 149
Bowel function, vitamin A
affecting, 89-90 Brain. See also Mental problems development affected by
riboflavin, 141-42 fatigue of, 724-25 niacin deficiency affecting, 151-53 Breads
enriched, 123 recipes for, 811-15 Breakfast recipes, 755-57 Breast cancer
prediction of recurrence of,
170 protective agents in vitamin A, 117 vitamin C, 420-21, 423 vitamin E, 340, 374-77 in
thiamine deficiency, 134 Breast cysts, vitamin A in, 707 Brewer's yeast, 120, 143, 599
cholesterol levels affected by,
624-26 lecithin and corn oil with, 660 milk shake of, 686-87 Bronchial cancer. See
lungs,
cancer of Bronchopulmonary dysplasia in
infants, vitamin E affecting, 363 Burns
biotin deficiency in, 230 of eye, vitamin C in, 255-56 vitamin E in, 367, 493
Cadmium toxicity, vitamin C
affecting, 542 Caffeine
behavioral problems from, 665 sperm count affected by, 508 Calcium
affecting histamine levels, 547 interaction with vitamins, 26,
485 loss in bones, in osteoporosis. See Osteoporosis
Caloric intake
age affecting, 413 in dieting, 53-54 empty calories in, 39, 45 Cancer, 595-96 of bladder
prevention of, 74 vitamin C effects in, 421, 422 of breast. See Breast cancer cervical, in
folate deficiency,
210-11 chemical agents causing. See
Chemicals of colon. See Colon cancer of lung. See lungs, cancer of protective agents in,
415-26 antioxidants, 395-96 bioflavonoids, 313 combination of vitamins C
and B,:, 415-18 folate, 211 pyridoxine, 170 riboflavin, 139-41 vitamin A, 113-18,
44()_4I, 530-31 vitamin A acid, 106-7 vitamin C. 287-94,
313-14, 419-26, 611 vitamin D, 328-29 vitamin E, 340-41, 374-77 of skin, from sunlight
exposure, 223 therapy in. See Chemotherapy in thiamine deficiency, 134-35 Capillaries,
628-29
bioflavonoids affecting, 303-6 Cappello, John 656-61 Carbohydrates, 622-23, 735

Carbon monoxide, in cigarette
smoke, 62-63 Caries, dental, 91 Carotene, 94
anti-cancer effects of, 113-18 healing affected by, 491 skin changes from, 69, 118 Carpal
tunnel syndrome, 160-61, 649
pyridoxine in, 160, 165-67. 649 Cataracts, 564-65, 637-38, 642-43 prevention of, 427-30
bioflavonoids in, 306-7,
427-28 vitamin E in, 332, 340, 429 in riboflavin deficiency, 145-46 in tryptophan
deficiency, 429 Cervical dysplasia, in folate
deficiency, 210-11 Chemicals
acetaldehyde in cigarette
smoke, 46, 64-65 as additives. See Additives in
food health hazards from, 101-3 hydrazines as antipyridoxine
compounds, 162-64 infertility from, 504-7 as pollutants. See Pollution toxicity affected
by vitamin C,
271-73 as vitamin antagonists, 42 Chemotaxis, vitamin C affecting,
245, 250 Chemotherapy
adriamycin, and protective
effects of vitamin E, 50-51 hair loss from, 481 nutrition affecting responses
to, 59 vitamin A with, 103-4 vitamin A levels affecting, 117 Chicken pox, 548 Childhood
problems, 662-70, 671-77
in adolescence. See
Adolescence learning disabilities in, 592,
662, 717-18 sudden infant death syndrome in, 230-31 Chinese restaurant syndrome, 168
Chiropractors, 580-82 Chlordane toxicity, vitamin C affecting, 272
Chlorinated water
thiamine loss in, 136-37 vitamin C added to, 274-75 Chlorpromazine, riboflavin
deficiency from, 31 Cholesterol
in bile, corn oil and vitamin B^,
affecting, 471-72 blood levels of, 13,709 in arteriosclerosis, 173 brewer's yeast affecting,
624-26 cholestyramine affecting,
284-85 clofibrate affecting,
282-83 in menopause, 519 niacin affecting, 153 PCBs affecting, 537 pyridoxine affecting,
175 vitamin A affecting, 94 vitamin C affecting, 276-77, 280-81, 284, 519 vitamin E
affecting, 333, 353-57 dietary, reduction of, 735 Cholestyramine, affecting
cholesterol levels, 284-85 Choline, 232-35 dosage of, 234 food sources of, 749 memory
affected by, 232-35 Chondroitin sulfate A, preventing
heart damage, 279-80 Chromium
deficiency of, eye changes in,
332 hexavalent, effects of, 257-58 Chronic illnesses, nutrition
affecting, 691-98 Cigarette smoking. See Smoking Cimetidine, infertility from, 507
Circulatory problems, vitamin E
in, 331, 342, 448 Claudication, intermittent, vitamin E in, 331, 342, 448, 621, 703
Clofibrate, affecting cholesterol
levels, 282-83 Clot formation, 496
prevention of, 498-500, 606 vitamin E affecting, 344-47,
349 vitamin K affecting, 380-81 Cobalamins, 191 Cod liver oil, in eye problems,
643-46 Coenzyme, 9, 120 Coenzyme A, 215-16, 466 Cofactors, nutritional, 630, 632
Coffee, thiamine deficiency from,
137 Cold sores
bioflavonoids in, 315-17 vitamin E in, 367-68 Colds

herbal formula for, 730 prevention with vitamin C. 259-62, 434-35, 609, 703 Colitis,
215-16
Collagen formation, 57, 58, 630 vitamin C affecting, 247-48, 298, 490 Colon cancer,
protective agents in vitamin C, 292, 421,422 vitamin D, 328-29 vitamin E, 340-41
Conjunctivitis, pyridoxine in, 182 Contraceptives, oral, 44, 49-50 folate deficiency from,
208-9,
213 hair loss from, 481 interaction with vitamin A, 99 riboflavin deficiency from, 149
vitamin Bf, with, 457 vitamin E with, 604 Cooking methods, affecting
nutrients in foods, 6-8. See also Food processing Copper, protective effects in lead
poisoning, 542 Corn oil
lecithin and brewer's yeast with, 660
vitamin B^, with, dissolving cholesterol, 471-72 Corticosteroid therapy
nutritional problems from,
34-35 osteoporosis from, 320 side effects of, vitamin C preventing, 295-98 Cramps
dolomite in, 621 vitamin E in, 341-43. 446-48 Criminal activity, nutrition
affecting, 449-54 Crohn's disease, 89-90 Cushing's syndrome, steroid-induced, 298

