LONGEVINEX ADDRESSES 5 MAJOR THEORIES OF AGING

Here are the video's show notes: 

While resveratrol has recently gained widespread public and scientific attention for its age-prolonging qualities, Longevinex® is a unique multi-ingredient dietary supplement that is more than just resveratrol. The ingredients in Longevinex® are designed to address five major theories of aging: the free radical/antioxidant theory, the hormonal theory (estrogen/testosterone), the mitochondrial (cell energy) theory, the cell cleansing or autophagy theory, and the metabolic, calorie restriction/Sirtuin gene activation theory. There is another theory of aging, Overmineralization, also addressed by the ingredients in Longevinex®, which may supercede and better explain other theories of aging.

The over-mineralization theory of aging explains best why we age.  At a certain age, we reach an actual decline of aging, a steady state of minerals.  The barrel is full.  We don't need any more.  But what do we do with the excess minerals of iron and calcium that cause us to rust? 

UPDATE, Dec. 4, 2017
Sardi mentions a Greek monastic order on the island of Mt. Athos in Greece.  Their eating habits are just that--habits--but live-giving, good habits.  Not bad habits; for instance, they don't eat junk food, least not what you might find at Albertson's here in California.  But neither do they have all of the age-related problems, nor do they suffer from all of the age-related disorders of youth.  

With studies that show they are among the healthiest people on earth, the plan is inspired by the Greek monks of Mount Athos and their Mediterranean diet. Amazingly, research has shown that within their tight-knit communities Cancer is almost unheard of, strokes and cardiac arrests are pretty much non existent and diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are extremely rare. The monks have also been proven to live, on average, several years longer than men living in mainland Greece. 

So what do they eat?

meals are based around a typical Greek peasant diet (don’t panic, it’s better than it sounds), with a high proportion of vegetables, beans, fruits, nuts, whole grains and olive oil.

Olives are permitted on Fasting Days

Remember that it is a diet plan.  

The plan focuses on a pattern of three varying diet days – three days for ‘fasting’, three days for moderate eating and one ‘feast’ day, where you can eat and drink whatever you like. 

Throughout the process, you are encouraged to have a high intake of seasonal vegetables, fish and chicken while also allowing yourself – as the monks do – a moderate intake of red wine.  

Meals are broken up into "Days," Fasting Days, Moderation Days, and Feast Days.  CalledThe Mount Athos Diet, the diet is about changing the way you eat and your relationship with food.  Here is a sampling of their diet.  Remember, this is a diet that serves two objectives: longevity and disease free.  I will list just the foods permitted on Fast Days.  For the other days, you can easily check out this list from Healthista. 

FAST DAYS

Fast days are for eating exactly as the Mount Athos monks do. You should stick to what is essentially a low-fat, teetotal vegan diet. Three days a week should be dedicated to fasting, for example Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

WHAT YOU CAN’T EAT ON FAST DAYS

NO DAIRY.  No milk, no cheese, no butter, no yogurt, no cream

NO MEAT.  No beef, no pork, no meat products

NO FISH OR SHELLFISH.  No prawns, no squid, no fish products.

NO EGGS.

NO SNACKS.  No chips, no fried foods, no pastries, no pies, no crisps and other snack foods

NO CANDIES.  No sweets, no chocolate, and no confectionary

NO SODAS.  No sugar and no sugary drinks

NO ALCOHOL.

NO OILS or FATS.  No mayonnaise and no fatty salad dressings

WHAT YOU CAN EAT (Unlimited)

VEGETABLES (however, no avocados and no potatoes)

FRUITS

HERBAL TEAS

WATER

SPICES, HERBS, & PEPPERS

FOODS IN MODERATION

POTATOES

PASTA

GRAINS. Rice, bulgur wheat, couscous, quinoa, barley, & oats

BREAD.  Preferably whole meal.

PLAIN CRACKERS (does this mean saltines?), oat cakes, and breadsticks

FRUIT JUICE.  No more than 2 small glasses per day.

AVOCADOES.  No more than ½ a day.

PULSES.  Peas, lentils, beans, butter beans, kidney beans.

OLIVES & OLIVE SPRAY.

HONEY.

CONDIMENTS & SAUCES.

DRIED FRUITS, NUTS, & SEEDS.  No more than 1 handful a day.

TEA & COFFEE but not milk or sugar. 

SALT.

Here are the kinds of foods you can eat on Days of Moderation.  

And here are the foods you can eat on Feast Days.  Religions are as much about caring for this life as it is about taking care of the beyond, about sending a message to your progeny on how to conduct their lives.  

GLUTATHIONE: YOUR MASTER ANTI-OXIDANT

I am posting this video, one, because it's got Dr. Mark Houston, a cardiologist expert, and two, he recommends glutathione. I liked what he said about glutathione, and I'd certainly read enough about this over the years, but my attentions get distracted by the value of this, that, or the other nutritional compound. But being a cardiovascular expert, Dr. Houston pointed out how glutathione is the master anti-oxidant for the heart. This is good news.

