Thank you Gratis 6 minutes now past 11 programming on Minnesota Public Radio is supported by Dayton's oriental rug departments in downtown Minneapolis, Saint Paul and at the Southdale Brookdale and Rosedale home stores. And good morning. This is mid day of Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Gary eichten. Glad you could join us. Well, the headline this week was hard to ignore vitamin E may help prevent prostate cancer a disease which kills nearly 40,000 American men every year cording to a study in Finland vitamin D May reduce the incidence of prostate cancer by 1/3 and may reduce the number of deaths from prostate cancer by over 40% So should all men start taking Vitamin D supplements. And for that matter should all of us men and women start taking Vitamin D supplements to compensate for what appears to be a widespread deficiency in vitamin D. Another news headline this week joining us from our Rochester Studio to help us sort through these new developments and answer all of your questions about vitamins and nutrition is dr. Donald hensrud who is with a division of preventive medicine at the Mayo Clinic assistant professor of preventive medicine and nutrition at the Mayo medical school. We invite you to join us. Conversation if you have a question about vitamins nutrition and health give us a call or Twin City area number is 227-6002 276 thousand or if you're calling from outside the Twin Cities, you can reach us toll-free and that number is 1 800 to +422-828-227-6000 or one 800-242-2828. Donald hensrud joins us from the Mayo Clinic my doctor good morning. So should start taking these vitamin D pills right away. Well, I think it's a little premature to start recommend them on a population-wide basis if to keep in mind and look at the big picture. This is just one study. It was performed in smokers and Finland and I think we need replication of the results before we can recommended for everyone. Is there any harm in taking Vitamin D supplements? Just kind of got a bet that it might turn out to be effective. Probably not vitamin. We have to keep in mind over there before we make specific Public Health recommendations. We have to be absolutely sure of that. The other nutrient that was studied in this study was beta-carotene and they found a surprising result that people who took beta beta carotene The Smokers at an increased risk of lung cancer and they weren't expecting that at all. So sometimes seemingly innocuous nutrients can be harmful. Now as I understand that this study in Finland is simply tested to Smoker's assuming that the results can be replicated to some degree. Do you expect that those same benefits with a crew to non-smokers as well? It is very difficult to sell. It certainly could be we also know that the results in terms of coronary artery disease or beneficial to so this is another reason that the vitamin E, baby may be beneficial. But don't just start taking them or what it what would be your suggestion to a patient that who comes in special somebody who is white and who smokes very reasonable to take but I hate to be a header on this but until I have absolute proof. I think I have to be very careful about recommending it again. I need to point out the example of beta carotene if someone chooses to take it, I think that's fine. I think that they may decrease the risk of prostate cancer, but there's a difference between someone choosing to take it and send me recommending it for everyone right now. The other big headline this week has to do with vitamin D apparently studies find that their huge numbers of people don't get enough vitamin D. Does that seem to ring true from your experience? Yeah, there's increasing evidence that particularly the elderly particularly people who spend a lot of time in Northern climates and don't get a lot of sun exposure. May have low levels of vitamin D. There are number of studies now which seem to indicate this and that would certainly apply to the people who live around here. Absolutely. Is that a good I noticed there was some kind of the dueling expert syndrome on this particular Story 1 Research, you're suggesting that it was time for people to start taking multiple vitamins to make sure they got enough vitamin D and another researcher saying oh no don't do that because then you get too much vitamin A and that causes problems. It's I I can appreciate the confusion that many people are experiencing out there because when I study like this comes out we tend to focus on the latest study and we have to look at the big picture. I think the amount of vitamin D in a multivitamin is probably not going to cause problems certainly excess vitamin D of people would take large amounts of supplements can cause problems but I think the amount of vitamin D in something like that probably would be beneficial for many people particularly again those groups. I mentioned earlier who the elderly or people who don't get a lot of sun exposure now apparently according to this vitamin D study even people who are pretty pretty good about drinking milk and eating cereal and the rest good sources of vitamin D. Even they weren't getting enough. Why do you suppose what's going on here? Do we have we grossly underestimated the amount of vitamin D that we need? Once again, I think we need to look at the big picture one important point is that this study was conducted in patients who are hospitalized obviously people who are ill for whatever reason and out of the sun obviously is hospitalized people are their diets may be somewhat altered that's not the