RDA & DRI

I am concerned about women getting brittle bones from not enough calcium. I don't like to drink milk except with cereal. How do you get your daily requirement of calcium? You can meet the Recommended Dietary Allowance of 1,000 milligrams (women or men 19 to 50 years of age) to 1,200 milligrams (women or...

Under our federal guidelines for WIC (Women, Infants, and Children), we can only give out iron-fortified formula until 12 months of age. Every so often we hear from parents that a doctor told them that they don't need iron-fortified formula because they will pick up iron from the rural well water they use. Most...

My question concerns the use of zinc and vitamin C to enhance a man's fertility. My husband and I are currently trying to have a baby and he was advised to supplement his diet with vitamin C and zinc. Is there any scientific merit to this advice and if so, how much of each...

Hi! I am a nutrition student doing an internship and one of my projects is to revise a Coumadin diet instruction sheet for patients. I was wondering if you could send me a listing of foods high in vitamin K with values i.e. micrograms (mcg). There has been some conflicting information on vitamin K...

I have a question regarding bruising. I am a very active person, but I bruise a lot easier than I've noticed on other people. Also, when I do bruise, bruises stay for quite a while. I have started taking my multivitamin at the recommended dosage, but I am wondering if I am lacking a...

Good website. I just had outpatient facial surgery to remove a sebaceous cyst. The surgery was done by a plastic surgeon who appears to have a done a good job, leaving only a minor scar. My sister says I should rub vitamin E on the scar and it will disappear. I have also read...

I am a young student presently in the 9th grade. Your site is awesome! I am doing a project in biology class and I chose to do it on vitamin A. Your site was the only one that had some vital information on vitamin A. I was hoping that you could somehow give me...

There have never been documented cases of nerve damage caused by vitamin B6 at doses of less than 500 milligrams a day. Please provide me with the documentation that says otherwise. Three hundred milligrams a day of vitamin B6 is safe and has been documented over and over to cure carpal tunnel. Please do...

Please post the conversion factor between an international unit of a vitamin and its metric equivalent. i.e. how many IU = X milligrams or micrograms? An international unit of a vitamin varies. I use the following table from "Food Chemistry and Nutritional Biochemistry by Zapsalis and Beck. Vitamin A, 1 IU retinol = 0.300 - 0.344...

What is your opinion of colloidal minerals? Thanks for your help! Colloidal minerals are molecules of minerals suspended in a liquid. The particles are not dissolved and may carry an electrical charge which enables them to combine with another particle to make a compound and precipitate out as a solid. These electrically charged particles are...