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."
My mother’s doctor says butter is much better for you than margarine.
My great-grandfather lived to be 88 yrs. old. He enjoyed eating homemade sausage, fresh pork, canned pork, cured pork, eggs, foods fried in lard, whole milk, homemade biscuits made with lard and dripping with melted butter, homemade preserves, syrups, and jellies, buttermilk, strong coffee, and almost everything we’ve been told will kill us, and he was healthy.
Interesting. I guess it sort of makes sense since it’s a scar treatment that kills germs.
Reminds me of the time I accidentally stabbed myself really deep on the end of my thumb when a sharp, thin knife I was using slipped. It was so deep it was bleeding like crazy and wouldn’t stop. I Krazy Glued the wound back together. Worked great. Have since heard of other people doing this.
There is a type of cynoacrylate (sp?) glue used routinely in surgery.
Of course, this little gem is buried in the middle of the article...
Bumping your post.
I believe there was already a move to ban or limit vitamins & nutritional supplements that was defeated recently.
I once asked an acquaintance whether he wore his seat belt when driving. He told me that he didn't bother, because when it's was God's will for him to go, he'd go, and nothing he could do would change that fact. I then asked him whether he'd mind climbing to the top of a local water tower right that moment and jumping off. If it wasn't "his time" he'd survive. If it were "his time" then it would simply be the will of God, and no great tragedy. Needless to say, he declined to carry out the experiment.
He has given us the power of choice. If you choose to eat crap, you will die before your "ideal" time.
"Be not deceived, God is not mocked, whatsoever a man sows, he shall reap..."
We allowed the Government to control what we put into our bodies. Hell, most of us cheered it on. It’s like the old joke: We’ve already determined what we are, now we’re just hashing out the details.
Perhaps there's a tendency of those who take these vitamins to feels they can take more lifestyle risks? It's hard to imagine that a nutritionally complete diet would increase health issues.
“There is no “early death”, there is only death. We all die when we are supposed to. Not a minute sooner.”
That is correct. Each of us has his or her name written on God’s calendar in two places. One is on our birth date and the other is on our death date.
That "we" is a very broad brush. I doubt that most people had anything to do with the creation of the current bureaucracies or many of the policies they inflict up on us. The election of leftist politicians promotes leftist behavior in the government. In that respect, the collective "we" that elected them deserve the consequences.
btt
My faith rests in Jesus Christ, and him alone.
Actually, I think that if we choose to eat “unhealthy” things, we will not die a minute sooner, but we will not enjoy life as much.
So if you chose to eat a lethal dose of arsenic, you do not believe you would die?
But that would have been when God chose for me to die, so, yes.
Do you think you can die without God’s will?
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