Re: Vitamin A causing hip fracture?

[Guest guest]

I read Mercola's news item and his comments. The study is fingering

synthetic vitamin A as it appears in multivitamin preparations. Mercola

mentioned this in his comments and emphasized that he did not think that

vitamin A from food sources like cod liver oil was dangerous. But I think he

could have emphasized that it was the synthetic vitamin A that was really to

blame in the recent journal item.

It should be noted that negative findings on vitamin A typically involve

non-food vitamin A. I think Sally and 's recent article on vitamin A in

Wise Traditions discussed this at length. Perhaps Sally can shed more light

on this when she returns from Florida.

SCB

>From: Roman <r_rom@...>

>Reply-

>

>Subject: Vitamin A causing hip fracture?

>Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2002 19:44:05 -0800 (PST)

>

>I just read an article about high vitamin A (they say

>retinol) as a possible factor in osteoporosis. Could

>somebody (maybe Sally or Dr. Byrnes) analyse that

>(both report on the study and Dr. Mercola's comment?

>

>He also talks about trans form and cis form of vitamin

>A. Which form do you mostly get from food? Is what he

>says about the cis form correct?

>

>Roman

>

>__________________________________________________

>

[Guest guest]

my father sent me the same article. the following is the response i sent

him. (granted, some of the info will be obvious to people on this list, but

my dad has little knowledge about nutritional issues)

the study did not establish vitamin A as the cause of anything. if the

researchers wanted to establish vitamin A as a cause, they simply would have

given it to rats, but not to a control group, and waited to see the effects.

all that they have found is a correlation and a correlation doesn't mean

anything.

what the researchers have not considered is this:

women who have a tendency to be less healthy (e.g. are prone to hip

fractures, among other health problems) are more likely to be taking vitamin

supplements.

why might they do this - b/c they feel unhealthy and are trying to prevent

future disease. they take vitamins -which they feel they need, esp. to

prevent things like osteoporosis. vitamin taking is just an indication of

their search for good health (and possibly and indication of their awareness

of their poor health).

the following is a very plausible example of why women (vitamin taking or

not) might have weaker bones:

women are already taking massive does of estrogen (from menopausal drugs and

soy, soy is loaded with estrogen) which depletes the bones of calcium (by

interfering with the natural regeneration of bones). additionally, every

time they eat sugar and refined flour, the body pulls calcium out of the

bones. - sometimes this can be felt by pain in the teeth after drinking a

soda. hence, woman are left particularly vulnerable to bone loss and bone

fractures.

my suggestion is that the unhealthy women are - by coincidence - doing two

things:

1. taking vitamins

2. breaking bones

therefore a correlation is found between vitamin A and hip fractures in

older women.

another suggestion, if one wants to target vitamins, is that the majority of

people are not getting enough vitamin D (needed to use calcium). vit D is a

fat soluble vitamin and the D found in multi-vitamins and fortified milk is

useless (it's powdered and ineffective). (most) supplements are always

weighted toward high levels of vit A and useless levels of vitamin D. plus,

vitamin D is only available from a few foods (cod liver oil). other than

that - we get it from the sun, and we're avoiding the sun. even with full

sun exposure, we need a key ingredient to make vitamin D from the sun -

CHOLESTEROL - something we avoid just as much as the sun.

unfortunately, CNN never considers alternative explanations - i have written

to them many times about this. their science reporting is pathetic. they

never respond to my letters (email) so i finally saved myself stress by not

reading their health news anymore.

actually, the best health scenario would be this:

scientist and doctors stop living off the hands of pharmaceutical

companies and find some real answers to the health problems (actually, most

of the answers have been found, just forgotten or ignored).

the media stops playing scare tactics with consumers - by articles and

advertising

technology stops messing with our food so we can eat and not worry about

taking supplements.

----- Original Message -----

From: " Roman " <r_rom@...>

< >

Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2002 10:44 PM

Subject: Vitamin A causing hip fracture?

I just read an article about high vitamin A (they say

retinol) as a possible factor in osteoporosis. Could

somebody (maybe Sally or Dr. Byrnes) analyse that

(both report on the study and Dr. Mercola's comment?

He also talks about trans form and cis form of vitamin

A. Which form do you mostly get from food? Is what he

says about the cis form correct?

Roman

__________________________________________________

[Guest guest]

We will report on thei vitamin A study in the next issue of Wise Tradtions.

sally

[Guest guest]

See similar shenanigans on vitamin A in our article Vitamin A Knavery on the

website. Sally