Know Your Rights, Fight Forced Medicine
Dear Vitality Magazine: Thank you and Helke Ferrie for the review of Sarah's Last Wish (Oct 2011). The behaviour toward Sarah on the part of the Australian courts, which essentially forced her to undergo surgery and chemotherapy, is appalling and disturbing. I hope everyone, including Australians, will read this book and learn what their own choices may be. Here in Canada the Charter of Rights and Freedoms provides for patient autonomy in almost every way, except in certain end-of-life matters. And yet the average Canadian and most health care agencies do not know about or understand these rights. Readers may visit http://www.dyingwithdignity.ca to learn about the choices and options each of us has in our ongoing treatment, as well as at the end of life. Unless we know our rights, we cannot take necessary action.
Dianne L. Woodruff,
Oakville, Ont.
Media Missing the Point on Vitamin E
Dear Vitality Magazine: This letter is a critical commentary addressing recent media attention focusing on the potential dangers of vitamin E. The problem with the headline "Vitamin E may raise prostate cancer risk," which appeared over a CBC article last month, is that it overlooks the fact that Vitamin E is actually an umbrella term for eight slightly different antioxidants. Unfortunately, the term "vitamin E" has become synonymous with the compound d-alpha tocopherol. In reality, the foods we eat that are particularly high in "vitamin E" contain alpha, beta, gamma, delta tocopherols and tocotrie-nols. All of these ‘tocos’ are antioxidant compounds that together contribute to the health benefits of vitamin E consumption. Taking multiple vitamins and minerals with similar construction and biological activity may lead to compromises in physiological functioning, if dosages are not regulated. One supplement taken at a too-high dose may interfere with others. Without the guidance of a knowledgeable practitioner in safe natural medicine, contradictions and detrimental results are possible. Unfortunately, most scientific studies to date have used only d-alpha tocopherol, and mislabelled the intervention as vitamin E. This is the case with a 2009 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that found increased risk of prostate cancer among men taking d-alpha tocopherol. Another study in JAMA found that vitamin E (touted as a heart-healthy vitamin) has no effect on cardiovascular disease. It is more than likely that the researchers used d-alpha tocopherol alone rather than mixed tocopherols/tocotrienols as their intervention. Although scarce in number at this time, there have been some new studies investigating the properties of tocotrienols, as opposed to tocopherols. Researchers are starting to catch on and are moving away from interventions that just use one form of vitamin E. Researchers have found that alpha-tocotrienol has much more potent antioxidant power than d-alpha tocopherol. Researchers also found that tocotrienols may protect the nervous system more than the tocopherols. Although the media’s representation of this issue is fundamentally misguided, it may have positively influenced public behaviour, since some over-the-counter vitamin E supplements only contain d-alpha tocopherol.
Therefore, those people taking an over-the-counter vitamin E supplement [derived only from d-alpha tocopherol] and who are not being supervised by an expert in the area of nutritional medicine (such as Naturopathic Doctors and Nutritionists) may be doing more harm than good. When it comes to nutritional therapy and the use of seemingly harmless over-the-counter supplements, it’s fundamentally important, and is becoming more and more obvious, that individuals should seek the advice of a Naturopathic Doctor or Nutritionist.
A different study recently led MSNBC to conclude that "some supplements could increase death risk." In order to fully understand this news broadcast, it is important to know the method and demographic of The Iowa Women’s Health Study, upon which it is based. The study followed a large group of post-menopausal women who self-reported their supplement usage over 20 years. Researchers were unaware of the dosages these women were taking and of their ongoing health concerns. The main conclusions drawn were that supplemental iron was correlated with a statistically significant increase in mortality rate and that supplemental calcium was associated with a statistically significant decrease in mortality rate. As a Naturopathic Doctor, I find these findings plausible. Iron is an important compound of hemoglobin (the oxygen carrying molecule in our blood cells); however, it can also be a toxic "pro-oxidant" if present in too high of a concentration in the body. Post-menopausal women often do not have an issue with iron deficient anemia, since they are no longer menstruating. Therefore, supplemental iron among this demographic can cause an iron buildup in the body, leading to toxicity. On the other hand, older people typically experience a shortage of calcium, since the stomach acid they need to absorb it decreases with age. NBC's Erika Edwards does a good job pointing out which supplements were found to be "good" and which "bad," but she misses the key point for public safety: that long-term supplementation of vitamins and minerals should be supervised by an expert health professional such as a Naturopathic Doctor or Nutritionist.
We live in an age when the public receives conflicting information about over-the-counter vitamins, minerals and other natural health products. We see more and more evidence that many of these products can be harmful when taken without supervision. Fortunately, reliable information can be obtained from experts in this area of medicine.
Shawn Meirovici N.D., B.A.
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
(416) 659-5785
www.chefnd.com
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