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WARNING: Vitamins May Increase Risk Of Death?

	by Brent Hauver Posted May 7, 2008 Recently there has been an attack on vitamins A, C, E, selenium and beta-carotene in a recently published paper. This study said that these antioxidants were linked with a higher risk of mortality (“they’ll kill you!”) and now a few serious-sounding bold scientists have warned consumers to stay away from taking vitamins and supplements altogether. So now we are to understand that Drugs are safe, vitamins are dangerous, sunlight will kill you, water has no health benefits, fresh organic spinach is dangerous... need I go on? Does this sound a little suspicious to you? Sounds like everything is turned around to me. If you analyze this research, in depth, there are a lot of dubious aspects to this study. In this case, the researchers considered 452 studies and then threw out the 405 studies where nobody died! That left just 47 studies where subjects died from various causes (one study was conducted on terminal heart patients, for example). From this hand-picked selection of studies, these researchers concluded that antioxidants increase mortality. Just in case the magnitude of this scientific absurdity has not yet become apparent to you, let me repeat what happened: These scientists claimed to be studying the effects of vitamins on mortality, right? They were supposed to be conducting an unbiased analysis based on reviewing established research studies. But instead of conducting an honest review of all the studies, they decided to eliminate all studies in which vitamins prevented mortality and kept people alive! They did this by “excluding all studies in which no participants died.” What was left to review? Only the studies in which people died from various causes. How biased is that? So if we used this model, it would be like blaming vitamin C for the death of a suicidal stock broker leaping from a tall building who was handed a Vitamin C tablet just as he jumped. The conclusion of this study is that absurd: Taking a bunch of patients who are about to die, load ‘em up with antioxidants, and tally the inevitable death toll. Then announce, with great solemnity and fanfare, that “Antioxidant Vitamins Increase Mortality!” This sort of bogus science would earn any teenager an “F” in high school science class. But apparently it’s good enough for this pseudo scientific study that captured the attention of all the mainstream press outlets that are now repeating these silly conclusions as scientific fact. How dumb do they think we are? I do not say that all modern science is meaningless. There’s a lot of great scientific research going on these days. But when I see “scientific” studies like this one being published in the mainstream media, I have to wonder just how low the scientific standards have become today and who is behind it all? I would recommend to you all to not believe everything you read in the science journals. At least not without engaging your own brain and thinking for a moment about who’s behind the study and what they’re trying to accomplish. In this particular study, it seems that the aim is to scare consumers away from taking vitamins and supplements (which I believe will backfire). Brent Hauver is the owner and manager of Sage Health and Empowerment Center in downtown Overton.