Antioxidants neutralize free-radicals. 

Exogenous anti-oxidants can be found in food and other nutritional sources, including certain fruits and certain vegetables.  But there are also endogenous antioxidants, or radical scavengers, found within the cells of the human body. 

Glutathione, the master anti-oxidant, performs the following functions:

Increases average life lifespan.

Strengthens immune system.

Neutralizes free radicals.

Protects DNA

Removes toxins & Carcinogens. 

Improves Athletic performance.

Increases Stamina & Endurance.

Slows the Aging process.

Yeah, help me find the downside to any of these. 

Houston adds that 

Glutathione is the master antioxidant within the cell. Neutralizes huge numbers of free radicals.  Detoxifies. Slows down aging, prevents cardiovascular disease. 

Experts say that it is nothing short of extraordinary. 

From this point, the video turns more to promoting a product called Action Whey.  I am sure that it provides some benefits.  The formulator of the product, Rob Keller, talks about how his dad's Parkinson's Disease improved with this whey product.  He says, and I quote, "Glutathione brought remarkable results."  And I guess like every other nutritional compound, we can suffer from a deficiency of it.  In this case, what might be called Glutathione deficiency.  The key then is to figure out how to help the body maintain or increase glutathione levels. 

Houston explains that 

Glutathione is deficient in our culture.  Precursor to Glutathione called Cysteine, rate limiting step, difficult to get that into your diet. 

The Action Whey, according to the video, improves recovery time.  Houston endorses the product, saying that whey is a good product to get get good glutathione levels.  Interesting. 

But there are other ways of getting glutathione.  In Bill Sardi’s list of vitamin C benefits, he lists at #16 how to activate more glutathione in your liver by way of adding vitamin C to you diet.

Does you doctor say you have a liver problem?  Take vitamin C to improve liver glutathione levels (glutathione is a key antioxidant).  

So, what you often and unfortunately get from folks who review nutritional compounds is a lot of general information that is not actionable, that does not provide you with any answers to yours or anyone else's particular situation.  Believe me, even the nurses and doctors I know are incapable of providing actionable information.  It's like people have a low-grade interest in life and have come to accept low-level production if not the inevitability of death. 

 Then there's Bill Sardi.  He is the nutritional guy's guy.  Andrew Saul had this article by Bill Sardi published at his site.  Sardi explains in detail that just blows your hair back:

There is also no daily requirement for sulfur, a mineral required for the production of glutathione, the major antioxidant produced within all living cells (plants, insects, animals, humans). Glutathione consumption from foods ranges from 25-125 milligrams per day. With the provision of sufficient amounts of sulfur, the liver will produce far more glutathione (up to 14,000 milligrams per day) than what the diet provides. Sulfur-rich foods (garlic, eggs, asparagus, onions) may be lacking in various diets and the provision of sulfur in food supplements (sulfur-bearing amino acids like N-acetyl cysteine, taurine, and lipoic acid) or glutathione itself, may be advantageous. 

So you need sulfur to get adequate amounts of Glutathione.  What foods get you from here to there?  Superiorsites explains

Garlic, onions, asparagus, and eggs—in all cases, raised without pesticides. In regard to eggs, he told us about chickens that ate purslane, which gave their eggs high levels of omega-3 fatty acids that are protective for our nerves.  

Dr. Russell Jaffe, Md, makes some pretty good scientific points that are terrific if you're a, well, scientist.  If you're a member of the lay community, however, you can and will still understand him.  He is certainly intelligent and his points are intelligible, but sometimes when people don't breakdown scientific or chemical terms it tends to leave readers or listeners puzzled.  One, he says that we tend to use up faster than we replenish sulfur-rich, myalenating compounds in our bodies.  And he attributes this to lifestyle, diet, food, activities, and so forth.  Mindbodygreen explains that

Glutathione contains sulfur groups, which are sticky compounds that adhere to toxins and heavy metals and carry them out of the body. This is a good thing and you want lots of it! I haven't met anyone (including me) with any type of autoimmune condition that has adequate methylation and levels of glutathione.

Second, Jaffe made the point about metallothionien, another compound used to sponge up toxic metals in our bodies, is perfect for health, but again we tend to use these up faster than we replenish them.  He's clearly knowledgeable. 

