Natural VS. Synthetic Vitamins

NATURAL VITAMINS ARE SUPERIOR TO SYNTHETIC VITAMINS

by Frank M. Painter, D.C.

I get many questions from my patients, and from the field, regarding the "difference" between vitamins. There are really only 3 types of vitamins:

1. Synthetic: These are the kind you get from Walgreens. Open the cap and smell them--- YUCK!...they smell just like what they are made from---coal tar, the same sludge you'd find in the bottom of a barrel of oil. Oil is a great (and cheap) source for the carbon atoms which make up all organic (living) matter.

2. Natural: This is the kind of vitamin that you'd find in the "health food" store. By FDA regulations, they are required to have a certain percentage of the product (like 25%) come from a "natural" (or plant) source The rest of the product can be a filler, from sawdust, to who knows what!
There's a lot of pressure on the FDA to tighten up the standards of regulation, and I'm thrilled! When that happens, many of the suppliers will disappear, because they won't be able to compete with the premium grade suppliers. My sister Anne showed me a bottle of Ginseng she bought...100 tablets for $2.98 I'd love to see the assay on that bottle!

3. Whole Food: This is the product that Shakl** produces. Rather than selling ascorbic acid, and passing it off as Vitamin C, they have found a way to put everything that you'd find in the orange into their vitamin. The natural orange has ascorbic acid, and also includes the bioflavonoid complex, and "rose hips".

The next question is usually based on some comment they heard (from a reliable source) that 'synthetic vitamins are just as good as "natural"
vitamins' I don't want to get into a prolonged discussion about biochemical properties, electron spins and stereo-isomers. Suffice it to say that, generations lived on this planet eating plants and vegetables. This is still the best source of our nutrition. It's almost impossible to eat the number of servings suggested by the "food guide pyramid". Surveys suggest that only 4% of Americans actually eat that way! And, all that food only supplies you with enough vitamins to prevent a completely healthy person from getting a "deficit" disease like the "rickets". It's NOT enough for a healthy growing child, pregnant woman or an unhealthy anybody!

So...here's an abstract on Vitamin E, which showed that "natural" Vitamin E was twice as available to the body as synthetic Vitamin E was. I will continue to add other abstracts about the superiority of food-based vitamins as I am able to find them!

Human plasma and tissue alpha-tocopherol concentrations in response to supplementation with deuterated natural and synthetic vitamin E American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1998; 67: 669-684

We report a comparison of natural and synthetic vitamin E in humans using deuterium labeling to permit the two forms of vitamin E to be measured independently in plasma and tissues of each subject. Differences in natural and synthetic vitamin E concentrations were measured directly under equal dosage conditions using an equimolar mixture of deuterated RRR-alpha- tocopheryl acetate and all-rac-alpha-tocopheryl acetate. Two groups of five adults took 30 mg of the mixture as a single dose and as eight consecutive daily doses, respectively. After a 1-mo interval the schedule was repeated but with a 10- fold higher dose (ie, 300 mg). In each case, the ratio of plasma d3-RRR- alpha-tocopherol to d6-all-rac-alpha-tocopherol (RRR:rac) increased from approximately 1.5-1.8 to approximately 2 after dosing ended.

In an elective surgery study in which 22 patients were given 150 mg/d for up to 41 d before surgery, the RRR:rac in tissues was lower than in plasma and the percentage of deuterated alpha-tocopherol was lower in all tissues except gallbladder and liver.

In a terminally ill patient given 30 mg/d for 361 d, plasma and tissue (x+/-SD) RRR-rac ratios (and % deuterated alpha-tocopherol) at autopsy were 2.06 (6.3%) and 1.71+/- 0.24 (5.9+/-2.2%), respectively.

In a second terminally ill patient given 300 mg/d for 615 d, the corresponding values were 2.11 (68%) and 2.01+/-0.17 (65+/-10%), respectively.

The results indicated that natural vitamin E has roughly twice the availability of synthetic vitamin E. This 2:1 ratio is significantly higher than the currently accepted RRR:rac of 1.36:1.00.

Gamma-Tocopherol, expressed as a fraction of total unlabeled tocopherols in 15 elective surgery patients, was 1.4-4.6 (mean: 2.6) times greater in adipose tissue, muscle, skin, and vein than in plasma, which is a substantially larger fraction than had been recognized previously.

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