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(peaceful music)

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(children shouting)

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At 12, Cian Moore loved playing football

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until his eyes started to hurt

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He had trouble focusing, reading, even kicking a ball.

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He withdrew from people

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Cian was going blind.

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I was terrified because I don't want to go blind.

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For three years, his mother took him

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to many doctors, trying to find out why.

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Those three years were the worst of being told

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"There's nothing we can do," so it's like okay, he's blind,

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he'll be blind.

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What no doctor thought to prescribe through all of those

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consultations was these, just two capsules a year

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can save a child's sight.

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It can even save their life.

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In fact, this remedy has already saved over five million

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lives, but this isn't a medicine, it isn't a drug.

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This is vitamin A.

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But why was Cian so low in this vitamin?

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Well, since he was six year olds, he lived on bland

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foods such as chicken and chips, he wouldn't touch any

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fresh fruit or vegetables.

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He'd starve, he wouldn't care or if you would make him

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he would vomit it.

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Hundreds of thousands of malnourished children

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are on the brink of going blind because they lack vitamin A.

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Most are in developing countries, and caught early,

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their sight can be restored.

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For Cian, high dose vitamin A supplements saved the sight

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in his right eye, but he's permanently blind in the other.

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Vitamin A literally has the power to make the blind see,

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yet here's the rub.

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Taking extra vitamin A will not offer any benefit if you

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already have enough, and too much is toxic.

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It can kill you.

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In 1913, Antarctic explorers Douglas Mawson and Xavier

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Mertz were fighting for their lives.

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With most of their food gone, they faced a stark choice.

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Eat their dogs or die.

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After reluctantly eating their dogs, the men fell ill,

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burning with fever.

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Within days, Mertz was dead.

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Mawson, against the odds, made it back to camp.

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Ho!

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(dogs whining)

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So what was the mystery illness that

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killed Mertz and nearly cost Mawson his life?

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Well, when they ate their dogs, they weren't just eating

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canine flesh and fat, they also ate the dog's livers which

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contain high levels of vitamin A.

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So basically, they overdosed.

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Mertz went mad, his condition known as hypervitaminosis A.

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Hypervitaminosis A is rare, but deadly, and today, we know

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it can be caused by overuse of high dose vitamin A

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supplements, the same kind of supplements that can save

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a child's sight.

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This power and complexity lies at the heart of the great

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vitamin story.

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(dramatic music)

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I'm embarking on an epic, world spanning investigation

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of vitamin science in history.

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That is one big fish.

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I want to know how we discovered them.

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You sure this is safe?

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What they actually are.

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The 13 vitamins can be divided into two teams.

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How we learnt to build them.

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Tonight, Walgreens and Target have pulled

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the products nationwide.

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And how safe they are.

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All vitamins, all nutrients,

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they are toxic in high amounts.

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We gotta start taking these seriously as we should with

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every chemical we put into our bodies.

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You shouldn't assume it's safe and you shouldn't assume

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it's beneficial.

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Currently we don't know about the long term ethics

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of diet supplements.

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I'm a scientist.

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I'm also a father and I want to know how do I do the best

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for my son, and one day, might he be taking vitamin pills

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to Mars?

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(engine blasting off)

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Across the word, some experts claim that taking vitamins

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can be life savers, whereas others argue that it's just

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a waste of time or even dangerous, so how are we supposed

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to know whether the take them or not?

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(dramatic music)

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Everyone is intimidated by a shark. Become
a Card Shark AMERICASCARDROOM.COM

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(train bell ringing)

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Over a billion of us take at least one vitamin or supplement

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hoping to keep as healthy as possible

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for as long as possible,

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but most of us know nothing about them.

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This ordinary meal contains almost every single essential

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vitamin and nutrient we need.

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There are vitamins A, B, and K in the lettuce, lots of

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vitamin Bs in the chicken, vitamin C in the tomato, K in

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the cucumber, vitamin D in the egg yolk?

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There are even vitamins in your coffee and that's before

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you add the milk.

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In fact, this meal contains every single one of these but

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what are these exactly and what are they doing to

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our bodies, and how much do we actually need?

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Around 100 years ago, we didn't even know that vitamins

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existed.

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We knew we needed protein, carbohydrate, fat, and minerals

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and some suspected there were other vital substances

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in food but they had no name.

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And then in 1911, a Polish chemist began some important

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experiments with some unfortunate pigeons and he changed

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the course of history.

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His name was Dr. Casimir Funk.

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♪ It must have been some flash of inspiration ♪

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♪ Rendered scientifically precise ♪

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♪ Conclusions that he drew from observation ♪

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♪ Feeding pigeons different types of rice ♪

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♪ He said some get sick ♪

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♪ Some get well ♪

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♪ It ain't no germ or virus, not as far as I can tell ♪

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♪ There's something else inside that feed ♪

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♪ It isn't something bad they get ♪

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♪ It's something good they need ♪

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♪ Thank you Dr. Funk ♪

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♪ For helping us understand ♪

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At the turn of the 20th century, millions of people were

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suffering from diseases rarely seen today, things like

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beri beri, pellagra, rickets, and scurvy.

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Now, the thinking at the time was that it was the

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presence of something bad that made us sick, germs and

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toxins were all the range.

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♪ It all comes down to the (mumbles) aminos ♪

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♪ Casimir Funk is ♪

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When Funk fed his pigeons white rice, starch, or sugar,

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they became ill.

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But fed brown rice, they recovered.

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So Funk wanted to identify the substance in the brown rice

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that cured them.

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Now, Funk didn't know where this mystery substance actually

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was but he invented a word to describe it, from the Latin

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vita, meaning life, and amine, containing nitrogen.

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Later, the E was dropped in English, so the word

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became vitamin.

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Dr. Funk invented a catchy word that captured a fresh idea.

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There was a new family of nutrients, the absence of which

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caused disease.

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Soon it became evident that they were not all amines,

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but the name stuck and the word vitamin

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became famous, taking on a life of its own.

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♪ Thank you Dr. Funk ♪

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Over the next few decades, all 13 vitamins were identified.

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Soon, they were synthesized and turned into pills.

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Little did Dr. Funk realize, his vitamins would spawn

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100 billion dollar a year industry.

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Vitamania had begun.

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♪ Thank you Dr. Funk ♪

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♪ Casimir Funk, Casimir Funk ♪

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(lively music)

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I've come here to one of the largest nutritional trade

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shows on Earth.

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They're expecting tens of thousands of people, all buying

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and selling the latest and greatest in vitamins and dietary

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supplements.

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I want to see what's on offer.

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After about four days, you really feel all the brain

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health benefits, so cognitive support, memory support,

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amazing sleep.

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Historically, silver's known to be antiviral, antifungal,

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antibacterial to build your immune system by potentiating

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your white blood cell count.

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They're organic botanical source vitamins and instead of

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putting them in isolated sugar syrups, we put them

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in more food.

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Vitamins have managed to develop this halo around them

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where everything the word vitamin touches seems like it

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should be both miraculous and safe.

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Science journalist Catherine Price spent

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five years investigating vitamins.

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We tend to think of vitamins and supplements as this kind

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of home grown industry of people gathering herbs in their

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backyards and boiling oranges

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for vitamin C and it's actually

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a 40 billion dollar a year industry

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in the US and 100 billion dollars

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around the world and it's growing rapidly.

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Who is taking vitamins?

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More than half of Americans are taking some kind of

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supplement and ironically, that half is often the healthier

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half of the American population.

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You have to have a certain amount of awareness and interest

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in health to go out and buy these products.

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It has omega-369 and it's the only sauce of omega-7

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in the plant sauce world.

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All of our multi-vitamins have a base of omega-3

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fish oil, multi-vitamin as well as vitamins E12 and D3.

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C, D, E, all your B vitamins.

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Folic acid, you name it, it's in there.

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Most vitamins are self prescribed.

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They're not recommended by a doctor.

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So we should know that the biggest category for

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vitamins is multi-vitamins.

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Most of us, not all of us, have been taught from a young age

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they're something that you take just in case.

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Just in case you don't get enough fruits and vegetables

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from your diet, just take the multi-vitamin.

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And I think when you talk about vitamins, a big part of the

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psychology is hope.

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What you're looking at right here is a powdered magnesium

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citrate formula.

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We have an adrenal fatigue formula that has a very heavy

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B-complex.

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These are biological response modifiers.

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Are there like vitamins in here?

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Yeah, there's--

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Some?

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Then, Catherine told me something I found staggering.

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How are vitamins regulated?

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Vitamins are not regulated the way that you would think

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they would be.

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Technically, the FDA is in control of them, but all of

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these products around us, all of the 85 thousand dietary

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supplement products on the shelves,

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none of them are required to be tested for safety

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or for efficacy before they're sold.

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So not at all.

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The FDA cannot require any of these companies to test them

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to make sure they do what they say or that they're not

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going to hurt you.

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And it's not just the US.

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In Australia and Europa as well, they're not required to be

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tested for safety before sale.

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But what about kid's vitamins?

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Children's vitamins are regulated the same way adult

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vitamins are, which is to say they're not required to be

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tested for safety or for efficacy before they're sold.

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So what you're giving your child doesn't have

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to be tested?

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So nothing?

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No.

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Never in history have we had the ability to manipulate

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our nutrition in such extraordinary ways, but how do we know

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if what we're doing is a good idea or not?

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I'm a scientist, my background is in physics, and so I have

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a bias towards evidence and I'm skeptical of some of the

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marketing claims made here, but I'm trying to keep an open

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mind, after all, there have been at least 10 Nobel prizes

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awarded for vitamin science, so I'm in search of a deeper

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understanding and I want to start with the basics, like

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what exactly is a vitamin?

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(peaceful music)

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Vitamins are chemicals that are essential for life.

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Without them, we get sick and we can die.

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Our bodies can't make vitamins by themselves, so we usually

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get them from our food.

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So far, 13 vitamins have been identified and although they

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share a name, these are very different molecules and they

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do very different things.

260
00:14:44,450 --> 00:14:47,033
(bright music)

261
00:14:48,670 --> 00:14:51,872
♪ Hey, hey, I'm vitamin A ♪

262
00:14:51,872 --> 00:14:55,896
♪ The first vitamin on display ♪

263
00:14:55,896 --> 00:14:59,829
♪ When you open your eyes, I help you see the light ♪

264
00:14:59,829 --> 00:15:04,279
♪ When the germs arise, I'm gonna teach you to fight ♪

265
00:15:04,279 --> 00:15:07,608
♪ Here we come, we're the vitamin Bs ♪

266
00:15:07,608 --> 00:15:10,926
♪ We're a great big family ♪

267
00:15:10,926 --> 00:15:14,297
♪ So much energy you can gain ♪

268
00:15:14,297 --> 00:15:17,946
♪ For your metabolism and your genes and your brain ♪

269
00:15:17,946 --> 00:15:22,946
♪ One two three five six seven nine 12, the Bs ♪

270
00:15:23,646 --> 00:15:27,204
♪ Howdy folks, they call me vitamin C ♪

271
00:15:27,204 --> 00:15:28,446
♪ Vitamin C ♪

272
00:15:28,446 --> 00:15:33,446
♪ I'm a healer and protector and I can almost guarantee ♪

273
00:15:34,052 --> 00:15:39,052
♪ You're impervious to scurvy if you get your share of me ♪

274
00:15:39,906 --> 00:15:44,906
♪ Vitamin C, vitamin C, vitamin C ♪

275
00:15:47,157 --> 00:15:52,157
♪ I think it's unfair, it almost seems cruel ♪

276
00:15:54,378 --> 00:15:59,378
♪ To come from the sun and still be so cool ♪

277
00:16:01,600 --> 00:16:05,645
♪ Warmest regards, vitamin D ♪

278
00:16:05,645 --> 00:16:08,170
♪ Yeah ♪

279
00:16:08,170 --> 00:16:13,170
♪ Well, babe I know sometimes it's hard to recognize ♪

280
00:16:13,762 --> 00:16:18,762
♪ When you need some help to antioxidize ♪

281
00:16:19,222 --> 00:16:23,584
♪ So stop those radicals from running wild and free ♪

282
00:16:23,584 --> 00:16:28,584
♪ Look to me, E ♪

283
00:16:29,718 --> 00:16:32,481
♪ Hey I'm K, there's something I'd say, I keep your body ♪

284
00:16:32,481 --> 00:16:34,679
♪ Rocking in a critical way ♪

285
00:16:34,679 --> 00:16:37,430
♪ A well known cornerstone for your blood and bone ♪

286
00:16:37,430 --> 00:16:40,073
♪ I can't do it alone, you need all the crew, the whole ♪

287
00:16:40,073 --> 00:16:43,037
♪ Retinue, props to do because that's how you grew ♪

288
00:16:43,037 --> 00:16:45,682
♪ And that's what you need to get through the day, ♪

289
00:16:45,682 --> 00:16:49,849
♪ Talk about vitamins A through K ♪

290
00:16:55,971 --> 00:16:58,967
The 13 vitamins can be divided into two teams, the water

291
00:16:58,967 --> 00:17:02,991
soluble team consisting of all the B vitamins and vitamin C

292
00:17:02,991 --> 00:17:04,224
and the fat soluble team,

293
00:17:04,224 --> 00:17:07,746
consisting of A, D, E, and K, ADEK.

294
00:17:07,746 --> 00:17:10,006
So why does this matter?

295
00:17:10,006 --> 00:17:12,838
Well, we can get rid of excess water soluble vitamins

296
00:17:12,838 --> 00:17:15,566
in our urine, but the fat soluble ones are stored in our

297
00:17:15,566 --> 00:17:18,808
livers and fatty tissue, so they're the ones that can

298
00:17:18,808 --> 00:17:21,475
build up easily to toxic levels.

299
00:17:23,658 --> 00:17:26,440
What does a food data miner do?

300
00:17:26,440 --> 00:17:28,406
So essentially, I'm looking at all

301
00:17:28,406 --> 00:17:31,807
these different kind of (mumbles) foods.

302
00:17:31,807 --> 00:17:33,693
Someone who's an expert in the vitamins in our

303
00:17:33,693 --> 00:17:36,776
food is dietician Dr. Yasmine Probst.

304
00:17:38,441 --> 00:17:42,777
If I could see the amount of vitamins that I need every day,

305
00:17:42,777 --> 00:17:44,123
it would look like this?

306
00:17:44,123 --> 00:17:44,956
That's right,

307
00:17:44,956 --> 00:17:45,789
that's a very close representation

308
00:17:45,789 --> 00:17:48,328
to what we need, they're tiny.

309
00:17:48,328 --> 00:17:49,523
There's hardly anything here.

310
00:17:49,523 --> 00:17:50,684
Exactly.

311
00:17:50,684 --> 00:17:52,044
They're a speck on this plate here.

