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."
Election is according to God's will and not men's.
Are you familiar with Romans 9?
"For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth" -- Romans 9:11
Nonsense. It’s clear Satan has power, but nothing on the order of God, Christ, Holy Spirit. Lucifer is no god, but his demons refer to all of their - thing - as The Kingdom.
Have you read Job? All the way through? This isn’t an allegory, it’s an actual guy being subjected to the power of Satan.
It’s pretty plain that Christ has more power than Satan. He’s in Heaven now, and He still works in our lives. Satan works against God by hurting us, and he seems to live here.
I don’t get it, but I can live with that. What’s so ludicrous about it?
Anything good that anyone does, even Mother Theresa, is all of God, and the bible tells you that. Anything we have in this life, is all from God, your life, your money, your kids, your dogs, they are all from Him. Any righteousness we have, whatsoever, comes from God, that is the message of the OT and the Law.
Instead of having a God- centered Christianity you have a man- centered one, which is why you are so confused. You apparently believe, from what I understand of your posts, that it is somehow incumbent on mankind to rise to God's level with no help, and with the devil pulling him down. It can't be done, and which is why, God came down to earth to save mankind. And that is Christianity.
Whatever "good" Mother Theresa did, if not from God, was worthless.
Well it's unbelief, pure and simple
Oh really? Where did you come up with that? Please show me where that is detailed in a standard dictionary. P.S. Repeating the same 5 or 6 disputed scriptures again, and again, and again, and again is not working.
Oh he lives here all right, in his possessions, but if you are Christ's, then you are not a possession of Satan's any longer.
So Satan is stronger than God is he?
Bah. You haven’t read all the posts. The whole thread was about why the doctrine of Election is a flawed theory of who ultimately is saved, and who isn’t.
I, too, believe that all we have is from God. On my own, I have nothing. Got it. Check.
Still, FREE WILL exists. Lucifer and his demons possess people. They tear at humanity BECAUSE it tears at God. Christ protects our souls from Lucifer.
Man IS in the middle. It doesn’t mean I believe in a man-centered Christianity. Man CANNOT rise to God’s level, ever. He’s saved, and by that act of grace, we defeat death. We have the Holy Spirit.
You miss the point of what I was saying about Theresa. In a world where the saved have already been chosen (doctrine of Election), then there is no need for evangelism, or the acts of evil perpetrated by demons, because the outcome is known.
lol. My "spewing Scripture" is worse than your lack of understanding?
I don't think so.
Now, if you want me to tell you how precisely either Lucifer or God intervenes actively in my life, I’d have to tell you, “I don’t know.”
Goodness, you don't? You don't know how God intervenes in your life? You really need to read the Bible more often.
" But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear" -- 1 Peter 3:15
The reason for the hope that is in me is that God has graced me with faith in His Son and has given me a new heart with which to understand that His sacrifice has paid for my sins in full.
And that merciful knowledge which has been made known to me by the Holy Spirit through the word of God colors every moment of my life for the better.
You reduce the selfless act of Christ’s Crucifixion to something just this side of a lottery
A lottery implies chance. There is no "chance" in life. There is only God and His perfect will, one way or another. Do we understand this fully? Nope. But that inability on our part to understand completely should not negate the very attributes that make up the Triune God.
Bottom Line: Satan rules earth. I don’t get that, but I’m ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED of it.
Well, you may think Satan rules your life, but thankfully, he sure doesn't rule my life. Christ is King today on earth as well as in heaven.
I’ve seen your interpretation of Scripture, and it leaves room for honest questions.
Then go back to Scripture and find those answers. Whatever answers exist on earth are found within the pages of God's word.
AMEN!
There is only one interpretation: you will abide forever in God's Presence. And they aren't "rooms", they are mansions, you will abide like royalty.
AMEN! Some men find comfort in arguing what's not in the Bible.
You think the saved are beyond Satan’s wrath, here on earth? You should chat with an exorcist.
Your soul is OK, but your body may not be.
Here’s one description of the toll some exorcists take:
“It’s like being naked, and bound, and having a massive, snarling, hungry wolf sniffing at your body.” (Hostage to the Devil - Malachi Martin - Harper Smithsonian Press)
I think some of the prophets had to deal with this too, the palpable presence of demons. Demons they could see.
The battle between God and Lucifer is kinetic. The battle is for mankind. I’m fine, I’m saved. It doesn’t mean I’m immune from the actions of evil - a member of some protected class on earth.
Amen!
It seems some men enjoy thinking Satan controls this life because then they can puff themselves up when they think they've vanquished Satan, forgetting that Christ has already done that for us.
Satan prowls after all of us, but the Shepherd protects His flock perfectly and always. He will lose none of His sheep whom God has given to Him.
Only a bit?
We came into existence, and that nature of ours inclined us to either receive God's revelation (His Word, Christ) or reject it/Him. That is what the parable of the seed falling on the different types of soil is all about. God just knew what kind of "soil" your nature is.
Acts of obedience, or the Christian walk, are not "good works". They are the outcome of a renewed mind in Christ. The Great Commission is a comandment from Christ, and a gift to us and by evangelizing, we share in making the new Creation. God doesn't need us, no, but He graciously lets us share in the Plan.
Did Job think that God was testing him; strengthening him by his many trials?
Yes, he did. But apparently you don't believe Job.
Yep. That's what I take from all this FUD. Vitamins and supplements are cheap, no one holds a patent on them, and you can walk into a store and buy them. No visit to the MD required.
Socialized medicine would wither away and die, if people got healthy on their own, without the intervention of all those billions of tax dollars.
That being said; one shouldn't go willy nilly into the Vit/Supp route without proper research. Too much of some of them is a bad thing. A for example, can get quite toxic if you're not careful.
Satan cannot win against the Holy Spirit. Satan and the HS cannot both be in the same body. Any possessed people are not saved people.
Amen. Great explanation.
You can’t have it both ways.
Either you are saved or condemned, in your world, and that was predestined. That’s a lottery, and that’s fate, not faith.
Your answers are bereft of both meekness AND fear. I didn’t see the angel rending the curtain of the temple when Christ died. THAT overt interaction is something I don’t see in my life.
Do I see God in millions of subtle things in my life, unquestionably.
I have a simple and ready answer for any who ask about God, but in your world, it’s a total crap shoot.
Either you got the ticket or you didn’t, and nothing can change that. In fact, those with the ticket may are may not come to God, but the condemned are toast. You’ll just eventually come to Christ eventually, but those condemned just never will, and there was no hope for them anyway.
While I’m sure of being saved, and the elegant simplicity of Christ’s act, on all other matters having to do with how God, the angels, demons, and the Devil work, YES, I’d have to say that even exorcists are unclear on this matter.
So, where do you stand? Are we all simply looking to see if the ticket has been taped to the bottom of our chairs, or can any human be saved?
I’d be AWFULLY AFRAID of my answer to that question, and EXCEEDINGLY MEEK in crafting a response.
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