A good reference book for these supplements is Prescription for Nutritional Healing by James F. and Phyllis A. Balch.  There is a lot of clinical data now available in books for sale in the health food stores.

Vitamin E -  In 1967, someone suggested that vitamin E would be good for me to take.  For as long as I could remember up to that time, I had what I would call "creaky" joints.  If I would sit still for a few minutes, then move my head slightly, my neck vertebrae moved like a rusty hinge, as though they needed lubrication.  The same thing happened with my fingers, elbows and knees.  I thought: If race horses need it, why not humans?  So I began taking 1200 IU per day, and all that cleared up.  I've read (and experienced) that it takes about two weeks to see the results of taking vitamin E.  The creaky condition has never recurred, even though I am now age 83.

Vitamins A & D  - I take vitamins A and D only as a precaution, but I think it improved my skin, because some old skin blemishes disappeared.  It is good for the eyes and the immune system.  Beta carotene is a precursor to vitamin A, and is recommended for the eyes.  You can now get special formulations for the eyes, which include beta carotene and other supplements, such as bilberry.

Vitamin C  - My introduction to vitamin C might be unusual.  Somewhat before the age of 50 I began to have trouble with hemorrhoids.  It was so annoying, I went to a doctor, requesting surgical correction, but was advised: "This may be only a temporary flare-up.  Come back in a month, and we will discuss it some more."  Shortly after that meeting, I read a letter to the editor in Prevention Magazine, in which the writer was commenting on an earlier article about the benefits of vitamin C.  That writer said, "You left out one thing: it's good for hemorrhoids."  So I began to take vitamin C, and within three days I had a bottom like a baby. As the years go by, age will make a difference, but vitamin C is valuable for health.

PABA (para-amino benzoic acid) - This is a B vitamin, often used in sun lotions as a protection against sunburn.  However, most people seem not to know that it's even more effective taken internally.  Until you try it, you probably won't believe the stories I could tell you about my own experience, so I will omit them.  I'll just tell you that if I plan to have much exposure to the sun on a given day, I take one 500mg tablet in the morning and another at noon.  Doing that, I rarely have any noticeable sunburn, and what I might get will heal up overnight.  This does not mean that I can expose my body to full sun all day; it only means that I have a great deal more tolerance to the sun than without it.

Pantothenic Acid - Another B vitamin.  I do not take this as a separate vitamin, but I have read that it's very good to take for a few days in advance of elective abdominal surgery.  I have read that it will reduce or eliminate intestinal paralysis associated with surgery.  When I had my main abdominal surgery for cancer in 1972 (see the main Health Notes page), my intestines were in paralysis for almost five days.  I later read that this might have been greatly reduced or eliminated with pantothenic acid.  Since my medical doctor knew nothing about this, I suggest that if you are facing elective surgery, you first contact a naturopath to see what nutritional preparations you might make.

Bioflavonoids and Rutin - These substances are said to improve the health of blood vessels, especially varicose veins.  This would include hemorrhoids.  I take a combination product called Biorutin.

Evening Primrose Oil - All my life I have had thin skin and thin fingernails.  In the year 2000 my nails got so thin and weak, they were all broken off down to the quick.  A friend told me I needed omega 3 fatty acids - gamma-linoleic acid (GLA), linoleic acid and oleic acid.  Evening primrose oil is a good source of these, but there are other good sources too.  I began to take 1 gram three times per day, and my nails returned to the best they had ever been, even in my youth.  Since this is an oil-based substance, and since fingernails take a long time to grow out, it took several months to see the results, but they were spectacular.

Zinc for Men - I think zinc is to men what iron is to women.  Men, and especially growing boys, need adequate zinc for normal growth and maintenance of the sex organs.  There is an article in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition of November or December 1973 that illustrates this need.  Photos of a growing boy in Egypt with zinc deficiency showed subnormal development of the secondary sex characteristics, including retarded growth of the sex organs, and rapid recovery when zinc was added to the diet.  I happened on to this article while looking for something else.  Zinc, along with certain herbs, is also recommended for maintenance of the prostate.  Probably best known of these herbs is saw palmetto.

Dimethylglycine (DMG) - This is a remarkable substance with an interesting history.  I first became aware of it in 1973 when I visited the home of the co-discoverer, Dr. Ernst T. Krebs, Jr.  Dr. Krebs was attempting to get it recognized as a vitamin, but it doesn't quite qualify in that its absence does not produce a specific disease.  Pure n,n-dimethylglycine is hygroscopic (absorbs water from the air and dissolves into a liquid).  I think this is the reason it was being combined with calcium and called calcium pangamate.  I think the substance called pangamic acid was the pure substance.  At any rate, this substance greatly increases the ability of the body to take up oxygen, and that alone is of great value.  Athletes have discovered its value in competition, and I have read that members of the Russian olympic team use it regularly.  I have a copy of Russian medical experiments with this published in 1968.  One of the main benefits discovered is that diabetics losing their circulation of the extremities (aggravated by frostbite) were greatly helped with this substance.  FoodScience of Vermont has several US patents on the claim that it enhances the immune response.

So, what does it do for you?  Aside from (or maybe because of - remember, I'm not a professional in this) the obvious benefits of increased oxygen uptake, it accelerates the neutralization of lactic acid in the muscles.  This means that if you do some unusual physical activity that would produce sore muscles (lactic acid), the effect will disappear much more quickly or perhaps not appear at all.  Throughout my life, until the age of about 65, when I began taking DMG regularly, I used to need chiropractic adjustment from time to time to take care of stiff neck or agonizing muscle spasms in the back.  But since I began taking DMG, I haven't needed this.  If I do something stressful - like carrying too much firewood or concrete blocks - that would give me sore neck and back muscles, I just pop a little extra DMG, and that's the end of it.  But I could still get immobilizing pain (not muscle pain) in the lower back, and that's the subject of the next item.

CALCIUM OROTATE - I have already included a lecture on this by Dr. Hans Nieper (Health Notes page), so I won't add much here.  The main thing I want to add is that evidently it isn't necessary to get the minimum daily requirement of calcium this way in order to experience the benefits. My reasoning is that we do not need all of our calcium in the heart of the cell.  And since this stuff is expensive, try taking only about one-third of the daily requirement this way, and the rest through cheaper means.  Try different amounts until you find what seems to be sufficient.  The evidence to look for is reduced or eliminated lower back pain.  Since calcium and magnesium are supposed to be in the ratio of 2 to 1, try taking half as much magnesium orotate as calcium orotate.  I take 300 mg of the calcium per day and 150 of the magnesium, and I seldom have any more back pain, whereas before I began taking it I often had severe immobilizing pain that would take more than a week to subside.  The location of the back pain seems to be in the cartilage rather than the bone itself.