Originally Posted by marinera
One more if you don’t mind:
Annals Of Internal Medicine
Editorials | 17 December 2013
Enough Is Enough: Stop Wasting Money on Vitamin and Mineral Supplements
[i]Three articles in this issue address the role of vitamin and mineral supplements for preventing the occurrence or progression of chronic diseases.
First, Fortmann and colleagues (1 ) systematically reviewed trial evidence to update the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation on the efficacy of vitamin supplements for primary prevention in community-dwelling adults with no nutritional deficiencies. After reviewing 3 trials of multivitamin supplements and 24 trials of single or paired vitamins that randomly assigned more than 400 000 participants, the authors concluded that there was no clear evidence of a beneficial effect of supplements on all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, or cancer.
Second, Grodstein and coworkers (2 ) evaluated the efficacy of a daily multivitamin to prevent cognitive decline among 5947 men aged 65 years or older participating in the Physicians’ Health Study II. After 12 years of follow-up, there were no differences between the multivitamin and placebo groups in overall cognitive performance or verbal memory.
Adherence to the intervention was high, and the large sample size resulted in precise estimates showing that use of a multivitamin supplement in a well-nourished elderly population did not prevent cognitive decline. Grodstein and coworkers’ findings are compatible with a recent review (3 ) of 12 fair- to good-quality trials that evaluated dietary supplements, including multivitamins, B vitamins, vitamins E and C, and omega-3 fatty acids, in persons with mild cognitive impairment or mild to moderate dementia. None of the supplements improved cognitive function.
Third, Lamas and associates (4 ) assessed the potential benefits of a high-dose, 28-component multivitamin supplement in 1708 men and women with a previous myocardial infarction participating in TACT (Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy). After a median follow-up of 4.6 years, there was no significant difference in recurrent cardiovascular events with multivitamins compared with placebo (hazard ratio, 0.89 [95% CI, 0.75 to 1.07]). The trial was limited by high rates of nonadherence and dropouts.
Other reviews and guidelines that have appraised the role of vitamin and mineral supplements in primary or secondary prevention of chronic disease have consistently found null results or possible harms (5 –6 ). Evidence involving tens of thousands of people randomly assigned in many clinical trials shows that β-carotene, vitamin E, and possibly high doses of vitamin A supplements increase mortality (6 –7 ) and that other antioxidants (6 ), folic acid and B vitamins (8 ), and multivitamin supplements (1 , 5 ) have no clear benefit.
Despite sobering evidence of no benefit or possible harm, use of multivitamin supplements increased among U.S. adults from 30% between 1988 to 1994 to 39% between 2003 to 2006, while overall use of dietary supplements increased from 42% to 53% (9 ).
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http://annals.o rg/article.aspx … ticleid=1789253
This is at the bottom of the article you link here.
This letter is in response to your recent editorial stating there was no benefit from taking vitamins or mineral supplements. The authors purported their opinions were as facts. They stated that most supplements “do not prevent chronic disease or death, and they should be avoided.”
The authors totally disregarded the best and most comprehensive study to date, The physicians healthy study II published in the American Medical Association, November 2, 2012. That study followed nearly 15,000 male doctors older than 50 for up to 13 years. The study revealed that men taking centrum silver multivitamin alone reduced the risk of cancer by over 8% from any source except prostate. I quote from the above study, “recent studies have looked at vitamins such as B, C, E and whether they can prevent cancer. They didn’t come up with any significant results, and some found a higher risk of certain illnesses. The researchers state that those studies were limited in scope and size. They also used single supplements at high doses, compared to how much a daily vitamin provides.”
The physicians health study II is the only large scale, randomized double blind, placebo-controlled trial testing the long term effects of common multi-vitamins.
If the authors are correct in their assumptions then every ophthalmologist in the free world who prescribes anti-oxidant vitamins with lutein to treat macular-degeneration is wrong. If the authors are correct then every OB/GYN in the free world who prescribe prenatal vitamins to prevent spina-bifida, meningomylocele and other neural-tube defects in the neonate are wrong. This regimen is factual and proven. If the authors are correct the the vast majority of urologists that prescribe time release vitamin C to their patients for recurrent UTI’s are wrong. This protocol obviates the need for chronic antibiotic use, which creates drug resisitant bacterial strains. Bacteria have a very difficult time living in a acid environment ergo the vitamin C.
If the authors are correct then another excellent study dated May 20, 2013 out of Oxford University is wrong. “…the subject of the latest research study showed that vitamin B (B6, B12, folic acid) is the first and only disease-modifying treatment that worked”. The study stated, “we have proven the concept that you can modify the disease”. The study showed that there was slowing of atrophy of the gray matter in the brain effected by Alzheimer’s disease.
This was a doubleblinded study of two years of duration which, discovered that the brain shrinkage slowed by 30%, and in some cases brain shrinkage slowed by more than 50%.
How do you know that your antioxidant vitamins are working? Your hair and nails will grow at a very rapid rate. Rapid cell turnover is what your body needs; it prevents GI cancers, which are activated by cell stagnation. Also rapid turnover of skin cells help prevent skin cancers.
I recommend to the authors that they be thought a fool rather than to put it in print and remove all doubt. I recommend to the patients that if they find a doctor who states that one receives all the vitamins and minerals from the food they eat, they should find another doctor.
Enough is enough!!!
Irvine Mason, M.D.
Board Certified Neurologist
IM/lm
