Is Your Multivitamin Killing You?
A MUST READ
– from Dr. Michael J. Rudolph PH.D
A healthy diet includes the correct amount of essential vitamins and minerals that sustain many important biochemical processes within the body, promoting normal bodily function and overall good health. Unfortunately, the modern diet is typically nutrient-deficient— meaning most people do not consume the daily requirement for many of these essential vitamins and minerals, increasing the risk for several life-threatening diseases.1
In an attempt to address this nutritional shortcoming, the multivitamin was designed to provide many of the required vitamins and minerals to promote better health. However, recent scientific evidence indicates that many multivitamin products on the market today might actually impede overall health by supplying an excessive amount of certain minerals such as iron, copper, manganese and calcium, leading to increased oxidative stress. The accumulation of oxidative damage caused by too much mineral intake then triggers an immune response, which promotes a chronic state of inflammation.
Chronic inflammation— unlike acute inflammation, which protects and heals the body following physical injury or infection— is not beneficial. In fact, chronic inflammation is involved in a number of disease states. For instance, chronic inflammation in fat cells is closely related to the development of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.2 Similarly, chronic inflammation can damage the coronary arteries, promoting cardiovascular disease3, or stimulate the initiation of cancerous tumors.4
Too Much Iron, Copper and Manganese Boosts Oxidative Damage and Inflammation, Causing Chronic Disease
One of the minerals that appears to contribute most potently to the disease state is iron, especially when taken excessively. Iron is an essential trace element, typically found in the body bound to protein molecules, where it facilitates numerous biological processes essential for life. While we need iron to be healthy, too much iron intake apparently overwhelms the body’s storage capacity, resulting in inflammation and ultimately chronic disease.
Iron is found in the body in two forms; one form is bound to the prosthetic heme group while the other is in a free form, unbound to heme. The free form of iron can be harmful because it reacts with other compounds in the body, producing free radicals that can cause irreparable oxidative damage to key components of the cell including proteins, lipids and DNA.
Because of the potential harm caused by the free form of iron, when inside the cell, the free form of iron is stored inside a protein called ferritin, which prevents the unwanted release of iron to avoid oxidative damage. In fact, studies have shown that increased dietary iron intake increases cellular levels of ferritin to provide greater storage capacity for the additionally ingested iron. However, quite unexpectedly, the greater ferritin levels caused by iron intake also trigger inflammation5, increasing the risk for obesity6, diabetes5,7 and even Alzheimer’s disease.8,1 This is likely because higher ferritin levels function as a signal to the body that a lot of iron is around. So, the body responds to this signal by activating the immune system, which has the unique capacity to prevent the release of iron from the primary iron-storage site, the liver. So, essentially, the body is doing its best to lower serum iron levels by activating the immune system, despite the fact that this could lead to chronic inflammation and disease. Furthermore, inflammation from too much iron intake may also be due to iron intake exceeding the storage capacity of ferritin, resulting in the release of free iron into the cell, causing additional oxidative damage and inflammation.
As a result, the use of iron-containing supplements doesn’t seem to be such a good idea, as this will likely lead to excessive iron intake— especially considering that most individuals already consume generous amounts of iron from the diet, as many common foods are heavily fortified with iron such as cereals, bread and pasta. So supplementing a diet loaded with iron-fortified foods will probably lead to the consumption of too much iron, which may cause the aforementioned increases in oxidative stress, inflammation and disease.
Comparable to iron, the element copper also generates oxidative damage, particularly in neurons— making too much copper intake unhealthy. In fact, evidence shows that ingestion of copper from supplement pills, along with a high-fat diet, contributes to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.9 This study also showed that serum copper levels were elevated in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, and higher copper levels correlated with loss of cognition. In addition, copper accumulation in certain tissues has been associated with certain pathologies including cancer, as copper can contribute to the growth of certain cancers while increasing cancer metastasis in other forms.10,11
Excessive consumption of the element manganese has also been identified as a health risk, as accumulation of manganese in the central nervous system promotes neurotoxicity— resulting in the neurological brain disorder manganism. In addition, elevated serum levels of manganese have been found in different neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease12,13,14, where manganese has been shown to promote the production of the abnormal protein aggregates called Lewy bodies that apparently contribute to Parkinson’s disease.