312
00:17:52,044 --> 00:17:54,633
Yeah, like vitamin D there, nearly invisible.

313
00:17:54,633 --> 00:17:56,064
Yeah, exactly.

314
00:17:56,064 --> 00:17:59,390
It just looks like a few pinches of salt or spice.

315
00:17:59,390 --> 00:18:02,050
Yeah, so it might be about the size of say, a poppy seed

316
00:18:02,050 --> 00:18:06,714
or something really tiny that people see on a regular basis.

317
00:18:06,714 --> 00:18:09,559
So in order to get all the vitamins I need in a day, this

318
00:18:09,559 --> 00:18:11,400
is the food I need to eat?

319
00:18:11,400 --> 00:18:14,587
That's right, that's right, not very many foods at all.

320
00:18:14,587 --> 00:18:18,011
But I would eat this in one meal, this looks like dinner

321
00:18:18,011 --> 00:18:19,338
and dessert to me.

322
00:18:19,338 --> 00:18:21,273
Well, this is the amount that you would need as an

323
00:18:21,273 --> 00:18:22,732
average adult male.

324
00:18:22,732 --> 00:18:25,134
Some people imagine you need to eat a giant mound

325
00:18:25,134 --> 00:18:27,875
of food, you know like a pile of spinach to get the vitamins

326
00:18:27,875 --> 00:18:31,114
that you need in a day, but it's really not that much.

327
00:18:31,114 --> 00:18:33,137
Well, I guess there's a little bit of confusion out there.

328
00:18:33,137 --> 00:18:35,317
People think that the amount of food that you need are

329
00:18:35,317 --> 00:18:38,352
these really big numbers but it's really not that much

330
00:18:38,352 --> 00:18:41,054
and it's more about eating the right foods in the right

331
00:18:41,054 --> 00:18:44,686
balance so that you get the right nutrients that you need.

332
00:18:44,686 --> 00:18:47,693
One carrot gives me all I would need of vitamin A.

333
00:18:47,693 --> 00:18:51,129
That's right, one medium carrot.

334
00:18:51,129 --> 00:18:53,918
When we eat a carrot, vitamins are released

335
00:18:53,918 --> 00:18:58,751
into the bloodstream, beginning a complex molecular dance.

336
00:18:59,593 --> 00:19:00,843
Take vitamin A.

337
00:19:01,811 --> 00:19:05,956
Our body makes it from a plant chemical called beta carotene

338
00:19:05,956 --> 00:19:09,637
and transforms it into forms of vitamin A that are essential

339
00:19:09,637 --> 00:19:14,637
for sight, immune function, and even how an embryo develops.

340
00:19:16,439 --> 00:19:20,523
Each of the vitamins trigger amazing chemical reactions,

341
00:19:20,523 --> 00:19:24,606
and together, they impact every part of our body.

342
00:19:25,610 --> 00:19:30,523
We can't hear, smell, think, touch, taste, breathe

343
00:19:30,523 --> 00:19:33,001
without these 13 vitamins,

344
00:19:33,001 --> 00:19:36,751
they don't just keep us alive, they are life.

345
00:19:38,417 --> 00:19:42,384
And when it's all working well, it's a wonder.

346
00:19:42,384 --> 00:19:47,384
But when we don't have enough, when there are deficiencies,

347
00:19:47,541 --> 00:19:49,541
the body's systems fail.

348
00:19:54,829 --> 00:19:58,106
I noticed that I was getting very tired.

349
00:19:58,106 --> 00:20:01,105
Weakness, blood was coming out through the side of the

350
00:20:01,105 --> 00:20:04,855
teeth and stuff and it started getting worse.

351
00:20:07,475 --> 00:20:12,223
And then I also noticed that I was sleeping a lot.

352
00:20:12,223 --> 00:20:17,223
Now, I'm talking about from six in the afternoon all the way

353
00:20:18,251 --> 00:20:21,418
'til 10 in the morning, I mean, a lot.

354
00:20:22,770 --> 00:20:25,884
And so that kind of scared me, so I knew something

355
00:20:25,884 --> 00:20:30,134
was wrong, so that's why I'm glad I went and I seen

356
00:20:31,244 --> 00:20:32,654
Dr. Churchill.

357
00:20:32,654 --> 00:20:35,321
(intense music)

358
00:20:42,464 --> 00:20:45,128
Sonny Lopez had a disease that no one had

359
00:20:45,128 --> 00:20:49,696
thought to look for, let alone test for for decades,

360
00:20:49,696 --> 00:20:52,113
and he wasn't the first case.

361
00:20:55,073 --> 00:21:00,073
So the first patient came in with painful, bruisy rash

362
00:21:00,252 --> 00:21:04,296
on both of his legs and general joint pains and fatigue

363
00:21:04,296 --> 00:21:08,988
and other systems and he had been treated for what they

364
00:21:08,988 --> 00:21:12,425
thought was an infection of the legs with no improvement,

365
00:21:12,425 --> 00:21:16,576
people were looking for blood clots and other things and all

366
00:21:16,576 --> 00:21:19,873
of the tests were coming up negative.

367
00:21:19,873 --> 00:21:23,040
Someone thought to ask about his diet.

368
00:21:24,345 --> 00:21:27,774
They found that he had been eating nothing but white bread

369
00:21:27,774 --> 00:21:31,879
and American cheese for the last several years.

370
00:21:31,879 --> 00:21:36,002
No fruits, no vegetables, nothing that would provide you

371
00:21:36,002 --> 00:21:41,002
with the basic level of nutrition that you would need.

372
00:21:41,084 --> 00:21:43,975
Then, with that kind of nutritional problem, maybe we should

373
00:21:43,975 --> 00:21:48,250
check some vitamin levels and his vitamin C level came back

374
00:21:48,250 --> 00:21:51,809
at absolutely undetectable, level of zero.

375
00:21:51,809 --> 00:21:54,282
Dr. Eric Churchill was stunned.

376
00:21:54,282 --> 00:21:57,092
He realized the patients had a disease common more than

377
00:21:57,092 --> 00:21:59,675
100 years ago, they had scurvy.

378
00:22:01,643 --> 00:22:03,944
This is something you hear about with pirates in the

379
00:22:03,944 --> 00:22:07,414
18th century, it's just not a disease that we thought

380
00:22:07,414 --> 00:22:08,997
people had anymore.

381
00:22:10,011 --> 00:22:12,761
(dramatic music)

382
00:22:19,680 --> 00:22:22,666
Scurvy was absolutely devastating

383
00:22:22,666 --> 00:22:27,066
it's been estimated that between the late 1400s and early

384
00:22:27,066 --> 00:22:30,862
1800s, two million sailors perished as a result

385
00:22:30,862 --> 00:22:32,195
of this disease.

386
00:22:33,185 --> 00:22:35,275
It's harder than I expected.

387
00:22:35,275 --> 00:22:37,942
Medical historian Dr. John Waller has studied the links

388
00:22:37,942 --> 00:22:39,942
between scurvy and diet.

389
00:22:41,261 --> 00:22:43,820
So this is a typical daily ration for a sailor in the

390
00:22:43,820 --> 00:22:48,820
royal navy in the 18th century, about a pound of very hard

391
00:22:48,915 --> 00:22:50,516
ship's biscuit.

392
00:22:50,516 --> 00:22:52,813
Then they would get something like half a pint

393
00:22:52,813 --> 00:22:53,980
of dried peas.

394
00:22:55,033 --> 00:22:59,704
Then salted meat, and it would be washed down with something

395
00:22:59,704 --> 00:23:01,324
like a gallon of beer every day.

396
00:23:01,324 --> 00:23:04,156
But there was something missing from their diet.

397
00:23:04,156 --> 00:23:07,079
Yeah, there's something very, very significant missing.

398
00:23:07,079 --> 00:23:09,746
And that of course is vitamin C.

399
00:23:10,915 --> 00:23:12,715
The thought that certain foods might

400
00:23:12,715 --> 00:23:14,859
cure scurvy wasn't a new one.

401
00:23:14,859 --> 00:23:18,731
It was an old idea that had been discovered and forgotten

402
00:23:18,731 --> 00:23:19,648
many times.

403
00:23:20,866 --> 00:23:25,393
Every so often, somebody would try citrus fruits.

404
00:23:25,393 --> 00:23:28,079
The sailors would make what appeared to be a miraculous

405
00:23:28,079 --> 00:23:32,079
recovery, but it never became standard practice.

406
00:23:33,292 --> 00:23:34,867
So how did they eventually figure out

407
00:23:34,867 --> 00:23:36,375
how to cure scurvy?

408
00:23:36,375 --> 00:23:38,315
It happened very gradually, but there were a few

409
00:23:38,315 --> 00:23:40,560
really critical moments.

410
00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:44,893
One of them took place in 1747, when a Scottish born

411
00:23:45,961 --> 00:23:50,260
ship's surgeon ran what is the first controlled

412
00:23:50,260 --> 00:23:52,927
clinical trial in human history.

413
00:23:54,742 --> 00:23:58,069
Dr. James Lind had seen the horrors of scurvy

414
00:23:58,069 --> 00:23:59,417
firsthand.

415
00:23:59,417 --> 00:24:02,682
Usually the ship's surgeon would try a range of supposed

416
00:24:02,682 --> 00:24:07,461
remedies and hope for the best, but Lind came up with a

417
00:24:07,461 --> 00:24:08,378
novel idea.

418
00:24:09,658 --> 00:24:14,177
He took 12 men with scurvy and split them into pairs.

419
00:24:14,177 --> 00:24:16,490
Each pair was given ship's rations plus one of the

420
00:24:16,490 --> 00:24:19,450
supposed cures of the time.

421
00:24:19,450 --> 00:24:22,950
Cider, vinegar, seawater, something called

422
00:24:24,385 --> 00:24:29,385
"elixir of vitriol" made from sulfuric acid, a concoction

423
00:24:29,602 --> 00:24:33,352
of garlic and mustard, or oranges and lemons.

424
00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:40,140
The two sailors who had been receiving the citrus fruits

425
00:24:40,140 --> 00:24:43,025
had made a really remarkable recovery.

426
00:24:43,025 --> 00:24:47,497
Now, the two who had received cider were somewhat improved.

427
00:24:47,497 --> 00:24:50,864
The rest, they had continued to deteriorate and they were

428
00:24:50,864 --> 00:24:53,139
fast on the way to dying.

429
00:24:53,139 --> 00:24:57,478
So this experiment had allowed him to arrive at a really

430
00:24:57,478 --> 00:25:02,172
clear conclusion, that fresh fruits and vegetables

431
00:25:02,172 --> 00:25:05,757
really can be used to cure scurvy.

432
00:25:05,757 --> 00:25:08,589
How significant would you consider Lind's experiment?

433
00:25:08,589 --> 00:25:11,602
There's no question that this single discovery saved

434
00:25:11,602 --> 00:25:15,360
millions of lives, but there's a broader and every bit as

435
00:25:15,360 --> 00:25:20,183
enduring effect of Lind's work and that is the way in which

436
00:25:20,183 --> 00:25:23,988
controlled clinical trial eventually becomes orthodoxy

437
00:25:23,988 --> 00:25:24,988
in medicine.

438
00:25:26,124 --> 00:25:29,735
It's a species altering development.

439
00:25:29,735 --> 00:25:33,060
Humans had unlocked the way to identify

440
00:25:33,060 --> 00:25:34,810
what cures will work.

441
00:25:36,272 --> 00:25:39,104
When Lind goes to publish his findings a few years later,

442
00:25:39,104 --> 00:25:42,405
he buries the information in a few paragraphs 200 pages

443
00:25:42,405 --> 00:25:44,844
into his 400 page book.

444
00:25:44,844 --> 00:25:47,442
It's as though not even Lind realizes the significance

445
00:25:47,442 --> 00:25:50,146
of his own discovery, and it may have been forgotten

446
00:25:50,146 --> 00:25:53,082
yet again if not for the work of a young doctor Gilbert

447
00:25:53,082 --> 00:25:56,567
Blain who manages to convince the British navy to supply

448
00:25:56,567 --> 00:25:58,733
lemon juice to its sailors.

449
00:25:58,733 --> 00:26:00,150
The year is 1795.

450
00:26:01,755 --> 00:26:05,117
That's one year after Lind's death and 48 years after his

451
00:26:05,117 --> 00:26:07,338
historic experiment.

452
00:26:07,338 --> 00:26:10,171
(whimsical music)

453
00:26:11,323 --> 00:26:15,504
With lemons and later limes as their secret weapon,

454
00:26:15,504 --> 00:26:20,140
the British navy emerged as the strongest on the globe.

455
00:26:20,140 --> 00:26:24,410
The supply of fruit shaped the destiny of nations, allowing

456
00:26:24,410 --> 00:26:28,811
us to venture out across the seas, to live and to thrive

457
00:26:28,811 --> 00:26:31,311
fueled by the right nutrition.

458
00:26:37,216 --> 00:26:40,502
But today, it seems that knowledge is being forgotten

459
00:26:40,502 --> 00:26:41,942
once again.

460
00:26:41,942 --> 00:26:43,647
How many people live here?

461
00:26:43,647 --> 00:26:45,389
I'd say about 15.

462
00:26:45,389 --> 00:26:47,142
And how long you been living here?

463
00:26:47,142 --> 00:26:48,809
Five years, Derek.

464
00:26:48,809 --> 00:26:50,571
That's a pretty long time.

465
00:26:50,571 --> 00:26:52,321
Yes, it is.

466
00:26:55,734 --> 00:26:57,688
This is my castle right here.

467
00:26:57,688 --> 00:26:58,521
Wow.

468
00:27:01,458 --> 00:27:04,854
This is my family, this is everybody I love.

469
00:27:04,854 --> 00:27:07,271
That's me back when I was 21.

470
00:27:08,523 --> 00:27:10,005
You had a lot of hair back then.

471
00:27:10,005 --> 00:27:12,705
Yes, that was back in the hippie days, you know?

472
00:27:12,705 --> 00:27:14,027
It's a beautiful family.

473
00:27:14,027 --> 00:27:14,860
Thanks.

474
00:27:16,110 --> 00:27:19,175
This is all the stuff, this is where I keep my cereal,

475
00:27:19,175 --> 00:27:21,175
my bread, peanut butter.

476
00:27:23,033 --> 00:27:26,541
Refrigerate down the hall here, come on, I'll show you.

477
00:27:26,541 --> 00:27:30,374
I like to eat burgers, hot dogs, sodas, cakes,

478
00:27:33,184 --> 00:27:36,818
bad cereals, I'm not gonna lie to you.

479
00:27:36,818 --> 00:27:38,815
I do eat a lot of sugar.

480
00:27:38,815 --> 00:27:42,565
When I have my coffee, 15 sugars, two creams.