In terms of how to get Glutathione--you get it through sulfur-rich foods: onions, shallots, garlic, and others.  If you rolled your eyes at any of these because, well, you're not a 5-Start Hotel chef, then you can always rely on capsules to get the benefits.  One of the products I use regularly is Bill Sardi's Garligest.  I seem to prefer a formulated product than to experiment with any products that you might find at a health food store or online at Amazon.  I still shop for a few things on Amazon, but for the most part I buy formulated products from vendors whose products I've researched, that I've tried, and that I've liked, meaning who benefits do what I want and expect.  As to taking any supplement, one, it is best to take with food.  I can attest to this. You just get a better effect than taking them without food.  Oh, you'll get an effect without food, but when taken with food you the effects are exponentially better.  Two, take nutritional compounds togther.  So when you take vitamin C, be sure to take a D, an E, B vitamins, A, and so forth; in other words, a multivitamin.  Yep.  Again, what makes a nutritional compound good or great is absorption.  And when taking all the vitamins together you are getting a synergistic effect that activates and that potentiates all vitamins at once.  So, multivitamin.  The one I take has been the best stopgap for me.  Again, on this score of multivitamins, I rely on Bill Sardi.  His Molecular Multi is excellent.  

KANSAS NURSING HOMES: FAR TOO DEPENDENT ON MIND-ALTERING MEDS TO CONTROL PATIENTS

File under Ghastly.

Kansas has always ranked at or near the top in percentage of medicated residents, suggesting there are thousands of residents in the state’s certified nursing facilities who have been given drugs that aren’t medically indicated for them, and could actually harm them.  

Then there is this: 

Kathy Greenlee, a former Kansas Secretary of Aging who was appointed to U.S. Assistant Secretary of Aging under President Barack Obama, said the overuse of anti-psychotics is an unintended consequence of removing physical restraints from nursing homes in the 1980s and 1990s.

Like I said, ghastly. 

I don't know why adult children put their parents in nursing homes.  Why not use that same money to buy or rent an apartment.  That way the other tenants will involve him or her in their social life.  I mean if the complex is 10% ethical.  Most people are neutral.  Hopefully, there will be a 10% ethical influence among the tenants, which is enough to move things in the right direction.  Hopefully, people will do the neighborly thing.  As to regular meds, why rely on sedatives for your mom, dad, husband, or wife?  Don't you want your loved to thrive in all that he does? One neighbor I had was an older gentleman whose family lived back in Chicago.  He had emphasema but he still got around, drove around town, in fact, quite a bit with this portable oxygen tank.  Great guy.  But he left a pan with boiling water on the stove too long.  The water evaporated and the heat turned his pan into a conductor and smoke began filling his apartment house.  I smelled the smoke as it billowed out his window, so I stepped over to his apartment and knocked but his door was locked.  He was asleep and couldn't hear me knocking and pounding on his door or my screams of "Bob!"  I phoned the fire department and they broke into his kitchen window, woke him up, and extinguished the smoke.  I apologized for making a big to do about it, but he was grateful.  Somebody was looking out for him.

Red and brown onions, garlic, shallots, and leeks contain Benfotiamine.

Also, there are alternatives to dementia.  Ignore that information at your peril.  See at the bottom of this post for THE key ingredient to stave off dementia.  Understand that nutritional compounds, for them to work, require several weeks at resetting your biology, one that perhaps has been undernourished for years if not decades.  Too many folks expects miracles over night.  And still some vitamins actually do produce immediate miracles depending on your level of deficiency through diet, conditions, and lifestyle.  There is a lot to correct.  With Benfotiamine, you have to be on this B1 compound for 18 months for it to produce benefits.  Lots of folks will simply wax cynical, "Oh, yeah, of course, manufacturers [or nutritional reviewers] are going to say that so they can keep you on the product for months and years and profit from your desperation."  Not if it's noted up front.  If you didn't know that Benfotiamine requires 18 months to be effective, what would happen is that you would try it for a few weeks and give up, exclaiming "that stuff is not worth it."  Read that article.  It is the only effective B1 compound that protects nerves from dementia.  So there's that.

Leeks

For foods that contain Benfotiamine, you're already familiar with: onions, garlic, shallots, leeks, and other members of the allium family of vegetables.

In the interview seen here, Charlene Wagner explains that the St. John's nursing home was giving her husband, who was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia, sedatives Seroquel and Adol, saying that the nursing homes use these meds to sedate her husband, not cure, relieve, or heal her husband's condition.  Or, she says, "I would rather say that they use the meds to control them."  Yeah, that's about right.  Read what Seroquel is typically used for:

Seroquel is the brand name of the generic drug quetiapine, used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (formerly known as manic-depression).

Seroquel changes the levels of neurotransmitters (naturally occurring brain substances) including serotonin and dopamine.

Seroquel belongs to a class of medications called atypical antipsychotics.

Here is the article.

Kansas nursing homes have 'become far too dependent' on mind-altering meds.

  by Andy Marso and Kelsey Ryan.  

Allen Wagner used to light up when his granddaughter entered the room, but when she visits him at his nursing home in Overland Park now, he hardly reacts. He’s sleepy and uncommunicative.

He’s sedated.

Wagner, 78, has Lewy Body Dementia and Parkinson’s disease. But his wife, Charlene, said it’s hard to tell how much of his lethargy is due to that and how much is due to the anti-psychotic medications he was first given during an extended hospital stay and has continued taking in nursing homes.

“I’ve seen a change since he went to the nursing homes,” Charlene Wagner said. “Not because of the care. The care is good. I believe it’s the medicines.”