Cyclophosphamide, vitamin A
with, 104 Cyst(s) of breast, vitamin A in, 707 Cysteine, thiamine and vitamin C
with, for smokers, 46, 65 Cystic fibrosis, vitamin E in, 378-79
Darier's disease, 554-55
Daro, August, 705-10
DBCP, toxic effects of, 101-2, 506
Deafness. See Ear problems
Deficiency diseases
in aging, 405-14, 434
drug-induced. See Drugs
eye test in, 715

subclinical, 29-32, 127-28, 566-71
symptoms of, 702-3 Delinquency, juvenile, nutrition
affecting, 449-54 Dentition
gum care affecting, 473-78
vitamin A affecting. 90-91 Depression, 455-58, 721-22, 729-30
in folate deficiency, 209-11
in menopause, 518 Desserts, recipes for, 804-10
Diabetes mellitus
biotin role in, 231 carbohydrate intake in, 622-23 cataract prevention in
bioflavonoids in, 306-7,
428 vitamin E in, 333, 351, 564 eye problems in, 638 healing problems in, 492
nutritional requirements in, 71,
599 platelet activity in, 499 pyridoxine levels in, 177 retinal disease in,
bioflavonoids in, 306 urine tests in, vitamin C affecting, 68 Dieting
high-protein diets in, 52-54 thiamine loss in, 127 vitamin requirements in, 52-55
Digitalis, nutritional problems
from. 35 Dilantin, affecting folate levels,
584-85 Diseases
chronic, nutrition affecting,
691-98 deficiency. See Deficiency
diseases resistance to. See Resistance to disease Diuretics, nutritional problems
from. 35 DNA
folate deficiency affecting.
459-60 PCBs affecting. 505 Dolomite, for leg cramps. 621 Double-blind trials of vitamin
efficacy. 77-79 Down's syndrome. 523-24 Drugs
in cancer therapy. See

Chemotherapy infertility from, 507-8
Drugs (continued)
interacting with vitamins, 414 nutritional problems from.
33-36, 43-44,47-51 pharmacists and, 678-82 riboflavin deficiency from, 149 vitamin
destruction from, 34-35
Dunn, Paul, 671-77
Dupuytren's contracture, 649
Ear problems, 575-79
vitamin A affecting, 86 Eczema, 728 EDTA, affecting iron absorption,
27 Egg dishes, recipes for, 765-67 Elderly persons. See Aging Embolism, pulmonary,
604 Empty calories
niacin deficiency from, 156-57 thiamine deficiency from, 126 Endocrine function, 501-3
Endurance, vitamin E affecting,
331 Energy, nutrition affecting, 459-68 Enriched food products, 123 Environmental
pollution. See
Pollution Epilepsy, and dilantin affecting
folate levels. 584-85 Epithelial cells, vitamin A
affecting, 109 Estrogen
in bone mass regulation, 320 as therapy in menopause, 516-17 Exercise
affecting nutrient absorption,
28 in atherosclerosis prevention,
355 benefits of, 590,690, 710. 721.
736 biotin needs in, 229 riboflavin needs in, 148
Eyes
cataracts of. See Cataracts conjunctivitis in pyridoxine
deficiency, 182 gyrate atrophy of, 179-81 macular degeneration in, 632,
635-37 nutrition affecting. 627-46 retinal disease in diabetes,
bioflavonoids in, 306 retrolental fibroplasia
prevention with vitamin E,
364 testing for nutrient
deficiencies, 715 in thiamine deficiency. 135 vision problems, 559-565
cod liver oil in, 643-46 vitamin A affecting, 87-89,
560. 569 in vitamin 8,2 deficiency, 186 vitamin C affecting, 255-57 vitamin E affecting,
332, 351 in xerophthalmia, 87, 559
Fat, dietary
affecting absorption of vitamins, 24-25
reduction of, 734-35 Fatigue, 459-68, 602, 636
brain. 724-25
niacinamide affecting. 155
postpartum. 728-29 Fertility problems. See Infertility Fever, reduction of, 438-39 Fiber,
dietary, 614, 623, 735
in cholesterol control, 285 Fibrocystic disease of breast,
vitamin E in, 374-77 Fish recipes, 781-84 Flavonoids, 313 Flour, refined, 7, 123, 597. 632
Folate, 198-214
absorption affected by zinc, 26-27, 207
deficiency of, 459-62
in aging, 36-37, 212-13
in alcoholism, 213 antibiotic-induced, 213 aspirin-induced, 49 cervical dysplasia in,
210-11 depression in, 209-11 immune system in, 433 incidence of, 211-12 mental
problems in, 202,
204 nervous system in,
200-201, 204-5 in oral contraceptive use,
208-9, 213 in pregnancy, 203, 212 resistance to infection in, 203-4 dilantin affecting,
584-85 dosage of, 206, 213, 214 guidelines for, 20-21 recommended dietary allowance
for, 206, 213 food sources of, 205-6,
460-61, 746 in gum problems, 477-78 interaction with
anticonvulsants, 69 laboratory tests affected by,
67-68 losses in cooking, 198-99, 206 metabolism affected by
riboflavin, 147 in mouth wash, 209 sunlight exposure affecting, 199-200 Food industry,
misleading
statements from, 14 Food processing
enriched products in, 123 nitrates in, 268-69, 398, 541 nutrient losses in, 5-8, 40-41, 123
antioxidants, 399 folate, 198-99, 206 pantothenate, 219-20 pyridoxine, 174, 176
riboflavin, 142 thiamine, 127
vitamin E, 373 refined flour in, 7, 123, 597, 632 Food sources of vitamins, 741-53 Free
radicals, formation of, 371, 395 health problems from, 372-73 prevention of, 395-96,
398 Fried, Milton, 580-86 Frozen meat, thawing of, nutrient losses in, 7, 142
Gallstones, 469-72 Genetotrophic disorders, 525-26 Ginter, Emil, 282-86 Glaucoma,