same as the general healthy population and to recommend to supplements for everyone based on one study like that. Maybe a little may be stretching it a little bit. Dr. Donald hensrud joins us from Rochester Studios. He is with the division of preventive medicine at the Mayo Clinic assistant professor of preventive medicine and nutrition at the Mayo medical school or talking this hour about vitamins couple of big stories in the news this week. And of course, there's kind of an ongoing series of stories about the benefits of the various vitamins great chance to get your questions answered. If you'd like to join our conversation, give us a call or Twin City area number is 227-6002 to set 6000 outside the Twin Cities 1 800 to +422-828-227-6004 1 800-242-2828. And let's see our first caller. Is it from Mankato dandelion place? With calcium absorption. I've been told that eating animal protein will inhibit inhibit that do to adjust its very nature, but I'm wondering if that's a true fact or fed something that's being debated affect calcium status intake and excretion and eating animal products will not affect the absorption of calcium, but there's some evidence that meat and other animal protein may increase the excretion of calcium other things caffeine for example will increase the excretion of calcium. So it's not only depends on calcium intake but also calcium excretion and there is some some truth to the fact that animal protein can increase excretion of calcium and that's how you'd end up but short of vitamin D. Is that what that is that connected with the calcium then What vitamin D affect the absorption of calcium and the amount in our blood vitamin D and calcium act together to make sure that the They're strong. So we need adequate vitamin D. We need adequate calcium both in our diet and again factors that increase calcium excretion in the urine May decrease calcium balance and may pull a little bit of calcium out from the bones. There was one study that looked at caffeine intake for example, and there was a higher risk of hip fracture in people who consumed a lot of caffeine in this may have been because of calcium excretion in the urine and other point to is that in addition to vitamin D their number of other factors that affect osteoporosis exercise for example can increase bone strength hormonal levels premenopausal women are relatively low risk of osteoporosis. Whereas postmenopausal women are at increased risk because of the locker lots of hormones in jump all these factors to get Influence our own status in general do we have a pretty good grip on on nutrition and how it affects our health or are we just stood in the early stages of learning about about this good question and we need a again. We need a big perspective on this in terms of overall diet. We have a very good idea about a healthy diet that can affect our our health and lots of times we get caught up in supplements and areas where there isn't a lot of data where we're learning more things. But in terms of overall diet, we've got dietary guidelines that if people follow those they can experience very good health effects from that back to the phones and Steve's on the line with a question by play high. Yeah. I take a vitamin C every morning and I have a couple of general questions. First of all, I've heard that like vitamin C just goes right through your body. Anyway, I'm on sort of skeptical is it can the doctor speak to the efficacy of vitamin C. I've heard that helps reduce the cold symptoms and secondly should we all be taking multi purpose vitamins? And what about the additives in these tablets? Like I'm looking at it now start cellulose stearic acid other things in the typical drugstore vitamin c bottle part of the ear. Could you repeat the first step? First question had to do with whether he takes vitamin C everyday and he's wondering whether or not that's a that's a good practice weather that actually helps improve your improve your health. For example doesn't help you ward off Kohls there is there's some evidence of vitamin C may be beneficial in terms of cold that may decrease the duration of calls by about a day. Vitamin C has a number of beneficial effects attacks in the body and in all kinds of different ways. It's related to cholesterol metabolism blood pressure as you increase the amount. However, you lose more and more in the urine. I think I caught that at the beginning. So perhaps taking up to five hundred to a thousand mg a day. I would not recommend more than 2,000 mg a day of vitamin C at that point. It can increase the risk of diarrhea you may have other side effects are probably isn't doing much good at that point. You're losing more in the urine, but another important point is that vitamin d and vitamin C work together vitamin C seems to regenerate vitamin D vitamin E is an antioxidant it works in cellular membranes and vitamin C can kind of recharge vitamin D. So if you're taking vitamin E, it may not be a bad idea to take 500 mg of vitamin C or so. The other part of his question had to do with these multi-purpose vitamins and whether the additives in those tablets are in anyway harmful, you know, although people may experience a sensitivity to one or more of the ingredients lactose is put in some prescription medications that may be in some supplements and and many people are lactose intolerant. So in general I'd say no, but every once in a while people may experience some sensitivity to the products in terms of supplements. There are all kinds of them on the market these days in terms of the