Fw: Vitamin Euphoria - A Shot in the Dark? By s Moritz

[Guest guest]

SORR FOR THE LONG POSTING BUT I THINK THIS IS A GOOD ARTICLE RELEVANT TO ALL

ILLNESS.

: " Vitamin Euphoria - A Shot in the Dark? " By s Moritz

Dear Friends,

So many people have been asking me about the value of taking vitamins lately.

Today, CNN, reported about a new, 30-year comprehensive study conducted on

vitamin A. The study confirmed that taking this vitamin can cause major bone

loss problems, among other things. I have written about the subject of vitamins

in my book, The Key to Health and Rejuvenation in 1998. It is now becoming

increasingly relevant as more and more studies question the usefulness of taking

extra vitamins. If you are interested in the subject, this may help you clear up

some of the confusion.

s

Vitamin Euphoria - A Shot in the Dark

V

itamins seem to be good for everything. The newly born needs them to grow

properly; women take them to be happy; men use them to maintain or increase

potency; athletes ingest them to stay fit; and old people take them to become

younger or to avoid the flu. Even foods are categorised into bad or good,

depending on how few or many vitamins they contain. Ever since vitamins were

produced synthetically they were made available in every drugstore or health

shop around the world. Now you don't have to eat all that vitamin-rich food

anymore to stay healthy, all you need is to pop in a couple of vitamin pills a

day, so the advertising goes. But if you don't pay heed to this advice, you are

told that you may eventually be suffering the consequences of vitamin

deficiency, which can greatly endanger your health.

If you feel tired or suffer from lack of concentration (which could be caused

by lack of sleep or overeating), you may be prescribed vitamin B pills. Then

there is vitamin C if you catch too many colds (which could result from stress,

working too hard or eating too much junk food). Vitamin E, you are told, helps

to prevent a heart attack (so you may no longer need to watch out for the real

risk factors of heart disease). This way we spend billions of dollars on vitamin

pills each year to fight off every kind of ill from the common cold to cancer.

Today vitamins are added to almost all processed foods, not because they are so

good for our health but because those that are " enriched " sell better. Cereals,

bread, milk, yoghurt, boiled sweets, even dog food with added vitamins leave the

supermarket shelves faster than do those without them. Smokers, meat eaters,

sugar addicts, or people who drink too much alcohol can now continue with their

habits without having to fear the dreaded vitamin deficiency, thanks to the food

industry. The magic food supplements have become an insurance policy against

poor diet and nobody has to feel guilty anymore over eating junk food. And on

top of that, scientific research suggests that taking large doses of supplements

may protect you against disease, even though there is no real evidence that it

does. As seen in the sales figures, the public believes that the more vitamins

you take, the healthier you get.

But are vitamins really so good for your health? Despite the massive amounts of

vitamins consumed in western societies, general health is declining everywhere.

Could the mass consumption of vitamins be even co-responsible for this trend?

Sodium and water are essential to maintain sodium levels and hydrate the body,

but too much of either can seriously upset the body's equilibrium.

Overconsumption of vitamin A, for example, can cause loss of hair, double

vision, headaches, and vomiting in women, all indications of vitamin poisoning.

If a woman is pregnant, the supplement can even harm her unborn baby. As we will

see, vitamins can even endanger a person's life.

Vitamin Deficiency -- Is There Such a Thing?

In the beginning of the 17th century, Japan was afflicted with a disease, called

beriberi, which killed many people. By the year 1860, over 1/3 of Japan's

marines had fallen ill with symptoms of weight loss, frequent heart complaints,

loss of appetite, irritability, burning sensations in the feet, lack of

concentration, and depression. The symptoms quickly disappeared whenever rice,

Japan's most important staple food, was replaced with other foods.

Thirty years later the Dutch physician Christiaan Eijkman conducted an

experiment feeding chicken with white rice. The chicken developed symptoms such

as loss of weight, weakness, and signs of nerve infection, which Eijkman

interpreted as beriberi. The symptoms disappeared again when the chickens were

fed with brown rice. Soon later Eijkman discovered a few, previously unknown,

substances within the bran of the whole rice; one of them was named B1. The era

of vitamins had begun.

