Riboflavin

ON MARCH 9, 1972 the Congressional authors of the new cancer attack law introduced a $ 1.3 billion bill to intensify the battle against heart, lung, and blood vessel diseases. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D., Mass,) and Rep. Paul G. Rogers (D., Fla), the co-sponsors, said that the proposed legislation was aimed at arresting diseases which annually cause more than half the deaths in the United States. Under the legislation, there would be community-based centers for screening and education as part of a disease-control program. In addition, there would be 15 new clinical research facilities for pulmonary disease.  

In the past, too little attention has been paid to the prevention of diseases, rather than trying to cure the disease after the patient has contracted it. And there is every indication that most of our major ills may be nutritionally based. Such things as cancer, heart disease multiple sclerosis, alcoholism, cataracts, mental disorders —yes, even aging—may be due to an imbalance of nutrients in our bodies or perhaps a damaging shortage of one or more vitamins or minerals. Riboflavin, or vitamin B2, is only one of the substances that may turn out to be at the forefront of this fight. A yellowish nitrogenous polyhydroxy alcohol, B2 was isolated as a vitamin in 1933 by R. Kuhn, P. Gyorgy, and T. Wagner-Jauregg. It occurs in considerable portions in egg white and whole eggs, milk, whey, brewer yeast, liver, whole grains, and soybeans. Dr. Otto Heinrich Warburg, a physician, two-time Nobel Laureate, and a former director of the Max Planck Institute of Cell Physiology in Germany, was a pioneer in the investigation of oxidation and reduction. 

One of the works leading biochemists, Warburg theorized that cancer cells produce energy by the fermentation of sugar, rather than, as often suspected, by the normal respiratory process. He further believed that the key to cancer prevention was in the protection of cellular respiration through the utilization of riboflavin and niacin. Dr. Warburg, who died in August 1970 at the age of 86, was also one of the first to discover the high production of lactic acid (an acid found in the blood and connected with muscle fatigue) by cancer tissues.  Hopefully, other researchers are continuing Dr Warburg’s important research. Dr Albert B. Sabin, developer of the oral polio vaccine that bears his name, told the Fifth International Symposium on Comparative Leukemia Research at Padua, Italy in 1971, that more research is needed on the role of nutrition in the possible prevention of cancer. 

He told Congress that crash programs to develop a miraculous cancer vaccine cure, rather than a method of prevention, are doomed to failure. We usually think of anemia as having to do with a lack of iron in food. And there is more serious anemia caused by certain very toxic drugs. As we learn from medical journals, pernicious anemia can be prevented and cured by taking vitamin B12, along with certain substances that help the stomach absorb it. According to two Baylor University researchers in Texas, however, a deficiency of riboflavin can cause anemia, Eight volunteers were put on a diet from which all riboflavin was carefully excluded. Then they were given vitamin supplements to make sure that they had enough of all other vitamins and minerals, The volunteers rapidly developed anemia, resulting in disorders of the blood cells and of the bone marrow where certain blood cells are manufactured. 

When vitamin B2 was given again, the anemia was halted. Cataract, which is generally thought to be a disorder of old age, affects over five million Americans between the ages of 80 and 60, Cataract is a fogging of the eye lens and may eventually result in complete blindness, The medical treatment is an operation which removes the cataract; then special glasses are prescribed. Unfortunately, many of the operations are not successful. Cataracts can easily be produced in laboratory animals by depriving them of riboflavin. In one experiment all the rats whose diets contained no vitamin B2 got cataracts. But it was only early in life that the deficient diet produced the effect in other words, the rats were young when they got the diet that was lacking in the B vitamin. 

Guinea pigs and man are just a few of the animals that cannot manufacture their own vitamin C. So diets deficient in vitamin C can produce scurvy. These same diets can also produce cataracts. A diet low in protein has also been linked to this eye disorder. Adelle Davis, who has written many excellent books, including Let’s Get Well, stated: “My files contain dozens of unsolicited letters from persons who have recovered from cataracts after their diets were more adequate, often while they were preparing for surgery. People sometimes take only a riboflavin supplement and then wonder why their eyes fail to improve. An anti-stress diet high in protein, riboflavin, vitamin C, vitamin E, pantothenic acid, and all nutrients is essential before good results can be expected.” (Additional information on the relationship be. Tween Cataracts and Nutrition is published in Vitamin C, the Powerhouse Vitamin, Conquers More Than Just Colds, which is listed in the bibliography at the end of this book). 

Four important studies of aging people seem to demonstrate two related facts: 1. Lack of essential nutrients may be a very common cause of aging; and 2. Older folks may in truth be far less than they need of many essential food elements. Geriatrics for March 1968 published an article by three Chicago researchers on the actual circumstances of our approximately 20 million senior citizens where eating and nutrition are concerned. They asked questions about the kind of diet being eaten by the elderly and the reasons for it. Their conclusions are significant. First, they point out that, although babies differ greatly in their individual physiological make-up, old folks differ far more, since they have a lifetime to accumulate all kinds of damage from accidents, surgery, disease, poison’ from drugs, and pollution, along with bad habits such as smoking and eating unwisely. 

