Nay_ho_tze's Medicine Musings

    How Is Nutrition Important?

    in the early 1900s administration of B complex closed a   mental hospital when the patients got better and went home 

                                   part 1 of 3

So you still haven't connected how or why what we eat affects our health.
let me tell you a little story...

Back in '80's when my life partner was studying for his nursing degree,
one of his textbooks in particular caught my fancy, a textbook on nutrition,
a subject required of all nurses, but optional for doctors at the time --
i don't know if that's changed...

In this textbook whose title is long gone was an anecdote from the ealy 1900's -
it was about how a developing interest in the "new"  science of nutrition had serious impact on one hospital and its mentally ill patients.
A facility, cutting-edge for its time, hired a full-time nutritionist to their staff. 
This pioneering employee promptly put all the patients on the same daily vitamin regimen. 
Patients began to get better and go home until ultimately, the hospital closed entirely.

Her 'miracle drug'?  Vitamin B complex ... 
you see, B-complex is a 'mind' vitamin and impacts our sense of well-being -
but it's also very fragile, is not stored by the body, and stress destroys it ...
most Americans run on empty with this vitamin, and it's so important
that it requires its own page

So why are vitamins treated, in mainstream medicine, as pseudo-science?
Because if the general public knew the truth about vitamins, profits would disintegrate, so big Pharma has waged a very successful disinformation campaign for many decades ...
Big business squelching information in health care isn't new - see: Hahnemann vs. the apothecary (big pharma of the time) 

A clinical, handy and concise chart titled “Vitamins at a Glance” can be found in The Complete Book of Vitamins (Rodale Press, 1977 edition only),
It lists each vitamin  along with headings like food sources and daily amount needed -
one column is most interesting, titled “Preventive and/or Therapeutic Applications” -
meaning, what health condition a vitamin can heal/cure/support; it also indicates
what the lack of a vitamin can cause.

a partial list of conditions and issues under these headings associated with B-vitamin intake, or deficiency thereof, reads like the bible of mainstream medicine, Merck Manual
          night blindness, hearing loss, cholesterol buildup, depression, aging symptoms,                    atherosclerosis, fatigue, osteosporosis, diabetes, heart disease, senility of aging,                psoriasis/eczema, mental illness, hypertension
 
Similarly another column on this chart, titled "Major Activity in the Body" lists the functions performed by vitamins, and it too reads like the Merck Manual with conditions such as

           protein synthesis, bone growth, healthy skin, collagen formation, heart tissue                     repair, nerve health, regulates heart beat, mental health, RNA/DNA synthesis,                  liver functioning

So back to the initial question: how important is nutrition? 

Put simply, vitamins and minerals are the basis of both health and disease,  
depending on whether we're looking at sufficiency or deficiency.
It is no secret that the American diet is harmfully deficient, 
from the nutritional inadequacies of junk food, to the misguidance of GMOs,
to the damaging effects of environmental toxins and personal stress...

But as our nutritionist friend above demonstrated, all is not lost ...
one step at a time.  Start with vitamins and minerals first --  

NHT
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RELATED READINGS
in NHT's Reading Room:
  NHT's Nutritional Approach   
                                       The Care and Feeding of B Complex pt. 3 of 3
                                        The Politics of Sound Nutrition
                                                      B-Complex: the mind vitamin pt. 2 of 3
References and Bibliography

if you need help finding a good multi- and B complex, contact NHT