But beriberi wasn't caused by vitamin B1 deficiency. People no longer suffered

from beriberi once they discontinued eating rice altogether. It should have been

noticed that, with " no rice -- no vitamin B1 -- no beriberi, " the disease must

have had other causes than vitamin deficiency. Japanese marine soldiers died

within three days after consuming white rice, yet it takes much longer than that

to get a B1 deficiency. The origin of this mysterious disease was revealed when

in 1891 a Japanese researcher discovered that beriberi is caused by the poison

citreoviridine. Citreoviridine is produced by mould in white rice stored in

filthy and humid environments.

Yet until today, the vitamin B1-beriberi-hypothesis is still maintained in

medical text books around the world. Although it has never been proved that a B1

deficiency causes such symptoms as fatigue, loss of appetite, exhaustion,

depression, irritability, and nerve damage, many patients having these symptoms

are told that they have a vitamin-B deficiency. During vitamin B1 trial studies,

all the participants complained about the highly monotonous diet they were

given; they suffered fatigue and loss of appetite, regardless of whether they

received B1 in their diet or not. As soon as they returned to their normal diet,

even without B1, the symptoms spontaneously disappeared.

Another one of the B-vitamin group is nicotinic acid or also known as niacin. It

has become very popular and is added to many foods. Niacin is supposed to

safeguard us against diarrhoea, dementia, and the skin disease pellagra.

Pellagra is more widespread among people who eat maize, though not everyone who

eats maize gets pellagra. Pellagra was found to be caused by food poisoning

through spoiled maize. The poison involved has been identified as T2-toxine and

is known to disturb niacin metabolism, thus producing pellagra. Besides the

great importance given to taking extra niacin today this substance is not a

vitamin after all as it can be produced by the body itself.

Nobody Knows How Much of Them You Really Need

Governments and international organisations such as the WHO frequently release

figures that propose a Daily Ratio of Allowance (DRA) for every vitamin that is

supposed to be good for you. The nutritional experts in different countries

however, have different opinions about how many of them we really need. An

American, for example, is supposed to take 60mg of vitamin C, whereas a British

citizen is considered better off taking only 30mg. A Frenchman can only remain

healthy if he consumes 80mg of this vitamin whereas Italians are told they need

45mg. These figures are " adjusted " every few years, although our bodies' basic

nutritional requirements have not changed over the past thousands of years.

Nobody really knows how many vitamins are good for us because the requirements,

constitutions, and absorption rates for vitamins differ from person to person.

Vitamins need to be digested before they can be made available to the cells and

tissues. If AGNI, the digestive power, is low, then also vitamins cannot be

digested properly.

When scientists calculate our vitamin requirements, they usually add a 50

percent " safety factor " to the original figures to make certain that we eat

enough of them. Since vitamin extraction from food is much less than 100

percent, the figures are increased one more time. The official methods of

analysing the amount of vitamins we require are inadequate because we do not

know how much of each vitamin the human physiology needs. A Vata type, for

example, may have a greater need for vitamin B 6 whereas a Kapha type can never

really run out of it.

It is also not known how much of each vitamin is contained in a banana, in an

apple or a cauliflower. Vitamin contents fluctuate greatly with the size of the

fruits, their maturity, the condition of the soil, country of origin, and the

use of pesticides. How many of the vitamins contained in these foods actually

end up in the body depends on the digestive capacity and body-type. All this

makes official nutritional figures highly unreliable and speculative.

The vitamin theories originate in the assumption that the human physiology has

stores for vitamins that always must be full up to saturate the tissues of the

body. This assumption, however, has never been proven by scientific research.

While calculating human vitamin requirements, nutritional science assumes that

the body's metabolic processes take place at a top speed, which would require

plenty of vitamins. Our bodies, however, are not machines that are being at top

capacity day and night. Most of us are not marathon runners, and even they don't

run for 24 hour's day after day, month after month and year after year.

It is very questionable whether the saturation of our body tissues with vitamins

is even desirable. We need a certain amount of fatty tissue in our body but this

does not mean we should all be excessively filled with fat. Oxygen too is

considered being vital for all our body's functioning but if its concentration

in the air is consistently too high it can actually cause us bodily harm. Why

should vitamins be an exception?

