CONNECTIONS to HEALTH

Vitamins A, C and E Increase Mortality! (and other nonsense from the realm of junk science) As I write there is a flood of front page articles and TV news reports about the dangers of vitamins. The wrong questions are being addressed here. This article is about the right questions we should be asking. First Off The first thing you need to know about this article that they're all quoting is that it isn't particularly new. It was published in February 2007, 14 months ago. It had also been discredited by March 2007, 13 months ago. Here's the story According to the article its goal was: "… to analyze the effects of antioxidant supplements (beta carotene, vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin C and selenium) on all-cause mortality of adults included in primary and secondary prevention trials." What the researchers did was to do a meta-analysis of existing trials. That means that they didn't do the trials themselves; instead they analysed the results of other people's work. They looked at 473 trials. However, the researchers specifically excluded 405 studies as unsuitable, that reported no deaths during a trial period or follow-up. That left them with just 68 trials. Did you get that? The researchers are studying effects on mortality but failed to include any studies that were death-free. They excluded six times as many potentially eligible studies because no one died during a trial period or follow-up. It gets even worse In addition, 47 of the 68 trials included in the meta-analysis were secondary prevention trials conducted on subjects that were diagnosed with disease. The goal of these trials was to establish whether intervention would slow disease progression or reduce the risk of death from disease. Only 21 were primary prevention trials conducted on healthy subjects (the goal of these trials was to establish a benefit to health). Thus, not only did all studies included in the meta-analysis report deaths during a trial period or follow-up, but over two thirds of the studies were trials on people that were already diagnosed with a disease; and in some cases terminal disease! If you want to read the full rebuttal click here The Campaign for truth in medicine has also picked up on this and they refer people to this article, where I borrowed the title for this piece from. Even More Not only that but in the interim since that article was first published, the researcher on the original study on which this one was based admitted she got it wrong. Read all about it here. So what questions should be being asked? Well obviously, who stands to benefit by misleading us like this? My old dad used to say "follow the money" People who have a vested interest in us being ill want to stop us keeping ourselves healthy. The drug companies have been trying to ban the sale of supplements for many years now. Wouldn't it help their cause to convince people that vitamins are dangerous while the pills they peddle are seen as safe?; even though since 2000 Western "health care" has been the third leading cause of death in the countries where it is practised. Yes, in the year 2000 Western "health care" overtook diabetese as the third biggest cause of death in our society. See July 26th 2000 edtition of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Read the rebuttals for your selves and make up your own minds. As for me I'm just off to take more anti-oxidants to combat all the stress of it..

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