Fitness

Perhaps a hundred times each year I am asked, “Is it all right to take tablets of B vitamins?” I simply do not know the answer. I wish I did.

There are times when such tablets are of value; I have recommended their use for short periods and have taken them myself. No one knows the harm they may do, however, when used as the only source of B vitamins, especially if continued over a long period. When they are taken together with liver, yeast, wheat germ, yogurt, and the most carefully selected diet possible, they probably do little or no harm. In this case they may not be needed unless your requirements are unusually high.

Such tablets generally contain a day’s requirement of the cheap vitamins B1, B2, and niacin; a small amount of pantothenic acid and just enough vitamin B6 to permit a statement of its content on the label. A vitamin catalogue reveals the reason: vitamin u., $3.50 per kilogram; vitamin B6, $55.00 per kilogram. A few other B vitamins may be included but usually are not. Misleading labels often state that such tablets contain 200 to 500 milligrams of liver or yeast; one serving of liver, or less than % pound, is 100,000 milligrams; a heaping tablespoon of yeast is approximately 45,000 milligrams. What earthly value could 500 milligrams, or 1/50 ounce, of either is?

The proportions of each vitamin found in animal and human tissues and the amounts of each excreted daily in the urine of a healthy person on an adequate diet have been carefully studied. These proportions should apparently be maintained if health is to result. In case you take a tablet of mixed B vitamins, examine the label for the following: if your tablet supplies 2 milligrams of vitamin B1, it should also contain equal amounts, or 2 milligrams, of vitamins B2, B6, and folic acid; 10 times more pantothenic acid and niacin than B1 or 20 milligrams of each; approximately 20 times more PABA, or 40 milligrams; 500 times more inositol and cholin, or 1,000 milligrams of each of these two. I know of no studies of the amount of biotin required. Only 1 to 3 micrograms of vitamin B12 appear to be needed daily and possibly even less of the anti-stress vitamins. Does your tablet contain these proportions? I have never seen one which did.

I believe that these preparations are dangerous unless they are taken only temporarily and with foods naturally rich in these vitamins; even then they should be recommended for you by a person who is thoroughly trained in nutrition. If you take one or more B vitamins, you increase your need for all the other vitamins in the B group. The increased need for the ones you do not take may cause you to develop deficiencies of them; these deficiencies may cause far more harm than the vitamins which you take can do good. For example. during World War II when defense plants were selling tablets of cheap B vitamins and urging workers to take them, dozens of persons with eczema consulted me. Invariably these persons were interested in their health and figured that if one tablet daily was good, three or four would be better. I told them to discontinue the tablets immediately. Usually it took a few days before they purchased the foods I recommended, and in this interval the eczema often cleared up. I became convinced that the B vitamins they were taking had increased their need for pantothenic acid, vitamin Be, PABA,and/or biotin, a lack of anyone of which could have caused the eczema. These people not only suffered from eczema but also from fatigue, constipation, and multiple symptoms which these very tablets are supposed to prevent.

The problem of obtaining adequate amounts of all the B vitamins largely from natural sources when living in a hotel or traveling is a challenging one. I travel a fair amount and often must live in hotels. At such times my requirements for these vitamins are unusually high because I am lecturing or rushing from one engagement to the next or interviewing patients for physicians, often talking 10 hours without a break. For me, fatigue prevention at such times is paramount. I carry tablets of mixed B vitamins; wooden spoons, yeast and/or desiccated liver or yeast mix 2 which I take stirred into water before leaving the hotel room in the morning and perhaps again at noon and/or in the evening. At most hotels, liver and yogurt are available; if not, I ask the maitre d’h6tel to order them for me. Wonderful people from coast to coast simplify my travel problem by inviting me to their homes. I doubt that there is another person in this entire United States who is served such marvelous meals of nutritious and delicious foods, although one hostess told me recently that the thought of my coming made her as nervous as if she were entertaining Socrates. Had she known that I washed my face in a granite wash pan until I was nearly old enough to vote, she might have relaxed.
The question of the quantity of B vitamins which should be taken daily is impossible to answer. The foods themselves vary widely. No two people have the same requirement, and every individual’s requirement changes from day to day. For these reasons, the daily allowances suggested by the National Research Council have been purposely omitted from this book.

Since all the B vitamins appear to be needed by every cell in your body, the amount required depends on how many cells you have. If you are small boned and short, you have relatively few cells, and your B-vitamin needs are probably moderate. Stored fat, of course, has no nutritional requirements. Your need for these vitamins, therefore, is in proportion to your ideal weight rather than to your actual weight. The larger your body structure and especially the more pounds of actual muscle you have, the larger the quantity of these vitamins you need.

Vitamin B1 is used in changing sugar into energy or fat; hence the more starches and sugar you eat, the more of this vitamin you need. Similarly, if your diet is high in fat, you need more inositol and cholin. In one way or another, all B vitamins appear to be concerned with the utilization of foods. The person who eats large amounts of food, therefore, needs far greater quantities of these vitamins than do persons with small food intakes.