88-89, 645
in thiamine deficiency, 135 Glucose levels
excessive, in diabetes. 5^^ Diabetes mellitus lowered. See Hypoglycemia

Granulomatous disease, chronic,
437-38 Guidelines for vitamin intake,
16-22 Gum problems, 473-78
Hair problems, 479-82, 589, 602 Hall, Johanna, 613-17 Hay fever, 483-87, 633
Headache
herbal formula for, 730 migraine. See Migraine headaches Healing, 57-59, 488-93, 709
bioflavonoids affecting. 310-17 vitamin C affecting, 58, 243,
249-50, 257-58, 490-92 vitamin E affecting. 365-67 Hearing problems. 575-79
vitamin A in, 86 Heart disease, 494-500. 590, 599, 603-6, 656-61, 714, 732-37
arteriosclerotic. See
Arteriosclerosis in beriberi, 571
Heart disease (continued) in menopause, 518-19 platelets in, 497 preventive agents in
niacin, 153 vitamin C, 279-86 vitamin E, 353-57 in thiamine deficiency, 133-34 Heat
infertility from, 506-7 stress reduction in, with vitamin C, 263-65 Heat rash, vitamin C
in, 265-66 Hematocrit levels, bioflavonoids
affecting, 312
Hemoglobin, 63
iron in, 459
methemoglobinemia, 541 in sickle cell anemia, 361 Hemorrhoids, 614 Hepatitis
infectious, vitamin C in 603 serum, prevention with vitamin C, 250-51 Herbal formulas,
730 Heroin addiction, and detoxification with vitamin C, 299-302 Herpes simplex
infections of mouth bioflavonoids in, 315-17 vitamin E in, 367-8 Herpes zoster, 548-53
Hesperidin, 312 Hidden hunger, 29-32 Histamine levels, 484
natural antihistamines affecting, 246, 314, 484-87, 633 in schizophrenia, 547 vitamin C
affecting, 246 Hochberg, Arthur, 727-31 Hodge, Kenneth, 683-90 Holistic medicine,
584-85, 647-55 Homocysteine, 172, 526 Homocystinuria, 181-82, 525-26 Hormone
imbalance, 501-3
riboflavin deficiency in, 149
Hors d'oeuvres, recipes for,
758-60 Hospitalized patients
biotin deficiency in, 229-30 total parenteral nutrition for, vitamin E in, 351-52 Hot
flashes, in menopause, 516,
517, 728 Hydralazine, nutritional problems
from, 35, 414 Hydrazines, as antipyridoxine
compounds, 162-64 Hydrochloric acid secretion, aging
affecting, 188 Hyperactivity, 592, 662, 717 Hypoglycemia, 451
aggressiveness in, 723 hearing problems in, 576-78 herbal formula for, 730
Immune system, 431-45
antioxidants affecting, 396-97 arginine affecting, 436 in biotin deficiency, 227, 228
sugar intake affecting, 666 vitamin A affecting, 90, 104,
439-41 vitamin C affecting, 245,
259-60, 289-90, 425-26,
434-35, 438-39 vitamin E affecting, 334,
336-40 zinc affecting, 435-36 Infections
in biotin deficiency, 227, 228 immune system in, 431-45 resistance to. See Resistance
to disease respiratory, vitamins C and A
in, 706-7 steroid-related, 295-98 virus. See Virus infections of wounds, vitamin A in,
492 Infertility, 504-10
PCB-induced, 535-36 vitamin B,. affecting, 186-87 Injuries, healing in. See Healing
Inositol, food sources of, 749-50 Insecticides, and protective effects
of vitamin C, 272 Insomnia
herbal formula for, 730 in niacin deficiency, 151 Insulin therapy, nutritional
requirements with, 71 Intelligence, nutrition affecting,
521-25 Interactions of nutrients, 25-26 Interferon
in cancer prevention, 443 in virus infections. 442-43 vitamin C affecting, 443-45