benefits. If you could kind of summarize the benefits of of those supplements, there's probably the most evidence for a multivitamin daily and vitamin d and vitamin C aren't bad choices also, but when you get into some of the esoteric things lots of times what will happen is manufacturers or people will look at it. I study that was done in test tubes or an animal with no apply that to humans when they're really, isn't it? Data supporting it at some point like it back to the food issue too because we we have a tremendous amount of data that a healthy diet can improve health but there is much less state in terms of supplements. So you might be better off. Just making sure your your diet basic diet is in good shape and forget about the supplements. I think that is by far the most important thing what constitutes a healthy diet in general what we have dietary guidelines and people are very aware of dietary fat these days and in some cases it may be too much aware because there are other beneficial things that that we should be eating variety is the key. If you eat a variety of foods, you'll get all the all kinds of different nutrients. So eating a variety in in the diet eating a plant-based diet with a lot of fruits vegetables and whole grain products is is extremely important in terms of reducing the risk of many chronic diseases, including some of the nutrients weave. Mansion calcium, for example through low fat dairy products can be beneficial. So trying to keep Variety in mind plant-based diet and people will reduce the risk of many chronic diseases. Is it a reasonable standard to say while I feel good? So I'll just keep eating what I've been eating that can be somewhat deceptive because the risk of many diseases coronary artery disease for example, heart disease, it builds up over a long. Of time and people may not have any symptoms until they have that first heart attack. So trying to maintain good health and a good diet and younger years can help predisposed to good health in older years back to the phones gyms on the line with a question for head lice Clinic. I believe they're out of Canada and they were written up in the British Lancet which is similar to our American Medical magazines. I wondered if you had any information on the particular group No, I haven't. I haven't heard of that. I am aware of most of the new things nutrition literature. Maybe you could tell me what specifically they looked at that cleaning the arteries and they feel that vitamin E is very important in the reducing that plaque you might comment further on whether your opinion is on the alarm same lines vitamin E. We now have the study on on prostate cancer. There have been studies in the literature for quite a few years now about vitamin D and heart disease and heart disease is essentially the buildup of plaque in the coronary arteries are the arteries of the heart. There are some pretty good studies that suggested vitamin E may be beneficial. There was a study over in Europe called the chaos study where people experience less heart attacks. They did not die at a lower rate, but they did experience less heart attacks in people who already had some evidence of heart disease and there's been a couple of others. These two they're not as strong as what people think I find that people believe that antioxidants will are just as strong as controlling some of the conventional risk factors and they may play a role and I do recommend vitamin d and vitamin C for my patients with heart disease, but there is more established evidence that controlling establish risk factors such as quitting smoking exercising regularly controlling blood pressure controlling diabetes are even more important in decreasing the risk of heart disease. So yes vitamin C is important I think but there are other things that are important. Also, I think I read as well doctor that some people claim that vitamin E helps reduce the incidence of colorectal cancer and lung cancer. Is that true? There may be some benefit but it's it's even weaker. I think then then the prostate cancer so maybe some suggestion about that but it's but again not not very conclusive evidence at this point as far as cancer. Another thing. I think the people need to know in terms of putting this in perspective. There have been over 300 studies looking at the at the effect of fruit and vegetable intake on cancer and the vast majority over 80% of them have shown that by increasing our intake of fruits and vegetables. We can decrease our waste risk for a wide variety of cancers. And that's the basis for the National Cancer Institute survive a day program by eating more fruits and vegetables. So again, although supplements off and get the headlines by making dietary changes such as bad people can really have a large impact on reducing the risk of cancer and other chronic diseases heavy up on the broccoli. You bet despite with George Bush that Jerry your question, please I was listening to some women talking about what their doctor recommended for calcium. My wife's doctor recommended vitamin D. And one of the ladies responded by saying what that's an antacid and then make sure you don't have enough acid and there's no vitamin D and there's a big conversation about it. What is right should my wife continue with the tongues actually Tums is pure calcium carbonate. It's a very convenient way to get calcium and I think it's a very reasonable thing to do. It's it's like I said calcium also acts as an as an antacid. So for many years terms as being sold as an antacid now when we were in