Raw Deal on Vitamins
The latest in Gullible's travels...
More Poop to influence doctors' minds. Hidden in this report is the fact that they halted the Beta Carotene portion - not because of their findings, but because of the Finnish report that Beta carotene increased the risk of lung cancer in smokers. We have since learned the Finish analysis was Bogus .
CW
"In your article the opinion that "vitamins are largely unregulated is repeated. Medical interests are asking for dietary supplements to be treated like drugs. This is contrary to the relative safety of these two classes of products. There are few deaths attributed to dietary supplements despite an estimated 85% of the public using them; most of these haven't been scientifically proven.
Just because supplements are not regulated like drugs, are they "unregulated? Adverse reactions to "properly prescribed drugs cause over 100,000 deaths and a million hospitalizations per year; taking a dietary supplement is statistically safer than a meal. Why should we treat them the same?"Yes these prostitutes have their marching orders and no amount of data ever seems to be enough but on the other hand the scantiest crap suiting their industry cronies immediately gets enacted!
Chris Gupta
See also:
Vitamin E: Safe, Effective, and Heart-Healthy
Vitamins E, C effective in high doses - prevent Alzheimers
Vitamins nowhere to be seen on death's radar screen
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I was dismayed to see such a shallow view of vitamin safety in your article "The Real Deal on Vitamins (3/24/05).
Statistical experts have discredited the extremely poor meta-analysis that re-analyzed only 19 studies on Vitamin E, with responses posted on the journal's web site. These studies did not use uniform forms or doses, unfairly adding variables while ignoring positive effects of the vitamin. The authors acknowledge that their findings do not apply to healthier populations and are not definitive.
A more recent JAMA article on Vitamin E is also guilty of using very sick patients and subjects positive data on Vitamin E's benefits to more stringent standards than the skimpy negative data. The national Institute of Medicine's safe upper limit of 1,500 I.U. per day of natural Vitamin E is based on their own review of hundreds of well-designed studies.The National Institutes of Health (NIH) supports the ongoing Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT), a multi-center long-term double-blind randomized trial that includes 35,534 men age 55 and older taking 400 IU of vitamin E daily to verify earlier evidence of it preventing prostate cancer. Researchers carefully examined the data from these negative reports and decided not to change their protocol, still believing that Vitamin E is not likely to cause any harm to their patients.
Beta-carotene is cited as putting smokers at greater risk of lung cancer, but a follow up study revealed that the real danger was due to low total antioxidant levels. There is no published evidence that the average person taking a mixture of antioxidants is at greater risk of any disease, and plenty that they are protective.
The scientific method of giving large doses of one isolated supplement is more likely to cause statistically minor negatives, especially when variables are introduced by poor study protocols.
In your article the opinion that "vitamins are largely unregulated is repeated. Medical interests are asking for dietary supplements to be treated like drugs. This is contrary to the relative safety of these two classes of products. There are few deaths attributed to dietary supplements despite an estimated 85% of the public using them; most of these haven't been scientifically proven.
Just because supplements are not regulated like drugs, are they "unregulated? Adverse reactions to "properly prescribed drugs cause over 100,000 deaths and a million hospitalizations per year; taking a dietary supplement is statistically safer than a meal. Why should we treat them the same?
The FDA acknowledges its responsibility to assure the safety and accurate labeling of all dietary supplements, requiring pre-market approval of new ingredients. All vitamin companies are subject to FDA inspections, and many by independent certifiers.
Neil E. Levin, Certified Clinical Nutritionist*
Saint Charles, IL
*Now Foods Truth Advocate, and is willing to respond to incorrect information as time permits.
REFERENCES:
1. July 2004 American Journal of Epidemiology Development of a Comprehensive Dietary Antioxidant Index and Application to Lung Cancer Risk in a Cohort of Male Smokers
Margaret E. Wright , Susan T. Mayne, Rachael Z. Stolzenberg-Solomon, Zhaohai Li, Pirjo Pietinen, Philip R. Taylor, Jarmo Virtamo and Demetrius Albanes
2. High-dose vitamin E supplementation may increase all-cause mortality, a dose response meta-analysis of randomized trials; To be published in Annals of Internal Medicine:
Online: Nov. 10, 2004:
Print: 4 January 2005 | Volume 142 Issue 1
Letters3. Am Journal Preventive Medicine 24:43-51, January 2003, Dietary supplement use and medical conditions Satia-Abouta J, Kristal AR, Patterson RE, Littman AJ, Stratton KL, White E
4. J Nutr. 2003 Oct;133(10):3137-40 Huang HY, Appel LJ Supplementation of diets with alpha-tocopherol reduces serum concentrations of gamma- and delta-tocopherol in humans.
5. The Lewin Group, DaVanzo, J. et al, "Improving Public Health, Reducing Health Care Costs: An Evidence-Based Study of Five Dietary Supplements," September 22, 2004.
6. The Lewin Group, Al Dobson, Ph.D., et al, A Study of the Cost Effects of Daily Multivitamins for Older Adults. Prepared for: Wyeth Consumer Healthcare
7. Richer S, Stiles W, Statkute L et al. Optometry. 2004;75:216-30. Double-masked, placebo-controlled, randomized trial of lutein and antioxidant supplementation in the intervention of atrophic age-related macular degeneration: the Veterans LAST study (Lutein Antioxidant Supplementation Trial)
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Antioxidant may have adverse effects in head and neck cancer patients...Here is the real story...
New data finds antioxidant combo decreases smokers' cancer risk
09/08/2004 - Smokers taking a wide range of antioxidants through their diet appear to have a lower risk of lung cancer, according to a recent study.
The results counter the findings of a trial carried out in the 90s, the Finnish ATBC study, which found an increased risk of the disease for smokers with high beta-carotene intake.
In the new study, researchers from Yale University and other US institutes together with colleagues from the National Public Health Institute in Helsinki, Finland analysed the same data but looked at the total intake of antioxidants, including selenium, vitamin E, vitamin C as well as carotenoids and flavonoids, rather than one single antioxidant.
At baseline (19851988), 27,111 Finnish male smokers aged 5069 years completed a dietary questionnaire that assessed usual frequency of consumption and portion sizes for the previous 12 months. A total of 1,787 incident cases of lung cancer were identified during a follow-up period of up to 14.4 years (19851999).
Writing in the 1 July issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology (160:68-76), the researchers report that smokers in the top quintile of dietary antioxidant intake had a 16 per cent lower risk of lung cancer compared to those with the lowest intake.
Smokers who ate large amounts of meat had a 25 per cent decrease, despite red meat having a high oxidative effect.
The Vitality Council, a Danish organisation set up by the Danish Society for Orthomolecular Medicine and producers and distributors of vitamins and minerals to inform consumers and health professionals about new research, said the results are of "great importance, because they are sourced from the same ATBC study, which has been one of the most outspoken arguments to warn against antioxidants".
posted by Chris Gupta on Thursday April 7 2005
updated on Saturday September 24 2005URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2005/04/07/raw_deal_on_vitamins.htm
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