What is behind the decline in fertility and how do we fix it? The answer could be vitamin A.

What is behind the decline in fertility and how do we fix it? The answer could be vitamin A. Note that true vitamin A is not found in plant foods, only animal foods. Read Pam Schoenfeld, RD, LDN's article published in the latest edition of our Wise Traditions journal via… pic.twitter.com/DrQzX4CSSf

— Weston A. Price Foundation (@WestonAPrice) December 27, 2023

Dr. Weston A. Price emphasized the importance of vit A, noting that the diets of traditional healthy people he observed contained 10x more vitamin A than those of people he saw in the US

“Why do we say that vitamin A is needed for almost every function in the human body? We first think of it for vision and eye health. The true form of vitamin A is called retinol as its name corresponds to its importance for the retina of the eye. However, apart from vision, we…

— Wejolyn 🇺🇸 (@Wejolyn) October 25, 2023

Beef liver contains excellent amounts of Retinol A.  

FLUORIDE OR NO? IT'S THE METHOD THAT MATTERS

Fluoride gas or liquid mixed into your water supply, without your permission, is none too nice.  Who gave the county or municipal water authorities permission to put a chemical, a drug, into the water supply for everyone to ingest?  Good question.  Who authorized such a move?  

Without ever getting an answer to that question, what we usually hear is that fluoride was put into the water supply because the city deemed it beneficial for consumer's or resident's teeth.  Well, thank you very much.  Can I have another?  So as city or county officials bide their time while residents debate the benefits to their teeth of fluoride in the water, that helps to deflect any accounting or criticism thereof.  So one antagonist is the city or county.  So let's test this theory that fluoride in the water supply protects teeth from getting cavities or the more technical term, caries.  And just because dentists provide fluoride treatments, does that ensure that fluoride is of benefit?  Let's see.  At least at the dentist, we have a choice.  We can say no thank you to Dr. Eagan, whereas the government forces their edicts on residents in a given territory whether they want the stuff or not.  

Ardent researcher, Bill Sardi, points out that very little fluoride from fluoridated water is consumed.  

Why it’s even been shown that fluoride in tap water never reaches saliva levels to prevent dental caries. [Journal Environment Public Health 2013]  And was the rational to fluoridate tap water to prevent dental decay just a cover for population control? [Journal Toxicology Environmental Health1994]

So, fluoride in fluoridated water does not prevent cavities.  Does this mean that the amount of fluoride that we ingest from fluoridated water is okay for us?  Not exactly.  From the article that Sardi cited, it ends with this, "Blood levels during lifelong consumption can harm heart, bone, brain, and even developing teeth enamel."  So the concern then is the amount of fluoride you consume in fluoridated water OVER A LIFETIME.  My recommendation?  Drink bottled water.  This way you'll get less fluoride, less chlorine, less lead [by the way, lead poisoning is the 4th leading cause of death], and other heavy minerals.  

FLUORIDE IN TOOTHPASTE IS SAFER
Though it's animated, this review on how teeth grow isn't bad.  Consider it a review.  And I think that because too many of us don't take the best care, either from negligence or bad information, of our mouth, teeth, and gums that it doesn't hurt to start somewhere even if it is review.  

Bill Sardi points out that

Severe dental caries (cavities) in preschool children are more related to low blood levels of vitamin D rather than lack of use of fluoride toothpaste or fluoridated drinking water.  (Fluoride helps harden dental enamel and thus makes teeth resistant to acid-forming bacteria that induce cavities.)

So fluoride is important to protect your teeth; that, and vitamin D.

Vitamin A is good to maintain tooth pulp.  Vitamin D, like fluoride, hardens your enamel.  Vitamin C works to keep your gums healthy.  

So, to recap: D to harden enamel.  A to maintain tooth pulp.  C for gums. 

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.