Fitness

Since these vitamins are concerned with the production of energy, the more exercise you take and/or the harder you work, the more of these vitamins you need. Obviously, your requirement will be higher on the days you work hard than when you are vacationing. Also the less sleep you get, the more of these vitamins you need.
The requirement of all vitamins appears to be greatly increased by stress. Your need, therefore, will depend upon the number and severity of stresses you are under. A person might be upset over a pending divorce (stress 1), working long hours under pressure (stress 2), getting too little sleep (stress 3), taking thyroid tablets and benzedrine to keep going (stresses 4 and 5) and sleeping tablets to relax (stress (3), worrying over a sick child (stress 7), and suffering from a sinus infection (stress 8); his requirements for these vitamins are tremendous indeed. I frequently find persons harassed by as many as 15 or 20 different stressor agents at one time. If you are such a person, it seems to me you have three possibilities: live on yeast, liver, yogurt, wheat germ, and even B-vitamin tablets; or remove the stresses; or look forward to ill health.

Your need for these vitamins also appears to be in proportion to the amount of liquid you drink. Years ago, Dr. George R. Cowgill of Yale University produced B-vitamin deficiencies in animals by force-feeding them water. Alcoholic drinks of all varieties increase the need for the B vitamins; these vitamins are needed in utilizing the alcohol in the body and are washed through the body by the liquid. Recently-I am sincerely sorry to write this-scientists at the University of Wisconsin have produced multiple B-vitamin deficiencies merely by feeding animals coffee. Animals thrived when given caffeine without water. It would appear that caffeine, by stimulating the heart beat, increases the flow of blood plasma through the kidneys and thus causes more of the B vitamins to be lost in the urine. So far no one seems to have investigated tea, but it is a fairly safe bet that the effect will be the same as that of coffee.

Heavy coffee drinkers almost invariably show symptoms of B-vitamin deficiencies even when their diets are excellent. I strongly suspect drinking large amounts of coffee is one factor contributing to the graying of hair and perhaps to baldness. Even drinking too much water may be unwise. This problem of liquid intake is probably more important than is appreciated.

Through the years I have been consulted by many persons who make a fetish of building health. For example, a woman recently told me that her breakfast was whole-grain cereal, hand ground immediately before it was cooked, on which she put powdered whey, bone meal, sunflower seeds, powdered milk, yeast, rice polish, cream, and “raw” sugar. Her husband commented that it was like compiling a compost heat>; he was (understandably) intolerant of her ideas (an understatement). Even with such carefully selected foods, this woman and others not unlike her showed symptoms of severe B-vitamin deficiencies. Invariably I find these people not only believe that one should drink eight glasses of water daily but actually do it. Large amounts of water, coffee, beer, soft drinks, or any liquid wash these vitamins out of your body. On very hot days when B vitamins are lost in perspiration and you drink large amounts of liquids, your need for these vitamins is tremendously increased.

It seems to me there is only one way to determine the quantity of these vitamins which will make you feel your best: find your own dosage. Learn how to vary the amounts from day to day depending upon your own body structure, the quantity and type of food you eat, the strain of your work and exercise, the stresses you are under, and the amount of liquid you drink. For example, during the summer when I vacation in the mountains, I eat yogurt occasionally and take only a tablespoon of yeast daily, usually in juice. When working moderately hard, I drink 1 or 2 glasses of tiger’s milk made with 112 cup of yeast and have some yogurt daily. If under stress, I eat 1 cup of yogurt and % pound of fresh liver or take 2 tablespoons of desiccated liver in addition to the tiger’s milk; on the days when the going is really tough, I have liver and yogurt and drink a quart of tiger’s milk containing 1 cup of yeast.

The one day when I experienced the most exuberant feeling of well-being and felt that my mind was clearest was a time when I was under considerable strain. I was asked to give an intensive post-graduate course in nutrition to physicians and dentists. The procedure was to lecture from 9 A.M. until 5 P.M. with a five-minute break every hour. I was told that the last lecturer to give such a course had blacked out from exhaustion at the end of the day. I realized that if I were to sell nutrition, I had to stay rested and my mind alert. Frankly, I was frightened. I therefore had fruit with yogurt, liver and tiger’s milk at breakfast; milk and a huge serving of lobster for lunch, chosen because lobster is rich in glycogen which would be changed slowly to sugar as the protein digested and would thus give a sustained pickup; and tiger’s milk at 10 A.M. and 2 and 4 P.M. Although I stood except during lunch and spoke without a microphone, I did not experience one second of fatigue throughout the day or evening or even the next day when I kept expecting a letdown. This experience convinced me that, for the relatively healthy person, fatigue can be completely prevented.

The real test, I believe, is this: if you are never tired, the chances are that your intake of B vitamins is adequate or that your intestinal bacteria are pretty efficient. If you experience fatigue, your intake is probably too low. A man said to me recently, “You never realize how terribly tired you were until you’ve found out you don’t need to be tired at all.”