June 18, 2013
- The Food and Nutrition Information Center
- Office of Dietary Supplements, National Institutes of Health
- Nutrient Data Laboratory
- Food and Drug Administration
- The American Dietetic Association
- American Council on Science and Health
- American Institute for Cancer Research
- Information on vitamins and nutrients in foods
- Independent testing of nutritional supplements' contents and quality
- US Pharmacopeia
- Herb Research Foundation
News & Features
The Supreme Court ruled Monday in a closely watched international price-fixing case that federal antitrust law does not apply to transactions that take place overseas and that cause harm there unless a company's actions in the United States can be shown to have contributed to the harm. The decision, 8 to 0, overturned a ruling last year by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that had caused considerable alarm among multinational corporations and foreign governments by significantly expanding the reach of American antitrust law and the jurisdiction of the federal courts to hear such cases.
Parents may worry about teenagers who spend the summer hanging out on street corners, but at least they are building up plenty of Vitamin D. A surprising number of adolescents do not have adequate levels of Vitamin D in their blood, according to a study released yesterday.
Debra and Patrick Doyle of Aspen, Colo., go skiing every weekend in the winter and, in summer, take long mountain bike rides in the hilly terrain where they live. What helps this 36-year-old couple feel so energetic?
A prominent Canadian researcher is facing claims that data in his widely reported study of a nutritional supplement's effects on thinking and memory in the elderly are so flawed as to have no real value. The scientist, Dr. Ranjit Kumar Chandra, is internationally known for his many contributions to the field of nutrition, and his work has been widely cited in professional and lay publications alike, including The New York Times.
Most women experience morning sickness early in their pregnancies. But it does not necessarily strike only in the morning, nor does it always end after the first trimester. I, for one, felt sick at various times of the day, especially when I smelled something off-putting, like garbage or meat being cooked, and every day on the subway on my way home, until I realized that it helped to eat something before I left the office.
1. Symptoms The patient sat quietly in the tiny emergency-room cubicle, his muscular arms and chest barely covered by the thin cotton hospital gown. He looked far too robust to be in the hospital, but it was his fourth visit in two months. ''I'm losing my strength,'' he explained quietly to yet another doctor -- Dr. Christine Twining, a physician in training in her late 20's. ''I'm so weak, I'm worried there's something really wrong.''
One of about two dozen vitamin manufacturers that are fighting accusations of price fixing made in a lawsuit by foreign purchasers has reached a settlement and is cooperating with the plaintiffs, a lawyer in the case said yesterday. The company, Merck KGaA of Germany, has agreed to pay an undisclosed sum, said Michael D. Hausfeld, a Washington lawyer who represents more than a dozen foreign purchasers in the case, which the United States Supreme Court has agreed to review. Merck will provide documents and witnesses to bolster the plaintiffs' case, Mr. Hausfeld said. A spokeswoman for Merck, which is not related to Merck & Company of the United States, could not be reached for comment.
The Supreme Court, accepting a closely watched international price-fixing case for review, agreed on Monday to decide how United States antitrust law applies to transactions that take place entirely overseas. Although the issue has only lately gained prominence in the lower courts, recent rulings opening federal courts to antitrust claims by foreign plaintiffs with only remote connections to domestic commerce have engendered enormous interest and concern among companies fearful of newly defined antitrust liability for their overseas operations.
UNLIKE their diet-crazed owners, America's pets don't care a whit about rock-hard abs. Most dogs and cats have yet to meet a buttery table scrap they didn't like, no matter how much kibble they have consumed. That apparent lack of willpower is not only ruining Fido's or Fluffy's figure. According to the latest feeding guidelines from the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, pets are chowing their way toward diabetes, heart disease and other ailments. ''Obesity,'' the document states, ''is estimated to occur in 25 percent of dogs and cats in westernized societies.''
After the deaths of two Israeli children because of a severe vitamin deficiency, the German manufacturer of infant formula admitted Tuesday that a kosher, soy-based product it sells in Israel was missing an ingredient necessary to sustain infant life. The company, Humana Milchunion, which is based in Everswinkel, Germany, said that because of human error its Remedia Super Soya 1 product, which is popular in Israel and Jewish communities elsewhere because of its strict kosher certification, contained only a fraction of the Vitamin B-1, also known as thiamine, that is needed to prevent diseases like beri-beri, which can be fatal in infants.
City health officials warned New Yorkers yesterday that an Israeli baby formula called Remedia could harm infants because it lacked a crucial vitamin. They said that Americans might have bought it on trips to Israel, or had it shipped to them by relatives there. They also cited unconfirmed reports that one or two stores in Brooklyn might have stocked Remedia. Israeli officials have said that since last spring, vitamin B1 has been left out of the kosher version of Remedia, causing the deaths of three children and brain damage in others. The Israeli government has also begun a criminal investigation into the possibility that the formula was sabotaged. The formula is made by a German company, Humana Milchunion, and marketed by Heinz Remedia, an Israeli company mostly owned by the American conglomerate H. J. Heinz. Richard Pérez-Peña (NYT)
HE has sold millions of books and tapes exhorting people to ''Unleash the Power Within,'' ''Get the Edge'' and ''Live With Passion!'' He claims that his infomercials have been running every 30 minutes nonstop in North America since April 1989. And every year, legions of people pay thousands of dollars each for the privilege of declaring, along with him and stadiums full of like-minded followers: ''I will lead, not follow! I will believe, not doubt! I will create, not destroy!'' If it seems the world can't get enough of Anthony Robbins, the high priest of human potential, the feeling is mutual. Although he has built an empowerment empire estimated to be worth at least $80 million by selling nothing but himself, Mr. Robbins is no longer content just to influence the emotional and financial lives of his devotees.
