Medicine: Vitamin Powwow

To the University of Chicago last week went 400 of the country’s scientists for a meeting devoted to one subject alone: vitamins. Although the symposium dealt mostly with highly technical laboratory discoveries, one familiar fact was reiterated : in a well-balanced diet of fresh vegetables, meat, fruit, whole grains, eggs and milk, there are always plenty of vitamins.

All For One. Keynote of the meeting was sounded by Dr. Conrad Elvehjem of Wisconsin (originator of nicotinic-acid treatment for pellagra), who said: “Many of the deficiency diseases . . . are multiple deficiencies.”

This means that the old slogans, “A for eye troubles, B for beriberi, C for scurvy, etc.,” are not quite accurate. For specific vitamins do not invariably cure specific diseases; they all work together. Experience has shown that in groups of people deprived of all vitamins for a long period of time, various individuals develop different deficiency diseases. Some do not even have scurvy or pellagra; they develop anemia instead—a disease not ordinarily believed related to vitamin deficiency.

Conclusion: natural foods provide a harmonious combination of vitamins. Vitamin pills are necessary only for definite deficiency diseases, should be given only by doctors.

What’s in a Name? Each vitamin is a specific chemical compound necessary for the body’s efficient physiological functioning. The alphabetical vitamin tags were given originally for convenience. Today scientists prefer to call the vitamins by their chemical names. The latest list:

> Vitamin A, or carotene, is found in bright yellow foods such as butter, eggs, apricots, corn, sweet potatoes, carrots.

> B complex, for practical purposes, is really a group of eight different chemicals. They are all found in liver and brewer’s yeast; some of them also occur in whole grains. Their chemical names: thiamin (B1), riboflavin (B2), pyridoxine (B6), inositol, pantothenic acid, nicotinic acid, biotin and folic acid (first described last week by Dr. Roger John Williams of Texas). To keep up B requirements, Dr. Tom Spies of Birmingham, Ala. suggested a daily sandwich of yeast and peanut butter on peeled wheat bread (made from grain with only the thin outer tissue removed).

> C, cevitamic acid, is abundant in citrus fruits, tomatoes, green vegetables.

> D, the sunshine vitamin, is the only one which the body is known to synthesize. Produced through exposure to sunlight, it is also found in tuna, herring, cod and halibut liver oils.

>E, alpha tocopherol, is found in green leaves, wheat germ.

Bewildering Bs. Most complex of all are the vitamins B. In learned papers last week scientists discussed examples of vitamin B activity:

> Para-aminobenzoic acid reputedly turns grey hair dark again—but it raises blood pressure and, if sulfa drugs are given, it combats their curative powers. Another vitamin, pyridoxine, turns hair grey—but it is essential for red blood cells and digestion.

> For some strange reason, reported Professor Paul Gyorgy of Western Reserve, rats who get no riboflavin (vitamin B2) invariably become lousy. This condition never occurs with other vitamin deficiencies, so it is not related to general physical weakness. Doses of riboflavin quickly drive the lice away. Dr. Gyorgy hopes the treatment will soon be tried on human beings, for lice carry the germs of typhus. >Dr. Vincent du Vigneaud of Cornell told how three groups of men in three separate laboratories recently turned up one of the original vitamin substances, biotin (recognized 40 years ago). Dr. du Vigneaud, who analyzed its structure, said that biotin is extremely powerful, very difficult to make. Only a few grams have been synthesized—at a cost that would come to $63,800,000 a pound. In an early experiment one and one-half millionth of a gram was obtained from 40,000 Ib. of egg yolks. A primitive protein related to urea, biotin occurs in all living cells and is best known as the antagonist of another protein called avidin, which occurs in raw egg white. One of the biggest problems in biochemistry today is the dynamic balance between these two vital substances.