Vitamins Information
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Vitamin C: Tips For Increasing Your Intake
A new RDA?
According to a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the National Institutes of Health is taking another look at the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for vitamin C. The current RDA for vitamin C is 60 milligrams per day—about the amount you get from one orange. Due to recent findings on the potential health benefits of this wonder vitamin, the NIH is now considering boosting the RDA to somewhere between 100 and 200 milligrams per day, two to three times the current recommendation.
Why all the hype?
Vitamin C has long been known for its value as an antioxidant. Antioxidants are natural compounds found in many of the foods we eat. The most well known antioxidants are vitamin C, selenium, beta carotene and vitamin E. Antioxidants work by inhibiting toxic substances in the body (also known as "free radicals") which may lead to the development of cancers, heart disease and the aging process. There has been a strong correlation between diets high in fruits and vegetables (which are rich in antioxidants) and reduced risk of chronic diseases. Vitamin C may account for much of this protection. However, we are also finding numerous other compounds within fruits and vegetables, collectively called "phytochemicals", that may also play a preventative role. Phytochemicals are defined simply as chemicals found in plants. They occur naturally in fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and seeds. These substances, many of which also have an antioxidant effect, may protect our bodies from cellular damage that can lead to cancer and other chronic diseases.
Due to the strong correlation between diets abundant in fruits and vegetables and disease prevention, The National Cancer Institute launched the "5-A-Day" program. The basis of this campaign promotes the intake of a minimum of five fruits and vegetables daily as a good defense against cancer and other diseases. A specific recommendation of this program is to include vitamin C rich fruits and vegetables in the diet each day since vitamin C is a particularly well-researched antioxidant. The mainstay of the program, however, is that by eating five servings of produce daily we can easily take in not just a good dose of vitamin C, but the minimum amount of protective plant chemicals shown to be effective in reducing risk of chronic diseases. Remember, five is the minimum amount. In the case of fruits and veggies it's definitely a situation where more is better!
Web Giants Urge FDA to Update Ad Guidelines
FRIDAY, Nov. 13 (HealthDay News) -- Internet giants Google and Yahoo have lined up with the pharmaceutical industry in asking the U.S. government to draft new rules that would give drug companies more latitude to advertise online.
Current U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations require that any mention of a drug's benefits must also reveal its risks, including detailed lists of side effects. But drug makers and Web companies attending a two-day hearing this week on online marketing of medical products said the rule hampers them, given online space constraints.
"We need to get some adjustment to the way the medium is used because it's very different from print and broadcast -- that's the main challenge," Yahoo Vice President David Zinman said in an interview Thursday, the Associated Press reported.
With room for only a few words on advertising links, the Web marketers say they can't hail the benefits of their products.
Yahoo and its competitor, Google, are proposing new types of ads -- ones that would carry links to detailed drug information.
"We're going to propose ways to get balanced and relevant advertising to consumers that is transparent," said Mary Ann Belliveau, Google's director of health-care advertising, according to the AP.
Their proposals are in line with the wishes of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the drug industry's lobby, which proposed that ads contain an FDA logo to link consumers to risk information.
But consumer health advocates warned that using the FDA's logo might be perceived as an endorsement by the federal agency.
Only 3 percent of the more than $4.3 billion that pharmaceutical companies spent on consumer advertising last year went for online marketing, the AP said.
The hearings are to conclude Friday. The FDA has not said when it expects to release new guidelines, but some industry experts have said they don't anticipate them before 2011.
More information
For more on Internet drug ads, go to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
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