Intestinal function, vitamin A
affecting, 89-90 Intrinsic factor, 187-88 Iritis, 644 Iron, 459
absorption affected by EDTA,
27 deficiency of
fatigue in, 468 hair loss in, 481 inorganic, affecting vitamin E,
556, 557 interaction with vitamin C, 26 metabolism affected by
riboflavin, 147 protective effects in lead
poisoning, 542 riboflavin with, 462 vitamin A with, 463 Ischemia, TDA-induced, 102-3
Joint stiffness, niacinamide in, 155
Kidney
stones in, 511-14
prevention of, 70, 73 pyridoxine affecting, 168-69 tumors of, and vitamin C affecting life
expectancy, 421,423
Krehl, Willard, 699-704 Kryptopyrrole, 546
Laboratory tests, vitamins
affecting, 67-68 Lawton, Grant, 647-55 Laxatives
mineral oil, effects of, 35,
383-84, 414 nutritional problems from, 35, 44 Lead poisoning, 542
criminal behavior from, 453 learning problems from, 676 Learning disabilities, 592,
662, 717-18
in lead poisoning, 676 Lecithin
brewer's yeast and corn oil
with, 660 vitamin E with, 603 Legs
cramps in
dolomite in, 621 in intermittent
claudication, 331, 342, 448, 621, 703 vitamin E in, 341-43, 446-48 restless legs
syndrome in pregnancy, 201 Leukemia cells, vitamin C
affecting, 287-88 Lhermitte's sign, 571 Liederbach. Tom, 678-82 Life expectancy
pantothenate affecting, 218-19 vitamin E affecting, 373, 397-400 Lipid levels, biotin
affecting, 231 Lipoprotein cholesterol
vitamin C affecting, 277, 283 vitamin E affecting, 333-34, 353-57 Little, Henry, 641-46
Liver
in thiamine deficiency, 135
Liver (continued)
in vitamin C deficiency, 540 Lowenberg, Robert, 732-37 Lungs
bronchopulmonary dysplasia
in infants, 363 cancer of, protective agents in carotene, 115, 118 thiamine, 134 vitamin A,
530-31 vitamin C, 421-22 ozone damage to, 271 shock lung syndrome, 333 vitamin A
affecting, 109-12 Lupus erythematosus, discoid,
vitamin E in, 358-61 Lymphatic cancer, vitamin C
effects in, 423-24 Lymphocyte blastogenesis, vitamin C affecting, 425
Magnesium
in kidney stone treatment, 73,
512-13 pyridoxine affecting levels of, 169 Magnesium oxide. 661 Malaria, vitamin C in,
250 Malnutrition. See Deficiency
diseases Manipulative therapy, 715-16 Marijuana, sperm count affected
by, 508 Medical profession, attitudes toward nutrition, 585-86, 591-92, 596, 609, 654,
699, 732 Medications. See Drugs Melanoma cells, vitamin C
affecting, 288 Memory
in choline deficiency, 232-35 in niacin deficiency, 151 in thiamine deficiency, 131

Menopause, 515-19
hot flashes in, 516, 517, 728 osteoporosis after, 320, 382, 516
postmenopausal depression, 456, 457 Menorrhagia, vitamin A in, 96-99 Mental

problems, 719-31
depression in. See Depression in folate deficiency, 202, 204 learning disabilities in, 592,
662, 717-18 in niacin deficiency, 570 schizophrenia in, 543-47 in thiamine deficiency,
128-32 in vitamin Bn deficiency,
185-86 vitamin supplements in, 410 Mental retardation, 520-27 Mercury poisoning, 542
protective effects of vitamin E in, 372 Mercytamin, 415-16 Metal poisoning, 541-42
criminal behavior from, 453 Methemoglobinemia, 541 Methionine
affecting histamine levels, 547 food sources of, 176-77 metabolic products of, 172,
181 ratio to pyridoxine in diet, 178 Methotrexate, hair loss from, 481 Microwave cooking,
folate losses
in, 199 Migraine headaches, 595 herbal formula for, 730 platelet activity in, 345-46, 495
Mineral oil, effects of, 35, 383-84,
414 Minerals, interacting with vitamins,
25-26 Miscarriages, prevention with
bioflavonoids, 311 Mononucleosis, infectious, vitamin
C in, 602 Monosodium glutamate, 168 eye problems from, 562 Mouth wash, folate in,
209 Muffins, recipes for, 811-15 Muscle
cramps in
dolomite affecting, 621 vitamin E affecting, 341_43, 446-48 vitamin D affecting, 320-21
Myopia, 562 Myricitrin, 306
Nausea, herbal formula for, 730 Nearsightedness, 562 Necrobiosis lipoidica