recent years, when were trying to get people to increase their calcium intake even more they've kind of changed their marketing strategy a little bit I think in and it is a good way to get calcium. So I think that I would agree with that seems like we've we've heard A lot more about nutrition and vitamins in the rest of the last on a 20 30 years then we'll used to is that because we're just living longer and he's become this actually becomes an issue. If you were dying a lot earlier of various ailments. It just it didn't seem to matter a lot when he had enough vitamin D in you that may be part of it. Although I think we're you know as we do more and more research. We are becoming more aware of the importance of nutrition and vitamins in overall health we are died in this country is such that we've been following kind of a developed diet over the past hundred years or so, we can look at our diet compared with other cultures which we've done in and like you say the past 10 to 20 years and we can find out important differences both in the the disease is the people experiencing and compare that with diet so we can get some Clues to how diet can affect chronic disease lower your question. I'm hearing a lot of people bringing up lately things like are spoiled or being so intensively farmed. It's almost like mining it and that maybe some of our Foods don't have the same nutritional quality because the soils don't have some of the micronutrients such as calcium that they might have around back and also things like with some of the genetically engineered crops that are coming up lately that's their being engineered for things like herbicide resistance at the expense of the nutritional quality of the food and I'm just wondering if there's any medical research that's being done looking at any of these things or drinking known about this soil scientist myself nor mine agricultural scientist, I think. The important thing to realize is that even if there are minor changes and I would suspect that overall. They're probably only minor changes in the nutrient quantity in different foods because of these practices by far just consuming these Foods, they're still as so many beneficial nutrients there that the advantages of consuming them even even if there are minor changes far outweigh any disadvantages are or that we you know should avoid them. So there may be some effect. I'm not aware of any effect. But but if it is I suspect It's relatively minor in relationship to the benefits of these foods provide set to your question for Doctor answer my question focuses on Mental Health specifically manic depressive disorder in addition to a healthy well-balanced diet, which were presently doing. Is there any research on supplements or vitamins that would help in this area sleep is such a problem in this disorder. Yeah, in years ago. There was a number of people were interested in what was called orthomolecular medicine where they were treating different psychiatric illnesses with nutrients. I'm particularly B vitamins. I don't believe that the the evidence supporting that is panned out as well as what people have thought manic depressive disorder. Is it a disorder where the theory is the other altered neural chemicals in the brain? There is a genetic transmission to a if there is an effect of diet and nutrition on that. I believe it's relatively small compared to the other factors that influence that dr. Donald hensrud is our guests this our he joins us from our Rochester Studios. He's the what's a division of preventive medicine at the Mayo Clinic is an assistant professor of preventive medicine and nutrition at the Mayo medical school. He's joined us today to talk about some of the stories in the news about the value of vital. And again, let me give you the phone number here. If you'd like to join our conversation. We have all of our lines busy right now, so you won't be able to get in right away, but call us in 10 minutes or so, and as some of the lines will have cleared a Twin City area number is 227-6051 cities 1 800 to +422-828-227-6102 for 22828 more phone calls in a moment. Getting ahead can be as simple as spending less than you make add a smart investment or two and you could be well on your way to Financial Security. Hello, this is Bob Potter and we'll find out what it takes to make the most of your money on Sun Valley this weekend when Jane Bryant Quinn joins me to take your calls. You may be surprised at how simple it is somebody Saturday morning at ten repeating Sunday afternoon at 5 on Minnesota Public Radio Canada W FM 91.1 in the Twin Cities. Programming an NPR is supported by the Allianz francaise French Cultural Center Adult and Children's classes begin Monday, March 30th registration information at 3320 436. Sunny skies are forecast for most of the state this afternoon high temperatures in the 30s Twin City forecast calls for a son and a partly sunny sky with a high temperature reaching the upper 30s right now. St. Cloud is a sunny Sky 35 Rochester cloudy in 30 Duluth with a sunny Sky 26 Houlton fair and 30 Fargo sunny in 35, Sioux Falls partly cloudy 31. The Twin City temperature is 33 and skies are partly sunny or talking this hour with dr. Donald hensrud who joins us from our Rochester Studios doctor hensrud is with the Mayo Clinic and he's been good enough to join us this morning to talk about some of the latest news developments regarding vitamins case you missed the headlines this week. There was a story about indicating the Vitamin E might help prevent to prostate cancer. There's another