Taking a multiple vitamin and mineral supplement, as advised in previous, provides adequate amounts of all nineteen vitamins and minerals.

When you live or work in a stressful environment, however, a case can be made for taking more of the B vitamins and vitamins C and E. If you are active and engage in physical activity, more of these nutrients are sometimes required.

Review your environment and decide for yourself:

• Do you live under stressful conditions?
• Do you work in a stressful environment?
• Do you commute over thirty minutes in heavy traffic?
• Are you exposed to a smoky or polluted environment?
• Are you exposed to solvent fumes?
• Do you take patented or prescription medication regularly?
• Do you engage in intense physical activity for over thirty minutes daily?

Answering yes to any of these questions could mean you need more B-complex and the antioxidant vitamins, C and E.

All metabolisms require the seven B vitamins. Research has shown that under physical stress, especially physical injury, the body needs more of these nutrients. Similarly, people under emotional stress often feel more relaxed when they take B-complex vitamins in amounts over and above the multiple vitamin and mineral supplement.

Many experts call the B-complex vitamins stress relievers, and some physicians prescribe them when people are under stress, especially when they feel depressed. Depression and insomnia are stress symptoms.

The simplest way to rule out a B-complex shortage is to simply take an extra amount as a daily supplement. If you take a B-complex supplement, make sure your supplement is balanced with respect to the RDI.

Research suggests that the RDI of vitamin C should be about 100 to 150 milligrams under most conditions. If you live or work in a smoky environment, or must commute long hours in a car while in traffic, you need more vitamin C than provided by the RDI.

When your body is under stress, your vitamin C level drops. Inadequate vitamin C causes leukocytes, or white blood cells, and antibodies to drop below normal levels.

These cells drop as much as 25 percent, and those that survive lose as much as 25 percent of their ability to attack foreign agents, which adds up to a 50 percent loss.

With this defense against disease weakened, cold viruses can multiply. This explains why a physical stress, like a chill, or emotional stress can bring on a cold.

Conversely, vitamin C speeds up the production of antibodies, which is why vitamin C makes the cold less severe. Physical stress as determined by testing athletes increases the vitamin C requirement.

To translate an athlete’s need to the average person in a stressful job or a homemaker with several children is not scientifically valid. However, taking up to 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C daily does have some benefits and no negative side effects.

A suggested minimum level is between 100 and 500 milligrams of vitamin C daily. These levels can be achieved by starting your day with orange juice and then making sure you get at least four or more servings of fruits and vegetables.

If you decide on a special vitamin C supplement, select one that provides 500 milligrams per tablet. Should you decide you need 1,000 milligrams daily, take one 500 milligrams tablet twice daily, in the morning and evening. P

eople who regularly use aspirin or other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) require more vitamin C, as do people who use steroids. In both cases, an extra 500 milligrams of vitamin C daily will cover the requirement. Age spots ( fleurs de cimitiere in French) appear on the backs of our hands, on our faces, and on other parts of the body.

Though you can’t see them, they also appear on the internal organs. Age spots are accumulations of pigments involving rancid oils, called lipofuscin. French folk wisdom holds that wheat germ or wheat germ oil prevents age spots.

The only nutritional way to prevent the onset of age spots is with vitamin E, and wheat germ oil happens to be the best natural source. This folk wisdom goes right to the heart of vitamins E’s function: preventing the oxidation of essential oils in the body.

In this way, vitamin E actually slows the aging process. If you want to get 50 milligrams of vitamin E daily, you will need to take a supplement that contains at least 30 milligrams, and you’d be better off taking one that provides 40 milligrams.

One advantage of taking extra vitamin E is that your body stores it, unlike vitamin C, which must be replaced daily. Therefore, if you took a 400-I.U. supplement or 240 milligrams once weekly, that would maintain a running average of about 50 milligrams daily if you eat a good diet.

Since almost all the most concentrated sources of vitamin E are very high in calories, a vitamin E supplement will more easily fit into your calorie limits. The vitamin E should be made from D alphatocopherol.

It can be in the acetate or succinate form. If it is DL, don’t purchase it. The D is the effective form; having both isomers, D and L, can actually reduce the effectiveness of vitamin E.