diabeticorum, 588 Need for vitamin supplements, 4-8 Neomycin, nutritional problems
from, 43-44 Nervous system
folate affecting, 200-201,
204-5 in thiamine deficiency, 128-29 vitamin B,. affecting, 190-91, 196 Neuralgia,
postherpetic, 550-52 Neurosis, in thiamine deficiency, 128-29. See also Mental
problems Neutrophils, vitamin C affecting,
245, 296-97, 438 Niacin, 151-58
deficiency of, 122, 570
brain function in, 151-53 pellagra in. 122, 154, 544, 570 dosage of, 157, 158 guidelines
for, 19 recommended dietary allowance in, 156 food sources of. 158, 744-45 in
schizophrenia, 544-45, 570 side effects of, 69, 157 supplements for elderly
people, 404, 409 tryptophan with, in depression, 457-58 Niacinamide, 154-55
in osteoarthritis, 649 side effects of, 69 tryptophan and vitamin B,, with, 695, 719-20
Nicotine, effects of, 61
Night blindness, 87-88, 560, 569 Nitrate-treated foods, 268-69, 398 and protective
effects of vitamin C, 541 Nitrogen dioxide exposure, 109-12
and effects of vitamin E, 370 Nitrosamines, effects of, 268-69,
340-41, 398 Nosebleeds, bioflavonoids in,
314-15 Nutrients
interactions of, 25-26
losses in food processing, 5-8,
40-41, 123 maximal absorption of, 23-28 toxic effects of, 68-71 Nutrition, and attitudes
of medical profession, 585-86, 591-92, 596, 609, 654
Obesity, in aged persons, 39 Occupational hazards, infertility
from, 506-7 Ornithine levels, in gyrate atrophy,
180 Orthopedic problems, 647-55 Osteoarthritis
manual therapy in, 716
niacinamide in. 649
prevention of, 652 Osteocalcin, 381-82 Osteomalacia, 323-24 Osteoporosis, 318, 598
glucocorticoid-induced, 34-35
manipulative therapy in, 716
in menopause, 320, 382, 516
prevention of, 651-52 vitamin D in, 319-21
vitamin K in, 382-83 Otitis media, 570 Ovarian cancer, vitamin C effects
in, 422 Oxalates in foods, 513 Oxidation
affecting cell membranes, 347-48, 360, 362
828 INDEX
Oxidation (continued)
antioxidants affecting. See Antioxidants Ozone exposure
vitamin C effects in, 270-71 vitamin E effects in. 370, 529-30
PABA, 222-24
interaction with sulfa drugs, 69 Pain
in cancer patients, vitamin C
affecting, 290, 291 relief of, 649-50 in shingles, 550-51 Pangamic acid, 236-38
Panthenol
for hair problems, 480-81 for surgical patients, 217 Pantothenate, 215-21 in allergies,
219 deficiency of
fatigue in, 466-67 immune system in, 433 dosage of, 220-21, 467 recommended dietary
allowance in, 220, 467 food processing affecting,
219-20 food sources of, 219, 221, 467,
747 in heart disease, 661 life expectancy affected by,
218-19 as protection against radiation injury, 217-18 Para-aminobenzoic acid, 222-24
interaction with sulfa drugs, 69 Pauling, Linus, 278, 289, 420, 611 PCB exposure, 532-
38 infertility in, 535-36 sperm count affected by, 505 thiamine deficiency from, 137
tolerance levels in, 537 vitamins A and C in, 537-38 Pectin, vitamin C with, in
cholesterol control, 285-86
Pediatric problems, 662-70, 671-77. See also Childhood problems Pellagra, 122, 154,
544, 570. See
also Niacin Pellicano, Victor, 608-12 Penicillin, excretion of, 74-75 Periodontal disease,
474-78 Pharmacists, role of, 678-82 Phenobarbital, nutritional problems
from, 34 Phenylalanine, in depression, 722 Phlebitis, 345
Pityriasis rubra pilaris, 556-57 Placebo effect, 77 Platelet activity, 13, 494-500
aggregation in. 495 smoking affecting, 61-62 vitamin E affecting, 58, 345-47, 349
Pollution, 528-42
chemicals in. See Chemicals nitrogen dioxide in, 109-12,
370 nitrosamines in, 268-69.
340-41. 398 ozone in. 270-71. 370. 529-30 PCBsin. 137,404, 532-38 protective agents in
vitamin C, 268-73 vitamin E, 369-72 Poultry, recipes for. 785-89 Powers. Hugh. Jr.,
662-70 Pregnancy
alcohol intake in. 676 anticoagulants in. affecting
infants. 383, 384 bioflavonoids preventing
miscarriages in, 311 folate deficiency in, affecting
offspring, 203 folate mouth wash in, 209 restless legs syndrome in, 201 riboflavin
deficiency in,
141-42. 149 vitamin C needs in. 246 Premature infants, vitamin E

affecting, 363-64 Preventive medicine, 683-718
Prickly heat, vitamin C in, 265-66 Processed foods. See Food
processing Prostacyclins, 332-33, 496, 500 vitamin E affecting, 350-51 Prostaglandins,

496 Protein, in high-protein diets,
52-54 Provitamin A. See Carotene Psoriasis, 598 Pyridoxine, 159-82
antifatigue effects of, 464-66 blood levels in depression,
456-57 in cancer prevention, 170 in carpal tunnel syndrome,
160, 165-67, 649 in conjunctivitis, 182 corn oil with, dissolving
cholesterol, 471-72 deficiency of, 160-63
arteriosclerosis in, 171-77 drug-induced, 50 hair loss in, 481 hydralazine-induced, 35

immune system in, 432-33 dosage of, 161-62, 164, 167 guidelines for, 19 recommended
dietary allowance for, 161, 167 food sources of, 167, 176, 745 in gyrate atrophy, 179-81 in
homocystinuria, 526 hydrazines affecting, 162-64 in kidney stone prevention,
168-69, 513-14 losses during cooking, 7-8 magnesium levels affected by,
169 niacinamide and tryptophan
with, 695, 719-20 ratio to methionine in diet. 178 side effects of, 69 Pyroluria, in
schizophrenia, 546
Quercetin, 306, 314 Quercitrin, 306-7, 428
Radiation exposure, protective agents in
pantothenate, 217-18 vitamin A, 105-6, 116 vitamin C, 269-70 vitamin E, 371-72 Raiford,
Morgan, 627-34 Raynaud's phenomenon, vitamin E
affecting, 397 Recipes, 755-815
appetizers and hors d'oeuvres,
758-60 beverages, 802-3 breads and muffins, 811-15 breakfasts, 755-57 desserts and
snacks, 804-10 eggs, 765-67 fish, 781-84 main dishes, 768-80 poultry and liver, 785-89
salads, 799-801 side dishes, 790-98 soups, 761-64 Recommended Dietary Allowance
(RDA), 10-15 limitations in, 15 Reproductive system
in fertility problems, 504-10,
535-36 vitamin A affecting, 96 vitamin B,: affecting, 187 Resistance to disease, 431-45,
666 in folate deficiency, 203-4 immune system in. See
Immune system steroid drugs affecting, 295-98 vitamin C affecting, 259-62 vitamin E
affecting, 334-35, 336-41 Respiratory infections, vitamins C
and A in, 706-7 Restless legs syndrome, in
pregnancy, 201 Retinoic acid, in acne, 391-92 Retinyl acetate, 492 Retrolental
fibroplasia, prevention
with vitamin E, 364 Rhodopsin, 560
Riales, Rebecca, 618-26 Riboflavin. 138-50
blood cells affected by, 146-47 in cancer prevention. 139-41 deficiency of, 122. 144-50
cataracts in. 145-46 drug-induced, 149 dosage of, 143, 150
guidelines for, 18-19 recommended dietary allowance in, 143. 150 folate metabolism
affected by,
147 food sources of, 142. 143, 148,
462, 743-44 hidden hunger for, 30-31 iron metabolism affected by,
147 losses in food processing, 7.
142 in pregnancy, 141-42 supplements for elderly people, 409 Rickets. 327-28
adult. 323 Ritalin, 592, 662 Rutherford, Susan, 691-98 Rutin, 312
Salads, recipes for, 799-801 Saunders, Milton. 587-93 Schizophrenia, 543-47
niacin in, 544-45, 570 Scurvy, 240, 247, 278, 303-4, 502, 566-69. See also Vitamin C
healing problems in, 491 Selenium
as antioxidant. 395, 398
deficiency of, eye changes in, 332
protective effects in mercury poisoning, 542 Self-diagnosis, hazards in, 66-67 Serotonin
biosynthesis. 696. 720
thiamine affecting. 132-33 Shampoos, food in, 479-80
Shilstone, Mackie, 635-40 Shingles, 548-53

