Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Are Vitamins Really Bad for You? Or Are Their Other Forces at Work?



The recent Archive of Internal Medicine study widely published claims that older women who take dietary supplements die sooner than those who don't. Another Recent Study in the Journal of the American Medical Association claims that men with prostate cancer who take vitamin E supplements are more likely to die than those who don’t.

The Archive of Internal Medicine study collected information from nearly 40,000 women several times over 22 years. They collected more data than supplements, but in their supplement data they indicated several supplements that they say increases mortality, vitamin B6, folic acid, iron, magnesium, zinc, copper, and the innocent multivitamin. The increase in mortality rate ranged from 2.2 percent (multivitamins) to as much as 18 percent (copper).

In a contrarian view, Dr Alan Gaby (Author of a leading nutritional textbook) says “Dietary supplements have been clearly shown to decrease the severity of many diseases in people who are not deficient by any standard laboratory measurement” (PRWeb)
As for the study on vitamin E and prostate cancer, Dr Gaby suggested that both vitamin E supplements, and vitamin E research, are often misunderstood. “There are four types of vitamin E that occur naturally in food. Two of them, alpha- and gamma-tocopherol, have been shown to slow the growth of prostate cancer cells (in a test tube study) and to be associated with lower risk of developing prostate cancer (based on blood levels.) In both cases, gamma-tocopherol was more effective than the alpha form."
There is, however, an important shortcoming in vitamin E studies, as well as in most vitamin E supplements.
“It’s important to understand that isolated alpha-tocopherol is the form present in most vitamin E supplements, and is the form of vitamin E used in almost all clinical research. But we know that large doses of the alpha form deplete the body of the gamma form, and this upsets the natural balance of vitamin E derived from food. Because of this, it appears that large doses of isolated alpha-tocopherol may be harmful. However, natural vitamin E in the form of mixed tocopherols contains all four types of naturally-occurring vitamin E, and may prevent prostate cancer. Alpha-tocopherol may only be protective when it is supplied with gamma-tocopherol in the proper natural balance.” (PRWeb)
Also, Wen-Bin Chiou, Ph.D., a professor at National Sun Yat-Sen University told Men's Health. “Taking dietary supplements increases perceived invulnerability,” In other words: It’s not the vitamins that are harmful; it’s the life choices people make while taking vitamins. Do people take vitamins to substitute bad life choices?

We also looked at the source of the study which is the American Medical Association, which has become and arm of the Pharmaceutical industry.
Archive of Internal Medicine and Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) are published by the American Medical Association (AMA) which is heavily influence by the Pharmaceutical industry. BigPharma uses its financial resources to help shape the continuing medical education of physicians in order to server its marketing purposes. Physicians and medical educational institutions aid and abet this influence by accepting, sometimes even soliciting, financial help and other favors from the industry, thus relinquishing what should be their professional responsibility for self-education, and the uninfluenced patient doctor relationship. The medical profession is being educated by BigPharma to sell the drugs physicians prescribe and thus surrenders its ethical commitment to serve as the independent fiduciary for its patients.
In our opinion, a study that diminishes the effect and use of vitamins will in turn increase the use and prescription of pharmaceuticals. We also don’t believe that all vitamins are the same, as many supplements have “fillers” or additives, so you are not taking the full vitamin. Consumers need to research to locate the best vitamin sources, so you ensure you get the full effect of the supplement.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Its a well known fact that Big Pharma is hell bent on removing the DSHEA Act in order to get vitamins and supplements BANNED and labeled as "toxins" in an attempted massive money grab to making you buy THEIR "version" of what they "think" vitamins and supplements should be.

With even less oversight than what vitamins and supplements have now, its almost guaranteed that the ingredients Big Pharma would use would fall under "proprietary" in order to avoid disclosure that they are really killing you instead...I can see it now - a bottle of vitamin d with Prozac added, or vitamin c with some zoloft labeled as the new "healthy" energy booster. Does no one understand the Pharma mentality? If your taking a vitamin, your not taking any of their manufactured meds, hence, they lose money. Its in their best interest (because they are a BUSINESS) that we stay unhealthy in order for them to make their BILLIONS. What better a way to do that, by making vitamins and supplements "dangerous" and only THEY can save you...yeah, right...