481
00:27:44,968 --> 00:27:49,635
Many people who have difficulty affording food tend to

482
00:27:50,478 --> 00:27:54,061
go for food that is high fat, high calorie,

483
00:27:55,165 --> 00:27:57,089
and very filling.

484
00:27:57,089 --> 00:27:59,287
If you have a limited food budget, those are the meals

485
00:27:59,287 --> 00:28:02,933
that will fill you up and will satisfy you more than

486
00:28:02,933 --> 00:28:05,566
eating fruits and vegetables.

487
00:28:05,566 --> 00:28:08,712
Alright doc, how you been?
<v ->Good, good.

488
00:28:08,712 --> 00:28:11,611
In Sonny's case, he has got a lot of other things to worry

489
00:28:11,611 --> 00:28:15,787
about and for him, making sure to eat enough fruits

490
00:28:15,787 --> 00:28:19,333
and vegetables is very far down on his list.

491
00:28:19,333 --> 00:28:21,539
I thought I had some kind of vicious disease and I was

492
00:28:21,539 --> 00:28:26,456
really, really scared, because that's an ugly word, scurvy.

493
00:28:27,682 --> 00:28:30,744
So once we had diagnosed Sonny with scurvy,

494
00:28:30,744 --> 00:28:34,214
the first thing we did was to give him vitamin C tablets

495
00:28:34,214 --> 00:28:38,086
to correct the deficiency, and then, at a later visit

496
00:28:38,086 --> 00:28:39,578
when he said he was having trouble getting those

497
00:28:39,578 --> 00:28:43,348
supplements, I took out my prescription pad and I wrote

498
00:28:43,348 --> 00:28:47,015
"One orange every day" and handed it to him.

499
00:28:48,788 --> 00:28:51,083
It turned out that Sonny was part of an

500
00:28:51,083 --> 00:28:53,500
extraordinary scurvy cluster.

501
00:28:54,362 --> 00:28:56,886
In the last five years, we've documented 30 cases

502
00:28:56,886 --> 00:28:59,974
of scurvy and as far as I'm aware, that's the largest

503
00:28:59,974 --> 00:29:03,400
collection of scurvy cases in the developed world outside

504
00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:07,389
of some exceptional circumstances like war or refugee

505
00:29:07,389 --> 00:29:09,054
situations.

506
00:29:09,054 --> 00:29:10,954
So is it just an issue of all these people with scurvy

507
00:29:10,954 --> 00:29:12,595
not eating enough?

508
00:29:12,595 --> 00:29:13,772
It's really not.

509
00:29:13,772 --> 00:29:17,206
It's about the quality of the food that you eat.

510
00:29:17,206 --> 00:29:19,811
Over half of the people that we diagnose with scurvy

511
00:29:19,811 --> 00:29:23,946
are actually obese and so they are getting enough calories

512
00:29:23,946 --> 00:29:28,755
in their diet but they are low quality, low nutrition

513
00:29:28,755 --> 00:29:33,292
calories, we use the phrase hypercaloric malnutrition

514
00:29:33,292 --> 00:29:35,964
one of the things about scurvy is that it's really not

515
00:29:35,964 --> 00:29:37,714
difficult to prevent.

516
00:29:38,562 --> 00:29:42,045
This is not a high nutritional bar to reach.

517
00:29:42,045 --> 00:29:44,614
And even something like a handful of ketchup packets

518
00:29:44,614 --> 00:29:48,897
a day contain enough vitamin C to keep you out of scurvy.

519
00:29:48,897 --> 00:29:51,457
Not that I recommend people get all of their vitamin C

520
00:29:51,457 --> 00:29:54,624
from ketchup packets, but it's enough.

521
00:29:56,186 --> 00:29:58,989
Surprisingly, the top vitamin C foods

522
00:29:58,989 --> 00:30:01,235
aren't all citrus.

523
00:30:01,235 --> 00:30:04,078
Kiwi fruit, strawberries, and red peppers are all

524
00:30:04,078 --> 00:30:05,161
rich sources.

525
00:30:09,176 --> 00:30:13,516
But vitamin C is fragile, it degrades with time.

526
00:30:13,516 --> 00:30:16,911
One study showed that left at room temperature, 75 percent

527
00:30:16,911 --> 00:30:21,161
of the vitamin C in an apple can be lost in a week.

528
00:30:22,788 --> 00:30:26,355
So just over time, the nutritional content is going down.

529
00:30:26,355 --> 00:30:29,665
Yeah, it's affected by heat, by light, by storage

530
00:30:29,665 --> 00:30:31,681
conditions, lots of different things.

531
00:30:31,681 --> 00:30:33,375
So what should you do if you want to maximize

532
00:30:33,375 --> 00:30:34,974
your nutrition?

533
00:30:34,974 --> 00:30:37,747
I think keep it fresh, keep it local.

534
00:30:37,747 --> 00:30:40,126
The sooner you pick it and consume it, that's probably

535
00:30:40,126 --> 00:30:40,959
the best.

536
00:30:44,772 --> 00:30:47,372
Fascination with the power of vitamin C

537
00:30:47,372 --> 00:30:50,530
led scientists to isolate it and determine its

538
00:30:50,530 --> 00:30:52,873
chemical structure.

539
00:30:52,873 --> 00:30:56,206
In 1937, this work one two Nobel prizes.

540
00:30:58,766 --> 00:31:01,497
And led to the world's first synthetic

541
00:31:01,497 --> 00:31:03,330
or artificial vitamin.

542
00:31:05,119 --> 00:31:07,038
So where do you think the vitamin C in your pills

543
00:31:07,038 --> 00:31:07,955
comes from?

544
00:31:12,562 --> 00:31:14,917
This is the last remaining manufacturing plant for

545
00:31:14,917 --> 00:31:17,554
vitamin C in the western world.

546
00:31:17,554 --> 00:31:21,098
The vast majority of vitamins produced today are synthetic.

547
00:31:21,098 --> 00:31:24,210
That is, they're man made in chemical factories, and in

548
00:31:24,210 --> 00:31:27,601
general, the goal is to duplicate the exact structure

549
00:31:27,601 --> 00:31:30,118
of the naturally occurring vitamins.

550
00:31:30,118 --> 00:31:32,903
Now, we'd hoped to show you how that's done here,

551
00:31:32,903 --> 00:31:35,329
but after 12 months of negations, we've not been able

552
00:31:35,329 --> 00:31:38,909
to film inside, so instead, to understand how to create

553
00:31:38,909 --> 00:31:42,576
a vitamin, we're gonna have to make our own.

554
00:31:44,078 --> 00:31:46,823
To build a vitamin, you need raw materials.

555
00:31:46,823 --> 00:31:49,490
(truck beeping)

556
00:31:51,057 --> 00:31:53,385
And believe it or not, at least eight vitamins can be

557
00:31:53,385 --> 00:31:56,669
synthetically created from fossil fuel products like

558
00:31:56,669 --> 00:31:57,502
coal tar.

559
00:32:00,500 --> 00:32:03,378
They contain components like acetone, found in nail

560
00:32:03,378 --> 00:32:07,536
polish remover, short chain alkanes, found in petrol,

561
00:32:07,536 --> 00:32:11,625
and various aromatic rings found in (mumbles).

562
00:32:11,625 --> 00:32:15,239
The idea is to rearrange these building blocks into more

563
00:32:15,239 --> 00:32:17,842
complex chemical compounds.

564
00:32:17,842 --> 00:32:22,472
Actually building vitamins, precision matters, as a single

565
00:32:22,472 --> 00:32:24,472
bond can alter function.

566
00:32:27,023 --> 00:32:31,603
Not all synthetic vitamins come from fossil fuels.

567
00:32:31,603 --> 00:32:35,853
For example, if you extract sugars from corn syrup.

568
00:32:38,174 --> 00:32:42,635
Ferment them with bacteria and add a chemical reaction,

569
00:32:42,635 --> 00:32:45,052
you have synthetic vitamin C.

570
00:32:46,896 --> 00:32:49,780
Most synthetic vitamins are chemically identical

571
00:32:49,780 --> 00:32:51,951
to the natural form, but without the fiber

572
00:32:51,951 --> 00:32:55,201
and micronutrients that come with food.

573
00:32:56,840 --> 00:33:00,199
The end result is a vitamin made not by a plant,

574
00:33:00,199 --> 00:33:01,449
but in a plant.

575
00:33:02,784 --> 00:33:05,284
(jazzy music)

576
00:33:06,864 --> 00:33:08,366
It's far more efficient and cheaper

577
00:33:08,366 --> 00:33:11,949
to produce vitamins on an industrial scale.

578
00:33:13,649 --> 00:33:16,512
Today, more than 80 percent of the world's vitamin C is

579
00:33:16,512 --> 00:33:19,641
made in China, and it's pretty hard to work out where all

580
00:33:19,641 --> 00:33:22,429
of the raw materials for vitamins come from but most

581
00:33:22,429 --> 00:33:27,429
are produced unquestionably like this, synthetically.

582
00:33:27,476 --> 00:33:29,835
And then they're sent out across the globe to manufacturing

583
00:33:29,835 --> 00:33:33,847
plants, ready to be turned into vitamin pills.

584
00:33:33,847 --> 00:33:36,347
(jazzy music)

585
00:33:47,449 --> 00:33:50,888
Here in Australia, manufacturers are required to test

586
00:33:50,888 --> 00:33:54,543
raw materials on arrival, to ensure the product is what

587
00:33:54,543 --> 00:33:56,293
it says on the label.

588
00:33:59,226 --> 00:34:01,809
Then, the manufacturing begins.

589
00:34:15,159 --> 00:34:18,032
The raw vitamin material is blended with additives

590
00:34:18,032 --> 00:34:21,052
and binding agents, a different recipe

591
00:34:21,052 --> 00:34:23,052
for a different product.

592
00:34:25,106 --> 00:34:28,472
Given the amount of vitamin needed is generally tiny,

593
00:34:28,472 --> 00:34:32,099
what makes up the rest of the pill?

594
00:34:32,099 --> 00:34:34,999
Well, inactive materials like cellulose, sugars,

595
00:34:34,999 --> 00:34:38,378
or rice flour are often added to provide bulk and to

596
00:34:38,378 --> 00:34:41,461
help the tablets dissolve in the gut.

597
00:34:43,417 --> 00:34:46,403
Colors and flavors can also be added to make the tablets

598
00:34:46,403 --> 00:34:47,653
more palatable.

599
00:34:50,361 --> 00:34:53,045
The manufacturing process is similar for most synthetic

600
00:34:53,045 --> 00:34:57,212
vitamins, depending on the end product being made.

601
00:35:00,739 --> 00:35:04,231
Thousands of generic looking pills then fill containers

602
00:35:04,231 --> 00:35:07,731
and the distinctive packaging takes place.

603
00:35:10,179 --> 00:35:12,396
The vitamins are now branded and they're ready

604
00:35:12,396 --> 00:35:13,896
to hit the market.

605
00:35:21,432 --> 00:35:24,076
It's interesting, if vitamin manufacturers here want to

606
00:35:24,076 --> 00:35:27,426
claim "made in Australia," by law, none of the raw

607
00:35:27,426 --> 00:35:30,593
ingredients actually have to come from this country.

608
00:35:30,593 --> 00:35:32,461
And if you want to claim your product is natural,

609
00:35:32,461 --> 00:35:34,910
well, most of the regulators worldwide haven't defined

610
00:35:34,910 --> 00:35:37,951
what natural means, and so it can say natural on the label

611
00:35:37,951 --> 00:35:41,118
and yet contain synthetic ingredients.

612
00:35:42,891 --> 00:35:44,857
But what if you've never taken a vitamin pill

613
00:35:44,857 --> 00:35:46,400
in your life?

614
00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:48,867
You might think this entire vitamin manufacturing process

615
00:35:48,867 --> 00:35:52,831
is irrelevant to you, but then, you'd be wrong.

616
00:35:52,831 --> 00:35:55,453
It turns out even if you're not popping vitamin pills,

617
00:35:55,453 --> 00:35:58,650
chances are you are ingesting synthetic vitamins because

618
00:35:58,650 --> 00:36:03,400
in at least 95 nations, they're being added to your food.

619
00:36:06,220 --> 00:36:07,803
Eat Wonder Bread!

620
00:36:08,658 --> 00:36:11,096
You want to grow bigger and stronger, don't you?

621
00:36:11,096 --> 00:36:12,443
Golly, sure!

622
00:36:12,443 --> 00:36:13,494
Okay!

623
00:36:13,494 --> 00:36:16,357
A sandwich daily and two slices of Wonder Bread every meal

624
00:36:16,357 --> 00:36:18,863
give you eight elements you need.

625
00:36:18,863 --> 00:36:20,952
Around half the countries on Earth allow the

626
00:36:20,952 --> 00:36:25,002
addition of synthetic vitamins to common food products.

627
00:36:25,002 --> 00:36:27,483
It's called fortification.

628
00:36:27,483 --> 00:36:30,724
That's why you can help yourself grow bigger and stronger

629
00:36:30,724 --> 00:36:32,900
eight ways with Wonder Bread.

630
00:36:32,900 --> 00:36:35,479
So be sure to eat Wonder Bread!

631
00:36:35,479 --> 00:36:38,062
(lively music)

632
00:36:42,302 --> 00:36:44,912
In places like the US and Australia, fortifying

633
00:36:44,912 --> 00:36:48,662
bread flour and margarine is required by law.

634
00:36:51,096 --> 00:36:54,292
And companies often decide to add vitamins, mostly from

635
00:36:54,292 --> 00:36:55,375
the B family.

636
00:36:58,017 --> 00:37:00,629
The B vitamins are sometimes called the pep vitamins,

637
00:37:00,629 --> 00:37:02,402
they help our bodies produce energy and assist

638
00:37:02,402 --> 00:37:03,990
in cell development.

639
00:37:03,990 --> 00:37:06,924
Now, they're all water soluble, like vitamin C, which means

640
00:37:06,924 --> 00:37:09,409
our bodies don't store them, so we have to replenish

641
00:37:09,409 --> 00:37:10,326
them often.

642
00:37:11,369 --> 00:37:14,967
Their discovery and synthesis took over 50 years and led

643
00:37:14,967 --> 00:37:16,634
to six Nobel prizes.

644
00:37:17,476 --> 00:37:20,143
(factory music)

645
00:37:28,416 --> 00:37:31,777
One of the vitamins added to bread is B9, better known

646
00:37:31,777 --> 00:37:35,842
as folate, so why is it being added to my bread?

647
00:37:35,842 --> 00:37:38,425
(all shouting)

648
00:37:54,756 --> 00:37:57,924
At 29, Kim Robins is an international wheelchair

649
00:37:57,924 --> 00:37:59,257
basketball star.

650
00:38:04,633 --> 00:38:08,216
He tours the world, playing professionally.

