India News
Certain vitamins may shorten lifespan
Feb 28, 2007, 5:30 GMT
Copenhagen, Feb 28 (IANS) Consuming certain vitamin supplements with hopes of good health may adversely affect your lifespan, says a new study.
Millions worldwide use antioxidant supplements such as vitamins A and E, and beta-carotene.
The researchers, led by the Cochrane Hepato-Biliary Group at Copenhagen University, looked at many previous studies and reviewed more than 815 clinical trials on the benefits of vitamins A, E, and C, alongside beta-carotene and selenium - all commonly-used supplements, reported an online edition of BBC News.
The Cochrane group is a respected international network of experts that does systematic reviews of scientific evidence on health interventions.
They found that taking antioxidant supplements neither increased nor reduced the risk of death. Rather, these appeared to raise the risk of death.
They said there were several different explanations for this increase in risk and suggested that knocking out 'free radicals' (a group of atoms that damage cells) might actually interfere with a natural defence mechanism within the body.
While vitamin supplements have been popular for decades, the precise benefits they offer - if any - remain uncertain, despite hundreds of research projects.
'We already know that taking supplements isn't in any way a replacement for a good balanced diet,' the researchers said.
Frankie Phillips, a nutritionist at the British Dietetic Association, said food contained a complex matrix of different components that could not be replicated by supplements.
'Our advice is to eat a wide range of foods in a balanced diet that can provide all of the nutrients the body needs to protect itself and combat diseases,' he added.
The team has also called for more research into the effects of vitamin supplements on health in their report appearing in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.
However, Ann Walker of the Health Supplements Information Service has called the findings of the study 'worthless'. She said some of the studies that had been examined by the Copenhagen team involved patients who were already seriously ill.
'How can sensible scientists suggest that a modest intervention of a single antioxidant supplement can have a major effect in reversing life-threatening pathology where patients already have advanced cardiovascular disease?' she asked.
'Vitamin, mineral and dietary supplements not only have proven health benefits, they are essential to the maintenance of good health,' she added.
© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service
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Older Talkback
page: 1
Hardly surprising news since a lot of companies use acid to bleach the vitamins from natural plants.
Hardly a recipe for health ....
Enjoy a great vitamin for a dollar a day ...
A cantaloupe melon !
'They found that taking antioxidant supplements neither increased nor reduced the risk of death. Rather, these appeared to raise the risk of death.'
Another example of this site's continuing digression to becoming irrelevant.
Vitamins are essential for cells to function. Food are vitamins in an unconcentrated form. I take whole food vitamins myself, which are not bleached whatever- it's different foods, concentrated into a vitamin. And vitamins are preventative and regenerative. It's not going to remove the 2 lb's of calcium stuck to the walls of your arteries. It's too late then.
But if you take good vitamins, like source of life or the like, and do this along with meals, it will keep you from ending up like that. Build a house without wood. Have a citric acid cycle without citric acid. It doesn't work. Use your brain people, and stop by the cheap flintstone garbage. If you are paying under 45 bucks a bottle for vitamins, odds are you are taking lab synthesized powder that comes in barrels.
If you get a stomach ache when you take them- that's your first clue. If you don't and you feel like you have more energy- that's your second clue. In any case, this study is about as purposeful as a suicide pact. Go ahead- eat your melons and your body will somehow fight off diseases, pollution, stress, working 16 hours a day, and the cigarette and coffee in the morning. No, a melon really won't compensate for all of that. Truly. I promise- and I don't have any studies to back me up. Believe who you want, whether you live or die is up to darwin to decide.
Having worked in the food industry all my life I have always believed that taking supplements was dangerous for anyone unless they had an identified deficiency. Provided you eat a reasonably balnced diet it is uneccessary. There is more nonesense talked about food consumption than anything else. If you think about how we evolved, and the varied diets mankind has sucessfully survived on, you will understand that there is a great deal of flexibility available. However we do need to ensure we avoid too much fat, eat substantially less than most of us now do and increase our fibre to replicate what our bodies have evolved to expect. How we do that is not so important. It really doesnt matter if it is 'processed' or 'organic'. Such concepts will not be recognised chemically by your body. What matters are the basic principals. Get them right and you will be fine.
Even if quantity of life is reduced and the results of this study valid anyone taking supplements benefits from the improved quality of life they bring.
Why is the media lockstep about generalizing which vitamins are harmful?
It is A, E, and Beta-carotene (a form of vitamin A). Both are present in supplements in unhealthy quantities. Both are lipid soluble. Both bioaccumulate. Both clog the liver. Is this any surprise really? Can we maybe have some multi vitamins without these two?
I wonder if the researchers even tried to allow for the health condition of the subjects? A patient with even a minor illness would perhaps have died younger wihout vitamin supplements. It is very difficult to make a direct comparison and obtain meaningful results.
Now, if they started with a large group of young, healthy people and gave some vitamins, some a placebo and others nothing - and then tested their health and quality of life 25 years later, or waited until they died, the effects would be more apparent.
Linus Pauling, a Pulizter Prize winner advocated along with noted Physcist Theodore Jorgenson who both lived into their 90's, mega doses of vitamin C. as a protocol for their longevity. It is all in whom you believe.
In your article, you write: 'They found that taking antioxidant supplements neither increased nor reduced the risk of death. Rather, these appeared to raise the risk of death.'
Don't you guys ever read these articles after you write them? How can antioxidants not increase the risk of death and yet raise the risk of death?
page: 1
Shelie a dietitian in the USAFeb 28th, 2007 - 06:45:50
Wow fascinating stuff, you don't suppose some of the multi-billion dollar industy around this could be reexamied? Maybe we could but some of that money towards providing wholesome unprocessed foods for consumption, instead of promoting pill popping and profits for the politicians who are involved with this industry.
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