study out that indicates that the large numbers of Americans don't get enough vitamin D. And of course, there's a continuing wealth of stories about other vitamins nutrition issues again, if you'd like to join our conversation to 276 thousand or one 802-4228 to a doctor. Are there a lot of quacks working this field. I mean getting people bad information about the dietary supplements. Will there are number of people who have different interests in terms of supplements. That's like any other business. They're in the business to make money and many of the supplements on the market. That is I think I said earlier are based on data that is very incomplete. So I like to have good good evidence. And this is I think the the studies that were talking about today are the are one piece of the puzzle and they start giving us good evidence for wreck. Many certain supplements but certainly many of the things that are on the market many of the things that are recommended don't have a lot of bases or a gene are your question Nation ship of dietary phosphorus to calcium absorption. I remember from old nutrition course, it's phosphorus and calcium had to be taken in a one-to-one ratio. Otherwise they compete for sale and in regards to that the role of soda pop which I understand contains phosphorus and caffeine in osteoporosis the role of so, perhaps decreasing calcium absorption something that I haven't heard a draft in terms of the latter question people have looked at phosphorus from soda and that they're actually study stating that quite a few years in this area there. Some Studies have shown a minor affect overall. There doesn't seem to be a major effect of phosphorus and I'm from soda on osteoporosis Arbonne mineral damage. I mentioned earlier some of the factors that interact calcium vitamin D and phosphorus is another one. We do need adequate phosphorus in our diet. If you're eating it doesn't have people don't have to make it as difficult though, as some people suggest if you're eating an adequate diet, you will get adequate calcium and phosphorus and I don't think that taking excess calcium is going to interfere with phosphorus metabolism. Next caller is from Rochester Dave. Do I have a couple questions one of them was about vitamin E. And I know a lot of the studies are done using natural vitamin E seems like lots of people are taking synthetic vitamin E. I wondered what your opinion was on which was preferable. Good question. There are a number of different to call Faraz vitamin E and supplements is often Alpha to cough raw, which is just one of the two copper. I was there a gamma to call Frozen to make things more complicated. There are other substances cause tocotrienol is which also have vitamin E activity all of these different compounds together have vitamin D activity. Some people have suggested that and to make it even more complicated complicated. There are D&L forms of some of these things different isomers. So they're there are a number of different types of compounds which all have vitamin E activity many people have suggested that natural vitamin E is better than synthetic vitamin D. I'm I'm not sure that that's true in the reason why is we're taking in with supplements were taking essentially pharmacologic amounts of vitamin E. In other words were taking much more than what we get in our diet. So it's such a large amount and they all Vitamin E activity that I'm not sure that it's it's necessary to take one ankle natural vitamin D such as what we get in our diet. As long as we're we're getting a large amount of a substance which does have vitamin E activity so I can question Dave was about vitamin C and I've I've been told that because its water soluble that it's it's better to take it throughout the day say three times a day and a smaller dose then take it once a day say in the morning. Is that something you'd agree with? To a point, yes, but I think you have to be practical practical about it. Once again, if people are taking a vitamin C supplement their taking a fairly large amounts relative to what we get in our diet. I usually recommend of people are if people want to take the trouble to take maybe 500 mg twice a day for that reason. I'm not sure that it's necessary to take three times a day. It's going to stay in the system a little a little while before it is excreted in the urine. So yes, it is water soluble. It does go out but you have to be practical about it too. And I think maybe twice a day might be good. Obviously if you just take it once a day you are going to still get some benefit from that doctor in terms of what we know about the supplements and the rest at do they generally to the extent they help you do they help you live longer or just live healthier while you're alive again. I think we have to focus on What has been shown with supplements there? I'm not aware of any data that show that taking vitamin supplements help you to live longer. We have limited data that may help prevent certain diseases intended to study and vitamin E and prostate cancer diet vitamin E in and heart disease. So they may may help decrease the burden of illness from some diseases and therefore improve the quality of life, but I'm not sure that they necessarily will help you live longer at least that hasn't been proven yet Troy your question, please look at that. I was recommended to read a few months ago. I picked it up. It's called Fit for Life and I was wondering if the doctors familiar with this book and the recommendations and what he what he thinks about it. IPL live Vaguely Familiar