Word: nutrient
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...agnostic, a skeptic who insists that vitamins are the opiate of the people. Among the doubters are many doctors. They have been persuaded by decades of public-health pronouncements, endorsed by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the National Institutes of Health, that claim people can get every nutrient they need from the food they eat. Popping vitamins "doesn't do you any good," sniffs Dr. Victor Herbert, a professor of medicine at New York City's Mount Sinai medical school. "We get all the vitamins we need in our diets. Taking supplements just gives you expensive urine...
...impact of scientific studies. Beginning in the 1970s, population surveys worldwide started to uncover a consistent link between diet and health. A diet rich in fruits and vegetables, for instance, became associated with a lowered incidence of cancer and heart disease. Researchers then turned to examining the data nutrient by nutrient, looking at minerals as well as vitamins, to see which are tied most closely with specific ailments. Low vitamin C intake appears to be associated with a higher risk of cancer, low levels of folic acid with a greater chance of birth defects, and high calcium consumption with...
...heart muscle. One clue from a study at Toronto General Hospital: rabbits injected with vitamin E within two hours of a heart attack showed 78% less damage to heart tissue than was expected. The vitamin appears to speed recovery in patients who have had coronary-bypass operations, suggesting that nutrient supplements may one day become part of standard pre-op procedure...
Chugging vitamin E seems to boost the immune system in healthy old people, raising the possibility that supplements could help thwart life-threatening infections. The nutrient may also turn out to be a potent lung saver, warding off the depredations of cigarette smoke, car exhaust and other pollutants. "The effects of air pollution are chronic," says Dr. Daniel Menzel of the University of California at Irvine. "Over a lifetime people develop serious diseases like bronchitis and emphysema. We have fed animals in our labs vitamin E and have found that they have fewer lung lesions and that they live longer...
...patients found to have Parkinson's disease, vitamin E may hold special promise. The nutrient seems to delay the appearance of tremors, rigidity and loss of balance, thus postponing the need for therapy with dopamine. The vitamin also appears to alleviate some of the unpleasant side effects of antipsychotic drugs, such as twitchy hands, face and feet...