vitamin C in, 609 Shock lung syndrome, vitamin E
in. 333 Sickle cell anemia, vitamin E in,
361-62 Side effects of nutrients, 68-71 Skin.554-58, 587-89 acne of. See Acne cysts of.
vitamin A in. 707 eczema of. 728
healing affected by vitamin C. 58. 243. 249-50. 257-58. 490-92 in niacin deficiency, 570
sunlight affecting. 222-23 tanning of. 222-24. 326 in vitamin A deficiency. 569 vitamin
D production in,
325-26 vitamin E affecting. 365-68. 397 Smell sense, vitamin A affecting,
87 Smoking, 60-65
arteriosclerosis related to, 176
blindness from, 643
blood vessel contraction from,
632 gum problems from, 474, 478 nutritional problems from,
44-46 protective agents with
combined nutrients, 46, 65 vitamin A, 530-31 vitamin C, 62-64 vitamin E, 61-62, 334,
370 sperm count affected by, 508 vitamin C affected by. 251, 487. 610 Snacks, recipes
for. 804-10 Solomon. Barbara, 594-600 Soups, recipes for, 761-64 Sperm abnormalities,
504-9 in PCB exposure, 536 in vitamin B,: deficiency, 187 Spermagglutination, 509-10
Steroid therapy. See Corticosteroid
therapy Stomach cancer, vitamin C effects
in, 421 Stress
cold, and effects of vitamin C,
259-62 heat, and effects of vitamin C,
263-66 orthopedic problems from,
650-51 pantothenate requirements in,
215-21 radiation induced. See Radiation exposure vitamin A protection in, 101-7 vitamin
C requirements in, 242-43 Strokes, 683-90
clot formation in, 345, 349 platelet activity in, 496-97 protective effects of bioflavonoids
in, 305 Subclinical deficiency, 29-32,
127-28, 566-71 Sudden infant death syndrome,
230-31 Sugar intake
behavioral problems from, 664 hypoglycemia from, 451 immune response affected by,
666 intolerance of, 729 learning disabilities from, 592 niacin deficiency from, 156-57
osteoporosis from, 598 reduction of, 615, 617 thiamine deficiency from. 126 Sulfa drugs,
interacting with
PABA, 69 Sulphasalazine, infertility from, 508 Sunlight exposure
cataracts from, 565 folate losses from, 199-200 skin damage from, 222-23 vitamin D
synthesis in, 319, 322-24 Sunscreens, PABA in, 223-24
Superoxide dismutase, 583 Surgery
coronary bypass, nutrition
after, 733-34 gastric, vitamin B,2 deficiency
from, 185, 186, 187 nutrition affecting, 56-59, 651 recovery affected by panthenol, 217
Tangeretin, 312
Tannic acid, thiamine deficiency
from, 41, 137 Tanning
sunscreens for, 222-24 vitamin D production in, 326 Tartrazine, as vitamin B,, inhibitor,
163 Taste function, vitamin A
affecting, 87 Tea, tannic acid in, thiamine
deficiency from, 41, 137 Teeth
gum care affecting, 473-78 vitamin A affecting, 90-91 Tension, herbal formula for, 730
Testing of vitamin efficacy, 77-81 costs of, 80
double-blind trials in, 77-79 problems in, 79-80 Thalassemia, vitamin E in, 363
Thiamine, 124-37
deficiency of, 124-29, 571 beriberi in, 127, 133, 571 cancer in, 134-35 cardiovascular
problems
in, 133-34, 404 digitalis-induced, 35 eyes in, 135 liver in. 135 memory loss in, 131 mental
problems in,
128-32 nervous sytem in, 128-29, 404
Thiamine (continued)
subclinical, 127-28 in vitamin B,2 deficiency, 184 dosage of, 125-26 guidelines for, 18
recommended dietary allowance in, 125-26 food sources of, 742-43 healing affected by,
493 losses during cooking, 7-8, 41 side effects of, 69 supplements for elderly
people, 409 vitamin C and cysteine with, for smokers, 46, 65 Thiazides, effects of, 514
Thompson, Charles, 691-98 Thrombi, silent, 497 Thrombosis, 345
vitamin C preventing, 498-500 in vitamin E deficiency, 58 Thromboxanes. 332-33, 500
vitamin E affecting, 350-51 Thymus gland, vitamin A affecting,
90, 104-5, 502-3 Thyroid disorders, riboflavin
deficiency in, 149 Timing of vitamin intake, 25
and divided doses of vitamin C, 251-53 Tinnitus, 575-79 Tobacco smoking. See Smoking
a-Tocopherol. See Vitamin E Toluene diamine (TDA), toxic
effects of, 102-3 Tongue color, in riboflavin
deficiency, 138 Toxic effects of nutrients, 68-71 Triamterene, nutritional problems
from, 35 Tryptophan
deficiency of, cataract
formation in, 429 in depression, 456-58, 518 niacinamide and vitamin B^ with, 695,
719-20
Ulcers
in bedsores. See Bedsores corneal, 645
peptic, TDA-induced, 102-3 Ultraviolet light. See Sunlight
exposure Uric acid levels, vitamin C
affecting, 70 Urinary tract infections, vitamin C
in, 73 Urine
testing in diabetes, vitamin C
affecting, 68 vitamin excretion in, 72-75
Vasectomy, and menorrhagia in
women, 99 Vegetarians
cholesterol intake of, 283 vitamin Bp deficiency in,
191-92 vitamin D deficiency in, 327 Virus infections
bioflavonoids in, 314 interferon in, 442-43 shingles, 548-53 vitamin C in, 259, 602-3,
609-10 Vision problems, 559-65. See also
Eyes Vitamin(s)
antagonists of, 42-43 deficiencies of, 566-71. See
also Deficiency diseases dependency on, 545 food sources for, 741-53 guidelines for
intake of, 16-22 interaction with minerals, 25-26 Vitamin A, 85-118
acid analog of, 106-7, 391 in acne, 390-93, 569, 708 as antioxidant, 399 blood levels
affected by drugs, 47-48
INDEX 833
bowel function affected by,
89-90 cancer drugs with, 103-4 in cancer prevention, ! 13-18,
440-41, 530-31 chemotherapy affected by, 117 in cysts, 707 deficiency of, 569-70
night blindness in, 560,
569 sperm in, 509 vision problems in, 563, 569 dosage of, 95, 118
guidelines for, 17 eyes affected by, 87-89 food sources of, 94, 741-42 healing affected by,
58, 492 hearing affected by, 86, 577 immune function affected by,
439-41 iron supplementation with, 463 lung function affected by,
109-12 in menorrhagia, 96-99 protective effects of, 92-94 in aging, 404 in toxic chemical
exposure, 102-3, 537-38 radiotherapy and, 105-6, 116 in respiratory infections, 706-7
side effects of, 68-69 smell and taste affected by, 87 teeth affected by. 90-91 thymus
affected by. 90, 104-5,
502-3 vitamin E with, in skin