Anti-psychotics are contraindicated for people with dementia and include a U.S. Food and Drug Administration warning that they increase the risk of falls, stroke and other potentially fatal side effects.

The federal government started tracking the off-label use of such medications in nursing homes in 2011. Since then, Kansas has always ranked at or near the top in percentage of medicated residents, suggesting there are thousands of residents in the state’s certified nursing facilities who have been given drugs that aren’t medically indicated for them, and could actually harm them.

“There’s something about that dementia coupled with the anti-psychotics,” said Margaret Farley, a board member for Kansas Advocates for Better Care, a group that represents nursing home residents. “This is not just us saying, ‘Gee, that’s not very good, you’re robbing them of their personality, they won’t talk, they’re not active, etc, etc.’ This is hardcore. This is a 1.6 to 1.7 times increase in deaths that most of the time is related to cardiovascular changes or it’s related to the development of pneumonia.”

Kansas also led the nation last year in percentage of skilled nursing facilities cited by the federal government for a broad slate of medication-related violations, some of which relate to anti-psychotic use.

Kathy Greenlee, a former Kansas Secretary of Aging who was appointed to U.S. Assistant Secretary of Aging under President Barack Obama, said the overuse of anti-psychotics is an unintended consequence of removing physical restraints from nursing homes in the 1980s and 1990s.

Now when people visit nursing homes they’ll no longer see residents strapped to beds and wheelchairs. But they will likely see some under “chemical restraint,” through the use of anti-psychotic medications like Haldol and Seroquel, which Charlene Wagner said have caused her husband to deteriorate.

Greenlee said she knows Kansas nursing homes are not the worst in the nation overall. But the rate at which they use anti-psychotics should cause some soul-searching about how they deal with difficult or disruptive behavior of residents with dementia.

“They can be overprescribed to sedate people and then mask the need to deal with these underlying causes (of disruptive behavior),” said Greenlee, who is now vice president of aging and health policy for the Center for Practical Bioethics in Kansas City, Mo.

Groups that represent Kansas nursing homes say the state’s anti-psychotic use ranking is unfairly skewed by a handful of homes that specialize in mental illness and that they face a number of challenges that are outside their control.

It’s hard to find enough qualified staff in many parts of the state. Some facilities rely heavily on Kansas Medicaid and payments under that program have been delayed for years due to bureaucratic changes. There’s also a shortage of psychiatrists in Kansas, especially those who specialize in treating older people.

“All of those I believe do factor into our ability to continue to really tackle this issue,” said Debra Zehr, the president and CEO of LeadingAge Kansas.

Cindy Luxem, the president and CEO of the Kansas Health Care Association, said Kansas homes have brought rates down, but they need help to reduce them further.

“We’re going to take a lot of responsibility on this topic, but at the same time we look at it as something where we really better start getting family members involved,” Luxem said. “Physicians, pharmacists, you name it.”

Zehr said that when doctors and nursing home workers use anti-psychotics on people who don’t have a mental illness, it’s not ideal, but it’s done with good intentions.

“Anybody who’s spent time with people in the throes of dementia and has seen the kind of internal anguish and volatile behaviors of people with dementia at certain stages, they’re trying to help,” Zehr said.

But some facilities have found better ways to handle those behaviors. Farley said more should follow their example.

“It’s not an easy thing to be able to take care of bad behaviors without these medications, but we’ve become far too dependent upon them,” Farley said.

The fight over the rankings

On average, 20 percent of all Kansas long-term nursing home residents received an anti-psychotic medication at some point in 2016, tying it for the highest rate in the country with Oklahoma and Mississippi. The national average is 16 percent. Missouri ranked near the top at about 19 percent.

Kansas has dropped from a high of about 26 percent in 2011, but other states’ rates have fallen more since then.

ANTIOXIDANT CAPSULES IMPROVE HEALTH PARAMETERS AMONG ATHLETES IN TRAINING

A review of Bill Sardi's book The New Truth About Vitamins & Minerals is in order.  It is an excellent primer for newbies and regular supplement consumers to understand the complexities of the vitamin supplements.  It's not as easy as you think.  Some vitamin pills produce a better nutrient profile in the blood and tissue than certain foods.  We like to think that foods alone, the beautiful things grown in the verdue fields of Northern California are Nature's secret to good health.  Turns out that beta carotene alone in pill form is better absorbed than that the beta carotene in carrots.   

