California scientists discover how vitamins and minerals may prevent age-related diseases

Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology ^ | May 31, 2011 | Unknown

[decimon]

New research in the FASEB Journal demonstrates need for public health initiatives aimed at identifying, treating and taking seriously modest vitamin and mineral deficiencies

Bethesda, MD—Severe deficiency of the vitamins and minerals required for life is relatively uncommon in developed nations, but modest deficiency is very common and often not taken seriously. A new research published online in the FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), however, may change this thinking as it examines moderate selenium and vitamin K deficiency to show how damage accumulates over time as a result of vitamin and mineral loss, leading to age-related diseases.

"Understanding how best to define and measure optimum nutrition will make the application of new technologies to allow each person to optimize their own nutrition a much more realistic possibility than it is today." said Joyce C. McCann, Ph.D., a co-author of the study from the Nutrition and Metabolism Center at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute in Oakland, California. "If the principles of the theory, as demonstrated for vitamin K and selenium, can be generalized to other vitamins and minerals, this may provide the foundation needed."

McCann and colleagues reached their conclusions by compiling and assessing several general types of scientific evidence. They tested whether selenium-dependent proteins that are essential from an evolutionary perspective are more resistant to selenium deficiency than those that are less essential. They discovered a highly sophisticated array of mechanisms at cellular and tissue levels that, when selenium is limited, protect essential selenium-dependent proteins at the expense of those that are nonessential. They also found that mutations in selenium-dependent proteins that are lost on modest selenium deficiency result in characteristics shared by age-related diseases including cancer, heart disease, and loss of immune or brain function. Results should inform attempts to locate mechanistic linkages between vitamin or mineral deficiencies and age-related diseases by focusing attention on the vitamin and mineral-dependent proteins that are nonessential from an evolutionary perspective. Such mechanistic linkages are likely to present opportunities for treatment.

"This paper should settle any debate about the importance of taking a good, complete, multivitamin every day," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the FASEB Journal. "As this report shows, taking a multivitamin that contains selenium is a good way to prevent deficiencies that, over time, can cause harm in ways that we are just beginning to understand."

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Receive monthly highlights from the FASEB Journal by e-mail. Sign up at http://www.faseb.org/fjupdate.aspx. The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) is published by the Federation of the American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) and celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2011. Over the past quarter century, the journal has been recognized by the Special Libraries Association as one of the top 100 most influential biomedical journals of the past century and is the most cited biology journal worldwide according to the Institute for Scientific Information.

FASEB comprises 23 societies with more than 100,000 members, making it the largest coalition of biomedical research associations in the United States. FASEB enhances the ability of scientists and engineers to improve—through their research—the health, well-being and productivity of all people. FASEB's mission is to advance health and welfare by promoting progress and education in biological and biomedical sciences through service to our member societies and collaborative advocacy.

Details: Joyce C. McCann and Bruce N. Ames. Adaptive dysfunction of selenoproteins from the perspective of the triage theory: why modest selenium deficiency may increase risk of diseases of aging . FASEB J. 2011 25:1793-1814. doi: 10.1096/fj.11-180885 ; http://www.fasebj.org/content/25/6/1793.abstract

[decimon]

Ping

[decimon]

The abstract on selenium: http://www.fasebj.org/content/25/6/1793.abstract

[aruanan]

But don’t go overboard and take too much selenium.

[Free Vulcan]

Vitamins are the glue that holds it all together.

[Mortrey]

But, don’t get excited....

The “Won” is seeing to it that Codex Alimentarius is put in place, so that we will have to get prescriptions from doctors to get a vitamin.

[Mortrey]

“Obama signs legislation to make supplements and alternative health remedies illegal”

http://www.examiner.com/wellness-in-atlanta/obama-signs-legislation-to-make-supplements-and-alternative-health-remedies-illegal#ixzz1NwosjiuO

[decimon]

But don’t go overboard and take too much selenium.

I take a vitamin-mineral-whatever pill each day as a supplement. Just a supplement. I take additional vitamin D.

[TheThirdRuffian]

While I despise Obama, that’s not an appropriate comment for this forum.

[RnMomof7]

How do you know how much is the right amount?

[Renegade]

Happy to know you paid attention in Chemistry class. Public Education ?? To each his own .

[subterfuge]

Are these the Tie-dyed t-shirt wearing California scientists with the pony-tails and flip-flops?

[NavyCanDo]

How much money did they spend to prove Mom was right when she said eat your veggies.

[numberonepal]

How much money did they spend to prove Mom was right when she said eat your veggies.

Eating your veggies doesn't do all that much good these days. The soil in which the veggies are grown is depleted of minerals necessary for optimum health. In turn the meat we eat is also low in essential vitamins and minerals needed for longevity. Noah lived 900+ years. Why? Because the food he ate was chock full of vitamins and minerals. Back then a normal diet contained everything we needed to stave off aging.

[TheThirdRuffian]

Threats of violence against publically-elected officials are for liberals.

[Renegade]

Show me a threat of violence a$$hole. Overdose of Pb?? Go back to DU.

[aruanan]

You're not necessarily safe just sticking to a multi-vitamin. This happened in 2008:

Toxic Levels of Selenium in Dietary Supplements.

You can look here for toxicology facts about selenium.

As with most micronutrients, not having enough will harm you and having too much will harm you. The typical amount that is set for the RDA is more than enough to prevent the classic deficiency disease for that micronutrient. The maximum dosage is still far short, for most of them, of an amount that could cause harm, though it varies depending on the type of vitamin or mineral. The fat soluble vitamins, especially D and A, can reach toxic levels much more quickly than the water soluble vitamins, especially vitamin C, because their half-life in the body is so much longer. I'll try to find my RDA book when I get home. It seems I saw it somewhere not too long ago. It has all the specifics about each of the vitamins and minerals and how the RDAs for them were determined.

[decimon]

Two hundred times the stated amount of selenium is quite a discrepancy. But I wouldn’t eschew supplements for fear of this possibility.

[aruanan]

Two hundred times the stated amount of selenium is quite a discrepancy. But I wouldn’t eschew supplements for fear of this possibility.

Well, no, but it's something to keep in mind. For the most part, though, unless you're a woman (who needs a greater amount of calcium that she can easily get through the diet), you can get all the micronutrients you need to prevent deficiency diseases by eating from a wide variety of foods in an amount sufficient for your daily energy needs over a period of several weeks. That is, you don't have to have the RDA for every single micronutrient every single day. And men don't need as much iron as premenopausal women.