Vitamin Deficiency is not Caused by Lack of Vitamins

In the majority of cases, a vitamin deficiency does not occur because of

insufficient vitamin intake in the diet. A vitamin deficiency is rather caused

by a congested capillary network that is unable to diffuse sufficient amounts of

the vitamins to the connective tissues surrounding the cells. This can have a

number of reasons, overeating protein foods being one of the major ones.

A diet rich in protein foods such as meat, fish, pork, cheese, etc. eventually

blocks the basement membrane (BM) of the small and large blood vessels in the

body (see chapter 8 on heart disease). Stress, overstimulation, and dehydration

can have a similar effect. The subsequent thickening of the BM and connective

tissues makes it increasingly difficult for the basic nutrients, including

vitamins, to reach the cells. This greatly increases the amount of metabolic

waste and toxins in the body, overtaxes the liver, and causes the growth of

gallstones (see chapter 3). The gallstones inhibit the flow of bile, which

subdues AGNI, the digestive power and hinder the assimilation of nutrients even

further. When fats are no longer properly digested the fat-soluble vitamins A,

D, E, K, which are normally stored in the liver, become deficient. This problems

is further amplified by eating low fat foods (see section 6, this chapter).

If vitamin A becomes deficient, for example, the epithelial cells, which are an

essential part of all the organs, blood vessels, lymph vessels, etc. in the

body, become damaged. This can literally cause any kind of disease. Vitamin A is

also necessary to maintain the cornea of the eye, eyesight in dim light, and

reduce the severity of microbial infection. Vitamin A is only absorbed from the

small intestines satisfactorily if fat absorption is normal. Fat absorption

cannot be normal as long as gallstones obstruct the bile flow in the liver and

gall bladder. It is therefore only sensible to remove the gallstones and cleanse

the digestive system so that the vitamins contained in food can actually reach

the cells.

Taking extra vitamins can be harmful if the body is unable to make use of them

and is given the additional burden of breaking them down or trying to eliminate

them from the system. Because vitamins are strong acids, an overload can lead to

vitamin poisoning (vitaminosis) and cause the same symptoms that accompany a

vitamin deficiency. It is much more important to cleanse the body from toxins,

including the stored protein in the blood vessels and the gallstones from the

liver, than to ingest large doses of vitamins. Although taking mega doses of

vitamins may temporarily increase the pressure of diffusion of these nutrients

for a short time and quickly relieve symptoms, the " benefits " are often

short-lived. If digestive functions are impaired, taking extra vitamins may be

harmful.

The Hidden Perils of Vitamin Pills

Vitamins D and A

The following are some of the most important vitamins. Calciferol, known as

vitamin D, is not really a vitamin since the body is capable of producing it

itself. With the help of UV light from the sun, the body synthesises it from

cholesterol (7-dehydrocholesterol) in the human skin. Vitamin D, which acts more

like a hormone, facilitates the absorption and utilisation of calcium and

phosphorus, necessary for maintaining strong bones and teeth. Although vitamin D

levels cannot be influenced through diet, the official nutritional textbooks

speak of 2.5 mg daily requirement for adults. Babies and breast milk are

supposed to have the biggest deficiencies in vitamin D, implying that nature

made a crucial mistake when it invented breast milk. Mothers are warned that,

without taking extra amounts of this important vitamin, their babies could risk

rickets or bone deformation.

Yet mothers are rarely informed about the risks they take when they overuse

vitamin D. Vitamin D poisoning leads to something very similar to rickets.

Professor Dr Ernst Lindner from the University of Giessen in Germany has warned

that if large amounts of vitamin D are given to a person, calcium is removed

from the bones; this can cause bone deformation. He also states that it is very

risky to add vitamin D to food.

Bone deformation is more likely to occur in babies who are not breast-fed. Until

the expensive vitamin D pill came on the market, rickets was effectively treated

with breast milk, for thousands of years.

Nature's deems it necessary to supply breast milk with only very little vitamin

D. As studies have shown the vitamin D content of breast milk does not increase

when the mother takes vitamin D supplements. This proves that a mother's body

filters out vitamin D to protect the baby from being poisoned (by the vitamin).