and I believe that they recommend consuming certain foods at certain times of the day and not in together with each other. Is that correct in the morning? For example, eating fruit only until noon and then also they really your pre- on time-consuming milk for getting vitamin D and calcium in terms of combinations such as what they're recommending. I don't really ascribe to that. I'm not I haven't seen any good data that that shows that there is benefit in the combinations that they they suggest in terms of milk. That's a that's kind of a controversial topic because milk is a good source of calcium for for many people for some people. It's also a source of protein. However, I do think that the benefits of milk consumption have been overemphasized there other ways of getting calcium in the diet if you look at people who have Don't consume a lot of milk or dairy products. In other parts of the world. They don't have a tremendously higher risk of osteoporosis so milk and it is one way to get calcium and protein in the diet, but it's certainly not the only way Dorothy you're up next and I know but I also use yogurt as a source of calcium, but I was surprised the other day to look on several different packages and realize that there's no vitamin D and yogurt. I know vitamin D has been added to the low-fat milk. Why don't they added to yogurt? I don't know the exact reason why but I suspect that years ago to certain vitamins are fortified in different foods. For example, B vitamins are fortified in in refined grains. And one way to get vitamin D in our diet is is through mail cuz you because you mentioned it is fortified with vitamin D yogurt has not been around as a popular food item as long as milk. So I I I suspect that years ago when the decision was made to fortify milk that yogurt was not as consumed is as much as as milk people probably realize to is there was a study a few years ago those published in the New England Journal of Medicine. There was an outbreak of vitamin D toxicity and if a little bit is good morning may not necessarily be better. But there were people that were found to have very large amounts of vitamin D. They're having symptoms from this and it as it turns out it was from milk they serve The different milk products. This was out east and what they found was that the although milk is supposedly fortified with 400 units of vitamin D per quart. They found that range from zero up to believe it was 200,000 units per quart and people are actually developing vitamin D toxicity. So you can always assume even though the package says that this amount is there that that's exactly what what it shows in their related to that. There's something else that people should realize and that is that there is no regulation of dietary supplements. There's a dietary supplement health and Education Act that was passed by Congress in 1994 and prescription medications have to achieve certain standards. They have to what they say is in there. They've got to have that product in the prescription medication in terms of supplements. There's no regulation in terms of quality control. There is no standards and terms. Supplement does not have to prove that it works in order to be put on the market and it does not even have to prove it at safe. The burden of proof is on the FDA that once it's shown to be harmful than the FDA can step in and take it off the market. But that's something that people should realize that the supplements that they buy although in general. They're probably safe but there may be something they may not have the correct amount in there and they may not even have the correct ingredients one example, that is the L-tryptophan problem that occurred a few years ago were people developed you cinephilia. Myalgia syndrome severe illness from a contaminant in L-tryptophan supplements. And there is always the possibility that that could happen again sometime. Is there any way that consumers can protect themselves with say they decide well gosh this vitamin D study on prostate cancer looks pretty promising. Maybe I should rush out and get some vitamin D. Is there any way to protect themself to to know what they're getting? Well, the bottom line is not really bothered. Do a couple things they could stick with a brand name supplements, assuming that larger companies more well-known companies may have better quality control of what they're putting in the supplement. The other thing they can do is stick to products that have a USP label on it than that, maybe some and maybe a little bit more sure of products like that us pharmacopoeia label. Dr. Donald hensrud is our guest this hour talking about the vitamins big news stories having to do with vitamins this week. We thought we would get some some official information fun to do with those that those bits of information that we're receiving. Dr. Andrew. It is with a division of preventive medicine at the Mayo Clinic and he joins us from our studios in Rochester from Northfield man. I was wondering as a young athlete if it's necessary to have additional vitamin supplements or if I just a normal one a day would suffice Good question. I get to talk last week on Sports supplements and there are just like there are many different supplements on the market there. A lot of them that are targeted specifically for athletes. Again. The bottom line is with Athletics that training is the most important thing and diet is probably second eating a healthy diet getting a variety of foods and it getting adequate fluid intake is the most important thing you can