So, if we agree that each of us is different in our needs, we must go further with older folks and decide that each of them is even more varied from all other old folks in his present condition and needs. Then, too, we must admit that most old folks suffer from at least one chronic disorder. According to these scientists, about 75% of all people between 65 and 74 years of age have chronic conditions and the incidence is even higher in those over 75. And, as we learned at the White House Conference on Aging in 1971, disease is not the only problem our senior citizens face. Lack of money and means of transportation, loneliness, and inadequate nutrition are some of the others. A 1955 dietary survey revealed that homes with homemakers over 60 and older have poorer diets in regard to all nutrients than households with younger cooks. Riboflavin, calcium, and vitamin C were the essentials most often lacking. Iron and thiamine are also usually in short supply. As people age beyond 65, their diets become progressively worse. Tea, toast, cereals, and sweets are most often favored. Some of the results of such badly planned diets are widespread anemia due to lack of iron and a bone condition that is almost universal-osteoporosis-which many nutrition experts believe is caused chiefly by lack of calcium and vitamin D. 

Since obesity and overweight are rather common among old folks, it seems apparent that the day's calories which should be spent in high ten foods (rich in vitamins and minerals) are often wasted instead on non-nourishing foods which contribute little but excess weight. Those on reducing diets tend to lack vitamins and minerals since it is hard to plan such diets which will supply all the needed nutrients. The conclusion these authors came to was that perhaps one-third or more of all people 65 and over have diets containing less than the recommended amounts of essential nutrients, especially vitamin B2, vitamin C, and calcium. Another study, made by six physicians at a British hospital catering only to old people, was published in Gerontologica Clinica (Volume 10, 1968). 

They examined 80 elderly patients who had lived in the hospital for a long time, They looked for signs of vitamin deficiency in the majority of patients. Only seven of the 80 appeared to be relatively free of such symptoms. To make sure that the symptoms indicated vitamin deficiency and nothing else, they divided the group into two groups and gave one group a vitamin supplement, and the other a simple pill which contained nothing. The group getting the vitamin supplement showed improvement within six months, and much more improvement within a year. The group which received no vitamin supplement showed no improvement. Especially interesting was the fact that apparently unrelated symptoms of bed sores yielded to the vitamin supplement. Said the authors: “One feature that has been observed in this study is the slow rate at which certain of the pathological (disease) changes can be reversed by even high doses of vitamins. It would seem that, like many other conditions, early changes are reversible but that if these remain untreated for a sufficient length of time then irreversible changes occur”.

 In a third article bearing on this subject, three Connecticut doctors studied 50 men and women at a nursing home for the aged trying to discover whether they suffered from being unable to absorb the food they ate. These older folks suffered from what the doctors called “The usual diseases of old age, such as osteoporosis, arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), general mental confusion, and so forth.” Nine of them showed symptoms of severe wasting. That is, they were excessively thin, apathetic, and suffering from severe mental abnormalities. Is it possible, the doctors asked in this study, that one reason for the condition of these old people is just that they do not absorb enough nutrients from their food to bring them good health? They found that this, indeed, was the case. Many of the patients were unable to absorb important essential nutrients like protein, vitamin A, and fat (which influences the absorption of all fat-soluble vitamins—A, D, E, and K). 

The investigators also found that all of them were suffering, to some degree, from an inability pie? 50 to handle starches and sugars. That is, their blood sugar levels were disordered. They tended {to be diabetic. The patients who appeared to be wasting away were found to be the least able to absorb their food properly. The fourth article that we refer to appeared in the April 1966 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Written by a Belgian physician, a specialist in the problems of hows older people, it takes the form of a new theory Diet on why we age. No one really knows, of course, just why or how we get old or why some people seem to age so much faster than others. Piecing together information from many different sources, Dr. H. LeComte presented his new theory of aging: that we age because we have serious deficiencies in essential nutrients. 

Severe premature aging is caused by serious deficiencies; less pronounced aging is caused by lesser deficiencies and so on. “From this, we conclude that the so-called ‘normal aging’ is caused by small (maybe not to be diagnosed, but, nevertheless, real) deficiencies,” he said, He tells us that the illness or illnesses of an elderly patient can be far more easily cured if he is amply supplied with all the things in which he has been deficient. Then he tells us that there is a large group of older folks who appear to be healthy but who complain of “all sorts of troubles of which fatigue is the most important.” These complaints, he said, are the results of one or several deficiencies and they can be treated by supplying the essential nutrients in plentiful amounts, (Another theory on why we grow old_ is explored in the book, Vitamin E, Wonder Worker of the ’70’s?”, listed in the bibliography). 

In order to determine how much of each vitamin and mineral we need each day, every household should have a copy of Recommended Dietary Allowances, 7th Edition, 1968, available from the Printing and Publishing Office, National Academy of Sciences, 2101 Constitution Ave., Washington, D. C. 20418. It costs $1.75. The next edition is due out in 1978. For example, how much riboflavin do you need each day? For infants, the official daily recommendation is from 0.4 to 0.6 milligrams; for children, from 0.6 to 1.2 milligrams; for males, it is 1.3 for boys up to 1.7 for adults; for women, the range is 1.3 milligrams for girls to 1.5 milligrams for adults; pregnancy requires 1.8 milligrams daily and for lactation 2 milligrams each day.  A chart on page 234 gives some of the major sources of riboflavin.