A baby's body easily synthesises vitamin D from sunlight once it is exposed to

it. It is therefore unnecessary to have this vitamin present in the mother's

milk. Hence the major cause of vitamin D deficiency among babies is being in

dark rooms with little or no natural light. But even then the baby is still

capable of absorbing sufficient amounts of calcium from the blood and building

healthy bones. While being breast-fed, it receives plenty of milk sugar and

phospho-caseins, both excellent transporting agents for calcium. If there is

anything that could cause rickets in babies, it is lack of breast milk and

exposure to natural light.

Adults are not so well protected against this vitamin as babies are. One report

issued by the University of Tromso in Norway showed that the long-term intake of

vitamin D at the dosage of just slightly above the 400 IU recommended amount

(many people take as much as 4,000 to 5,000 IU per day!) may trigger a heart

attack and cause degenerative joint disease and arthritis. Another finding

emerged from the New York University Goldwater Memorial Hospital, which suggests

that large doses of vitamin D can cause magnesium deficiency in the heart tissue

and cause heart attacks.

Pregnant women are particularly at risk. Dietary intake of vitamin D has led to

kidney calcification and severe mental retardation in their offspring. Children

born to mothers, who take extra vitamin D in their diet, may develop a certain

type of congenital heart disease called supravalvular aortic stenosis and show

extreme deformations of facial bones.

Taking vitamin D supplements can also contribute to arteriosclerosis and even be

fatal. In 1991, several Americans died from drinking milk. The vitamin D, which

was added during the production process, had not been churned properly. In

addition, milk can enhance the potency of vitamin D by ten times, a fact that is

rarely known among milk producers. Milk that has been enriched by 90 units of

vitamin D is poisonous and can kill. If you feel you need more vitamin D, then

it is best to sunbathe regularly. But avoid using sunscreens.

It is also a well known fact that too much vitamin A causes deformity in unborn

children. For this reason, there is a law preventing the use of this vitamin in

food. Yet this law does not apply to animal feeds even though it is well known

that vitamin A is accumulating in the liver of farm animals. Pregnant women are

warned not to consume liver to avoid damaging their babies. If taking extra

vitamin A is considered poisonous for pregnant women or unborn babies, it cannot

be considered save for the rest of the population either.

B-vitamins

But what about the so-called essential B-vitamins? Pyridoxine or vitamin B6 is a

combination of six substances. Since most of this vitamin occurs in bound form,

analytic methods fail to determine how much of it is contained in food. It is

also not possible to make any statements about how much of it we require. Still

the nutritional textbooks suggest a 1-2 mg daily intake. What is known, though,

are its side effects.

Vitamin B6 is often used as a drug. Its use is indicated for depression,

pre-menstrual tension, schizophrenia, and child asthma. It was considered save

until 1983 when scientists discovered a syndrome accompanied by strong

circulatory problems in the hands and feet of a number of patients who were

given large doses of vitamin B6. The patients developed symptoms similar to the

ones caused by the drug thalidomide (which recently has been reintroduced for

specific disorders). Mothers who had taken large amounts of B6 during their

pregnancy also reported deformities in their children's bodies. It took a long

time before the nerve damage was linked to vitamin poisoning. As it turned out,

many patients, who had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, were poisoned by

vitamin B6. There are many unsuspecting people taking vitamin B6 today without

the faintest idea that they are gradually poisoning themselves.

The statement that Cobalamins or B12 vitamins can only be found in animal foods

such as meat, fish, eggs, cheese, etc. is incorrect. B12 has been detected in

fermented plant foods and algae. A deficiency of this vitamin is thought to

cause pernicious anaemia and degeneration of nerve fibres of the spinal cord.

The argument that people who don't consume any animal foods have a B12

deficiency and endanger their health is unscientific, unfounded, and misleading.