get. Protein needs and vitamin needs might be slightly increased in people who are exercising a lot. But because you're exercising a lot you're burning more calories and you're eating more food. So you'll be getting more nutrients through the food you eat also. So I think a multivitamin is probably all you need if if that much if that's what you choose to take. Is there a are the vitamins you get from a pill better or worse than the vitamins you get from the food you eat. Let me go back to the beta carotene. I mentioned that earlier that there are hundreds of carotenoid compounds in food and there are over ten in our bloodstream. So if someone is taking a supplement, for example of beta-carotene, they're only getting that one specific nutrient if you're eating food, you're getting all those other nutrients and we're discovering more nutrients in food all the time that may have an anti-cancer properties and other beneficial effects that you Won't get an appeal things. Like people have heard that broccoli may help be good to help prevent cancer compounds called isothiocyanates there LL sulfide compounds in garlic and onions. So that's one of the reasons why there's documented evidence for a healthy diet to help prevent different diseases and help promote Health supplements. You're getting only what they put in their nature is very smart. They put all kinds of good nutrients in in food specifically in fruits and vegetables Nick. You're a question for dr. Hey, I was wondering how hot is top harmful to a teenagers growing up because I'm in 7th grade. Well, if you're consuming large amounts of Pop particularly pop that contain sugar that's that's a lot of empty calories in a may have caffeine in it too. So certainly excessive caffeine intake excessive calories from sugar depending on how much you consume can be harmful over a long. Of time. I think the key there is like with everything else in moderation, perhaps sakuma consuming occasional soda now and then may not make a big difference but I certainly would not consume excessive pop. Is there any problem with kids taking these vitamins supplements one thing to keep in mind is that the most common poisoning among young children is iron poisoning from supplements? So keep supplements out of the reach of young children again taking a vitamin on a regular multivitamin on a regular basis should should pose no specific risks, but keep keep them away from young children. Low, go ahead place. First of all, we hear that there are a lot of vitamins or minerals or whatever that work against each other such as iron and some other ones. I'm wondering if he can lift those and then other than a sodium if there's some nutrients that would help a high blood pressure. And also if there any books that would really put one on the straight-and-narrow because it's really confusing topic here so much contradiction, you're right. It's there's a tremendous amount of information and misinformation out there in answer to your last question. There are there's a newsletter that I think they do a pretty good job. It's called nutrition action healthletter. It's published by Center for Science in the public interest and they they keep up-to-date pretty good on different controversies. They have a progressive view on nutrition. I think for the most part they do have a fairly good job of of being Progressive yet separating out fact from fish fiction. What was the name of that again then nutrition? Action healthletter. Okay. Also, we've got put in a plug for male. We have a number of newsletters. We have the Mayo Clinic Health letter. We have an online publication Oasis and those contained nutrition articles. Also an answer your previous question. It would be virtually impossible for me to list all the interactions between different nutrients. You mentioned iron. One thing think that can help iron absorption is Vitamin C. So consuming iron supplement with with fruit, for example, if you're taking an iron supplement, I don't recommend it unless you're iron deficient. But iron absorption is helped by vitamin vitamin C, but there are literally hundreds and thousands of different interactions between nutrients. And finally the last question you asked about sodium in blood pressure sodium in general will raise blood pressure and the more people can do Is there sodium intake the better they may be terms of blood pressure. Some people are more salt sensitive than others. However, alcohol also will raise blood pressure and for people with high blood pressure, they want to keep their alcohol and take down to a moderate level. There was a study that was published last year. And again this gets back to my belief in food. They looked at people both with high blood pressure and without high blood pressure and they controlled for exercise weight sodium and alcohol the main things that affect blood pressure and what they did they put some people in a typical American diet, they put another group of people on a diet that was a little bit lower in fat but they emphasize fruit and vegetable intake these people 8 8 to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day and it sounds like a lot but a serving is only say a half cup of broccoli and the people who are on the diet that was a little bit lower in fat and we're consuming a lot of fruits and vegetables. Those people had a fairly dramatic decrease in blood pressure the people with high blood Pressure drop their systolic which is the top number about 11 points and the and their bottom number about five and a half points, which is comparable