It's big business, and there's lots of money to be made scaring folks - just like hillary Care, global warming, etc. Take a few pills everyday and you'll never get old! Expect the vitamin companies to bury this story.
However, I am with you on the "take a few pills everyday...and everything will be rosey!" baloney. Nothing, herbal nor OTC/Rx, will fix what is bound to happen....like aging...can't escape it (darn it all!)
Watch out, this is Teddy Kennedy's cue to try for a national ban on supplements. He does that every few years.
Let's see him try to ban scotch...
The problem is not with supplements themselves, but rather in taking them in such large doses.
The average American simply doesn't eat well enough to get the US RDA of certain vitamins and minerals. Modest supplementation is seen as the 'cost' of our rather nasty daily eating habits.
When you get into trouble is when you 'megadose' on them. The belief that 'if one is good, two is better' is common and is what leads to trouble.
For example, vitamins such A and E are fat soluable, which means that they stay in your body for extended periods of time. If you're storing more than your body requires, this can lead to problems.
The key is moderation.
I'd guess that sick people are more likely to take supplements, so, naturally, people that take supplements are at increased risk. What is the evidence of causality?
people taking antioxidants do not oxidize [or rust] properly and are prone to accumulation of deadwood, forest fires and spontaneous combustion.
I keep a tin can next to the computer and lick it whenever I feel an iron deficiency. It also stops rust from forming on my eyelids. And after I lick a hole in the can, I feed it to my goat.
I'm in perfect harmonic convergence with Gaia and Gore.
I will continue to take my vitamins.
Keep in mind that the socialists in the EU are desperately trying to ban over the counter sales of vitamins.
"Meta-analysis is a way of sifting through published studies against a quality standard that looks at a number of reliability criteria such as potential for bias. Then the ones that pass the standard are taken through a statistical process to find out if they are saying something consistently reliable."
Wow! Meta-analysis looks to me to have incredible potential for being able to skew results in absolutely any preconceived direction.
By simply adjusting the "reliability criteria" until you have the studies you do not like thrown out you can produce results to please anyone willing to pay for your study.
We have not seen the last of "Meta-analysis".
I've seen similar results in others.
The truth is we're all going to die. I just want to stay as healthy as long as possible.
Last night I saw a friend who has had a bout with cancer. She told me of a treatment she had and she warned that if any doctor ever told me to do it, I should turn and run the other way.
Pharmaceutical drugs have caused far more harm than any nutritional supplements.
Wake me when cigs are good for you!
I intend to live forever. So far, so good. ~Steven Wright
The only proven miracle pill is good old aspirin.
The key is moderation. A little extra Vitamin C does you good, a lot can kill you.
Isn't this saying, they threw out the studies that didn't back up their desired outcome?
bump
Now if large numbers of liberals would only start carrying firearms for their self-defense, the gun control crowd would be stymied. The Second Amendment would become as sacrosanct as the First Amendment, and authorities would have to strain to find some reason to ban private ownership of modern artillery and combat aircraft.
thanks, bfl
Fish oil increases the risk of hemorrhagic stroke and can interfere with blood clotting.
I don't believe it.
The medical establishment doesn't want us treating ourselves.