Take the right vitamins for you: you can prevent disease, reduce stress, and slow aging with these supplements. Our definitive guide shows you exactly what you need to buy - Consumer guide: how to be an educated consumer

Natural Health, August, 2003 by Dina Aronson

TAKING A DAILY MULTIVITAMIN is a great way to protect your health. But going above and beyond a multi may be in order. Studies show that adding extra nutrients to your daily regimen can help if you have a specific health concern (for instance, if heart disease runs in your family), if you're superstressed, or if you feel run-down.

To find out which vitamins and minerals you could benefit most from, we took your top concerns and went to the experts. Their advice is collected here. Locate your biggest health issue below and learn which supplements will work best for you.

Prevent Heart Disease

Lower your risk of heart disease by taking the following four vitamins and minerals. If you take a multivitamin, check the recommended dosages below against the contents of your multi; you may already be getting what you need. Fortified foods like breakfast cereals and orange juice may also cover some of your requirements, so consider those as well.

Calcium: It's good for much more than your bones. New research indicates that calcium binds fatty acids in your intestine, making them unavailable for absorption and thereby lowering the levels of artery-clogging fats in your blood. Calcium from supplements in particular has been shown to decrease the risk of heart attack and death from heart disease. For example, a study published last year in the American Journal of Medicine found that postmenopausal women who took 1,000 mg of calcium daily for one year reduced their risk of heart attack by up to 30 percent. A similar effect has not yet been found for men.

If you're 50 or younger, strive to get 1,000 mg of calcium daily, and aim for 1,200 mg daily if you are over 50. Since your body cannot absorb this much calcium at once, take it in two doses with meals, recommends Shari Lieberman, Ph.D., a nutrition scientist in New York City and author of The Real Vitamin and Mineral Book (Avery Penguin Putnam, 2003). You should also take 400 IU of vitamin D (to aid in absorption) and 500 mg of magnesium (calcium and magnesium work together in your body) in divided doses with your calcium.

Chromium: Some scientists believe chromium plays a role in preventing heart disease. That's because this trace mineral helps your body maintain healthy glucose levels. Insulin helps you use glucose, or blood sugar, for energy. When your body loses its ability to respond to insulin, you have a condition called insulin resistance. This condition can result in high cholesterol and high trigylceride levels and lead to heart disease. Chromium also aids in the burning of body fat.

Lieberman recommends taking 200 to 400 mcg per day of chromium polynicotinate, the most effective form.

Folic Acid: Folic acid reduces the risk of heart disease, according to new research. This essential B vitamin helps convert dangerous homocysteine in your blood to a safer amino acid, called methionine. High levels of homocysteine are known to increase the risk of both heart disease and stroke.

Take 400 mcg of folic acid per day. However, if you have a risk factor for heart disease, such as a family history, high cholesterol, elevated homocysteine, or obesity, talk to your doctor about taking a higher dose. If you fall into this higher risk group, add two other B vitamins: 1,000 mcg of vitamin [B.sub.12] and 100 mg of vitamin [B.sub.6] per day. Folic acid alone is probably not enough to lower homocysteine levels for people at high risk, explains Jeffrey Blumberg, Ph.D., professor and associate director at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston.

Vitamin E: Vitamin E acts as your cardiovascular system's housekeeper. It

cleans out cell-damaging free radicals and also helps to prevent platelets from clumping together and clogging your blood vessels.

Studies show that the more vitamin E in your diet, the lower your risk of heart disease. The evidence for supplementing with vitamin E is even more impressive, says Michael Janson, M.D., an Arlington, Mass.-based physician and author of Dr. Janson's New Vitamin Revolution (Avery Putnam Penguin, 2000). The well-known Nurses' Health Study, which followed 87,245 female nurses for eight years, found that those nurses who supplemented daily with vitamin E for more than two years had a 41 percent lower risk of heart disease than those who did not. A similar study on men who took at least 100 IU for two years or more found a 37 percent reduction in heart disease risk.

Recently some researchers reported that vitamin E didn't prevent heart disease or even worsened the risk. However, these conflicting studies had flaws--some used synthetic forms of the vitamin and others included people with severe heart disease.

Our experts recommend taking 800 IU of vitamin E daily. Choose mixed tocopherols, which include the four naturally occurring forms of vitamin E: alpha-, beta-, delta-, and gamma-tocopherol. "Each form is important; plus together they make it easier for your body to absorb them," says Janson.

Reduce Your Cancer Risk