Apart from producing vitamins K, B1 and B2, as well as energy-providing

short-chain fatty acids, the friendly bacteria located in the large intestine

produce plenty of B12. In addition, the liver can store B12 for many years and

knows how to recycle this vitamin. This may explain why vegans (those who don't

eat any type of animal product) almost never suffer from B12 deficiencies. And

if the body for any reason required more of the vitamin, it would instinctively

look for foods that can meet the increased demand. However, if the liver and

large intestines are congested, a B12 deficiency may eventually develop,

regardless of whether a person is a meat-eater, a vegetarian, or vegan.

Niacin, the now very popular B-vitamin found in many foods, including breakfast

cereals, might also have serious side effects. After large doses of niacin (3g)

had been given to patients suffering from psychiatric diseases, they developed

hepatitis and other liver problems. Among other symptoms of niacin-poisoning

were hot flushes, itching skin, arrhythmia, and nervousness. Illegal use of

niacin in minced meat and hamburgers has often led to similar symptoms. The main

reason for adding niacin to meat is to colour it red and give it the appearance

of being fresh. If you turn bright red, like a tomato, and get an itch right

after eating meat, then you are likely to have been poisoned with niacin.

The B-vitamin Folic acid is also used commonly in foods and potentially one of

the most harmful ones. After researchers first discovered that people in malaria

regions suffered from folic acid deficiency, they gave them this B vitamin in

the belief that it would make their immune systems more resistant to the malaria

bug. The children who were given this vitamin felt worse after the treatment and

were found to have much higher concentrations of malaria-causing agents in their

blood than before.

The explanation for this phenomenon lies in the understanding that the malaria

bugs themselves require large amounts of folic acid to spread. People who have a

deficiency in this vitamin are naturally protected from malaria infection. A

British doctor in Kenya discovered that children who took folic acid developed

malaria. He gave folic acid to one group of monkeys and compared them with

another group monkeys who were folic acid deficient. All the monkeys with

" normal " levels of this vitamin were infected with malaria whereas the ones with

" abnormally low " levels stayed healthy.

Over 40 percent of the world's population are threatened by malaria today and it

is no longer restricted to developing countries. Malaria is rapidly becoming the

leading cause of death in the world. It is impossible to imagine the disastrous

consequences that may have arisen from giving millions of healthy people

vitamins to help their assumed vitamin deficiency. What is considered to be a

vitamin deficiency for one person may be a life-saving response for another

person. It is painful to know that many people have to pay with their lives

because we so crudely interfere in the self-regulating mechanisms of nature and

human physiology that protect us against disease.

Vitamin C

The most popular of all vitamins is Ascorbic acid or vitamin C, a deficiency of

which is believed to cause multiple haemorrhages, slow wound healing, anaemia,

and scurvy. It is in fact very easy to cure scurvy with red peppers and citrus

fruits, both containing high concentrations of this vitamin. Since the Hungarian

scientist Szent Gyoerkyi identified vitamin C as an effective substance, it

became common knowledge that vitamin C and orange juice have the same effect.

But scurvy cannot be cured by vitamin C alone, however high the dosage may be;

the blood vessels remain damaged. By contrast, eating a few oranges or red

peppers cures scurvy quickly, without a trace of damage left.

The fruits contain another ingredient, which is known as vitamin C2. Scurvy can

only be cured if vitamin C and vitamin C2 are taken together. When Gyoerkyi

studied vitamin C, he included both compounds of vitamin C. But as the years

passed, the scientific literature began to omit C2 and today nobody talks about

it anymore.

When vitamins became popular in the United States, there was a sudden jump in

the number of newly born babies developing scurvy. It was thought that scurvy

was a disease eradicated a long time ago. As the mysterious development was

investigated, it was discovered that the mothers of the affected babies had

taken extra vitamin C preparations (without C2) in the belief that it was good

for their babies. Dosed with the vitamin, the mothers' bodies began to eliminate

much of it. When the babies were born they too continued to remove whatever

vitamin C they had received from the mother, because that is what they had

learnt to do whilst in the womb. Since their baby food did not consist of large

amounts of vitamin C, they soon developed the dangerous baby scurvy.

The body of an adult, who consumes vitamin C regularly, may eventually produce a

similar response. He may even develop scurvy because the body becomes programmed

to eliminate vitamin C faster and in larger quantities than it is absorbed.