I want to start off with a statement I found at the close of Sardi's Chapter 3, "The Recommended Daily Allowance Is Obsolete."  The statement is found in a chart that I feel all parents and adults need to see.  Here's the chart:

SPECIAL NUTRITIONAL NEEDS OF THE AMERICAN POPULATION THAT CANNOT BE MET BY THE BEST DIET OR MOST MULTIVITAMINS

Total US Population: ~280 Million

Athletes, exercisers: Untold millions. Exercise produces more oxidation within the body; countered by antioxidants.  [Cell Biochem Function 16: 269-75, 1998]  Antioxidant pills improve health parameters among athletes in training.  [Int J Sports Med 21: 146-50, 2000]

Heart Disease Patients: 50+ Million.  Vitamin E may be beneficial. [Archives Family Medicine 8: 537-42, 1999]

Hypertensive patients: 43 Million. 500 mgs Vitamin C daily reduces blood pressure similar to drugs. [The Lancet 354: Dec 1999]

Diabetics: 15.7 Million (798,000 new cases annually)  Vitamin E has protective effects.  [Am J. Clinical Nutrition 63: 753-59, 1996]

Hospitalized: 33 million annually. Hospitalized folks have increased need for antioxidant nutrients.  [Int Journal Vitamin Nutrition Research 54: 65-74, 1984]

Pregnant & Lactating Females: 4 Million US women give birth annually; offspring must obtain nutrients from mother.  Fertile women require folic acid before conception to prevent birth defects.

Tobacco Smokers: 66 Million. Smokers require 25 mgs of Vitamin C for each cigarette they smoke.  [Ann NY Academy Sciences 258: 156-67, 1975]

Elderly: 34 Million Older adults have increased nutritional needs. [Geriatric Nutrition, Raven Press 1998]

Retirees at Risk for Cataracts: 34 Million 10-year users of 250 mgs of Vitamin C have 45-83 percent reduction in risk.  [British Med J 305: 335-39, 1992]

I would have liked to have seen this chart when I was a young man playing baseball or running or basketball.  This is must-viewing for all athletes from elementary through to college level.  

The other thing about vitamins is that we're often misled from the beginning.  During the 1980s we were told that the cholesterol in eggs is bad for you.  We were told that a low-fat, high-carb diet is the healthy diet, so people were eating more pastas and more breads.  Cakes and cookies, too, by that logic must have had some benefit despite the sugars.  Then the '90s came and we got a correction.  Suddenly meat and cheese and butter, even eggs, were healthy again.  Almost overnight.  Alarms about sugar then began to surface.  And as common sense began to reclaim the dietary landscape, instances of some claims going too far emerged, like all-meat diets that produced ketones.  A ketogenic diet was touted as the key to weight loss and a top-tiered approached to curing cancer since its low-carbohydrate efforts positioned itself as the antidote to the '80's high-carbohydrate diet with its high sugar content as the previous avenue to health.  Pictures of carrots, broccoli, and eggs aside, the ketogenic diet may, in fact, help you to lose some weight.  The goal, however, in any diet regimen is health with weight management a beneficial and beautiful side effect of health.  Problem with a ketogenic diet is that people will eat more meat and fewer vegetables.  The antioxidants are in the leafy green and multi-colored vegetables, not in the tissue of the cow.  Animal protein is a superior form of protein, no doubt.  But the iron content of red meat is something to watch out for.  When we're young, iron, which is a growth mineral, is excellent for growing bodies.  At age 40 and beyond, we've accumulated enough iron and probably don't need supplementation of that mineral.  For young folks there is no better protein source than red meat.  But for us older folks, we need to manage mineral accumulation better for iron and iron accumulation is implicated in disease.  

But what about the cancer-prevention theory of ketogenic diets?  Sardi answers that question.  

Dave Bolton, age 35, diagnosed with stage 4 advanced brain cancer ditched carbohydrates and replaced them with protein and vegetables and experienced a shrinkage of his terminal brain tumor to the point where it is barely detectable.  Chemotherapy was also employed.  The scans of his brain are quite remarkable. [Daily Mail UK Aug 24, 2016]

Sadly, the ketogenic diet is often sold as a low-carbohydrate diet, which if not spelled out can be confusing and actually legitimize the consumption of some (and how much is "some"?) carbohydrates.  The carbohydrates you eat on a ketogenic diet are vegetables and some fruit.  Period.  Dot.  End of story.  That is if you want it to work.  Eating meat pinched between two slices of bread on sandwich ain't it.  That's an American diet.  But the point I wanted to make was that the absence of vegetables from your diet is what causes the production of unhealthy blood proteins called homocysteines.  And these are not good for your heart.  I like Bill Sardi's way of phrasing biological processes. 

Homocysteine is an undesirable blood protein whose levels are particularly high among individuals who do not eat fresh vegetables .  When homocysteine levels are intentionally elevated in small animals their memory is impaired whereas if the animals are pre-treated with very high doses of vitamins E and C, memory loss is prevented.  [Metab Brain Disease 17:211-17, 2002] 

And as he himself says, taking vitamins in isolation, like exclusively C without E or A or D, you won't be getting their true benefit, explaining that  

A significant percentage of adults only supplement their diet with Vitamin C or Vitamin E.  They are likely missing the many health benefits provided by a well-designed multivitamin.