Manganese’s deleterious influence on health is likely due, in part, from oxidative damage within the body, as manganese can also generate free radicals in a similar fashion to iron and copper. Manganese also tends to accumulate in specific cells in the brain called the astrocytes, causing them to malfunction. Since the astrocyte normally provides essential nutrients to neurons, malfunction of the astrocyte prevents the required nutrition for the neuron, thus depleting neuronal function and promoting neurodegeneration.15
Too Much Calcium Increases Cardiovascular Risk
Calcium intake has been promoted for quite some time, because of its apparent ability to improve bone health. Calcium is also required for many other essential bodily functions including nerve function, muscular contraction and the regulation of certain hormones.16 As a result, most multivitamins contain a considerable amount of the daily recommended allowance for calcium.
However, a few recent studies indicate that calcium supplementation may not be as beneficial to bone health as once thought, and may actually be detrimental to cardiovascular health. The first report states that while calcium may slow bone loss to some degree, there is no significant reduction in fracture prevention.14,17 In a second report by the National Institutes of Health, it was shown that calcium supplements, not dietary calcium, increased the risk of death from cardiovascular disease.12,18
In closing, the use of multivitamin supplements loaded with inflammatory-inducing minerals appears to be counterproductive with respect to one’s health, as extraneous amounts of these minerals may result in disease instead of good health, especially when taken over longer periods of time.
Advanced Molecular Labs’ (AML) Thermo Heat Multi is the first multiviamin and mineral formula without iron, copper, manganese and calcium. For more information, go toadvancedmolecularlabs.com
LEARN MORE ABOUT THERMOHEAT MULTI
– See more at: http://www.
1. Fulgoni VL, Keast DR, et al. Foods, fortificants, and supplements: Where do Americans get their nutrients? J Nutr 2011;141, 1847-1854. 2. Hotamisligil GS. Inflammation and metabolic disorders. Nature 2006;444, 860-867. 3. Haffner SM. The metabolic syndrome: inflammation, diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular disease. Am J Cardiol 2006;97, 3A-11A. 4. Lin WW and Karin M. A cytokine-mediated link between innate immunity, inflammation, and cancer. J Clin Invest 2007;117, 1175-1183. 5. Andrews M, Soto N and Arredondo-Olguin M. Association between ferritin and hepcidin levels and inflammatory status in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity. Nutrition 2015;31, 51-57. 6. Iwasaki T, Nakajima A, et al. Serum ferritin is associated with visceral fat area and subcutaneous fat area. Diabetes Care 2005;28, 2486-2491. 7. Jiang R, Manson JE, et al. Body iron stores in relation to risk of type 2 diabetes in apparently healthy women. Jama 2004;291, 711-717. 8. Ayton S, Faux NG and Bush AI. Ferritin levels in the cerebrospinal fluid predict Alzheimer’s disease outcomes and are regulated by APOE. Nat Commun 2015;6, 6760. 9. Brewer GJ. Alzheimer’s disease causation by copper toxicity and treatment with zinc. Front Aging Neurosci 2014;6, 92. 10. MacDonald G, Nalvarte I, et al. Memo is a copper-dependent redox protein with an essential role in migration and metastasis. Sci Signal 2014;7, ra56. 11. Jimenez-Jimenez FJ, Molina JA, et al. Cerebrospinal fluid levels of transition metals in patients with Parkinson’s disease. J Neural Transm 1998;105, 497-505. 12. Hozumi I, Hasegawa T, et al. Patterns of levels of biological metals in CSF differ among neurodegenerative diseases. J Neurol Sci 2011;303, 95-99. 13. Sidoryk-Wegrzynowicz M and Aschner M. Manganese toxicity in the central nervous system: the glutamine/glutamate-gamma-aminobutyric acid cycle. J Intern Med 2013;273, 466-477. 14. Takagi Y, Okada A, et al. Evaluation of indexes of in vivo manganese status and the optimal intravenous dose for adult patients undergoing home parenteral nutrition. Am J Clin Nutr 2002;75, 112-118. 15. Brady DC, Crowe MS, et al. Copper is required for oncogenic BRAF signaling and tumorigenesis. Nature 2014;509, 492-496. 16. Larsson SC. Are calcium supplements harmful to cardiovascular disease? JAMA Intern Med 2013;173, 647-648. 17. Reid IR. Should we prescribe calcium supplements for osteoporosis prevention? J Bone Metab 2014;21, 21-28. 18. Bolland MJ, Avenell A, et al. Effect of calcium supplements on risk of myocardial infarction and cardiovascular events: meta-analysis. Bmj 2010;341, c3691. – See more at:http://www.