651
00:38:14,748 --> 00:38:18,605
His body and entire life has been shaped by the power

652
00:38:18,605 --> 00:38:19,438
of folate.

653
00:38:20,532 --> 00:38:23,449
(applause, cheers)

654
00:38:26,063 --> 00:38:30,269
Kim was born with a hemangioma on his back

655
00:38:30,269 --> 00:38:33,760
in the middle of his shoulder blades.

656
00:38:33,760 --> 00:38:38,427
It was a legion which looked a bit like a red birthmark.

657
00:38:39,872 --> 00:38:44,039
We were assured at birth that everything was okay.

658
00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:57,229
And it wasn't until he was six months when flags started

659
00:38:57,229 --> 00:39:00,512
to be raised that perhaps he wasn't meeting all of

660
00:39:00,512 --> 00:39:01,762
his milestones.

661
00:39:02,687 --> 00:39:05,080
After months of tests, Kim was diagnosed

662
00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:07,650
with a neural tube defect.

663
00:39:07,650 --> 00:39:10,641
Effectively, a whole in his spinal column which caused

664
00:39:10,641 --> 00:39:12,058
permanent damage.

665
00:39:14,646 --> 00:39:17,305
Part of my disability is that I have chronic back pain

666
00:39:17,305 --> 00:39:22,055
and that's in my lower back, so I get pain maybe 200, 250

667
00:39:23,099 --> 00:39:24,099
times a day.

668
00:39:25,298 --> 00:39:27,387
It's kind of like a back spasm.

669
00:39:27,387 --> 00:39:29,804
My brain's fully functioning.

670
00:39:31,129 --> 00:39:35,245
I guess it affects my leg function to some extent

671
00:39:35,245 --> 00:39:37,945
so I can walk, not super well, but I can walk

672
00:39:37,945 --> 00:39:39,540
a little bit.

673
00:39:39,540 --> 00:39:41,957
Neural tube defects like Kim's can be caused

674
00:39:41,957 --> 00:39:45,290
by the lack of folate long before birth.

675
00:39:50,288 --> 00:39:53,122
If you eat folate, it's the best kind of diet because

676
00:39:53,122 --> 00:39:57,856
it's actually found richly in leafy green vegetables,

677
00:39:57,856 --> 00:39:59,881
it's found in things like asparagus, it's found in

678
00:39:59,881 --> 00:40:03,930
strawberries, it's found in whole grains, so if you are

679
00:40:03,930 --> 00:40:06,918
eating fruits and vegetables, it's quite likely that you

680
00:40:06,918 --> 00:40:09,585
will have a diet rich in folate.

681
00:40:11,282 --> 00:40:15,418
Folate is very important for both DNA and RNA repair,

682
00:40:15,418 --> 00:40:19,116
but also for the rapid development and multiplication

683
00:40:19,116 --> 00:40:21,973
of cells which is what's happening in the fetus,

684
00:40:21,973 --> 00:40:24,676
so it's essential for that.

685
00:40:24,676 --> 00:40:27,332
Professor Fiona Stanley led the Australian arm

686
00:40:27,332 --> 00:40:30,135
of an international children's study that showed lack of

687
00:40:30,135 --> 00:40:33,609
folate in a mother's diet before she was pregnant could

688
00:40:33,609 --> 00:40:36,806
cause major defects in utero.

689
00:40:36,806 --> 00:40:40,428
If before a woman knows that she's pregnant, the fetus

690
00:40:40,428 --> 00:40:42,909
is starting to form all of its major organs and one of

691
00:40:42,909 --> 00:40:46,616
the earliest, by perhaps the seventh week is the

692
00:40:46,616 --> 00:40:51,616
neural tube which starts as an open little trough and then

693
00:40:52,239 --> 00:40:56,034
starts to zipper up and it zips up and down.

694
00:40:56,034 --> 00:40:59,172
I think of it like a zipper going down and as each link

695
00:40:59,172 --> 00:41:02,653
forms together, that's part of the neural tube forming

696
00:41:02,653 --> 00:41:05,078
and if it misses one link, that's where the neural tube

697
00:41:05,078 --> 00:41:06,411
defect would be.

698
00:41:07,296 --> 00:41:11,419
Mine is up between T2 and T6, which is quite high up and

699
00:41:11,419 --> 00:41:14,257
so my spinal cord's a little bit withered, so some

700
00:41:14,257 --> 00:41:17,697
messages get through and some messages don't

701
00:41:17,697 --> 00:41:20,138
By the time a woman knows she's pregnant,

702
00:41:20,138 --> 00:41:21,863
it can be too late.

703
00:41:21,863 --> 00:41:24,689
So scientists sought a way to get a form of folate into

704
00:41:24,689 --> 00:41:27,585
a food that everyone might eat.

705
00:41:27,585 --> 00:41:31,176
There were lots of debates about what staple food

706
00:41:31,176 --> 00:41:35,783
should be fortified, and of course the one that was

707
00:41:35,783 --> 00:41:38,252
suggested was flour, bread making flour because bread seems

708
00:41:38,252 --> 00:41:40,669
to be such a ubiquitous food.

709
00:41:42,266 --> 00:41:44,480
In 2009, Australian bread was fortified

710
00:41:44,480 --> 00:41:47,313
with folic acid, synthetic folate.

711
00:41:49,821 --> 00:41:53,986
It might be added to all white flour for bread making.

712
00:41:53,986 --> 00:41:57,738
It's the same in the US, Canada, and the UK.

713
00:41:57,738 --> 00:42:01,155
Organic or traditional breads are exempt.

714
00:42:03,304 --> 00:42:06,037
Folic acid supplements are also recommended for women

715
00:42:06,037 --> 00:42:08,370
planning to become pregnant.

716
00:42:09,427 --> 00:42:14,016
I had no idea about folate before I fell pregnant.

717
00:42:14,016 --> 00:42:17,766
I didn't even know about neural tube defects.

718
00:42:19,200 --> 00:42:23,213
How it would have changed things if I'd have had folate

719
00:42:23,213 --> 00:42:25,380
in the early stages, we...

720
00:42:29,865 --> 00:42:32,485
That would have been a huge difference, maybe Kim wouldn't

721
00:42:32,485 --> 00:42:33,568
be like this.

722
00:42:37,062 --> 00:42:41,645
I can't change what's happened, it happened and I can't

723
00:42:43,524 --> 00:42:45,357
blame myself for that.

724
00:42:46,723 --> 00:42:49,640
(players shouting)

725
00:42:51,434 --> 00:42:53,524
With folic acid fortification

726
00:42:53,524 --> 00:42:56,553
and supplementation, the rate of neural tube defects

727
00:42:56,553 --> 00:42:58,553
in Australia has halved.

728
00:43:01,271 --> 00:43:03,127
I think it's pretty cool to be doing something

729
00:43:03,127 --> 00:43:04,127
that I love.

730
00:43:05,972 --> 00:43:08,467
A lot of people ask me "If you could, would you prefer not

731
00:43:08,467 --> 00:43:11,177
"to be in a wheelchair" and I say no because of maybe I

732
00:43:11,177 --> 00:43:13,876
never would have done all the things that I've done and I'm

733
00:43:13,876 --> 00:43:17,630
fairly satisfied with where I am and where I'm going.

734
00:43:17,630 --> 00:43:20,547
(crowd applauding)

735
00:43:31,474 --> 00:43:34,098
Over 4000 neural tube defects occur every

736
00:43:34,098 --> 00:43:38,419
year in the European union, yet fortification is not

737
00:43:38,419 --> 00:43:39,669
mandatory here.

738
00:43:40,695 --> 00:43:44,445
So why is Europe taking a different approach?

739
00:43:46,604 --> 00:43:48,793
(foreign language)

740
00:43:48,793 --> 00:43:52,055
Dr. Mathilde Touvier leads a team of French researchers

741
00:43:52,055 --> 00:43:54,720
investigating the relationships between nutrition

742
00:43:54,720 --> 00:43:56,281
and health.

743
00:43:56,281 --> 00:43:58,037
I'll take that, thank you.

744
00:43:58,037 --> 00:43:59,589
It's all yours.
<v ->Thank you.

745
00:43:59,589 --> 00:44:01,713
How much of this bread is fortified?

746
00:44:01,713 --> 00:44:04,522
No bread is fortified, in France, we don't fortify

747
00:44:04,522 --> 00:44:06,522
the flour with anything.

748
00:44:07,642 --> 00:44:09,932
But you have the same problems here with neural tube

749
00:44:09,932 --> 00:44:11,582
defects.

750
00:44:11,582 --> 00:44:15,574
Yes, sure, in fact, it is recommended for women who want

751
00:44:15,574 --> 00:44:18,963
to get pregnant or at the beginning of pregnancy to increase

752
00:44:18,963 --> 00:44:23,300
their intakes of vitamin B9 to prevent these birth defects.

753
00:44:23,300 --> 00:44:25,238
But why not just put it in the bread?

754
00:44:25,238 --> 00:44:29,444
No, the bread in France is quite a secret and traditional

755
00:44:29,444 --> 00:44:32,611
product, and no, it's not transformed.

756
00:44:34,154 --> 00:44:36,694
But do you add vitamins to any foods?

757
00:44:36,694 --> 00:44:39,745
Yes, there are fortifications of food with some vitamins

758
00:44:39,745 --> 00:44:42,160
or minerals but it's not mandatory, it's at the

759
00:44:42,160 --> 00:44:44,323
discretion of manufacturers.

760
00:44:44,323 --> 00:44:45,782
A lot of people around the world are worried about

761
00:44:45,782 --> 00:44:47,763
getting too few vitamins.

762
00:44:47,763 --> 00:44:49,521
Your concern is too many.

763
00:44:49,521 --> 00:44:53,562
Yeah, it depends on country such as France or Europe.

764
00:44:53,562 --> 00:44:57,156
You don't have problems of deficiency in general, you really

765
00:44:57,156 --> 00:45:01,361
have much more problem of excess, excess in the sugar,

766
00:45:01,361 --> 00:45:04,103
salt, and so on and maybe excess in vitamins if you take

767
00:45:04,103 --> 00:45:07,261
fortified foods, stable foods rich in vitamins, minerals

768
00:45:07,261 --> 00:45:09,032
and daily supplements.

769
00:45:09,032 --> 00:45:12,199
Maybe you can reach excessive intakes.

770
00:45:14,068 --> 00:45:16,971
The fortification of food by governments is the result

771
00:45:16,971 --> 00:45:21,122
of a careful assessment of potential risks versus benefits,

772
00:45:21,122 --> 00:45:24,643
but these days, industry can modify almost any food or

773
00:45:24,643 --> 00:45:29,204
drink with additional nutrients without the same scrutiny.

774
00:45:29,204 --> 00:45:32,163
In the United States, you can find a claim about the things

775
00:45:32,163 --> 00:45:35,338
that these products bring to you, 200 percent of which you

776
00:45:35,338 --> 00:45:39,838
need per day, and if the recommendation is 100 person,

777
00:45:41,035 --> 00:45:44,659
why are you taking 200 per person, and American people

778
00:45:44,659 --> 00:45:47,446
are used to such claims and they are used with this idea

779
00:45:47,446 --> 00:45:50,779
of too much of a thing is really better.

780
00:45:52,239 --> 00:45:56,165
In Europe, we really don't have this state of mind.

781
00:45:56,165 --> 00:45:58,564
Today, there is one vitamin in particular that's

782
00:45:58,564 --> 00:46:02,420
increasingly being added to our food, vitamin D.

783
00:46:02,420 --> 00:46:05,679
Low vitamin D has been linked to cancer, heart disease,

784
00:46:05,679 --> 00:46:10,054
dementia, it's been linked to over 100 different conditions.

785
00:46:10,054 --> 00:46:12,475
There are some who claim we're in a midst of a global

786
00:46:12,475 --> 00:46:15,028
vitamin D deficiency.

787
00:46:15,028 --> 00:46:17,392
So how do we decide whether we need extra vitamin D

788
00:46:17,392 --> 00:46:18,225
or not?

789
00:46:20,052 --> 00:46:22,802
(peaceful music)

790
00:46:36,335 --> 00:46:39,886
I've come to one of the coldest places on Earth

791
00:46:39,886 --> 00:46:44,469
to better understand the hottest vitamin on the planet.

792
00:46:49,217 --> 00:46:53,124
For centuries, a mysterious and horrible condition affected

793
00:46:53,124 --> 00:46:55,920
thousands of children all around the world.

794
00:46:55,920 --> 00:46:59,356
Their bones grew weak and broke easily and many were

795
00:46:59,356 --> 00:47:01,023
deformed, many died.

796
00:47:04,181 --> 00:47:07,446
They call the condition rickets, but no one knew

797
00:47:07,446 --> 00:47:08,696
what caused it.

798
00:47:10,336 --> 00:47:13,659
Oddly, here on the Norwegian coast, fewer cases were

799
00:47:13,659 --> 00:47:17,909
reported, so an important clue appeared to be fish.

800
00:47:19,574 --> 00:47:21,991
(airy music)

801
00:47:35,113 --> 00:47:38,062
The world's greatest cod harvest takes place here

802
00:47:38,062 --> 00:47:39,895
from January to April.

803
00:47:41,023 --> 00:47:44,106
(machinery whirring)

804
00:47:47,566 --> 00:47:50,672
Millions of tons are caught, their flesh

805
00:47:50,672 --> 00:47:52,589
helping feed the world.

806
00:47:55,978 --> 00:47:57,728
That is one big fish!

807
00:47:58,805 --> 00:48:01,807
But there's another benefit.

808
00:48:01,807 --> 00:48:06,224
A powerful traditional medicine called cod liver oil.

809
00:48:07,667 --> 00:48:10,398
Here in Norway, the stories of the healing powers of

810
00:48:10,398 --> 00:48:14,731
the cod liver oil go back more than 1000 years.

811
00:48:14,731 --> 00:48:17,975
It was a key part of the viking diet, prized for its

812
00:48:17,975 --> 00:48:20,830
strength giving utilities.

813
00:48:20,830 --> 00:48:24,163
The Norse called it the gold of the sea.

814
00:48:25,470 --> 00:48:28,145
This is a messy business.

815
00:48:28,145 --> 00:48:31,292
I don't know that I like it very much.

816
00:48:31,292 --> 00:48:35,042
So how do you know which one has a big liver?

817
00:48:36,177 --> 00:48:37,594
That's the liver.

818
00:48:39,483 --> 00:48:41,657
So the cod liver oil, do you think of it as a food

819
00:48:41,657 --> 00:48:43,074
or as a medicine?

820
00:48:55,092 --> 00:48:56,425
Not really sick.

821
00:48:57,282 --> 00:48:59,282
Does it taste like fish?

822
00:49:00,246 --> 00:49:02,163
Do you like the flavor?

