Vitamin Supplements Term Paper

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Vitamin Supplements

Consumers today are faced with a myriad of information concerning vitamin supplements. Should they take them, should they not? Are they helpful or are they harmful? Are consumers simply wasting their money, flushing it down the toilet so to speak? One day the experts say one thing and the next day there are new studies by other experts. This all creates quite a dilemma for those who are trying to do the best for their bodies. However, through the years there has been a steady stream of overwhelming evidence proving that vitamin supplements are helpful and beneficial for physical health, and moreover, may affect behavior.

Many in the medical community have advised their patients for years that taking multivitamins only gives them expensive urine, since severe vitamin deficiencies such as scurvy and pellagra are all but unheard of in industrialized countries (Gorman 2001). However, evidence amasses that they were wrong. A growing number of studies indicate that even a small vitamin deficiency can be harmful to your health (Gorman 2001). The New England Journal of Medicine states that one of the B. vitamins, folate, has been proved to limit the neural-tube defects in embryos, and that folate combined with B12 and B6 decreases the re-blockage of coronary arteries after angioplasty (Gorman 2001). The "American Family Physician" reports that "dietary antioxidants and folic acid may play a role in the pathophysiology of coronary disease and stroke" (Pearce 2002).

Aside from the physical health benefits of vitamin supplements, recent studies show that nutrition plays a key role in behavior. Studies by Dr. Stephen J. Schoenthaler, California State University, Stanislaus professor of criminal justice, and Dr. Ian D. Bier, medical director of the Dietary Research Foundation in New Hampshire, show that low-dose vitamin supplements are "proving to be preventive medicine against violent behavior" (Cal 2002).

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According to the studies, "pre-adolescent schoolchildren, teenage delinquents, and adult offenders who received vitamin and mineral supplements produced a 45% greater reduction in violent behavior compared to control groups who received placebos" (Cal 2002). These are the first studies using clinical trials, to indicate a link between diet and antisocial behavior. Schoenthaler's and Bier's studies have been authenticated by Senior Scientist Bernard Gesch of Oxford University. Gesch study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, found that "inmates who took vitamins were 37% less likely to break institutional rules compared to inmates taking placebos" (Cal 2002). These studies have drawn impressive attention. Schoenthaler and Bier have recently been authorized by Congress to work within the public school system. Their contention is that "children who received vitamin tablets also produced significantly better grades than children who received placebos" (Cal 2002). According to one of their more recent studies, serious rule violations of young adult offenders in two Northern California institutions were "38% lower for those taking a special vitamin and mineral supplement than a placebo group" (Cal 2002). Furthermore, of 468 elementary school children and 62 confined teen-age delinquents who took dietary supplements, all showed significantly less violent and non-violent antisocial behavior compared to groups taking placebos (Cal 2002). "Schoenthaler said, "Thousands of children and adults have now participated in these international studies. The most important finding here is that violent behavior can be reduced significantly at a very low cost" (Cal 2002).

For years researchers have studied the benefits of vitamin E on the skin, hair, heart, and over-all health.….....

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