RDA’s For Your Health
Are RDA’s for your health adequate? Below is an article regarding Recommended Daily Allowance or RDA by Ray Strand, MD, who has been specializing in nutritional medicine since around 2000. It is important information that people need to realize as they are choosing how to protect and improve their health. RDA’s for your health require more than just popping a vitamin.
Are You Getting Enough Of The RDA’s For Your Health?
This article also explains how much of the RDA’s for your health you actually need. It is interesting where the RDA guide came from, but after reading the article, you will see why it is not what we should base good nutrition off of in today’s world.
Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA):
Research studies reveal standards of recommended daily allowance (RDA’s) have absolutely nothing to do with chronic degenerative diseases.
RDA’s were developed to avoid what are known as acute deficiency diseases like scurvy (deficiency of vitamin C), rickets (deficiency of vitamin D), and pellagra (deficiency of niacin). In other words, if you consumed the RDAs for vitamin C, vitamin D, and niacin, you would not develop any of these illnesses.
Admittedly, the RDA’s have done their job—how many people do you know suffer from these diseases? RDA’s first developed in the 1920’s and 1930’s. The list of nutrients included in the RDAs grew over the next two decades and in the early 1950s, the definition of RDAs expanded to include the amounts of nutrients needed for normal growth. Despite the fact that RDAs have proved useful, most physicians and laypeople tend to assign more meaning to RDA standards than they should.
After researching medical literature on the topic of oxidative stress and the amount of nutrients needed to prevent it, I found the optimal levels of nutrients known to provide health benefits are significantly greater those suggested by RDA levels. For example, the optimal level of vitamin E is 400 IU. The RDA is only 10 to 30 IU. That being the case, you may consider eating 400 IU of vitamin E. You would only need to eat 33 heads of spinach, or 27 pounds of butter; 80 avocados will do, or an alternative 5 pounds of wheat germ each and every day to obtain that level of vitamin E.
Similarly, the optimal level of vitamin C is approximately 1200 to 2000 mg daily, while the RDA is only 60 mg. To eat the optimal levels of vitamin would need to consume 18 oranges, or 17 kiwifruit, or 160 apples. Put in this perspective, it becomes clear that the only way to obtain these levels of nutrients is to supplement our diet. And this requires more than a generic multiple vitamin. One-a-day multiple vitamins are primarily based on RDA levels, thus providing no measurable health benefits. Significantly more potent supplements are needed each day to provide the optimal levels to provide cellular nutrition. I will discuss more specific details in How to Choose a Quality Supplement.
The “Magic Bullet” Approach
Most scientific studies done on nutritional supplements are approached in the traditional way of testing drugs—hoping to discover a “magic bullet”. A disease is isolated and targeted by one specific drug. The pharmaceutical results of that drug are then measured.
Research trials have been similarly conducted for nutritional supplements. For example, calcium and vitamin D have been tested for their effects on osteoporosis; vitamin E for heart disease, magnesium for irregular heartbeats or selenium to reduce the risk of cancer.
One problem remains, however: vitamins such as C, D and E are not drugs. They are natural nutrients that our bodies get from our foods. The various antioxidants and supporting nutrients work on different types of free radicals and in different parts of the body. Vitamin E is the best antioxidant within the cell membrane. Vitamin C is most effective within the plasma. Glutathione is works most efficiently within the cell itself. Literally dozens of antioxidants are at work in various parts of the body and are effective against particular types of free radicals. They work together—synergistically– to control oxidative stress. This means that 1 plus 1 does not equal 2, but 8 or 10. Medical research separates these nutrients out and tries to study their individual effect. The amazing fact remains that the overwhelming majority of studies actually does show a health benefit with even an individual nutrient. However, since oxidative stress is the underlying problem we must concern ourselves with, it is important to realize that all of these nutrients work together—synergy.
Vitamin C actually replenishes vitamin E and intracellular glutathione so it can be used over and over again. Alpha lipoic acid also regenerates vitamin E and glutathione. In addition, these antioxidants need optimal levels of the B vitamins—folic acid, vitamin B1, B2, B6, and B12—in order to perform at optimal levels. They also need the so-called antioxidant minerals such as: selenium, manganese, copper, and zinc to do their job right. If you have all the glutathione in the world available but are depleted in selenium, which glutathione needs to work, there will be very little health benefit.
When all of the necessary nutrients are provided to the cell in a complete and balanced nutritional supplement, the combined effect is phenomenal. The potency of these nutrients in optimizing our body’s natural antioxidant, immune, and repair systems is certainly possible. Oxidative stress can be controlled and our health will be protected.
I also apply these principles for my patients who are already suffering from a major chronic degenerative disease. I provide them with the same basic cellular nutrition I recommend for all my patients and then I add additional potent antioxidants to the regime tailored to each specific disease. When physicians take advantage of the most tremendous healing asset, the host–our bodies, and support it rather than denying its importance in the healing process, amazing clinical improvement is possible.
Cellular nutrition is about health, not disease. “Attacking” the root cause of chronic degenerative disease is true preventive medicine. By applying these same principles, you who are in good health can decrease the risk of developing these chronic degenerative diseases.
RDA’s For Your Health Are Lacking
RDA’s for your health are merely a frame of reference really. If you want to best protect your health against the oxidative stress that produces degenerative disease, then a more focused approach will need to be taken to be sure you are getting a variety of antioxidants at a lot higher amounts. Also, if you are already dealing with a health condition, you may have to take higher amounts for a while. Always recommended you discuss any health decision with your physician. The Herbalife product line has very healthy amounts of antioxidants in most of their products along with the necessary co-ingredients to effectively get the antioxidants and nutrients into your cells. Their shake and green tea plan is a great program for nutrition and/or weight management. You can also look into more of Dr. Strand’s suggestions. Either way, RDA’s for your health need to be pumped up considerably to effectively protect your health for life.