823
00:49:07,193 --> 00:49:09,507
(laughing)

824
00:49:09,507 --> 00:49:11,924
(airy music)

825
00:49:17,548 --> 00:49:21,033
There are hundreds of thousands of heads and tails strung

826
00:49:21,033 --> 00:49:25,242
out on drying racks almost every village.

827
00:49:25,242 --> 00:49:29,582
And it's incredible to see the scale of the cod fishing here

828
00:49:29,582 --> 00:49:30,749
and the smell.

829
00:49:31,946 --> 00:49:35,869
The stench of cod blankets entire villages.

830
00:49:35,869 --> 00:49:39,810
The locals say it's the smell of money, but the value

831
00:49:39,810 --> 00:49:43,404
of cod and their livers goes far beyond money.

832
00:49:43,404 --> 00:49:45,321
It's also about health.

833
00:49:47,200 --> 00:49:49,783
(gulls crying)

834
00:49:52,767 --> 00:49:55,453
Professor Magritt Brustad is an expert in the links

835
00:49:55,453 --> 00:49:59,536
between food like cod and diseases, like rickets.

836
00:50:01,545 --> 00:50:06,249
Rickets was a huge problem in Norway some years ago.

837
00:50:06,249 --> 00:50:10,999
Rickets is a condition that is characterized by soft bone

838
00:50:13,038 --> 00:50:17,949
so it causes your bone and your skeleton be disformed

839
00:50:17,949 --> 00:50:20,427
and it's rather painful.

840
00:50:20,427 --> 00:50:22,504
And if this happens in childhood,

841
00:50:22,504 --> 00:50:23,819
it's permanent.

842
00:50:23,819 --> 00:50:27,136
Yeah, if it's not treated.

843
00:50:27,136 --> 00:50:30,122
I mean, this is just horrible.

844
00:50:30,122 --> 00:50:31,955
Yeah, a lot of pain.

845
00:50:34,947 --> 00:50:38,831
We knew many years ago that cod liver oil could cure

846
00:50:38,831 --> 00:50:41,498
rickets, but we didn't know why.

847
00:50:42,799 --> 00:50:46,248
Magritt and I have come to see how codfish is turned

848
00:50:46,248 --> 00:50:48,575
into cod liver oil.

849
00:50:48,575 --> 00:50:49,878
Welcome.
<v ->Thank you!

850
00:50:49,878 --> 00:50:52,628
You are not seeing this before.

851
00:50:53,716 --> 00:50:56,958
It's a simple if revolting business.

852
00:50:56,958 --> 00:51:00,400
Cut out the fish livers, throw them into barrels,

853
00:51:00,400 --> 00:51:03,025
and let them decompose.

854
00:51:03,025 --> 00:51:07,260
The oil grows darker in the rotting process.

855
00:51:07,260 --> 00:51:12,001
Then skim off the oil from the surface and drink.

856
00:51:12,001 --> 00:51:13,834
You sure this is safe?

857
00:51:17,398 --> 00:51:19,981
Yeah, it's not bad.

858
00:51:22,704 --> 00:51:23,780
(all laughing)

859
00:51:23,780 --> 00:51:25,254
That was much better

860
00:51:25,254 --> 00:51:26,754
than I remember it as a child.

861
00:51:26,754 --> 00:51:27,587
Really?

862
00:51:28,653 --> 00:51:32,925
It's not nearly as bad as I was expecting.

863
00:51:32,925 --> 00:51:36,100
Cod liver oil was so successful in treating rickets

864
00:51:36,100 --> 00:51:37,957
that people across Europe began

865
00:51:37,957 --> 00:51:40,374
feeding it to their children.

866
00:51:41,264 --> 00:51:46,181
In the 1870s, it reached America, and mass marketing began.

867
00:51:50,210 --> 00:51:52,877
(vibrant music)

868
00:51:53,809 --> 00:51:57,392
But still, no one understood why it worked.

869
00:52:02,856 --> 00:52:06,441
In the early days, cod liver oil was mostly marketed

870
00:52:06,441 --> 00:52:11,441
as again, a kind of product that would help build flesh.

871
00:52:11,865 --> 00:52:15,520
In fact, this one product here of Scott's Emulsion, one of

872
00:52:15,520 --> 00:52:18,399
the biggest cod liver oil products.

873
00:52:18,399 --> 00:52:22,407
Scott started making this product in the 1870s.

874
00:52:22,407 --> 00:52:26,738
He really believed in advertising and he was able to make

875
00:52:26,738 --> 00:52:30,659
a fortune off of this particular product.

876
00:52:30,659 --> 00:52:32,842
You know, the important thing is if you're marketing this,

877
00:52:32,842 --> 00:52:36,755
you want people to take it as much as possible.

878
00:52:36,755 --> 00:52:39,836
By the late 1890s, the cod liver oil industry

879
00:52:39,836 --> 00:52:43,205
was booming, but the marketing ran decades ahead of

880
00:52:43,205 --> 00:52:44,205
the science.

881
00:52:45,683 --> 00:52:49,896
It wasn't until 1913 that biochemist Elmer McCullum

882
00:52:49,896 --> 00:52:52,752
and Marguerite Davis proved the existence of an essential

883
00:52:52,752 --> 00:52:55,272
nutrient in cod liver oil.

884
00:52:55,272 --> 00:52:58,045
They called it fat soluble A.

885
00:52:58,045 --> 00:53:00,628
A simply for the first vitamin.

886
00:53:01,516 --> 00:53:05,141
McCullum later identified another vitamin in cod liver oil,

887
00:53:05,141 --> 00:53:07,974
fat soluble D, the fourth vitamin.

888
00:53:09,951 --> 00:53:14,618
And McCullum proved it was vitamin D that cured rickets.

889
00:53:15,593 --> 00:53:18,062
So you have this new scientific knowledge coalescing with

890
00:53:18,062 --> 00:53:21,894
what is already kind of a market out there, so if you're

891
00:53:21,894 --> 00:53:24,863
marketing this stuff, I can't imagine anything better

892
00:53:24,863 --> 00:53:26,335
to come along.

893
00:53:26,335 --> 00:53:27,523
- [Derek] It's pretty incredible, right?

894
00:53:27,523 --> 00:53:30,476
It is pretty incredible.

895
00:53:30,476 --> 00:53:35,071
And there were hints of something else at play.

896
00:53:35,071 --> 00:53:38,285
In 1920, microbiologist Harriette Chick carried out an

897
00:53:38,285 --> 00:53:40,368
experiment with children.

898
00:53:41,947 --> 00:53:46,706
Half were given cod liver oil, the other half were not.

899
00:53:46,706 --> 00:53:48,783
As expected, the children given the oil

900
00:53:48,783 --> 00:53:52,844
didn't develop rickets, but then Dr. Chick noticed that

901
00:53:52,844 --> 00:53:56,678
children with rickets who spent time outside in the sun

902
00:53:56,678 --> 00:53:57,928
healed rapidly.

903
00:53:58,879 --> 00:54:02,323
She determined that cod liver oil and sunshine both

904
00:54:02,323 --> 00:54:03,490
cured rickets.

905
00:54:07,063 --> 00:54:09,230
And vitamin D is the link.

906
00:54:16,391 --> 00:54:19,097
How's that sunlight feeling?

907
00:54:19,097 --> 00:54:20,570
Oh, it's wonderful.

908
00:54:20,570 --> 00:54:21,837
Isn't it?

909
00:54:21,837 --> 00:54:25,004
So how does the sun deliver a vitamin?

910
00:54:25,934 --> 00:54:30,192
When sunlight hits our skin, something remarkable happens.

911
00:54:30,192 --> 00:54:34,747
Just under the surface lies a type of cholesterol.

912
00:54:34,747 --> 00:54:37,678
When the sun's ultraviolet rays hit this molecule,

913
00:54:37,678 --> 00:54:41,345
it transforms, becoming a form of vitamin D.

914
00:54:42,974 --> 00:54:47,652
This is the same molecule found in cod liver oil.

915
00:54:47,652 --> 00:54:50,638
It then travels to the liver, where it's converted into

916
00:54:50,638 --> 00:54:54,952
the form that doctors measure in our blood.

917
00:54:54,952 --> 00:54:58,869
This is then activated by the kidneys, and now,

918
00:55:00,621 --> 00:55:05,050
it's ready to help absorb calcium, building strong, healthy,

919
00:55:05,050 --> 00:55:06,633
rickets free bones.

920
00:55:07,827 --> 00:55:10,495
Think that's about enough sun for one day.

921
00:55:10,495 --> 00:55:12,912
(airy music)

922
00:55:19,066 --> 00:55:22,729
But here in the far north, during the dark winter months,

923
00:55:22,729 --> 00:55:25,900
there's a distinct lack of sunshine, so to get enough

924
00:55:25,900 --> 00:55:30,387
vitamin D, over generations, people have devised rather

925
00:55:30,387 --> 00:55:32,970
remarkable meals to compensate.

926
00:55:34,097 --> 00:55:35,264
This is cod.

927
00:55:36,453 --> 00:55:40,748
And this is cod eggs, and this is the boiled liver.

928
00:55:40,748 --> 00:55:43,688
It's fresh cod liver oil together with onion and pepper

929
00:55:43,688 --> 00:55:45,260
and salt.

930
00:55:45,260 --> 00:55:49,141
And this is potatoes, Norwegians always have potato.

931
00:55:49,141 --> 00:55:51,928
Ahh, very good.

932
00:55:51,928 --> 00:55:54,760
This is the traditional (foreign language),

933
00:55:54,760 --> 00:55:57,400
packed with vitamin D.

934
00:55:57,400 --> 00:56:00,343
So one meal of this will give you 16 out of 20

935
00:56:00,343 --> 00:56:05,063
daily doses of the recommended amount of vitamin D.

936
00:56:05,063 --> 00:56:08,175
This has kind of saved our vitamin D health

937
00:56:08,175 --> 00:56:10,525
in the north during the dark season.

938
00:56:10,525 --> 00:56:13,596
But not everyone likes oily fish, let alone

939
00:56:13,596 --> 00:56:16,096
fish livers and cod liver oil.

940
00:56:17,386 --> 00:56:21,523
So scientists invented something far more palatable.

941
00:56:21,523 --> 00:56:25,231
So the first really important vitamin pill is this

942
00:56:25,231 --> 00:56:30,231
Osdogal, and this was developed actually by Casimir Funk.

943
00:56:30,662 --> 00:56:34,333
We've solved a big problem that messy, nauseating oil

944
00:56:34,333 --> 00:56:38,861
is now a nice little pill in (mumbles) coated.

945
00:56:38,861 --> 00:56:41,686
So cod liver oil really started this whole vitamin

946
00:56:41,686 --> 00:56:43,126
explosion?

947
00:56:43,126 --> 00:56:46,822
Yes, cod liver oil really is the beginning of it.

948
00:56:46,822 --> 00:56:49,405
(bright music)

949
00:56:50,299 --> 00:56:52,729
With the new pills readily available, the era

950
00:56:52,729 --> 00:56:57,092
of cod as a key source of vitamin D was ended, and soon,

951
00:56:57,092 --> 00:57:00,092
the vast majority of vitamin D would be created in an

952
00:57:00,092 --> 00:57:05,092
utterly different manner from an utterly different beast.

953
00:57:05,415 --> 00:57:08,165
(sheep bleating)

954
00:57:09,640 --> 00:57:13,053
Today, most of the world's vitamin D pills are created

955
00:57:13,053 --> 00:57:15,553
from the greasy wool of sheep.

956
00:57:16,838 --> 00:57:18,838
Mostly Australian sheep.

957
00:57:20,561 --> 00:57:23,700
(clippers buzzing)

958
00:57:23,700 --> 00:57:27,450
So how do you turn sheep wool into a vitamin?

959
00:57:28,996 --> 00:57:30,663
Let's give it a try.

960
00:57:33,175 --> 00:57:36,924
Well, the wool is coated in a type of grease or lanolin,

961
00:57:36,924 --> 00:57:40,394
it's the stuff that makes your hands feel soft.

962
00:57:40,394 --> 00:57:42,870
It's a mixture of fatty acids produced by the sheep's

963
00:57:42,870 --> 00:57:47,787
oil glands, and this lanolin is the key to making synthetic

964
00:57:48,921 --> 00:57:49,754
vitamin D.

965
00:57:51,347 --> 00:57:54,750
(sheep bleating)

966
00:57:54,750 --> 00:57:56,917
Here's how it can be done.

967
00:58:00,123 --> 00:58:02,981
The lanolin is separated from the wool by boiling in

968
00:58:02,981 --> 00:58:04,981
hot water and detergent.

969
00:58:05,981 --> 00:58:09,993
Around 15 percent of the lanolin is a form of cholesterol,

970
00:58:09,993 --> 00:58:12,993
like the cholesterol under our skin.

971
00:58:14,076 --> 00:58:18,529
This is a extracted and oxidized to produce a new compound

972
00:58:18,529 --> 00:58:21,736
which is then irradiated with ultraviolet light,

973
00:58:21,736 --> 00:58:25,569
transforming it into a precursor of vitamin D.

974
00:58:27,131 --> 00:58:30,425
This chemical process mimics the biological process

975
00:58:30,425 --> 00:58:33,175
of the sunlight hitting our skin.

976
00:58:34,063 --> 00:58:36,898
Several more steps create the end product,

977
00:58:36,898 --> 00:58:38,565
synthetic vitamin D.

978
00:58:43,269 --> 00:58:46,502
And of course, it's not done like this, but on an

979
00:58:46,502 --> 00:58:49,002
industrial scale in factories.

980
00:58:49,963 --> 00:58:52,713
(peaceful music)

981
00:58:55,728 --> 00:58:57,684
Chemists from the University of Melbourne calculated

982
00:58:57,684 --> 00:59:01,486
that you can make a lot of money from a sheep's fleece.

983
00:59:01,486 --> 00:59:04,599
Online, vitamin D3 can seel for about 50 Australian

984
00:59:04,599 --> 00:59:08,893
dollars per gram, but packaged in pill form, it can sell

985
00:59:08,893 --> 00:59:11,643
for around 3700 dollars per gram.

986
00:59:13,523 --> 00:59:17,606
This makes vitamin D far more valuable than gold.

987
00:59:20,024 --> 00:59:23,157
But the million dollar question is should we be taking

988
00:59:23,157 --> 00:59:24,490
vitamin D pills?

989
00:59:36,013 --> 00:59:38,513
(tense music)

990
00:59:41,566 --> 00:59:45,837
Today, most of us spend large parts of our days indoors,

991
00:59:45,837 --> 00:59:49,535
with limited exposure to direct sunlight.

992
00:59:49,535 --> 00:59:52,438
So do we need more vitamin D?

993
00:59:52,438 --> 00:59:55,105
Should we be taking supplements?

994
00:59:56,051 --> 00:59:59,240
Dr. Rachel Neale is part of a global investigation

995
00:59:59,240 --> 01:00:00,823
trying to find out.

