As Fall heads into Winter, many people become more concerned about themselves or a family member or close friend succumbing to a cold virus, or worse yet a strain of flu virus.

Besides following vaccination recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), along with their recommendations for hand washing, covering your nose and mouth when sneezing, etc., they are eager to know if there is anything else they can do to boost their own defenses and those of their loved ones and friends against a  viral illness this Winter.

Image of vitamin pills (and bottle) courtesy of http://www.stockfreeimages.com/ and © 2008 Fotoplanner

Some may wonder if “tweaking” their diet and/or taking nutrient supplements might have any potential to improve their level of resistance to assault by viruses as Winter approaches.

Are you perhaps curious about how nutrients impact immunity in a normally healthy person?

Might you be looking for authoritative advice when it comes to the question of should you consider purchasing nutrient supplements and if so, which ones and from where?

Read on for potential sources of reliable & helpful information when it comes to nutrient supplementation issues. Please keep in mind that the following is offered as infotainment only, as is always the case for any pieces of information mentioned on this site. You are encouraged to seek personal advice for your individual health situation status from your own state licensed, nationally and/or state registered and/or certified health care practitioner(s).

“Tips for Choosing and Using Vitamin, Mineral and Other Nutrient Supplements” presented at the website for the book Nutrient Supplementation for a Healthy Population set up specifically for the lay public by The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Evidence Analysis Library® mentions not only that book the Academy puts out, but also includes a way to access a sample book excerpt as a free download, and mentions other websites you can check out, including the following:

• Alerts and Advisories (National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine)
• Beware of Fraudulent ‘Dietary Supplements’ (Food and Drug Administration)
• Buying Medicines Over the Internet
• Children and Dietary Supplements (National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine)
• Dietary Supplements (Food and Drug Administration)
• Dietary Supplements (Office of Dietary Supplements) materials for Health Professionals
• Dietary Supplements Labels Database (National Library of Medicine)
• FDA 101: Dietary Supplements
• USP Verified Dietary Supplements (United States Pharmacopeial Convention–look for the USP mark)
• Warning on Body Building Products (Food and Drug Administration)
• Who Needs Supplements? (InteliHealth, Harvard Medical School)

You can also check out the Consumer Lab site for some additional information on certain products sold locally or via the internet. They claim to offer “independent tests and reviews of vitamin, mineral, and herbal supplements” and you can read more about their testing methodology at their website.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) puts out a simple pdf on herbs called Herbs at a Glance, or you can view information on individual herbs one-at-a-time as well on their site.

There is also reputable information on herbs and other botanical products at the Memorial Sloan Kettering website.

Registered Dietitians (RDs) who specialize in Integrative and Functional Medicine (IFM), just as many other thorough dietitians, often make it a point to carefully review all aspects of a person’s intake, and might ask substantial detail about any nutrient supplement use. Those IFM RDs often use the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database when reviewing any supplement use.

Although it would be prudent to discuss potential nutrient supplement use with your physician or physician assistant or nurse practitioner, RD, or pharmacist, not all adults first have a consultation with their health professional to discuss their options. Reportedly, according to the CDC in a 2011 National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Data Brief No. 61, during the time period between 2003-2006, more than half of all American adults chose to take a nutrient or dietary supplement, and it is unknown how many did so of their own volition without having first consulted their health care practitioner. In that instance, they might find some helpful information in a brochure put out by the Extension Service at North Dakota State University entitled Do You Need a Dietary Supplement? or a brochure put out by the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements entitled: Dietary Supplements: What You Need to Know.

For a fee, one can access the annual ~64 pg Wellness Report on Dietary Supplements put out by the University of California Berkeley Wellness Letter produced by their School of Public Health, or you can simply check out their Dietary Supplements Guide page which lists some ~40+ of the ones discussed over time on their site.

Individuals who have experienced specific health concerns may contact non-profit organizations that often offer some general advice to those coping with such conditions including in survivorship status when it comes to various conditions. Materials of this type are available from all over the world. An example would be a brief piece put out on Dietary Supplements for Cancer Survivors by The Cancer Council NSW of New South Wales.

If you might be undergoing any medical procedures, especially any involving anesthesia, then you might find a publication put out by the American Society of Anesthesiologists entitled What You Should Know About Herbal and Dietary Supplement Use and Anesthesia to be helpful.

Since some nutrient supplements may fall within the fat soluble category, where excess can be sequestered in your body tissues for long periods of time, caution is typically suggested by the medical community when it comes to self-selection of such fat soluble nutrient supplements without a medical professionals advisement and monitoring.

What type of global (NOT consumer specific) advice does the medical community typically offer to the general public when it comes to the topic of nutrient supplements? A former senior scientist and director at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University by the name of Robert M. Russell, M.D. was interviewed by an Atlantic partner site know as “The Doctor Will See You Now” back in 2011 by Neil Wagner, who went on to write an article entitled “Are Supplements Killing You? The Problem With Vitamins, Minerals.” At the time, Dr Russell was serving as a special expert to the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) at the NIH. We will quote from the version of the article in The Atlantic as it is still on the www as of the original date of this blog post.

Dr. Russell has reviewed thousands of studies in the course of his career and noted that “In general, what we have learned from an accumulating database from both observational epidemiology and interventional studies is that the vitamin and minerals are safe to take in RDA* amounts (as are contained in most over the counter multivitamin-multimineral preparations). Further, we have learned that taking large amounts of single nutrients or nutrient combinations often lead to chronic undesirable toxic effects with implications for chronic disease such as cancer. We have seen this with beta-carotene with a stimulation of lung cancer at high doses, and now we are seeing a similar picture with high dose vitamin E vis-a-vis prostate cancer.” NOTE: For additional details concerning the caveat about Vitamin E supplementation in regard to prostate cancer research, please see one of our previous blog posts: Beyond Watchful Waiting Part 4 of 4 (Food, Nutrition & Prostate Cancer).

The article at TheDoctorWillSeeYouNow.com site was also quoted as mentioning “So what is the best advice for the public? Stick to a varied diet; if you want to take supplements, take a multivitamin-multimineral that has RDA amounts. Don’t jump on the silver bullet of the day single nutrient band-wagon until there is enough evidence for both efficacy as well as long term safety. That said, in order to get RDA amounts of calcium and vitamin D, a single nutrient supplement may be necessary for some people. Following the nutrient guidance of our National Academies of Science is my best advice.”

The nutrient guidelines issued by any government body worldwide are always subject to revision as noted in a recent article published October 24, 2012 in the journal PLOS ONE by Holly Kramer, MD, MPH and her group based on data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) concerning circulating Vitamin D levels and the new blood threshold level of 20 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) as compared to previous guidelines which had suggested a circulating blood threshold level of 30 ng/ml. As a result of these new guidelines, fewer physicians may be suggesting Vitamin D supplementation for their adult patients, but again, this will be done on an individual basis.

For advice specific to your own personal needs as a consumer, contact your own health care provider(s) licensed to practice where you live.

*RDA stands for Recommended Dietary Allowances, as noted in the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) related publications of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), Institute of Medicine (IOM), Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) offered at no charge online to the public through the National Academy Press (NAP) website.

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