Conscious Choice: Dietary Supplements Survival Kit & Probiotics

December 2002 | Health Conscious

Dietary Supplements Survival Kit & Probiotics

by Bill Sardi

In the film Cast Away, Chuck (Tom Hanks) is a Federal Express employee who is the victim of a plane crash. He is washed ashore and stranded on a deserted island for four years. Several FedEx boxes also wash ashore, and Chuck makes novel use of the contents. Pretend you could have packed one of those boxes as a dietary supplements survival kit for Chuck. What would you have included?

One might first consider the essential omega-3 fatty acids because they are critical to brain and nervous system functioning. Imagine losing your mind on a deserted island because you couldn’t get the dietary fats your brain and nervous system require. Chuck eventually catches some phytoplankton-rich fish, a natural source of omega-3s, so he wouldn’t have needed any omega-3 supplements.

But, with his limited diet, he would have needed dietary supplements for long-term survival. Here’s what I would have packed for Chuck. Vitamin C tops the list because studies have shown that doses of 300-plus milligrams (mg) per day promote longevity (adding six years to the male life span) and reduce mortality from all causes by 57 percent. In the shorter term, a deficiency of vitamin C causes scurvy, the bane of long-distance sailors who have no access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Chuck’s limited diet of raw coconuts provided only three mg of vitamin C daily.

For Chuck’s island life, I also would have added garlic capsules — poor man’s penicillin — because it is effective against bacteria, dysentery and fungi, and also provides two essential minerals, selenium and sulfur.

Third on my list is vitamin B-12, often lacking in vegetarian diets. Even with our abundance of fortified foods in the "civilized" world, four in 10 Americans lack adequate vitamin B-12. A vitamin B-12 shortage can result in short-term memory loss, fatigue, and nerve degeneration.

Interestingly enough, studies show that a calorie-restricted diet like Chuck’s may actually lengthen the mammalian and insect life span. With strong evidence that food restriction produces longevity, it is ironic that Chuck’s four-year ordeal probably added years to his life.

Related longevity studies on fruit flies have shown that limiting iron also prolongs life. Nature favors iron shortage because bacteria, fungi, and viruses need iron for growth. Males have no elimination mechanism for iron, as do females during menstruation. Although the body requires iron, it is the major "rusting agent" or oxidant in the body. Foods such as berries, grapes, and whole grains keep iron levels under control through iron-binding pigments.

This "life imitates art" illustration could be helpful to pharmacists advising new supplement users on the essential dietary supplements.

Probiotics Counter Antibiotics

When it comes to a healthy gut, the use of antibiotics is equivalent to throwing the baby out with the bath water. Eradicating pathogenic bacteria with courses of antibiotic drugs also kills off normal intestinal flora. Antibiotic-associated disruption of gastrointestinal flora tract can lead to diarrhea, dehydration and mineral-salt imbalance, particularly among small children. Replacement with beneficial "friendly" bacteria, called probiotics, is in order. Because the 25- to 35-foot-long digestive tract contains some 400 species of bacteria, totaling some 100 billion organisms, repopulation is a considerable task. Favorable bacteria such as Lactobacillus and Bifidus counter the sanitizing effects of antibiotic therapy. Recent scientific studies support this application.

Some 20 to 40 percent of all children prescribed broad-spectrum antibiotics develop diarrhea. A University of Nebraska study of 188 children between six months and 10 years of age found supplementation with 10 billion colony-forming units of Lactobacillus casei per day reduced the incidence of antibiotic-associated diarrhea by 75 percent after 10 days.

Triple-antibiotic therapy is used to aggressively eradicate Helicobacter pylori, the bacterium that causes gastric ulcers. Using probiotics between antibiotic courses repopulates the digestive tract with friendly bacteria and effectively inhibits colonization of H. pylori.

Researchers are now beginning to advocate antibiotic/probiotic combinations for such conditions as diarrhea, female urinary/genital tract infection, and infective endocarditis.

Probiotics are also a promising alternative for individuals who have adverse reactions to antibiotics; they help the gastrointestinal flora resist gastrointestinal aggression brought on by antibiotics.

Bill Sardi is a health journalist in Diamond Bar, California, and the author of The Iron Time Bomb (Bill Sardi, 1999).

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