996
01:00:02,240 --> 01:00:05,850
Vitamin D's not just a vitamin, vitamin D is a hormone

997
01:00:05,850 --> 01:00:08,320
that has a range of incredibly powerful effects

998
01:00:08,320 --> 01:00:11,590
on the cells in our body that could determine whether or not

999
01:00:11,590 --> 01:00:14,789
that cell starts to divide uncontrollably and become

1000
01:00:14,789 --> 01:00:17,471
a cancer for example or whether or not that cell gets

1001
01:00:17,471 --> 01:00:19,804
a mutation and kills itself.

1002
01:00:20,974 --> 01:00:23,918
So it's this incredibly powerful molecule that we need

1003
01:00:23,918 --> 01:00:27,340
to understand a lot more about before we just recommend

1004
01:00:27,340 --> 01:00:30,673
that everybody should take a supplement.

1005
01:00:33,627 --> 01:00:35,798
Rachel leads one of the world's largest

1006
01:00:35,798 --> 01:00:39,159
clinical trials of high dose vitamin D.

1007
01:00:39,159 --> 01:00:44,159
21 thousand people are taking a vitamin D pill or a placebo,

1008
01:00:44,168 --> 01:00:46,585
a sugar pill, for five years.

1009
01:00:47,543 --> 01:00:50,402
They're trying to see if taking vitamin D supplements

1010
01:00:50,402 --> 01:00:54,235
reduces the risk of cancer and other diseases.

1011
01:00:55,510 --> 01:00:59,183
I think the general public have a perception that

1012
01:00:59,183 --> 01:01:02,894
vitamin D is proven to be beneficial for a whole range

1013
01:01:02,894 --> 01:01:04,956
of different health outcomes, like cancer and

1014
01:01:04,956 --> 01:01:07,407
cardiovascular disease and the reality is that we know

1015
01:01:07,407 --> 01:01:10,831
vitamin D's incredibly important for our bones, but beyond

1016
01:01:10,831 --> 01:01:13,331
that, we don't yet have proof.

1017
01:01:14,176 --> 01:01:16,740
So why all the uncertainty?

1018
01:01:16,740 --> 01:01:21,153
Well first, there's debate around how much we actually need.

1019
01:01:21,153 --> 01:01:24,638
Vitamin D is measured in our blood in units generally

1020
01:01:24,638 --> 01:01:26,888
called nanomoles per liter.

1021
01:01:27,878 --> 01:01:32,309
Experts agree that below 25 is considered deficient,

1022
01:01:32,309 --> 01:01:35,251
but knowing what levels are sufficient is trickier.

1023
01:01:35,251 --> 01:01:37,232
A level over 50 is generally thought to be enough

1024
01:01:37,232 --> 01:01:41,649
for good bone health for most people but others argue

1025
01:01:44,271 --> 01:01:46,688
for 75 or 100 or even higher.

1026
01:01:49,097 --> 01:01:52,557
It's worth noting that the US used a different measure,

1027
01:01:52,557 --> 01:01:56,646
nanograms per milliliter and like metric versus imperial,

1028
01:01:56,646 --> 01:01:59,896
this can cause international confusion.

1029
01:02:01,199 --> 01:02:05,426
So we don't yet have a single number that is accepted

1030
01:02:05,426 --> 01:02:09,056
by all organizations and all scientists and all doctors

1031
01:02:09,056 --> 01:02:10,473
around the world.

1032
01:02:11,737 --> 01:02:16,319
There's also controversy around blood testing,

1033
01:02:16,319 --> 01:02:17,846
with studies showing different labs can get very different

1034
01:02:17,846 --> 01:02:21,887
results, and although we know taking supplements increases

1035
01:02:21,887 --> 01:02:25,759
the levels of vitamin D in our blood, we don't yet know

1036
01:02:25,759 --> 01:02:28,419
if this improves our health.

1037
01:02:28,419 --> 01:02:31,002
(lively music)

1038
01:02:44,054 --> 01:02:47,096
So we don't know what vitamin D does yet.

1039
01:02:47,096 --> 01:02:50,054
We've got hints about what vitamin D might do but what

1040
01:02:50,054 --> 01:02:51,955
we don't know is-

1041
01:02:51,955 --> 01:02:53,901
Different kinds of studies are revealing

1042
01:02:53,901 --> 01:02:56,616
different kinds of clues.

1043
01:02:56,616 --> 01:02:58,993
These people are getting a fair amount of vitamin D.

1044
01:02:58,993 --> 01:03:00,388
They are.

1045
01:03:00,388 --> 01:03:02,463
Vitamin D studies are often

1046
01:03:02,463 --> 01:03:06,790
observational, meaning they observe the world as it is.

1047
01:03:06,790 --> 01:03:09,707
For example, people with cancer often have low levels

1048
01:03:09,707 --> 01:03:11,810
of vitamin D in their blood.

1049
01:03:11,810 --> 01:03:15,681
The link is clear and potentially important.

1050
01:03:15,681 --> 01:03:19,255
But it doesn't tell us if low vitamin D caused the cancer

1051
01:03:19,255 --> 01:03:22,422
or if the cancer caused low vitamin D.

1052
01:03:25,489 --> 01:03:28,885
To work it out, we need to do the kind of study pioneered

1053
01:03:28,885 --> 01:03:31,135
by James Lind back in 1747.

1054
01:03:32,412 --> 01:03:34,829
The randomized control trial.

1055
01:03:35,857 --> 01:03:40,535
Take a group of people, divide randomly in two, give

1056
01:03:40,535 --> 01:03:45,134
vitamin D to one group and a placebo to the other, then, if

1057
01:03:45,134 --> 01:03:47,874
you see a difference between these groups, you know it was

1058
01:03:47,874 --> 01:03:52,541
caused by vitamin D, and better still, do this at scale.

1059
01:03:53,896 --> 01:03:56,334
The more people in your study, the more confident you can

1060
01:03:56,334 --> 01:03:57,834
be of the results.

1061
01:03:59,495 --> 01:04:02,245
Rachel's results are due in 2021.

1062
01:04:06,657 --> 01:04:09,528
It's very exciting but currently the jury really is out

1063
01:04:09,528 --> 01:04:13,861
on what we should be recommending to the population.

1064
01:04:19,920 --> 01:04:23,022
Despite the uncertainty, in 2016, UK

1065
01:04:23,022 --> 01:04:25,896
scientists recommended an increase in the recommended

1066
01:04:25,896 --> 01:04:28,063
daily amount of vitamin D.

1067
01:04:29,736 --> 01:04:31,403
Not everyone agrees.

1068
01:04:32,945 --> 01:04:35,893
One high profile champion of vitamin D has since changed

1069
01:04:35,893 --> 01:04:36,726
his mind.

1070
01:04:37,878 --> 01:04:40,628
Geneticist professor Tim Spector.

1071
01:04:41,646 --> 01:04:44,865
I've studied vitamin D a lot in the last 15 years

1072
01:04:44,865 --> 01:04:46,755
and we were the first group to show

1073
01:04:46,755 --> 01:04:49,572
that the levels in individuals is

1074
01:04:49,572 --> 01:04:53,383
actually partly controlled by your genes so we always assume

1075
01:04:53,383 --> 01:04:56,864
it's purely how much sunshine you get or how much oily fish

1076
01:04:56,864 --> 01:05:00,917
you're eating but in fact, about 50 percent of the levels

1077
01:05:00,917 --> 01:05:04,398
vary just because the genes you've got and so everyone

1078
01:05:04,398 --> 01:05:08,697
has a different normal level of their vitamins and that is

1079
01:05:08,697 --> 01:05:11,144
generally holding true for all the vitamins we've been able

1080
01:05:11,144 --> 01:05:15,038
to test so far so our idea of normal should actually be very

1081
01:05:15,038 --> 01:05:18,554
person specific so you might have a normal level that's

1082
01:05:18,554 --> 01:05:21,988
three times higher than mine and we don't really know what

1083
01:05:21,988 --> 01:05:24,738
is the good level and what's low.

1084
01:05:25,737 --> 01:05:28,071
I think the public (mumbles) realize there is a controversy

1085
01:05:28,071 --> 01:05:31,742
here and all these amounts of vitamins are important for us,

1086
01:05:31,742 --> 01:05:33,819
but let's wait for the proper trials before we make a

1087
01:05:33,819 --> 01:05:36,993
decision rather than the default being the artificial

1088
01:05:36,993 --> 01:05:40,325
chemical first, worry about it later.

1089
01:05:40,325 --> 01:05:42,097
Let's get our facts right, make sure we're not doing

1090
01:05:42,097 --> 01:05:44,232
something harmful first.

1091
01:05:44,232 --> 01:05:46,118
There's no doubt that we need to clinically manage

1092
01:05:46,118 --> 01:05:49,285
people who have vitamin deficiency, it's important we

1093
01:05:49,285 --> 01:05:53,109
recognize that vitamin D deficiency is a real thing, but we

1094
01:05:53,109 --> 01:05:56,640
don't yet have the evidence to be able to say to the general

1095
01:05:56,640 --> 01:06:01,640
population taking a vitamin D supplement is a good thing.

1096
01:06:02,042 --> 01:06:05,359
So should we just get more sun?

1097
01:06:05,359 --> 01:06:08,149
What about the risk of skin cancer?

1098
01:06:08,149 --> 01:06:13,149
Well, like everything around vitamin D, it's complicated.

1099
01:06:13,291 --> 01:06:15,896
In sunny climates, most people get enough from short bursts

1100
01:06:15,896 --> 01:06:19,201
of sunshine a few times a week.

1101
01:06:19,201 --> 01:06:22,824
Although of course sunscreen should always be used.

1102
01:06:22,824 --> 01:06:26,756
And in less sunny places, more deliberate sun exposure

1103
01:06:26,756 --> 01:06:31,756
may be needed, or your doctor may recommend supplementation.

1104
01:06:33,469 --> 01:06:38,469
Vitamin D is powerful, no question, but can we get too much

1105
01:06:38,520 --> 01:06:40,436
of a good thing?

1106
01:06:40,436 --> 01:06:42,936
(tense music)

1107
01:06:53,740 --> 01:06:58,367
They were born at 9:45, so he came out first and she was

1108
01:06:58,367 --> 01:07:02,187
a minute later, so they're just a minute apart.

1109
01:07:02,187 --> 01:07:04,634
When Becky Jackson gave birth to twins Joe

1110
01:07:04,634 --> 01:07:07,358
and Elizabeth, she was thrilled.

1111
01:07:07,358 --> 01:07:09,591
So that's three months and you know,

1112
01:07:09,591 --> 01:07:12,069
Joe was such a little chunkalunk at first.

1113
01:07:12,069 --> 01:07:13,890
But when she noticed her five month old

1114
01:07:13,890 --> 01:07:17,397
daughter wasn't growing as quickly as her twin brother,

1115
01:07:17,397 --> 01:07:19,412
Becky began to worry.

1116
01:07:19,412 --> 01:07:22,194
And so here's five months and you can see her eyes look

1117
01:07:22,194 --> 01:07:26,349
a little baggy and sunken and her face just looks

1118
01:07:26,349 --> 01:07:28,097
a little strange.

1119
01:07:28,097 --> 01:07:32,142
These pictures, nothing was alarming really until this one.

1120
01:07:32,142 --> 01:07:35,074
Suddenly, things took a turn for the worse.

1121
01:07:35,074 --> 01:07:38,848
Elizabeth wasn't gaining weight and she just wouldn't eat.

1122
01:07:38,848 --> 01:07:41,694
I noticed one day when I was changing her diaper that

1123
01:07:41,694 --> 01:07:44,179
her stomach looked sunken, I could see the bottom of her

1124
01:07:44,179 --> 01:07:48,929
ribcage and her skin looked and felt strange, almost like

1125
01:07:49,781 --> 01:07:51,436
pizza dough.

1126
01:07:51,436 --> 01:07:54,480
Becky took her to the doctor for blood tests.

1127
01:07:54,480 --> 01:07:56,858
The next day, the doctor called.

1128
01:07:56,858 --> 01:08:00,803
She said "You have to go to children's hospital right now,

1129
01:08:00,803 --> 01:08:05,094
"everything is all over the place, things that are low

1130
01:08:05,094 --> 01:08:07,568
"should be high, things that are high should be low,

1131
01:08:07,568 --> 01:08:10,644
"nothing is where it should be."

1132
01:08:10,644 --> 01:08:13,144
(tense music)

1133
01:08:18,478 --> 01:08:23,203
I was freaking out, I was panicked, I didn't know what any

1134
01:08:23,203 --> 01:08:28,036
of it meant for a couple of days which was the scary part.

1135
01:08:28,961 --> 01:08:31,667
The tests revealed that Elizabeth had toxic

1136
01:08:31,667 --> 01:08:35,509
levels of vitamin D and this was causing dangerously high

1137
01:08:35,509 --> 01:08:38,092
levels of calcium in her blood.

1138
01:08:39,493 --> 01:08:43,586
I have never seen a case of vitamin D toxicity until

1139
01:08:43,586 --> 01:08:44,919
I saw Elizabeth.

1140
01:08:45,986 --> 01:08:49,554
She's only five or six months old and pretty much a baby's

1141
01:08:49,554 --> 01:08:52,759
diet is mostly formula, so we had to do a little

1142
01:08:52,759 --> 01:08:57,759
investigation why or where could she have gotten that.

1143
01:08:57,816 --> 01:09:01,378
When they first said the words "hypercalcemia" to me,

1144
01:09:01,378 --> 01:09:05,013
then I did what every parent does and I googled and I got

1145
01:09:05,013 --> 01:09:08,980
online and I found out everything I could about it and then

1146
01:09:08,980 --> 01:09:11,907
I started to see a recurring theme of high doses of

1147
01:09:11,907 --> 01:09:14,852
vitamin D, vitamin D overdose.

1148
01:09:14,852 --> 01:09:16,602
And I knew instantly.

1149
01:09:19,082 --> 01:09:21,978
So you start with powdered goat's milk and you put in

1150
01:09:21,978 --> 01:09:23,749
eight scoops.

1151
01:09:23,749 --> 01:09:25,444
Becky didn't have enough breast milk for

1152
01:09:25,444 --> 01:09:28,463
both twins, so she decided to keep Joe on breast milk

1153
01:09:28,463 --> 01:09:31,610
while Elizabeth received a mix of breast milk and homemade

1154
01:09:31,610 --> 01:09:33,261
formula.

1155
01:09:33,261 --> 01:09:36,428
Vitamin C, vitamin E, coral calcium.

1156
01:09:39,490 --> 01:09:41,729
This is cod liver oil.

1157
01:09:41,729 --> 01:09:44,248
It was an organic recipe of goat milk

1158
01:09:44,248 --> 01:09:47,364
and coconut milk from a local health store.

