Posted on 04/15/2008 8:34:19 PM PDT by blam
Vitamin pills 'increase risk of early death'
By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 16/04/2008
Popular vitamin supplements taken by millions of people in the hope of improving their health may do no good and could increase the risk of a premature death, researchers report today.
They warn healthy people who take antioxidant supplements, including vitamins A and E, to try to keep diseases such as cancer at bay that they are interfering with their natural body defences and may be increasing their risk of an early death by up to 16 per cent.
Antioxidants, including vitamins A, E, and C are said to mop up free radicals, which cause disease
Researchers at Copenhagen University carried out a review of 67 studies on 230,000 healthy people and found "no convincing evidence" that any of the antioxidants helped to prolong life expectancy. But some "increased mortality".
About 12 million Britons supplement their diets with vitamins and the industry is worth £330 million. But little research has been done on the long-term health implications.
The Department of Health said yesterday that people should try to get the vitamins they need by eating a balanced diet and advised care in taking large doses of supplements.
A spokesman said: "There is a need to exercise caution in the use of high doses of purified supplements of vitamins, including antioxidant vitamins, and minerals. Their impact on long-term health may not have been fully established and they cannot be assumed to be without risk.
"Anyone concerned about their diet should speak to their doctor or dietitian."
Antioxidants, including vitamins A, E, C and beta-carotene and selenium, are said to mop up compounds, called free radicals, which cause disease. It is this action that researchers believe may cause problems with the defence system.
The Danish research, released by the influential Cochrane Library, applied only to synthetic supplements and not to vitamins that occur naturally in vegetables and fruit.
It found that vitamin A supplements increased the risk of death in healthy people by 16 per cent. Taking beta-carotene was linked to a 7 per cent increased risk, while regular users of vitamin E supplements increased the risk of an early death by four per cent.
Although the review found no significant detrimental effect caused by vitamin C, it found no evidence that it helped ward off disease. Millions take it in the hope of avoiding a common cold.
Goran Bjelakovic, who led the review, said: "We could find no evidence to support taking antioxidant supplements to reduce the risk of dying earlier in healthy people or patients with various diseases.
"If anything, people in trial groups given the antioxidants beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E showed increased rates of mortality."
But Patrick Holford, a nutritionist who has formulated supplements for the company Biocare, said: "Antioxidants are not meant to be magic bullets and should not be expected to undo a lifetime of unhealthy habits.
"When used properly, in combination with a healthy diet full of fruit and vegetables, getting plenty of exercise and not smoking, antioxidant supplements can play an important role in maintaining and promoting overall health."
A spokesman for the Health Supplements Information Service said: "People should get all the vitamins and minerals they need from their diet, but for the millions who are not able to do that, vitamins can be a useful supplement and they should not stop taking them."
However, Catherine Collins, of the British Dietetic Association, said: "This study is deeply worrying and shows that there should be more regulation for vitamins and minerals.
"The public can buy vitamins as easily as sweets. They should be treated in the same way as paracetamol with maximum limits on the dosage."
What did you do ? Put your pecker in the blender ? =8-0>
Um...You held your fingers over an open flame and burned the psoriasis off?
The objective is to wipe out the over the counter supplements industry. As you observed, most doctors are clueless on the topic. It's a safe bet that pharmacies would never maintain the stock levels that you find over the counter today. Certainly not at current prices after having to visit a doctor for a prescription and bother a pharmacist to fetch the goods. Further, CODEX would likely outlaw the manufacture of most items available today.
From what I’ve read, this actually may be worth a try. I’m going to do a bit more research.
Seriously, I actually sured a pretty bad case of it, using “new Skin’ painted on the ends of my fingers. It was an open, bleeding sores mess that I was wearing vinyl gloves to keep blood off of my keyboard. I tried painting the ‘New Skin’ on, to avoid the sweaty gloves. The psoriasis went away immediately and has never returned. A doctor friend says I should write it up and submit it to JAMA or the podiatric journal. I’m retired from the pharmaceutical business, so I told him he could do it, if he would treat one or two patients that way and see if they got similar results. I haven’t had lunch with him for two years now, so I don’t know if he did it or not.
The Aussie/English slang for nose is pecker. I’m gonna presume you were referring to my nose ...
I don’t know where you get your information, and in fact, I don’t care, just don’t equate Calvinism with ANYTHING to do with Islam, ok?
Islam worships one God who is Allah. Jesus, to them is a holy man, only. Calvinists believe in the Triune God.
It ain’t dinner unless there’s meat!!!
I KNOW coffee is good for me. I can smell it and taste it.
Chocolate, too.
So in your view God can’t stop people from dying if He wants to?
Either He decides when people die, or, He sits by helplessly.
I think the Bible shows the former, given the Bible verses mentioned previously.
The muslims believe there is just one God. They are right about that. That doesn’t mean I’m a muslim. They think stealing is a sin, so do I. Etc. They can have some correct concepts, as many religions do, without being the one true faith.
I dunno, there’s also rice & split peas... I can’t have four veggies with dinner, there’d be no room for the beef!
Coffee is another one of those things that was going to kill, but is now beneficial. lol.
Yup, and it is their loss.
Here's the handy rule for evaluating whether or not you need to make major life choices on the basis of published study - convert the increased risk to betting odds and see whether or not it's a bad bet. In the quoted part above, the "betting line" would be 1.07:1 - considering of course that even money is 1:1 odds. By contrast the line for getting lung cancer from smoking is 7:1. Given the weakness of the statistical method, it's almost certain that there is no significant added risk.
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