At least once a week, someone, usually a woman my age, asks me about vitamin supplements. Perhaps a routine checkup has revealed a deficiency, prompting the doctor to recommend an over-the-counter supplement or, in severe cases, large prescription doses to correct the problem. Or maybe the medicine aisle in the local grocery store is so overwhelming, she probably feels her working woman diet is inadequate compared to the nutritious daal-subzi-rice-roti dinner her mom used to make growing up.
In honor of this week’s launch of our medical advice column, we will be discussing the BIG question of vitamins and minerals for the South Asian Woman-- what do we need, and how much should we take? Are your daily multivitamins enough, or should you worry about vitamin deficiency? Could you already be taking too much? It can be hard to tell-- especially with so many nutritional terms, abbreviations, and numbers out there. Here’s the basics of what you need to know. To help people better understand the minimum and maximum doses for supplements, the Institute of Medicine has established some guidelines.
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Separate from the RDA and the UL, the FDA uses a different measurement of nutritional intake.
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Although the details may be different, just remember that the RDA and DV are both designed to help us get the nutrients we need to prevent disease and avoid problems caused by malnutrition.
But many people take higher doses of specific supplements in the hopes of gaining other health benefits, like added protection against or treatment of disease.
VITAMIN KNOWLEDGE
Shalini Shah, MD