1159
01:09:47,364 --> 01:09:51,427
And this was the soy lecithin which is a thickener.

1160
01:09:51,427 --> 01:09:53,834
And wanting to do the best for her baby,

1161
01:09:53,834 --> 01:09:57,401
Becky decided to add a little something extra to the mix.

1162
01:09:57,401 --> 01:10:00,053
And then lastly is the vitamin D.

1163
01:10:00,053 --> 01:10:01,795
How much do you put in?

1164
01:10:01,795 --> 01:10:04,962
Well, the recipe calls for one drop.

1165
01:10:07,149 --> 01:10:08,463
One drop.

1166
01:10:08,463 --> 01:10:09,296
That's all that--
<v ->that's it.

1167
01:10:09,296 --> 01:10:12,053
Put in.
<v ->Which seems trivial

1168
01:10:12,053 --> 01:10:15,401
at best, that's just silliness, that's not gonna do anything

1169
01:10:15,401 --> 01:10:19,401
for anybody, so I would do the whole dropperful.

1170
01:10:22,483 --> 01:10:26,111
One ML or full dropper, like most infant droppers,

1171
01:10:26,111 --> 01:10:29,028
would contain about 20 to 30 drops.

1172
01:10:31,658 --> 01:10:34,603
If there's too much vitamin D, then you will reabsorb

1173
01:10:34,603 --> 01:10:39,210
a lot of the calcium, then it causes some of the symptoms

1174
01:10:39,210 --> 01:10:43,022
would be increased urination, lack of appetite, both of

1175
01:10:43,022 --> 01:10:45,889
which could lead to dehydration.

1176
01:10:45,889 --> 01:10:49,396
If this condition persisted without any treatment

1177
01:10:49,396 --> 01:10:53,353
or intervention, this could ultimately lead to Elizabeth

1178
01:10:53,353 --> 01:10:55,186
having kidney failure.

1179
01:11:00,783 --> 01:11:03,463
And then this was in the actual hospital with the feeding

1180
01:11:03,463 --> 01:11:07,177
tube but she's rounded out, she's plumped up and had

1181
01:11:07,177 --> 01:11:10,231
started to look normal again.

1182
01:11:10,231 --> 01:11:12,540
It took 10 days in hospital to stabilize

1183
01:11:12,540 --> 01:11:13,457
her levels.

1184
01:11:14,719 --> 01:11:16,469
I felt very guilty.

1185
01:11:17,335 --> 01:11:21,982
I did this, this is something that I did and I knew that I

1186
01:11:21,982 --> 01:11:25,885
was giving her too much when I was doing it but I thought

1187
01:11:25,885 --> 01:11:27,270
"What harm could there be?

1188
01:11:27,270 --> 01:11:29,634
"It's just a vitamin, it's like vitamin C, you get rid

1189
01:11:29,634 --> 01:11:34,051
"of what you don't need, how could it be a big deal?"

1190
01:11:35,199 --> 01:11:38,085
I was trying to be a good mom, I was trying to go above

1191
01:11:38,085 --> 01:11:42,418
and beyond in a very easy, every day way that seemed

1192
01:11:43,612 --> 01:11:44,612
so harmless.

1193
01:11:49,633 --> 01:11:53,094
I think people have underestimated the power of these

1194
01:11:53,094 --> 01:11:55,094
vitamins with vitamin D.

1195
01:11:57,814 --> 01:12:02,632
You know, little mistakes can mean a lot if it's tenfold,

1196
01:12:02,632 --> 01:12:06,299
hundredfold, that can really spell disaster.

1197
01:12:08,574 --> 01:12:11,080
Luckily, Elizabeth is now fine.

1198
01:12:11,080 --> 01:12:12,913
Her levels are normal.

1199
01:12:14,892 --> 01:12:18,329
It's difficult to overdose on vitamins in food, but easy

1200
01:12:18,329 --> 01:12:21,747
to do with manmade vitamins as they can be consumed in such

1201
01:12:21,747 --> 01:12:26,090
large quantities, and fat soluble vitamins like D can

1202
01:12:26,090 --> 01:12:30,257
accumulate in body fat, reaching dangerous levels.

1203
01:12:36,396 --> 01:12:39,056
Becky Jackson and her family are not alone.

1204
01:12:39,056 --> 01:12:42,860
In 2015, the US Poison Center reported over 3000 calls

1205
01:12:42,860 --> 01:12:45,384
concerning children under six who had taken too much

1206
01:12:45,384 --> 01:12:46,217
vitamin D.

1207
01:12:48,692 --> 01:12:51,192
(tense music)

1208
01:12:56,153 --> 01:12:58,716
Throughout the world, the potential risks of dietary

1209
01:12:58,716 --> 01:13:02,439
supplements are being studied carefully.

1210
01:13:02,439 --> 01:13:05,655
There's no question now that we have the data after

1211
01:13:05,655 --> 01:13:09,818
decades of study, really, that the supplements are not

1212
01:13:09,818 --> 01:13:11,206
risk free.

1213
01:13:11,206 --> 01:13:13,440
And in America, supplements send tens of thousands of

1214
01:13:13,440 --> 01:13:17,722
consumers to emergency departments every year and thousands

1215
01:13:17,722 --> 01:13:20,942
of hospitalizations every year are due to serious side

1216
01:13:20,942 --> 01:13:23,445
effects of supplements.

1217
01:13:23,445 --> 01:13:25,224
Tonight, Walgreens and Target have pulled

1218
01:13:25,224 --> 01:13:27,009
the products nationwide.

1219
01:13:27,009 --> 01:13:28,465
GNC did the same in--

1220
01:13:28,465 --> 01:13:31,378
In 2015, dietary supplements were pulled off

1221
01:13:31,378 --> 01:13:35,775
the shelves of four major pharmacy chains in New York.

1222
01:13:35,775 --> 01:13:38,174
Most of the supplements tested didn't contain the

1223
01:13:38,174 --> 01:13:41,687
materials listed on the label and many contained

1224
01:13:41,687 --> 01:13:42,770
contaminants.

1225
01:13:44,497 --> 01:13:47,364
One of the serious safety concerns has been serious

1226
01:13:47,364 --> 01:13:50,558
deficits in the manufacturing process.

1227
01:13:50,558 --> 01:13:53,095
For example, there have been multi-vitamins in which the

1228
01:13:53,095 --> 01:13:57,457
amount of a mineral has been 100 times greater than what

1229
01:13:57,457 --> 01:14:01,448
it should be, leading to serious health defects.

1230
01:14:01,448 --> 01:14:04,615
In other multi-vitamins, there has been drugs that weren't

1231
01:14:04,615 --> 01:14:08,281
supposed to be in there at all, such as anabolic steroids,

1232
01:14:08,281 --> 01:14:10,722
these are steroids that weightlifters might clandestinely

1233
01:14:10,722 --> 01:14:14,522
use to get stronger have been found in multi-vitamins

1234
01:14:14,522 --> 01:14:19,420
at such levels that people taking it became sick.

1235
01:14:19,420 --> 01:14:22,139
Specific risks are appearing around specific

1236
01:14:22,139 --> 01:14:24,222
vitamins, like vitamin D.

1237
01:14:25,094 --> 01:14:28,542
We're seeing levels of five times, ten times normal

1238
01:14:28,542 --> 01:14:31,562
in the blood of my patients when I see them with

1239
01:14:31,562 --> 01:14:35,622
osteopetrosis and studies are now showing these people

1240
01:14:35,622 --> 01:14:38,644
are now actually more prone to fractures and more prone

1241
01:14:38,644 --> 01:14:43,226
to falling down and all the evidence is building up that we

1242
01:14:43,226 --> 01:14:47,890
actually have a fairly narrow range of where these

1243
01:14:47,890 --> 01:14:49,057
vitamins work.

1244
01:14:50,632 --> 01:14:53,369
Every vitamin has a toxic level and some of them are

1245
01:14:53,369 --> 01:14:55,591
actually not that much higher than just the normal

1246
01:14:55,591 --> 01:14:57,546
nutritional amount.

1247
01:14:57,546 --> 01:15:01,280
I see patients all the time who have vitamin B six levels

1248
01:15:01,280 --> 01:15:03,890
in the toxic range and it can cause nerve damage

1249
01:15:03,890 --> 01:15:04,890
for example.

1250
01:15:06,646 --> 01:15:09,373
In the 1990s, studies testing a form of

1251
01:15:09,373 --> 01:15:13,344
vitamin A were halted when it became clear that participants

1252
01:15:13,344 --> 01:15:16,261
were at an increased risk of dying.

1253
01:15:17,913 --> 01:15:21,552
That really shocked I think almost everyone.

1254
01:15:21,552 --> 01:15:23,807
We need to look at the type of supplement, we need to look

1255
01:15:23,807 --> 01:15:26,314
at the amount of supplement, we need to look at what's

1256
01:15:26,314 --> 01:15:30,049
being given to and it does seem that there are some places

1257
01:15:30,049 --> 01:15:33,565
where vitamin supplements can definitely provide benefit,

1258
01:15:33,565 --> 01:15:36,120
there are a number of places where they can provide

1259
01:15:36,120 --> 01:15:39,089
some harm and there are a lot of places where they're still

1260
01:15:39,089 --> 01:15:42,183
not sure what the outcomes will be.

1261
01:15:42,183 --> 01:15:46,255
So the big picture is that these products are not

1262
01:15:46,255 --> 01:15:47,997
entirely safe.

1263
01:15:47,997 --> 01:15:49,909
It's not that they're gonna harm everyone who's gonna take

1264
01:15:49,909 --> 01:15:51,436
them, certainly not.

1265
01:15:51,436 --> 01:15:52,997
The majority of people aren't gonna experience any

1266
01:15:52,997 --> 01:15:54,731
adverse effects.

1267
01:15:54,731 --> 01:15:56,730
But my concern is this.

1268
01:15:56,730 --> 01:16:01,730
If these products are offering none to almost no benefit

1269
01:16:02,154 --> 01:16:07,154
to a healthy consumer, but posing a small risk of harm,

1270
01:16:07,259 --> 01:16:10,482
why should we be recommending them and why should consumers

1271
01:16:10,482 --> 01:16:11,649
be using them?

1272
01:16:14,633 --> 01:16:16,342
Now there's no questions that medicines can have

1273
01:16:16,342 --> 01:16:18,547
dangerous side effects and complications.

1274
01:16:18,547 --> 01:16:20,874
But they're clearly stated on the label and doctors know

1275
01:16:20,874 --> 01:16:22,161
to look out for them.

1276
01:16:22,161 --> 01:16:23,601
It's a known risk.

1277
01:16:23,601 --> 01:16:26,123
The issue with vitamins and dietary supplements is that

1278
01:16:26,123 --> 01:16:28,789
they're perceived to be risk free.

1279
01:16:28,789 --> 01:16:31,619
Yet there can be complications, there can be side effects,

1280
01:16:31,619 --> 01:16:34,063
and there can be bad products.

1281
01:16:34,063 --> 01:16:36,220
It's not a no risk proposition.

1282
01:16:36,220 --> 01:16:38,803
(lively music)

1283
01:16:41,428 --> 01:16:44,778
Yet, in the US, there's no legal requirement for products

1284
01:16:44,778 --> 01:16:47,645
to be tested for safety or effectiveness before

1285
01:16:47,645 --> 01:16:48,978
they go on sale.

1286
01:16:50,411 --> 01:16:53,220
In the US and in many countries, the laws are lax to the

1287
01:16:53,220 --> 01:16:55,120
point where you can basically put any combination of

1288
01:16:55,120 --> 01:16:58,486
vitamins and minerals in a pill, call it anything you want

1289
01:16:58,486 --> 01:17:01,545
and make pseudo-health claims for it.

1290
01:17:01,545 --> 01:17:03,378
So it's the wild west.

1291
01:17:05,509 --> 01:17:08,930
Clearly, there is a huge problem in supplement use that's

1292
01:17:08,930 --> 01:17:11,422
not regulated, there are things there

1293
01:17:11,422 --> 01:17:12,694
that shouldn't be there,

1294
01:17:12,694 --> 01:17:16,161
there are things that should be there that aren't there.

1295
01:17:16,161 --> 01:17:19,218
It is sort of the wild west.

1296
01:17:19,218 --> 01:17:21,925
To understand how this could happen, we need

1297
01:17:21,925 --> 01:17:23,008
to look back.

1298
01:17:26,651 --> 01:17:29,156
To see how the line between food

1299
01:17:29,156 --> 01:17:31,489
and medicine became blurred.

1300
01:17:33,283 --> 01:17:38,283
♪ Well, let's talk about the US government of 1938 ♪

1301
01:17:40,132 --> 01:17:45,132
♪ The burgeoning new industry, they didn't regulate ♪

1302
01:17:46,668 --> 01:17:48,108
♪ Said it makes no sense ♪

1303
01:17:48,108 --> 01:17:53,108
♪ They're just dispensing nutrients my dear ♪

1304
01:17:53,592 --> 01:17:58,592
♪ And if we pop that bottle top, we know what we would hear ♪

1305
01:17:58,773 --> 01:18:03,773
♪ I am not a medicine, I am not a drug ♪

1306
01:18:04,848 --> 01:18:08,811
♪ Dude, I'm food, so don't intrude, it's rude ♪

1307
01:18:08,811 --> 01:18:12,256
♪ To pull my plug ♪

1308
01:18:12,256 --> 01:18:17,256
♪ I wanna be a mystery, don't peer inside the pill ♪

1309
01:18:19,253 --> 01:18:23,089
♪ And if I'm not a medicine ♪

1310
01:18:23,089 --> 01:18:26,506
♪ Perhaps you never will ♪

1311
01:18:28,561 --> 01:18:31,736
In 1938, a new US law requires all pharmaceutical

1312
01:18:31,736 --> 01:18:35,184
drugs to be tested for safety, but vitamins escaped

1313
01:18:35,184 --> 01:18:37,605
this regulation, opening the door for the industry

1314
01:18:37,605 --> 01:18:38,981
to expand.

1315
01:18:38,981 --> 01:18:41,824
And by the 1970s, the industry is booming.

1316
01:18:41,824 --> 01:18:44,716
The FDA, concerned about high dose vitamins, tries to

1317
01:18:44,716 --> 01:18:47,543
tighten the rules, but fails.

1318
01:18:47,543 --> 01:18:49,412
They try again in the 90s.

1319
01:18:49,412 --> 01:18:51,502
This time, they want better labeling and to remove

1320
01:18:51,502 --> 01:18:53,276
unsafe products.

1321
01:18:53,276 --> 01:18:55,517
But the industry fights back, claiming the regulation

1322
01:18:55,517 --> 01:19:00,282
will make it too expensive and limit consumer choice.