So be careful with the ketogenic diet.  Eat your vegetables.  And what is of equal interest is the fact that some vitamins and antioxidants are better absorbed through pill form than through food.  This is important for anyone who believes, as this author once did, that nutrients are better absorbed through food.  

Get out of here!  

No, really.  It's true.

Sardi explains that "While Americans are frequently advised to ovtain essential nutrients from foods, a study conducted among women in an undeveloped country showed that a beta carotene pill improved Vitamin A status better than foods."  

Beta carotene pills may be superior to beta carotene in foods.  While Americans are frequently advised to obtain essential nutrients from foods, a study conducted among women in an undeveloped coutnry showed that a beta carotene pill improved Vitamin A status better than foods.  [The Lancet 346: 75, 1995]  This study reveals that beta carotene in pill form can often improve Vitamin A status better than dark-green leafy vegetables.  Furthermore, a recent report issued from the National Academies of Sciences shows it takes twice as much plant foods such as carrots, broccoli and sweet potatoes, as previously believed to produce a given amount of Vitamin A.  [Natl Acad Sci, Jan, 2001]  A carrot provides plenty of fiber which impedes beta carotene absorption whereas a beta carotene pill contains no fiber to interfere with absorption.  

 Beta carotene is not only beneficial because it produces Vitamin A.  Studies indicate beta carotene helps to keep cholesterol particles from oxidizing (hardening).  [Free Radical Biology Med 17: 537-44, 1994]  

So it's not over.  Sardi concludes his section on vitamin A by bottomlining it for us:

Multivitamins should provide vitamin A for well-nourished population solely in the beta carotene form.  Since there is no toxicity from beta carotene, no limit is suggested though there may be some competition for absorption between carotenoids (beta carotene and lutein/zeaxanthin), so balanced carotenoids are recommended.  Persons with chronic infections or other special circumstances such as night blindness should obtain vitamin A in its fatty form (retinyl acetate or palmitate). 

An important footnote is provided on the different brands that he lists.  That footnote reads like this, "Beta carotene is convereted to vitamin A in the liver and excesses are stored in the skin, which means beta carotene exhibits no liver toxicity [or] (liver buildup)."  How's that for reassurance?  Part of that same chart, he footnotes that the "Amount of vitamin A provided by the typical American diet: 5000 IU."  Which all that a healthy person needs in terms of a maintenance dosage.  He did say that only those who are sick or chronically sick should supplement with the fat soluble forms of vitamin A, "In conditions where dietary intake of the fatty form of vitamin A is insufficient and in states of chronic or prolonged infection, supplementation with less than 5000 IU is suggested."  So there.  He tells you when to supplement and how much to supplement with.  If the situation does not apply to you, then no need to supplement.  Then this, "Amount of vitamin A needed in food supplements: 0."  And finally, "Amount of vitamin A required to produce long-term side effects: 25,000 IU."  

So there you have it.  Just take heed on what he said about the other carotenoids,

Since there is no toxicity from beta carotene, no limit is suggested though there may be some competition for absorption between carotenoids (beta carotene and lutein/zeaxanthin), so balanced carotenoids are recommended.

HUMANS LOST THEIR ABILITY TO PRODUCE VITAMIN C LONG AGO

I recently read Bill Sardi's 2003 book, The New Truth About Vitamins & Minerals.  It is the perfect book for anyone wanting to pinpoint specific amounts of vitamins to take for this or that ailment so that you can get more effective use out of your supplements and make your dollars go further.  He gets you there by eloquently sorting through the hype, the fears, the exaggerated claims about vitamins.  I have read lots of online articles about this or that vitamin, what it can do for you, how it will work, and so forth and no one delivers on specifics the way Sardi does.  No one.  Not Mercola.  Not Mike Adams, the Health Ranger.  Few come close.  What makes Sardi's reporting remarkable in his signature specificity on dosage, application for a specific condition, the controversial histories on a particular nutrient compound, and so on.  He discerns the benefits of a nutrient compound at one at and for one group versus that for another group including an age group.  I can't find other nutritional journalists who do what he does or even come close to what he does.  So I turn to him often. 

His books examines a lot of the myths associated with different kinds of nutrients.  The one that seemed to monopolize all the press was Vitamin C, perhaps due to the controversary surround Linus Pauling and his claims that high dose Vitamin C "cured cancer."  Not only did Vitamin C get a questionable rap, but so did palliative theories advancing high dose nutrients.  But let's start with Vitamin C.  

