Expensive urine

Date published: 10/5/2008

IF YOU ARE taking a handful of vita- mins each morning, I have some good news, and some bad.

The good news is you are making a significant contribution to the $24 billion-dollar vitamin industry, and in these hard economic times, every dollar you spend helps our collective consumer-driven economy.

The bad news is that you are literally flushing those dollars down the toilet. Seriously.

Most vitamins are water-soluble, and when you ingest more than your body can absorb, the vitamins you did not use will then be present in large amounts in your urine flowing swiftly down the drain.

As with all things, we cannot look for black-and-white, this-or-that answers about meeting our nutritional needs. The devil is in the details. So, let me explain a little bit about what you don't need to take.

Our bodies need adequate vitamin C intake for our immune systems and skin, and we get it--scurvy went out of style shortly after pirates stopped wearing eye patches.

We all need adequate iron, B12 and folate in order to fuel our bone marrow.

However, what the multibillion-dollar "neutraceutical" industry does not want you to know is that we are able to take in all of the nutrients we need from a balanced diet.

There is no medical evidence to suggest that mega-doses of any single vitamin are helpful.

"A daily multivitamin is a great nutrition insurance policy. Some extra vitamin D may add an extra health boost."

This is a quote from The Nutrition Source, the definitive Web site maintained by the Harvard School of Public Health. And with these two sentences, I would be likely able to stop writing this column, but I am hoping you want to know more.

So, what vitamins should you take?

The answer to the above question is likely to change six times before this is published because of ongoing research. What I can tell you is about recent research results.

Vitamin E has failed, in several controlled trials, to prevent heart disease and does not prevent any kind of cancer. This is usually the first vitamin I encourage my patients to stop if they are already taking it. There is some weak evidence that it may even prevent the beneficial effects of statins.

There is no better Web site than The Nutrition Source run by the Harvard School of Public Health. Topics are remarkably detailed, yet easily readable. The site has information on vitamins, carbohydrates, cholesterol and more. I often will pull this site up in my exam rooms to direct my patients to where to learn more about healthy eating, drinking and vitamins. You can Google it, or copy this Web address: hsph.harvard .edu/nutritionsource. Happy surfing. Dr. Christopher Lillis is an internist with Chancellor Internal Medicine in Fredericksburg.

Date published: 10/5/2008