HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 90, 17 July 1945, Page 8

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

= —♦- — ABUSE OF VITAMINS (By the Deparament of Health). There is growing in this country the pracicc of taking vitamin pills by normal people. They arc encouraged to do this by the wideflung publicity given to vitamin pills and extracts and the increasing use of vitamins is amounting almost to an abuse. Vitamins have a proper place in medicine. Our doctors don't see pellagra, gross scurvy and beriberi in this country. Where these diseases are still rife, patients will be brought in at tiie point of death and after a week or so of taking vitamins, will be new people again. Deficiency diseases in our land are seen in mild degrees—for example, the. sore tongue and fissures at the corners of the mouth in vitamin B deficiency, and the soft spongy bleeding gums> when wc were short in fruit and vegetables over a long time. When there are signs of vitamin deficiencies prescribing the appropriate vitamin will bring a rapid return to health. Extra vitamins are needed when patients have chronic wasting diseases that interfere with ordinary food absorption, or when people are thoroughly debilitated after illnesses, or are on diets- or under treatment that preclude eaiting a balanced diet. Vitamins may be prescribed to build up reserves before operations or maintain tllem after surgical procedures. These,, then, are the main medical uses of vitamins—when /there are definite signs of deficiencies to supplement dietary treatment, and to prevent deficiencies in chronic wasting diseases and before and. after operations. In tlie absence of definite signs of disease, additional vitamins schould not be taken. For example j4 vague symptoms of tiredness sleeplessness, nervousness .and irritability are probably due if there are no signs of disease,. to overwork, domestic difficulties, etc. } rather than to vitamin deficiency. And should it be a vitamin deficiency it will be corrected quicker by an adequate diet than by vitamin pills. Taking vitamin pills in the absence of disease is a waste of time and money—they're not needed if your diet is balanced, adequate in milk, eggs, cheese, meats, fruits and green and yellow vegetables'.