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Antacids in National Vitamin Products
In the war against taking vitamins that appears to be coming from the US government, via the drug companies that now own it, the most recent salvo came in the form of some major studies, published in what purport to be "scientific journals", like the AMA's "internal medicine" in 2011 and most recently in Dec. 2013, in Annals of Internal Medicine which purport to have had "the final say on the subject", where they condemned the idea of supplementing with multi-vitamins, even stating that certain antioxidants are harmful. What of this?
A glaring absence from those studies, was any mention of which products the participants were taking. One can safely assume however that they were taking national brands of multi-vitamins. Or those distributed through discount chains and supermarkets, nearly all of which are themselves made by major drug companies.
Contents
What was wrong?
In analyzing the contents of these products, ALL of them list calcium carbonate as their first ingredient. That means it is the number one substance in the formula! And most use one or another toxic forms of Copper salts for your copper supplementation. It's no wonder that you don't get healthier taking this stuff.
Calcium carbonate is a powerful ANTACID. Tums for example, is Calcium carbonate.
Role of Stomach Acid
Let's examine the role of stomach acid in absorption of VITAMINS.:
The evidence has always existed that people lose stomach acid as they age, and it is often the lack of acid that contributes both to reflux and stomach pain. Even the FDA has only authorized the use of acid blockers for short periods of time. Yet doctors routinely prescribe them for years.
And what does the lack of stomach acid lead to—in addition to steadily worsening stomach problems for millions of sufferers? Malnutrition, of course (one example of which is vitamin B12 deficiency). How can we properly digest protein and especially minerals without the acid that is supposed to be in our stomachs? And don’t forget pneumonia: lack of acid lets the bugs through and has been shown by creditable researchers to lead to more serious illness and even death. The culprit is often the class of gastric acid-suppressing drugs known as PPIs, or proton pump inhibitors, like Nexium and Prevacid, among the most widely prescribed drugs in the US, with nearly 110 million prescriptions and $13.9 billion in sales in 2010, in addition to over-the-counter sales. In other words, a huge number of Americans are malnourished from PPIs alone.
Think about a doctor who both prescribes acid blockers for years and tells his patient not to take supplements. He or she may be literally starving the patient to death, however many years it takes to play out. Other drugs may also interfere with nutrition in ways that are barely understood, and surgical trauma certainly requires extra nutrients to heal.
Products with Calcium Carbonate as 1st ingredient
What is Calcium Carbonate? It's the primary ingredient in Tums. Why TUMS? This is an ANTACID, i.e. something used to NEUTRALIZE your stomach acid. Why is this bad? Because the acid in your stomach is needed for proper absorption of many of the other ingredients in these so-called vitamins, like uh..CALCIUM, IRON, B-12, etc... [see here]. nearly all the major manufacturers of your trusted multi-vitamins LOAD the products with Calcium Carbonate. Think they don't know the effects? Think again. All of them are DRUG COMPANIES. All of them make their biggest profits on their DRUGS! It would appear that they are negatively motivated to keep you healthy on a product from which they reap little profits...i.e., vitamins!
Bayer (Flintstones)
The BAYER Company is even worse.. though they actually allow health professionals (you have to swear you're a health professional) to view the product ingredient list...check out the page for doctors.. on Flintstones Complete. This one not only has TUMS as the first ingredient as all the majors do, it includes rather toxic Cupric oxide for the copper content! And is loaded with FD&C dyes, all of which are questionable as to whether they play a role in cancer causation. Bon appetite! And this is intended for your children!!!
Bristol-Myers Squibb (Theragran)
Bristol-Myers Squibb, maker of Theragran brand, are also the manufactures of everything from Abilify to Zerit. They don't even list one-a-day on their central company website. However closer investigation located the ingredient list. And, guess what? Calcium Carbonate again as the number one ingredient; Cupric oxide again, and also loaded with FD&C Dyes.
Costco - (Kirkland Brand)
This multivitamin formula actually has a bit less of Calcium carbonate then the other, but ALL of its 200mg of Calcium is carbonate. And, it's copper is from Copper sulfate ! Even more toxic than Cupric oxide. And there's more unhealthy stuff here too. See ingredients list here Still researching who makes this stuff.
Everett Labs (Vitafol-OB+DHA Prescription Pre-Natal Multi)
This product has as its first ingredient, guess what? Calcium carbonate, then for good measure they add Cupric oxide and presumably to make it pretty for your fetus, they add Food coloring in the form of FD&C Blue #1, FD&C Blue #2 and also FD&C Yellow #10, all implicated in ADD and ADHD. We have already established the problems with the Calcium and the Copper, but why does a fetus need even slightly controversial artificial colors?
Nature Made
Guess what they contain? 10% calcium carbonate or 100mg of tums. And Copper as Cupric oxide !see here. And, BTW: Nature made is a brand owned by "Pharmavite, LLC", itself a division of a Japanese drug company called Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co..
Wyeth (Centrum)
Then there are the DRUG companies, making most of the most commonly taken vitamin formulas in thie Country.... Wyeth Drug Company.. maker of everything from Advil to Zosyn, makes very little profit on their vitamin line, like their flagship CENTRUM. On Centrum's website, you can't even see the ingredient list. You have to go to someone else's page to get that, or actually read the label... Q?: What is ingredient no 1? Like everyone elses... Calcium Carbonate....
Wyeth claims their product has '50% of your daily requirement of calcium'... and that might be theoretically true, IF you could actually absorb it.
Role of Federal Government
FDA
The FDA's role in vitamin supplements, is merely to see that there no claims for cures being made and that the products are made in clean conditions.
Where is the Federal government in all of this? Well, there is the FDA. This agency, which was at one time the guardian of our health now appears to be owned by the very drug companies they "regulate". It seems that now their scientists can work nearly full time for the very drug companies whose products they review! Recently on national TV several of their more moral scientists were interviewed saying they left because any natural therapy coming before their employer for review, was tested in a protocol DESIGNED TO FAIL! That includes their persecution of Dr. Burzynski, and any vitamin therapy claims offered.
FTC
The FTC (Fed. Trade Commission) oversee that anything said on the lable is actually in the product. This only means however, that if the lable says the product contains iron, its ok to put iron filings in the product (And many breakfast cereals notoriously do exactly this!). Of course, you can never absorb any iron from iron filings. Similarly you are allowed to say the product contains Calcium if it has TUMS in it... thus the Calcium Carbonate used to keep you from actually getting any Calcium or any other nutritional value from these "vitamins".
FOLLOW THE MONEY
What to do? Really well designed multi-vitamins are not cheap. Why? because they have to use pricier forms of each nutrient. And, they are almost always available only through your Doctor of Chiropractic, or other nutritional medicine specialist.