diseases, 555-58 zinc with, 560-61 Vitamin B complex, 119-235 in dieting program, 55
losses in food processing, 41 side effects of, 69 supplements for elderly people, 407-10
Vitamin B,. See Thiamine
Vitamin B:. See Riboflavin Vitamin B^. See Pyridoxine Vitamin B,., 183-97 deficiency of,
571 in aging, 188 drug-induced, 50 infertility in, 186-87 mental problems in, 185-86
pernicious anemia in, 184 tests for, 194-97 visual defect in, 186 dosage of, 191
guidelines for, 20 recommended dietary
allowance in, 191 food sources of, 192, 462,
746 vitamin C with, in cancer prevention, 415-18 "Vitamin B,s," 236-38 Vitamin C, 239-
302
added to chlorinated water,
274-75 in adrenal glands, 502 in alcohol detoxification,
540-41 alcohol intake affecting, 252 as antihistamine, 246, 484-87,
633 as antioxidant, 74, 395, 398 in back problems, 610, 649 bioflavonoids with, 313, 315
blocking nitrosamine formation, 268-69 in cholesterol control, 276-77, 280-81, 284, 519
pectin with, 285-86 in cold prevention, 259-62,
434-35, 609, 703 collagen affected by, 247-48,
298, 490 deficiency of, 566-69
drug metabolism in, 51 fatigue in, 468 folate deficiency in. 214 liver disease in, 540
scurvy in. See Scurvy
Vitamin C (continued)
dosage of, 240-42, 251, 278, 468 divided doses in, 251-53 guidelines for, 21
recommended dietary allowance in, 240-42, 278, 468 in eye disorders, 255-57 food
sources of, 750-51 healing affected by, 58, 243,
249-50, 257-58, 490-92 in heat rash, 265-66 in hepatitis prevention,
250-51, 603 immune function affected by, 245, 259-60, 289-90, 425-26, 434-35, 438-39
inhibiting bone resorption, 478 inhibiting cell transformation,
292-94 interaction with calcium, 485 interaction with minerals, 26 interferon affected
by, 443-45 laboratory tests affected by, 68 losses in food processing, 5-7,
40 in malaria, 250 metabolism affected by drugs,
36, 49, 50 in pain relief, 290, 291, 423 in peridontal disease, 476-77 in pregnancy, 246
protective effects of
in aflatoxin poisoning,
539-40 against tannic acid, 137 in aging, 402, 403-5 in arteriosclerosis, 278-79 in
cancer, 287-94, 313-14,
419-26, 611 in heart disease, 279-86 in heat stress, 263-65 in heroin addiction,
299-302 in nitrate-induced
disorders, 541 in ozone exposure, 270-71
in PCB exposure, 537-38 in radiation exposure,
269-70 in smokers, 46, 62-64, 65 in steroid therapy, 295-98 in urinary tract, 73-74 in
virus infections, 602-3, 609-10 in respiratory infections, 706-7 in rheumatoid arthritis,
251 in schizophrenia, 545-46 in shingles, 552-53, 609 side effects of, 69-70 smoking
affecting, 251, 487,
610 in spermagglutination reversal.
509-10 thiamine and cysteine with, for
smokers, 46, 65 in thrombosis prevention,
498-500 in thyroid glands, 502 vitamin B,: with, in cancer
prevention, 415-18 vitamin E with, 463, 517 Vitamin D, 318-29
in colon cancer prevention,
328-29 deficiency in rickets, 327-28 food sources of, 326-27, 751 guidelines for intake of,
21-22 interaction with minerals, 26 metabolism of
aging affecting, 324-26
drugs affecting, 34, 35
in osteoporosis prevention,
318-21 side effects of, 70 sunlight affecting synthesis of, 319, 322-24 Vitamin E, 330-79
anticlotting effects of, 344-47,
349 as antihistamine, 486-87 as antioxidant, 347-48, 360,
362, 371, 395, 398 in arthritis, 589-90 in burns, 367, 493

