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From: sebb@pyuxss.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Vitamin Deficiencies
Message-ID: <226@pyuxss.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 8-Dec-83 10:12:09 EST
Article-I.D.: pyuxss.226
Posted: Thu Dec  8 10:12:09 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Dec-83 01:49:07 EST
Organization: Bell Labs, Piscataway
Lines: 48


	Few people who live in the industrialized world have
serious vitamin deficiencies(probably more than the government
would care to admit, though). Our diet has improved drastically.
But we are now aware that certain problems will occur if too
little of a nutrient to taken. These problems are in most cases
small compared to beri-beri and scurvy. For instance, I have
a good friend who experiences irritability and depression when
she does not take her vitamin supplements. This sort of thing
is well documented. And there are other problems which some
people believe may be linked to poor eating habits such as
arteriolsclorosis(sp?) and elevated cholesterol. Now, I'm
not saying that there is concrete proof of this. But I figure
that taking a vitamin supplement a day is a small price to pay
even if it doesn't work.
	Back to deficiencies. It is probably difficult for
your own MD to diagnose a small vitamin deficiency. You may
find you are dragging, very sleepy, have headaches, stomach
aches. All sorts of little things that probably don't bother
you too much. One way to find out if vitamins work for
you is to try them yourself. Rejecting them without using
them is not giving them a fair try. My friend with the de-
pression didn't really believe the supplements would help,
but they did and she was very glad she gave them a shot.
	You may say  "Well I get my RDA(recommended daily
allowance) of all those vitamins." Two warnings about
the RDA- 1. people have different needs. The RDA is
	    generally considered to be a low estimate of
	    our need for a certain nutrient. How many of you
	    would care to bet that your needs are "average"?
	 2. RDA has been determined for certain nutrients. Many vitamins
	    and minerals have no RDA. This does not mean
	    you don't need it. It is often very difficult
	    to get these trace minerals in our diets and
	    this makes vitamin supplements even more
	    important.
(as an aside the MDR(minimum daily requirement) is just enough
to keep you from getting those horrible diseases like beri-beri.
It is not enough to keep you healthy)
	Vitamin overdoses to happen. The ones I've heard about
have been for vitamin A and D. You do have to take a heck of a lot
of them to get sick. But it does happen. 
	A lot of people agrue about the usefulness of vitamins.
How useful they are depends upon how they effect you personally.
You don't get addicted to them so there is no harm in trying them.
If they don't work for you, don't use them.
				Sharon Badian