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10/16/2007

The Vitamin Myth

Excerpts from Readers Digest: The Vitamin Myth (November 2007)
 
…new research not only refutes many of these claims [benefits of vitamins], it also shows that some of these vitamins may in fact be harmful.
· A February report in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that taking antioxidant vitamins actually increased a person’s risk of dying by up to 16 percent.
· A study by researchers at the University of Washington last May found that high doses of vitamin E taken over ten years slightly elevated lung cancer risk in smokers.
· Researchers at the National Cancer Institute found that men who took more than one multivitamin daily had a higher risk of prostate cancer.

Antioxidant Paradox
The antioxidant study, in particular, surprised a lot of people and has prompted a heated debate. Antioxidants such as vitamins A, beta carotene (another form of vitamin A), E and C have long enjoyed a reputation as disease fighters because they’re thought to protect against free radicals that can damage cells and speed up aging. But in 47 randomized trials involving almost 181,000 adults, researchers found that taking vitamins A, beta carotene and E, alone or in combination, actually increased a person’s risk of dying by up to 16 percent.
“Unless your doctor says you need supplements for a specific diagnosis, there is no reason to take them [vitamins] and no need to spend the money,” says the review’s senior author, Christian Gluud, MD, of Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark.
 
“Taking more than a DRI [dietary reference intake] of vitamins is associated with problems,” says Michael Roizen, MD, Cleveland Clinic’s chief wellness officer and coauthor with Mehmet Oz, MD, of the You series of health books. “These include osteoporosis, which is caused by too much vitamin A, and neurological problems such as headaches, wobbliness and confusion, caused by too much folate without enough B6.
 
Little Oversight

Vitamins and supplements also lack the government oversight that medical drugs get, and this adds to the confusion and potential dangers. Consumers have no real way of knowing whether labels accurately reflect what’s actually in a pill.

ConsumerLab.com, a supplement industry watchdog site, recently tested 21 different brands of multivitamins and found that 11 failed quality standards, including meeting their own label claims. For example, their test showed that one product had only about half the calcium its label boasted, and another had almost 300 percent more. One product was found to be tainted with lead. Three didn’t break apart properly, violating the U.S. Pharmacopeia’s 30-minute limit on how quickly a pill should dissolve (to make sure you get the full dose).

 
Food Versus a Pill
Clearly, the jury’s still out on what vitamin supplements can really do. An NIH panel determined last year that there wasn’t yet enough evidence either for or against the use of multivitamins to make a recommendation. One thing that’s clear, though: Getting vitamins and minerals from pills is not as effective as getting them from food, says Dr. Roizen. No one knows for sure why a food source may be more beneficial, but one theory is that nature provides a perfect balance of compounds that isn’t fully replicable in the lab.
 
The entire article can be found online at:
 
Or look for the November 2007 issue of Readers Digest at your local news stand.
 
NOTE FROM NATURE'S LOGIC; 
Nature's Logic is the only line of pet food that derives all nutrients naturally - from whole food sources (ie. meat, poultry, fruits, and vegetables), and does not add any synthetic vitamins or minerals.