Can sunshine, now shunned by so many who fear skin cancer and wrinkles, save many more lives than it harms? Most definitely, says a leading expert in the field, Dr. Michael F. Holick, a professor of medicine, dermatology, physiology and biophysics at the Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Holick, who discovered the active form of vitamin D, has pulled together an impressive body of evidence in support of his advice that no one should be, as he puts it, a ''sunphobe'' or, for that matter, a sun worshiper.
A growing number of medical experts are concerned that Americans are overdoing their vitamin consumption. As many as 70 percent of the population is taking supplements, mostly vitamins, convinced that the pills will make them healthier. But researchers say that vitamin supplements cannot correct for a poor diet, that multivitamins have not been shown to prevent any disease and that it is easy to reach high enough doses of certain vitamins and minerals to actually increase the risk of disease.
People with diabetes who take daily vitamin and mineral supplements may be less susceptible to infections like colds and the absenteeism they cause, researchers reported yesterday Still, the report, in Annals of Internal Medicine, seems unlikely to resolve whether the 40 percent of Americans who take vitamins and minerals are doing themselves any good. An accompanying editorial noted the small size of the study sample, and both the report and an accompanying editorial said broader study was needed.
Most people can obtain 90 to 100 percent of the vitamin D they need from a little sun. But if you are reading this in the northern two-thirds of the country, don't bother heading outside for a quick dose. (Not that we discourage a brisk daily constitutional.) Winter sunlight is inadequate for vitamin D production. You are living off what you built up from warm-weather sun and the relatively small amounts in a few foods.
A visit to the office of Dr. Michael F. Holick in the Boston University Medical Center quickly conveys his enthusiasm for his favorite hormone, vitamin D. On the office walls are letters from sixth graders responding to a talk he gave.
Q. I have been told that the vitamin D added to skim milk (because removing fat removes the D) remains entirely on the side of the container, so that it is effectively not available. Is this true? A. ''The amount of vitamin D3 in the milk, and the amount that one gets from its consumption, is the amount that's stated on the label,'' said Dr. Sheldon S. Hendler, co-editor of the PDR for Nutritional Supplements.
When the Moon Was Cozy Any tea-time host knows that to keep the Lapsang souchong hot, you have to slip a cozy over the teapot. Forget to put the cozy back on after pouring and the pot quickly becomes cold.
Fish, vitamin C and a drug used to treat gout all helped to improve arterial function, according to two studies released yesterday by the journal Circulation. The studies, conducted separately, involved smokers, not because the researchers were looking to make smoking safer, but because smokers show very clear reductions in the ability of blood vessels to change their size in response to changes in blood pressure, a measure of cardiac health called endothelial function.
Dr. Ron Livesey was fat, tired and out of shape. At 49, he felt that his best years were behind him. So one day seven years ago, on his way to a medical meeting, he stopped at a doctor's office in Palm Springs, Calif., for his first hormone injections.
Some people can eat slabs of steak and butter without gaining weight or raising their cholesterol levels. Others assiduously shun fats and still have a high risk of heart disease. The different response to diet is determined in part by one's genes. Now scientists are beginning to apply genetics to diet, a new field known as nutritional genomics, or nutrigenomics. In the near term, the study is expected to reveal how particular diet ingredients affect health. The ultimate goal will be to tailor one's diet to genetic makeup.
Recently, I entered a store specializing in dietary supplements, curious about the information I would receive when I explained to the teenage clerk that I was particularly interested in preventing a heart attack. I did not mention that I was a physician specializing in the prevention of heart disease, or that there were relatively few measures proven to reduce heart disease risk. But so many patients had brought in bags of supplements and ''vitamins,'' convinced of their cardiovascular benefits, that I wanted to see how these products were being marketed.
In the eight weeks since the fed eral government announced that it had halted a study of a popular hormone therapy used by postmenopausal women, doctors say they have been deluged by an ever-growing tide of promotional material for anything and everything that could substitute for Prempro, the drug used in the study. The alternatives run the gamut: prescription drugs that consist of slightly different hormone formulations, nutritional supplements made of herbs and vitamins, soy products said to be natural sources of estrogen, and even what might be termed menopause accessories, such as one company's ''cooling comfort towelettes'' to wipe the sweat from hot flashes.
AS Labor Day flickers on the horizon, many Americans are doubtless patting themselves on their sunscreen-slathered backs for avoiding excessive sun exposure. But this month, several scientists trotted out a theory that people who don't get enough sunlight and have diets low in vitamin D may be at higher risk of developing colon, prostate, rectal, ovarian and breast cancer. Scientists have known for decades that vitamin D is essential to healthy bones and normal growth. But over the past 20 years or so, some laboratory evidence has suggested that vitamin D may block the growth of malignant tumors. The rub is that the vitamin D we ingest in milk and other foods is chemically activated in our bodies only when our skin is exposed to natural sunlight.
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