The News-Times

Healthy food offers enough vitamins

- Keith Roach, M.D. Readers may email questions to: ToYourGood­Health@med .cornell.edu or mail questions to 628 Virginia Dr., Orlando, FL 32803.

Dear Dr. Roach: I follow you regularly, but I haven’t heard one word on ways to build your immunity.

Supplement­s abound, offering strength for the immune system. For me, some have been a tremendous support. I’m 65 and thankfully healthy, but I take vitamin Bs and Ds, and many other body-support supplement­s.

Why no mention of supplement­s? Surely you believe in commonsens­e vitamins and nutritiona­l supplement­s. Of course, I also eat lots of fruits and vegetables, etc., but our foods simply do NOT provide enough.

S.S.

Answer: I don’t recommend vitamins or supplement­s to build the immune system because I disagree with you that our foods don’t provide enough.

I am all for common sense, but what one generation considers common sense can be proven completely wrong in another generation.

I believe in data, and there are now strong data showing that additional vitamin supplement­ation in people who consume a healthy diet provides no benefit.

There is also not much evidence that dietary supplement­s lead to any measurable improvemen­ts in healthy people.

For people with an unhealthy diet, efforts to make their diet healthier are more likely to result in a better outcome than supplement­s. The immune system cannot be boosted through supplement­s.

It may work poorly through frank deficienci­es, but this is uncommon.

I may well be proven wrong. If good data show that nutritiona­l supplement­s improve the function of the immune system, or any other significan­t health outcome in a well-done trial, I’ll publish it in my column.

Dear Dr. Roach: This might be a frivolous question, but is it safe to get a tattoo if I have a pacemaker? I have been told it is not safe, but I don’t think much research has been done. Your answer could save people from a needless risk.

S.B.

Answer: I don’t think it is frivolous at all. Many people are getting tattoos, and considerin­g the medical risks of a tattoo is important, especially in older adults or those with greater medical issues. When researchin­g the answer, I found a lot of conflictin­g informatio­n.

Because tattooing machines emit an electromag­netic field, there is a theoretica­l reason to be concerned. Strong magnetic fields turn pacemakers off, by design.

However, the field of a tattoo machine is not strong, and Medtronic, one of the largest pacemaker manufactur­ers, considers tattoo machines to be minimal risk. It recommends keeping the tattoo machine at least 6 inches away from the pacemaker.

I read many reports of people getting tattoos right on top of the pacemaker without problems, but I would recommend being conservati­ve.

By contrast, an induction cooktop has a much stronger magnetic field and is a much higher risk.

Medtronic recommends keeping a pacemaker 2 feet away. A microwave oven presents no danger at all to pacemaker function, presuming it is in good working condition.

There are still some tattoos made by hand, without a machine, especially in traditions from Japan and Hawaii. These would be safest from the standpoint of a pacemaker.

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