1323
01:19:00,282 --> 01:19:05,282
♪ You know I wear my therapeutic promises with pride ♪

1324
01:19:06,915 --> 01:19:11,915
♪ But every name I have to claim discreetly qualified ♪

1325
01:19:13,466 --> 01:19:18,466
♪ No reason to investigate, no reason to delay ♪

1326
01:19:20,359 --> 01:19:24,781
♪ You might just live forever if you take me twice a day ♪

1327
01:19:24,781 --> 01:19:29,781
♪ Oh but I am not a medicine, I am not a drug ♪

1328
01:19:32,108 --> 01:19:37,108
♪ To keep me cheap you need to sweep me right under the rug ♪

1329
01:19:38,774 --> 01:19:43,774
♪ Hey FDA, get out the way, why can't we stay like this ♪

1330
01:19:45,437 --> 01:19:50,437
♪ Where I am not a medicine ♪

1331
01:19:52,245 --> 01:19:55,662
♪ And ignorance is bliss ♪

1332
01:19:59,717 --> 01:20:04,717
In 1994, a new US law is passed, forbidding the testing

1333
01:20:04,957 --> 01:20:07,927
of dietary supplements for safety or effectiveness

1334
01:20:07,927 --> 01:20:08,927
before sale.

1335
01:20:15,356 --> 01:20:18,794
And the industry explodes from around 4000 products

1336
01:20:18,794 --> 01:20:19,961
to over 85000.

1337
01:20:22,499 --> 01:20:24,249
Perhaps the most surprising part about the way that

1338
01:20:24,249 --> 01:20:27,612
supplements are regulated is that it is because of

1339
01:20:27,612 --> 01:20:31,307
us consumers, we supported this legislation.

1340
01:20:31,307 --> 01:20:35,035
We lobbied on behalf of the dietary supplement industry

1341
01:20:35,035 --> 01:20:38,931
to get congress to pass a sweeping law in 1994 that

1342
01:20:38,931 --> 01:20:42,608
forever forbade the FDA from requiring that dietary

1343
01:20:42,608 --> 01:20:46,398
supplements be tested or for efficacy before they're sold.

1344
01:20:46,398 --> 01:20:48,015
What do you mean forever?

1345
01:20:48,015 --> 01:20:52,268
Like unless there's another law, that's just how it is.

1346
01:20:52,268 --> 01:20:54,685
(soft music)

1347
01:20:56,407 --> 01:21:00,406
Different countries have different regulations.

1348
01:21:00,406 --> 01:21:02,972
In Australia, most vitamin products are classified as

1349
01:21:02,972 --> 01:21:04,972
complimentary medicines.

1350
01:21:06,118 --> 01:21:08,844
Manufacturers must certify that they use low risk

1351
01:21:08,844 --> 01:21:11,458
ingredients, products contain what they say they

1352
01:21:11,458 --> 01:21:16,458
contain and they have evidence to back up health claims.

1353
01:21:16,856 --> 01:21:20,037
But, it's a trust based system.

1354
01:21:20,037 --> 01:21:23,355
Products don't have to be proven safe or effective

1355
01:21:23,355 --> 01:21:25,272
before they go on sale.

1356
01:21:29,117 --> 01:21:31,687
In Europe, vitamin products are regulated as food

1357
01:21:31,687 --> 01:21:35,207
supplements and again, they don't have to be tested

1358
01:21:35,207 --> 01:21:37,557
before they go on sale.

1359
01:21:37,557 --> 01:21:39,466
However, the laws are tougher.

1360
01:21:39,466 --> 01:21:42,207
To claim a health benefit, for example, manufacturers

1361
01:21:42,207 --> 01:21:47,110
must show proven scientific evidence, and in France,

1362
01:21:47,110 --> 01:21:49,991
high doses of vitamins generally need a medical

1363
01:21:49,991 --> 01:21:51,074
prescription.

1364
01:21:54,700 --> 01:21:56,655
But increasingly, people are buying their vitamin

1365
01:21:56,655 --> 01:21:58,447
products online.

1366
01:21:58,447 --> 01:22:00,947
(tense music)

1367
01:22:05,779 --> 01:22:09,196
So globally, it's a case of buyer beware.

1368
01:22:10,430 --> 01:22:13,462
(players shouting)

1369
01:22:13,462 --> 01:22:18,126
And yet, we can't forget that in cases of real deficiency,

1370
01:22:18,126 --> 01:22:21,459
vitamin supplements can transform lives.

1371
01:22:25,941 --> 01:22:28,441
They can save a child's sight.

1372
01:22:30,279 --> 01:22:32,279
They can be life savers.

1373
01:22:34,078 --> 01:22:38,262
But what if we're healthy, with no known deficiency?

1374
01:22:38,262 --> 01:22:42,012
How do we decide whether to take them or not?

1375
01:22:44,210 --> 01:22:47,693
My final stop is to meet experts planning the ultimate

1376
01:22:47,693 --> 01:22:48,860
human journey.

1377
01:22:51,956 --> 01:22:56,123
I wanna know, are they taking supplements to Mars?

1378
01:22:59,291 --> 01:23:00,923
And liftoff.

1379
01:23:00,923 --> 01:23:05,137
The (mumbles) of (mumbles) hit a new era of American

1380
01:23:05,137 --> 01:23:06,637
space exploration.

1381
01:23:12,356 --> 01:23:15,090
NASA is preparing to send humans to Mars

1382
01:23:15,090 --> 01:23:16,090
around 2030.

1383
01:23:19,378 --> 01:23:22,775
Imagine a three year round trip with only the food

1384
01:23:22,775 --> 01:23:25,192
you have on board to survive.

1385
01:23:26,555 --> 01:23:28,500
They can't go down the street and go to a restaurant.

1386
01:23:28,500 --> 01:23:30,773
If they don't like what you've provided, they can't go

1387
01:23:30,773 --> 01:23:34,342
to the grocery store and have hundreds of choices.

1388
01:23:34,342 --> 01:23:37,546
So this is where we freeze dry the products.

1389
01:23:37,546 --> 01:23:40,190
Dr. Grace Douglas leads NASA's research into

1390
01:23:40,190 --> 01:23:43,302
the nutritional needs of astronauts.

1391
01:23:43,302 --> 01:23:46,757
The focus is on taking whole foods into space.

1392
01:23:46,757 --> 01:23:49,588
And all of our freeze dried foods get made in this lab

1393
01:23:49,588 --> 01:23:51,950
here, so cook like you would at home and then they get put

1394
01:23:51,950 --> 01:23:56,950
in here frozen and the moisture gets pulled out of them.

1395
01:23:57,082 --> 01:24:00,025
In flight, they'll add the water back and it rehydrates

1396
01:24:00,025 --> 01:24:02,753
to be just like the meal it was before we pulled

1397
01:24:02,753 --> 01:24:04,152
the water out.

1398
01:24:04,152 --> 01:24:06,198
Some of the vitamins actually do really well through

1399
01:24:06,198 --> 01:24:07,670
this process.

1400
01:24:07,670 --> 01:24:10,753
(cheerful whistling)

1401
01:24:14,556 --> 01:24:18,999
Strawberry shortcake, ready for you, Chris.

1402
01:24:18,999 --> 01:24:20,325
I like the look of this,

1403
01:24:20,325 --> 01:24:22,242
this is your shrimp dish, is it?

1404
01:24:22,242 --> 01:24:24,518
That's shrimp cocktail.
<v ->Wow, these are really

1405
01:24:24,518 --> 01:24:26,705
cool, and a burger, of course, very American.

1406
01:24:26,705 --> 01:24:28,178
Yes.

1407
01:24:28,178 --> 01:24:31,967
So this one's sweet and sour chicken.

1408
01:24:31,967 --> 01:24:36,926
Honey coming out pretty well there, there we go.

1409
01:24:36,926 --> 01:24:38,894
Chocolate pudding cake.

1410
01:24:38,894 --> 01:24:41,100
So will NASA be sending vitamin supplements

1411
01:24:41,100 --> 01:24:42,646
to Mars?

1412
01:24:42,646 --> 01:24:43,948
Pretty good.

1413
01:24:43,948 --> 01:24:45,950
The only one we send is vitamin D and that's because

1414
01:24:45,950 --> 01:24:47,836
you get a lot of your vitamin D exposure from sunlight

1415
01:24:47,836 --> 01:24:50,736
exposure on your skin and we're not gonna have that option

1416
01:24:50,736 --> 01:24:52,207
in space flight.

1417
01:24:52,207 --> 01:24:53,409
Only vitamin D?

1418
01:24:53,409 --> 01:24:56,025
Yeah, we expect that we have all the other nutrients

1419
01:24:56,025 --> 01:24:59,674
in a wide variety of a balanced food system.

1420
01:24:59,674 --> 01:25:01,836
Why is food better than supplements?

1421
01:25:01,836 --> 01:25:06,086
Food is just core and fundamental to every aspect

1422
01:25:06,953 --> 01:25:09,272
of human health and performance, so it's central

1423
01:25:09,272 --> 01:25:12,300
to these missions and there's really no way because there's

1424
01:25:12,300 --> 01:25:14,714
so many different vitamins in food, there's so many

1425
01:25:14,714 --> 01:25:17,895
things that you're getting that you can't replicate

1426
01:25:17,895 --> 01:25:19,895
at this point in a pill.

1427
01:25:20,799 --> 01:25:24,248
Okay, there we go, it says 75, so we're gonna put in 75.

1428
01:25:24,248 --> 01:25:26,936
I mean to me, it feels like the linchpin, right?

1429
01:25:26,936 --> 01:25:30,411
To determine whether a crew gets to Mars and is happy and

1430
01:25:30,411 --> 01:25:33,094
healthy and ready to go.

1431
01:25:33,094 --> 01:25:35,084
It sounds to me comes down to the food.

1432
01:25:35,084 --> 01:25:36,517
It's one of the great needs,

1433
01:25:36,517 --> 01:25:37,733
you have oxygen, water, and food,

1434
01:25:37,733 --> 01:25:39,504
and no matter what, you can't go anywhere

1435
01:25:39,504 --> 01:25:41,378
or do anything with the human system without those three

1436
01:25:41,378 --> 01:25:43,497
critical things.

1437
01:25:43,497 --> 01:25:44,330
How do you like it?

1438
01:25:44,330 --> 01:25:48,247
It's fantastic, I would eat this, absolutely.

1439
01:25:49,398 --> 01:25:50,904
For three years.

1440
01:25:50,904 --> 01:25:52,895
For three years, this is all I get?

1441
01:25:52,895 --> 01:25:53,728
Yeah.

1442
01:25:56,195 --> 01:25:57,952
This is mission control Houston.

1443
01:25:57,952 --> 01:26:00,272
As we come up on the first two critical Orion program

1444
01:26:00,272 --> 01:26:03,978
milestones, the service module faring panel jettison

1445
01:26:03,978 --> 01:26:05,962
and the launch abort system jettison--

1446
01:26:05,962 --> 01:26:08,277
Our growing understanding of the power

1447
01:26:08,277 --> 01:26:12,027
of food is revealing something extraordinary.

1448
01:26:16,843 --> 01:26:19,979
As well as the 13 vitamins, there are thousands of other

1449
01:26:19,979 --> 01:26:24,573
chemicals in food, a multitude of molecules working

1450
01:26:24,573 --> 01:26:27,906
in complex and often mysterious synergy.

1451
01:26:30,671 --> 01:26:34,370
Together, they protect against disease, but they don't

1452
01:26:34,370 --> 01:26:37,805
always have that same power if they're isolated

1453
01:26:37,805 --> 01:26:38,972
from our food.

1454
01:26:40,988 --> 01:26:43,571
(all laughing)

1455
01:26:46,838 --> 01:26:50,869
At this point in time, we can't begin to think that a

1456
01:26:50,869 --> 01:26:54,577
supplement could replicate what we would get from a food

1457
01:26:54,577 --> 01:26:57,494
or replace whole foods in our diet.

1458
01:26:58,448 --> 01:27:02,604
Foods contain dozens of essential micronutrients, but they

1459
01:27:02,604 --> 01:27:05,997
also contain literally thousands of compounds that we've

1460
01:27:05,997 --> 01:27:10,215
only minimally studied up until this point in time.

1461
01:27:10,215 --> 01:27:12,844
Even if it's comfortable to think that this pill will

1462
01:27:12,844 --> 01:27:16,924
solve many problem of the daily life and will prevent

1463
01:27:16,924 --> 01:27:20,512
longterm or chronic diseases, and it's not true and it's not

1464
01:27:20,512 --> 01:27:23,711
proven for the moment and what is proven are the

1465
01:27:23,711 --> 01:27:26,794
relationship between diet and health.

1466
01:27:29,092 --> 01:27:31,144
I actually think it's unfortunate that there's been

1467
01:27:31,144 --> 01:27:34,863
so much hype and pseudoscience around vitamins, so you

1468
01:27:34,863 --> 01:27:39,190
have people who are evidence based, science based who think

1469
01:27:39,190 --> 01:27:42,137
"Oh, vitamins are all nonsense," no, they're not, actually,

1470
01:27:42,137 --> 01:27:45,804
it's science, it's nutrition, it's medicine.

1471
01:27:46,848 --> 01:27:51,088
What's nonsense is over hyping vitamins or pretending that

1472
01:27:51,088 --> 01:27:54,005
they're something that they're not.

1473
01:27:57,405 --> 01:27:59,595
You know, before, when I thought of vitamins, I thought

1474
01:27:59,595 --> 01:28:00,974
of pills.

1475
01:28:00,974 --> 01:28:04,003
I had kind of forgotten that they all come from food, but

1476
01:28:04,003 --> 01:28:06,049
now I've learned it's really not that hard to get everything

1477
01:28:06,049 --> 01:28:09,408
you need from food and there's so much more to food than

1478
01:28:09,408 --> 01:28:11,420
we currently understand.

1479
01:28:11,420 --> 01:28:13,782
After all, we've been getting our food from vitamins for

1480
01:28:13,782 --> 01:28:15,728
millions of years.

1481
01:28:15,728 --> 01:28:18,469
You think we'd have it all worked out in barely a hundred?

1482
01:28:18,469 --> 01:28:20,124
So should we take our vitamins?

1483
01:28:20,124 --> 01:28:21,166
Yes!

1484
01:28:21,166 --> 01:28:23,877
By eating good food, and if you feel like you need something

1485
01:28:23,877 --> 01:28:26,855
extra, maybe the best thing to do is think of vitamins

1486
01:28:26,855 --> 01:28:28,317
as if they're medicines.

1487
01:28:28,317 --> 01:28:32,234
That is, if you take them, take them seriously.

1488
01:28:34,017 --> 01:28:38,434
(people chattering under soft music)

1489
01:28:52,338 --> 01:28:54,838
(tense music)

1489
01:28:55,305 --> 01:29:01,639
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