to some drugs. So just eating a diet that is high in fruit and vegetables low in fat from meat. Another high fat foods may have an effect on blood pressure if anybody wants to look at up the dash study Barbara have a special interest in this topic because several years ago. I had a thyroidectomy at the Mayo Clinic and it affected my parathyroid. So I have a problem with my phosphorus calcium ratio. My questions are these first of all, I was told by my Mayo Clinic doctor that does not increase my risk of osteoporosis, assuming that I'm getting enough calcium on a daily basis. I take about four times the recommended daily amount of calcium. In addition to that I take extra vitamin D extra magnesium and extra zinc trying to help the calcium be absorbed now. I'm wondering first of all about my increased risk of osteoporosis second play what the upper limits are of those nutrients and if I have to worry about toxicity from those 3rd, I wanted to find out about calcitonin and what exactly is that how well that works and finally what exactly vitamin D does to help absorption of calcium. You know what? Those are very specific questions and you you obviously have a specific problem. I don't think I can go into all those on in great detail right now. I will say this much that I'm not sure how much of your you said you had a parathyroidectomy. Is that correct as well? I'm a see if I can get her back on here in just a minute here. Go ahead. Okay, it was a thyroidectomy of that just did some damage to my parathyroid stay still work, but not very well. Okay, I think you should be okay. I agree with us where we talked with and there's ways to monitor that you can check the as you know, check the parathyroid hormone level in your blood. You can check the calcium level in your blood and the vitamin D level in your blood. So because of your specific health condition, I suspect that they recommended that in the past. If not, that's something that you could do to check in terms of toxicity of vitamin D. It's generally safe in the doses that It's recommended in you and you really have to take quite a lot for that to be become toxic over say 20 25 thousand units are so on a consistent basis. We're just about out of time here doctor, but I wanted to know what what's your assessment? Do you think the average physician is pretty well-versed on on these matters so that if a person went to see their own personal position that they get all the correct information what we're trying to promote more nutrition education and medical schools. I think that's that's extremely important. I think it's difficult for anybody to be well first and all these matters these days because there's as one of the call collars pointed out there's so much conflicting information there and I think which people need to do is to rely on on credible sources of information that we mentioned a couple of those earlier in the in the broadcast. I think that positions as well as the general public are becoming more and more educated about nutrition, but we need to continue U2 with our educational efforts and look not only At Last I See the steak that's come out in the in the Press but look at the overall picture of thanks and that way I think we can promote good nutrition and health for everyone we started talking about the two big news stories of the week this business about vitamin E, perhaps helping prevent prostate cancer, and then they widespread deficiency in vitamin D. You mentioned frequently the one multivitamin approach would would you get enough of vitamin E or vitamin D2 to address these two concerns if people believe these studies with would that take care of their needs or what that takes more took in this study. The other thing is that in this study that use 50 units of vitamin D for heart disease prevention many people recommend a hundred units of vitamin E per day sew in Terms of a multivitamin probably will not provide as much vitamin E is as what people need if they want to file this study. Are they look good in a people want to take Vitamin D supplements. I think that's an individual decision. But I don't think we have enough evidence to give Public Health recommendations for everyone to take Vitamin D supplements in terms of vitamin D the question raised by the study in terms of vitamin D is that maybe there isn't enough in the multivitamin that we've been recommending and maybe the recommendations for vitamin D isn't enough. So most multi-vitamins probably don't have is as much vitamin D is what this study supports. However, if people are consumed in a reasonable diet if they're getting some sun exposure and they're taking a multivitamin perhaps all those things together might increase their vitamin D the to adequate levels. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you joining us. Dr. Donald hensrud joining us from Rochester. He is with the Mayo Clinic with the division of preventive medicine at the Mayo Clinic. Robert Frost says the greatest fight of all was a beggar through Seven Cities all his life and all seven of them claimed to have been his birthplace. I have to it and the whole lot of people think it's odd to see we'll use poetry and a snowman burned in effigy to say goodbye to Winter Friday at 10 in the morning on Minnesota Public Radio k n o w FM 91.1 in the Twin Cities. 5 minutes now before noon coming up over the noon hour or more on health and safety in the rest of the u.s. I can culture secretary Dan Glickman talking about food safety that's coming up over there in our time now for Garrison Keillor.