His Chapter 4 is titled "Make Certain Your Multivitamin Is Potent," which reivews the kinds of C that are the most potent along with the dose.  And since RDI for Vitamin C is set by the amount required to prevent scurvy, which is very low at 30 mgs, Sardi starts there.  The section in his Chapter 4 on Vitamin C carries the subheading of "Antioxidants Rescue Brain Neurons."  This section should be read by any parent whose child is enrolled in an after-school sports program.  Even if it is running, where the child is not making any contact with other players, the parent needs to understand what the nutritional needs of their child is.  Therefore, they should memorize the details of this section on Vitamin C.  Protect your kids minimally with Vitamin C.  The antioxidants that Sardi lists are presented here.  Note, too, in a later chapter, Sardi explains that lasting benefits from vitamins and antioxidants comes when they are combined, like in the form of a multi-vitamin.  The best multi-vitamin I've found is his Molecular-Multi.  But here is the list of vitamins: 

Antioxidants, such as Vitamin C, Vitamin E, and glutathione, serve as anti-rusting agents, protecting brain cells from premature aging and disease.  In mice, the administration of high-dose Vitamin C completely prevented drug-induced amnesia.  [Neurobiology Learning Memory 64: 119-24, 1995] In Switzerland, adults age 65-94 years of age, higher circulating Vitamin C and beta carotene levels are correlated with improved memory and vocabulary.  [Journal American Geriatric Society 45: 718-24, 1997] 

So, Vitamins C, E, and glutathione are anti-rusting agents.  Note well, mom.  They also protect the brain from aging and from disease.  Mom, did you hear that?  Specifically, Vitamin C prevents amnesia.  Minimally that means that it helps your child's brain remember more and remember better, which certainly would be a strategic advantage while in school and beyond when he is in business.  That alone should stand out as a #1 reason why parents should be giving their children higher doses of C.  I think it's that word "higher" that scares a lot of people, left over perhaps from the controversy of Dr. Linus Pauling's work.  Sardi adds that low Vitamin E levels make it harder to recall details.  So up the E, Ma!

In an elderly population of US adults, the ability to recall events or facts was diminished with low circulating levels of Vitamin E.  [American Journal Epidemiology 150:37-44, 1999]

Okay, so these facts derail that myth that Americans or anyone for that matter are simply wasting their money by paying for supplements, that all they're doing is producing expensive urine.  People claim that you don't need that much Vitamin C, that all you need to do is eat an orange or two a day.  Maybe.  But as his characteristic thoroughness prevails, Sardi looks at dosage provide which level of protection.

How Much Vitamin C?
To prevent scurvy	30 mgs	Half an orange
Recommended intake	90 mgs	1 ½ oranges
Average dietary consumption	110 mgs	Almost 2 oranges
To prevent cataracts	300-2000 mgs	5-33 oranges
To control blood pressure	500 mgs	8 oranges
To replace Vitamin C in smokers (pack a day habit)	500 mgs	8 oranges

So Sardi answers that question of "How much of a vitamin do I need?"  The short answer is "It depends on your situation, on your condition, what you're experiencing."  So instead of pointing to an average daily requirement, Sardi considers your age, your sex, or any specific conditions.  In other words, no RDI is the same for everyone.  Got it?  This is a much better, personalized approach.  You won't waste time or money this way.  

Want to prevent cataracts?  Then 1,000 mgs/day.  But can you really eat 30 oranges a day?  This alone is the worth your time to read and evaluate his reviews.  Most journalists will state that Vitamin C fights cancer or cuts short the life of the cold.  But how many will provide you with a specific amount to target a specific condition?  That's what I thought.  

What is required to prevent scurvy?  30 mgs.  In fact, what is interesting is that the RDI for Vitamin C recommended by the FDA is set, get this,

by the absensce of scurvy . . . . 

Get that?  When supplement companies manufacturer the vitamins, they're obliged follow the FDA's RDI.  But for Vitamin C, the amount determined is merely by the absence of scurvy, which takes several weeks to manifest itself.  As scurvy takes a long time to develop, it means that our immunity, in the absence of Vitamin C, is woking based on other nutritional compounds and biological processes.  Sardi presents a very interesting chart by introducing it thus.

Scientists estimate humans need about 2000-4000 mgs of Vitamin C, taken at intervals through the day, to approximate what the human body once produced when Vitamin C was a hormone, not a vitamin.  [Medical Hypotheses 5: 711-21, 1979] 

Check out this chart.  It is fascinating:

Humans Lost Their Ability to Produce Vitamin C Long Ago Most Animals Produce Their Own Vitamin C by the Enzymatic Conversion of Blood Sugar to Ascorbic Acid* *Except for some species of guinea pigs, fruit bats, fish, and primates Daily Production of Vitamin C in Humans and Animals
Humans & Animals	Milligrams of Vitamin C produced per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of body weight/per day	If humans were the same weight as these animals how much Vitamin C would humans produce per day? (in milligrams)
Snake	10	700
Tortoise	7	490
Mouse	275	19,250
Rabbit	226	15,820
Goat	190	13,300
Rat	150	10,500
Dog	40	2800
Cat	40	2800
Humans	0	--
*Chart provided courtesy of Rusty Hoge of cforyourself.com.  Cforyourself is the internet’s leading website about the nutritional benefits of Vitamin C for optimum health.  Visit cforyourself.com.