Adults can develop further symptoms, too when they suddenly stop taking vitamin

C. It is known that large doses of vitamin C can destroy another vitamin, that

is, vitamin B12. There is too little research to tell what further damage large

amounts of vitamins can do to us but experimenting with these powerful

substances on the human body is similar to handling an explosive device.

A friend of mine developed a dangerous swelling of his kidneys after taking 2g

of Vitamin C a day for several weeks. By taking him off the vitamins and giving

him lapacho tea to help remove the excessive vitamins from the kidneys was

sufficient to restore them to their normal size and functions. Added to the

current uncertainty and confusion about taking vitamins, there is no conclusive

proof until this very day, that vitamin C protects you from infection, one of

the main reasons why people use it.

Even if vitamin C could stop an infection, it would make its use even more

dangerous. To prevent a cold from developing fully upsets the body's cleansing

reactions and can be the first stage in a series of major illnesses. If the body

is " toxic " because of an unhealthy lifestyle, diet, and stress, its most

important primary response will be a toxicity crisis whereby the body can

cleanse itself. A cold is not a disease, and it should not be treated as one. It

is very ill advised to stop the body from eliminating toxins and purifying

itself.

Handing out vitamin C as a preventive measure against colds is a practice that

may also be counterproductive. In small doses vitamin C may help to start off a

cleansing response in the body but it can only be hoped that the intake of large

amounts of vitamin C is not effective enough to interfere with the cleansing

process. The often-cited argument that all water-soluble vitamins, like vitamin

C and B, are harmless because the body can easily eliminate excessive amounts

without a problem is unscientific and misleading, and without any proof. Cyanide

is also water-soluble but it can kill a person.

Conclusion: The vitamin euphoria has hit the world's population at a time when

there are no reliable methods to determine when and if a person suffers from a

vitamin deficiency. Reviewing the harmful effects caused by vitamin intake, it

is likely that a deficiency, if it really exists, is either caused by an

overtaxed digestive system and subsequent congestion of the capillary network or

by overdosing the body with vitamins. Blood congestion as described in chapter 7

hinders vitamins from reaching the tissue cells and organs. Taking extra

vitamins in such a situation can trigger an emergency response that empties the

body's vitamin reserves.

It is not known how much of each vitamin each particular body-type requires to

be vital and healthy, and it also not possible to find out how much of each

vitamin the body extracts from the food it ingests. It is further incorrect to

assume that by taking extra vitamins the body will automatically make use of

them. We don't know how much of the vitamins will actually leave the stomach

unharmed, in what amounts they are digested and how much of these are absorbed

by the blood and the body cells. There cannot be two people with exactly the

same vitamin requirements and absorption rates. What may be normal for one

person may not be normal for another, which makes the " standardised vitamin

requirements for all " unsuitable if not potentially harmful.

The argument that our foods today are so depleted of vitamins that we need to

take additional helpings of synthetically derived vitamins is only partially

correct. Most of the foods consumed by most people in advanced countries are

highly acid forming, which means that they congest blood vessels and connective

tissues and deplete the body's vitamins and minerals. The foods include most

dairy products, meat and its products, tinned or frozen foods, white bread,

white sugar, alcoholic beverages, diet drinks, soft drinks, packaged fruit

juices, preserved foods, processed breakfast cereals, chocolates, ready-made

cakes, crisps, and other junk foods. The exaggerated daily ratio of

daily-required vitamins may apply only to the severely undernourished person.

Fresh fruits, vegetables, pulses, and grain foods are still filled with more

than enough vitamins to supply the body many times over.

Taking vitamin pills, which don't contain much Prana or Life Energy, does not

substitute regular intake of healthy, fresh food. Vitamins that have been

removed from their natural environment, i.e., fruits, vegetables, etc. can in

fact upset both AGNI and the delicate balance of minerals and vitamins in the

body. This especially applies to multivitamin preparations. Although there are

conditions when taking extra vitamins can be beneficial, for example, before and

after removing amalgam fillings from the teeth, they ought not to be taken in

large doses and for more than 10-14 days at a time. This is best done under

supervision of a health practitioner who is aware of the side effects they can

have.

Copyright Ó 1998 by s Moritz

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