sw00929d42--AOL-health-vitamin-cautions

  For a period in the 1990s I took 50000 IU of A
each day.  Do not recall why I started, but I soon
saw something was wrong.  Went to a skin clinic
but did not tell the doctors there--and they never
asked--what supplements I was taking.  What I
went through with them--.  When they wanted
me to step into their UV chamber, I declined,
and never went back.  One night I showed a
co-worker how bad my legs had gotten.  He
said they looked like raw meat, and indeed they
did.  I stopped taking the A, and slowly my legs
got better.  Today I learned from AOL Health 
that too much A can cause osteoporosis.  I have
osteoporosis, and have had it since the mid 1990s; 
but I am genetically predisposed to it.  Also, after
my first adult-onset seizure in 1999, and after I
was no longer able to afford the Neurontin I was
intially given, my then doctor though I should wait 
to see if I would have another seizure.  I did, and
I did.  That doctor prescribed a medication which
I later learned/ can cause osteoporosis: phenytoin.  
Was eventually weaned off it by another doctor, a
neurologist, when I was eased into taking Keppra.  
Have been on it since.  So far/ it is working.
  Also learned today from the AOL Health article*
that the daily limit for E is 400 IU.  E is a blood
thinner and, among other things, can be be bad 
for one's heart.  The E supplement I use I will
not be using from today on as it has 400 IU.

  There is a site: ConsumerLab.com which is an
independent tester of some vitamins; but it is
a member site, and it costs $29.95 per year
or $49.50 for two years.

* Article author is Caroline Howard.



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Brian A. J. Salchert  2008-06-24