Given that gorillas in the wild consume many times more Vitamin C (4500 mgs per day) than modern humans and their diet is supplemented with 5000 mgs per day in captivity, is it any wonder Americans who consume about 100 mgs of Vitamin C from their daily diet and have a vitamin requirement of 60 milligrams, suffer from so many allergic disorders?  http://knowledgeofhealth.com/celiac-gluten-intolerance-are-we-chasing-wrong-villain/.  

He explains what supplemental Vitamin C does for blood pressure.  It reduces high blood pressure.  Specifically, 

500 mgs of supplemental Vitamin C, meaning oral Vitamin C, has been shown to help the blood vessels dilated or widen in response to stress and thus help maintain healthy blood pressure (Sardi, 61). 

Ergo, if you're prone to high blood pressure, keep some Vitamin C around the house.  

The question then that persists is how much Vitamin C should one take?  Let's see what Sardi's conclusions are and how he reached them.  He asks the question himself, 

How much Vitamin C should adults consume?

And he answers it 

   A lot more than many people think. 

So 30 mgs to prevent scurvy he says, adding that 

Most vitamin supplements provide at least 60 mgs of Vitamin C, and updated versions will provide 90 mgs sicne new guidelines call for 75 mgs for females and 90 mgs for males, and a bit more for smokers.  The average daily consumption of Vitamin C in the US Is about 109 mgs.  

He adds that 

However, the adequate amount of Vitamin C is determined by the absence of scurvy, which would be the minimal amount. 

What I find fascinating is that humans used to produce our own Vitamin C.  Sardi explains

Humans once produced Vitamin C in their own bodies.  Back in human history, prior to a universal genetic mutation, Vitamin C was a hormone produced in the human liver.  In reality, all humans are hopelessly vitamin C deficient because our early ancestors produced their own Vitamin C naturally by the enzymatic conversion in the liver of circulating blood sugars to ascorbic acid.  Most animals except for some species of fruit bats, fish, guinea pigs and some primates produce their own Vitamin C.

Humans have a defective gene in their liver which no longer produces the fourther enzyme (gulonolactone oxidase) required to produce Vitamin C. {Am J Med 26: 740-48, 1959]  Animals that produce Vitamin C live 8-12 times beyond their age of physical maturation.  Humans mature physically at about age 18 and live only 2.0-3.5 times beyond this.  Reinstallation of the gene for the missing enzyme would extend the human life span to hundreds of years.  Obviously, at some time in the past humans lived a lot longer than tney do now.  Maybe there is an element of truth to those Bible stories about Adam and Noah and Methuselah living so long. 

Absolutely, fascinating stuff.  So the final thing I will review from Sardi's book are the amounts produced by the different animal species.  You defeinitely need this book around the house.  It is a fascinating read.  And here I am talking only about his section on Vitamin C.  The other sections also will blow your hair back.  

Sardi points out that Vitamin C is primarily a stress nutrient.  It helps other animals to manage stress.  It helps us too for the same reasons from environmental stress, food stress, and other stresses.  He writes

Animals produce about 60 mgs of Vitamin C per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of body weight, or for a 150 pound human would need about 4000 milligrams to reach the level once produced naturally within the body.  Think of what the human body would be like with continual production of Vitamin C.  Since increased stress hormones signal for the release of stored sugars into the blood circulation, under stress humans would produce more Vitamin C.  Humans would no longer be vulnerable to the physical consequences of stress-related disease.  There would be no diabetes since sugar would convert to ascorbic acid.  Humans would renew their tissues more readily since collagen production would be elevated.  Joints wouldn't wear out.  Blood vessels wouldn't weaken with advancing age.  Cataracts, kidney stones and other maladies would be a thing of the past.  Scientists estimate humans need about 2000-4000mgs of Vitamin C, taken at intervals through the day, to approximate what the human body once produced when Vitamin C was a hormone, not a vitamin.  [Medical Hypotheses 5: 711-21, 1979]

Sarid ends this section on Vitamin C with a question, "Why Humans Are Vulnerable to Stress?"  Excellent question.  He admits that 

even this amount [2000-4000 mgs] of Vitamin C may not be enough.

Incredible.  How much then? 

Stress triggers production of adrenal hormones which signals stored sugars and fats to be released into the blood circulation.  Upon passage through the liver, these sugars would then be converted into Vitamin C via an enzymatic process.  This is how Vitamin C is produced today, from corn syrup and enzymes.  In animals that produce their own Vitamin C, the more stress they experience the more Vitamin C their bodies produce.  An animal about the size of a human, such as a 160-pound mountain goat, produces about 13,000 milligrams of Vitamin C per day and more under stress.  [Med Hypotheses 5: 711, 1979]  Vitamin C is an anti-stress vitamin and requirement vary depending upon the level of physical or emotional stress.  A fixed intake level of Vitamin C does not take into consideration varying levels of stress.  

Answer: 2000 mgs 4 times per day.  We do this to make up for a genetic flaw. 

Next, I will review the myths associated with over dosing on vitamins.  Stay tuned.  

Here is his book