(Press-News.org) Washington, D.C., July 1, 2015--The vast majority of consumers recognize that multivitamins, calcium and/or vitamin D supplements can help fill nutrient gaps but should not be viewed as replacements for a healthy diet, according to a new survey conducted on behalf of the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN). Conclusions from the survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults were published in Nutrition Journal in a peer-reviewed article titled, "Consumer attitudes about the role of multivitamins and other dietary supplements: report of a survey," authored by CRN consultant Annette Dickinson, Ph.D.; Douglas (Duffy) MacKay, N.D., senior vice president, scientific & regulatory affairs, CRN; and Andrea Wong, Ph.D., vice president, scientific & regulatory affairs, CRN.
"Our data suggest that policy makers and health professionals can recommend dietary supplements to help improve nutrient intakes without being concerned that this will cause consumers to discount the importance of eating a healthy diet," Dr. Dickinson noted.
The survey asked 2,159 U.S. adults key questions to measure consumer attitudes about the role of multivitamins, calcium and/or vitamin D supplements, in improving dietary intakes. Nearly 90 percent of respondents (88 percent) agreed that calcium and vitamin D supplements can help support bone health when dietary intake is not sufficient and 87 percent reported that multivitamin and mineral supplements can help meet nutrient needs when people don't get enough from food alone. Responses indicated consumers hold balanced perspectives about the role supplementation plays in overall health, with 80 percent in agreement that multivitamins should not replace healthy
eating or lifestyle habits and 81 percent concluding that multivitamins should be considered as just one part of a healthy diet. The importance of having an open dialogue with doctors was also recognized, with 82 percent in agreement that people considering taking a high dose, single nutrient supplement should talk with their physician.
In the Nutrition Journal article, the authors cited U.S. government statistics indicating that a considerable percentage of U.S. adults fall short of recommended intakes for several nutrients, such as vitamins C, D and E. At the same time, Dr. Dickinson noted, "Surveys find that dietary supplement users tend to have better diets and adopt other healthy habits--suggesting that they view supplements as just one strategy in an array of health habits to help ensure wellness." Further, CRN noted in the report that evidence demonstrates that incidence of over-nutrification with micronutrients is low.
Co-author Dr. MacKay advises the importance of CRN conducting this type of consumer research, noting, "As Americans continue to seek ways to stay healthy, dietary supplements play an important role, therefore, it's important for our industry, as well as those in scientific, academic, health care practitioner and policy circles, to understand how consumers view that role."
INFORMATION:
The survey was designed and analyzed by FoodMinds, and was fielded in October 2014 using Toluna's On-line Omnibus. The weighted sample of 2,159 respondents is representative of U.S. adults.
Note to Editor: The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), founded in 1973, is a Washington, D.C.-based trade association representing 150+ dietary supplement and functional food manufacturers, ingredient suppliers, and companies providing services to those manufacturers and suppliers. In addition to complying with a host of federal and state regulations governing dietary supplements and food in the areas of manufacturing, marketing, quality control and safety, our manufacturer and supplier members also agree to adhere to additional voluntary guidelines as well as to CRN's Code of Ethics. Visit http://www.crnusa.org. Follow us on Twitter @crn_supplements and @wannabewell and on Facebook.
Reference:
Dickinson A, MacKay D, Wong A. Consumer attitudes about the role of multivitamins and other dietary supplements: report of a survey. Nutr J. 2015;14:66.
Neurons in a brain region called the medial temporal lobe play a key role in our ability to quickly form memories about real-life events and experiences, according to a study published July 1st in Neuron. By recording from individual neurons in patients, the researchers reveal for the first time in humans the single-cell basis for the creation of episodic memories.
"It was impressive to see how individual neurons signalled the learning of new contextual associations between people and places and that the changes in firing could occur just after one instance," says lead ...
The brain region that helps people tell whether an object is near or far may also guide how emotionally close they feel to others and how they rank them socially, according to a study conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published today in the journal Neuron. The findings promise to yield new insights into the social deficits that accompany psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia and depression.
The study focused on evidence for the existence of a "social map" in the hippocampus, the part of the brain that remembers locations in physical space ...
If your eyes deceive you, blame your brain. Many optical illusions work because what we see clashes with what we expect to see.
That 3D movie? Give credit to filmmakers who exploit binocular vision, or the way the brain merges the slightly different images from the two eyes to create depth.
These are examples of the brain making sense of the information coming from the eyes in order to produce what we "see." The brain combines signals that reach your retina with the models your brain has learned to predict what to expect when you move through the world. Your brain solves ...
Neurons are a limited commodity; each of us goes through life with essentially the same set we had at birth. But these cells, whose electrical signals drive our thoughts, perceptions, and actions, are anything but static. They change and adapt in response to experience throughout our lifetimes, a process better known as learning.
Research conducted at The Rockefeller University and collaborating institutions has uncovered a new mechanism that makes this plasticity possible. This discovery centers on a specific type of histone, proteins that support DNA and help control ...
WASHINGTON (July 1, 2015) -- Researchers at the George Washington University (GW), led by Michael S. Irwig, M.D., found that men referred for tertiary care for borderline testosterone levels had much higher rates of depression and depressive symptoms than those of the general population.
"In an era where more and more men are being tested for "Low T" -- or lower levels of testosterone -- there is very little data about the men who have borderline low testosterone levels," said Irwig, associate professor of medicine and director of the Center for Andrology at the GW School ...
A University of Texas at Arlington materials science and engineering team has developed a new energy cell that can store large-scale solar energy even when it's dark.
The innovation is an advancement over the most common solar energy systems that rely on using sunlight immediately as a power source. Those systems are hindered by not being able to use that solar energy at night or when cloudy conditions exist.
The UT Arlington team developed an all-vanadium photo-electrochemical flow cell that allows for efficient and large-scale solar energy storage even at nighttime. ...
NASA's Terra satellite and RapidScat instrument showed a slowly developing Tropical Storm Raquel affecting the Solomon Islands on June 30 and July 1. A tropical cyclone warning was in effect for all provinces of the Solomon Islands on July 1.
The RapidScat instrument that flies aboard the International Space Station measures surface winds. When it passed over former Tropical Depression 25P (now Raquel) it gathered data on sustained winds on June 30 from 7:02 to 8:35 UTC (3:02 to 4:35 a.m. EDT). The RapidScat data showed the strongest sustained winds were near 25 meters ...
A link to the full report can be found here.
July 1, 2015 (Washington) - Public attitudes about climate change and energy policy are strongly intertwined with political party affiliation and ideology. But politics play a more modest, or even peripheral, role on public views about other key issues related to biomedical science, food safety and space, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis.
The chart below highlights the wide mix of factors tied to public attitudes across a broad set of 22 science issues. It illustrates the strength of connection between political ...
The use of antipsychotic medication increased among adolescents and young adults from 2006 to 2010 but not among children 12 years or younger, according to an article published online by JAMA Psychiatry.
Antipsychotics have gained popularity as treatments for psychiatric disorders in young people. Clinical trials support the efficacy of several antipsychotics for child and adolescent bipolar mania, adolescent schizophrenia, and irritability associated with autism in adolescents and children. Yet most office visits by children and adolescents that involve antipsychotic ...
Among obese participants with type 2 diabetes mellitus, bariatric surgery with 2 years of a low-level lifestyle intervention resulted in more disease remission than did lifestyle intervention alone, according to a study published online by JAMA Surgery.
It remains to be established whether bariatric surgery is a durable and effective treatment for type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and how bariatric surgery compares with intensive lifestyle modification and medication management with respect to T2DM-related outcomes. As demonstrated in observational studies and several small randomized ...