in cancer prevention, 340-41,
374-77 in cataract prevention, 340,
564-65 cells affected by, 347-49, 360,
396 cholesterol levels affected by,
333-34, 353-57 in circulatory problems, 331,
342, 448 in cold sores, 367-68 in cramp relief, 341-43,
446-48 in cystic fibrosis, 378-79 deficiency of
cataract formation in, 429 platelet activity in, 58, 498 vision problems in, 562-63
destruction by inorganic iron,
556, 557 in diabetes, 333, 351 in discoid lupus
erythematosus, 358-61 dosage of, 334-35, 337, 340,
349, 357, 373, 399, 605 in childhood, 379 guidelines for, 22 recommended dietary
allowance in, 334 in Dupuytren's contracture,
649 in eye problems, 332, 351 in fibrocystic breast disease,
374-77 food sources of, 343, 373,
751-52 healing affected by, 365-67,
493 in heart disease, 603-5, 661 in intermittent claudication,
331, 342,448, 621, 703 lecithin with, 603 life span affected by, 373,
397-400 in menopause, 517-18, 519 in postherpetic neuralgia,
551-52
prostacyclins affected by,
332-33, 350-51 protective effects of
in adriamycin therapy,
50-51 in blood, 332-34 in lead poisoning, 542, 676 in mercury poisoning, 542 in ozone
pollution. 529-30 in polluted environment,
370-72 in premature infants,

363-64 in resistance to disease,
334, 336-41 in smokers, 61-62 in sickle cell anemia, 361-62 side effects of, 70-71 in skin
problems, 397, 588-90
vitamin A with, 555-58 in thalassemia, 363 thromboxanes affected by,
332-33, 350-51 in total parenteral nutrition,
351-52 vitamin C with, 463 Vitamin K, 380-85 dosage of, 385
food sources of, 385, 752-53 role in bone mineralization,
381-83 role in coagulation, 380-81 Vitamin P, 304
Walker, Harvey, 601-7 Water, chlorinated
thiamine loss in, 136-37 vitamin C added to, 274-75 Weight problems
in adolescence. 676-77 in aging, 39 dieting in
high-protein diets in,
52-54 thiamine loss in. 127 vitamin requirements in, 52-55
Wernicke's disease, 130 Yellow No. 5, effects of, 163
Wheat germ, 55, 206, 343, 399
Wound healing. See Healing rw
Wrinkling, premature, from Jlj
sunlight, 223 Zinc
Wunderlich, Ray, 711-18 deficiency of
Y acne in, 391-92, 708 A. in alcoholism, 45 Xerophthalmia, 87, 559 folate absorption in,
^ 26-27, 207
Y in immune system Yanick, Paul 576-79 dysfunction, 435-36 Yaryura-Tobias, Jose,

719-26 vitamin A with, 560-61
Rodale Press, Inc.. publishes PREVENTION*, the better health magazine.
For information on how to order your subscription,

write to PREVENTION*, Emmaus, PA 18049.

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20. The Number One Anti-Cancer Vitamin 113

21. Reap the Rewards of Nutritional Teamwork 119

22. The Thiamine Thief

May Be Stealing Your Health 124

23. Make Up Your Mind—Eat More Thiamine 130

24. Keep in the Pink with Riboflavin 138

25. Riboflavin Is Ready to Help 144

26. Niacin for Brighter Moods

and Better Memory 151

27. Why This Epidemic

of Vitamin B^ Deficiency? 159

28. Vitamin B^ for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome 165

29. B6—Maybe the Answer to Heart Disease 171

30. Bft for Common and Uncommon Ailments 179

31. Bi2—More than Anemia Protection 183

32. B,2 for Healthy Nerves and Blood 189

33. Unsuspected B,2 Deficiencies 193

34. Folate, the Gold in the Cooking Water 198

35. Folate: A Woman's Best Friend 208

36. Pantothenate—The Anti-Stress Vitamin 215

37. Tan without Burning with PABA 222

38. Biotin—The Little-Known Lifesaver 225

39. Choline for a Sharper Memory 232

Vitamin C and the Bioflavonoids

41. Brimming with Health (and Vitamin C!) 239

42. Vitamin C: Changing Your Body

for the Better 244

43. Vitamin C, Super Healer 254

44. insulate Your Health with Vitamin C 259

45. Keep Cool with Vitamin C 263

46. Make Vitamin C Your Shield against

47. Clean Chlorine from Your Water with

48. C Is for Cholesterol—And Its Control 276

49. Vitamin C, Pectin and Heart Disease 282

50. Can Vitamin C Prevent the Common Cancer? 287

51. Using Cortisone Drugs? Better Check

Your Vitamin C! 295

52. Vitamin C and Heroin Addiction 299

53. Bioflavonoids for Healthy Capillaries 303

54. Healing with Bioflavonoids 310

55. Don't Let Thin Bones Let You Down 318

56. The Sunshine Vitamin

Can Brighten Your Health 322

58. Vitamin E—Jack of All Trades,

Master of Most 336

59. Vitamin E Lubricates the Circulation 344

60. Help Your Heart with Vitamin E 353

61. Vitamin E—Strong Medicine

for Rare Diseases 358

62. Nutrition That Starts at Skin Level 365

63. Vitamin E, When It's Sink or Swim 369

64. Vitamin E Helps Protect the Breasts 374

65. CF Kids Require Extra Vitamin E 378

66. Your Foundation Needs Vitamin K 380

BOOK III—VITAMIN THERAPY FOR DISEASE

67. Vitamin A for Acne 390

68. Antioxidant Vitamins

69. Vitamins for Living Longer 401