Trials of Antioxidant Supplements for Primary and Secondary Prevention: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis by Goran Bjelakovic in the February 28, 2007 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association reported, “We did not find convincing evidence that antioxidant supplements have beneficial effects on mortality. Even more, beta carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E seem to increase the risk of death. Further randomized trials are needed to establish the effects of vitamin C and selenium.”
A total of 226,606 people in 68 trials were examined. All supplements were administered orally. Beta carotene, vitamin A and vitamin E singly or in combinations increased mortality. The meta-analysis indicated that the synthetic form of Vitamin A increased death risk by 16%, beta carotene by 7% and Vitamin E by 4%. Vitamin C singly or in combination did not increase mortality. It is likely cancer and cardiovascular death were the reason for an increase in all-cause mortality. Selenium used singly or in combination with other supplements seemed to be of benefit and reduced all-cause mortality. Ten to 20% of the adult populations of North America and Europe (80-160 million people) consume antioxidant supplements.
The researchers’ gave an explanation for these negative findings: “Although oxidative stress has a hypothesized role in the pathogenesis of many chronic diseases, it may be the consequence of pathological conditions. By eliminating free radicals from our organism, we interfere with some essential defensive mechanisms like apoptosis, phagocytosis, and detoxification. Antioxidant supplements are synthetic and not subjected to the same rigorous toxicity studies as other pharmaceutical agents.”
They also emphasized this important point: “Because we examined only the influence of synthetic antioxidants, our findings should not be translated to potential effects of fruits and vegetables.”
Comment: Nutrients, such as vitamins and minerals, are present in natural packages (grains, legumes, vegetables, and fruits) that have developed through 400 million years of evolution (and/or by Divine Creation). Obviously they are perfect and interact with our bodies in a beneficial manner—all of the individual nutrients interacting within our cells to insure that we remain healthy. When a single concentrated nutrient is ingested in isolation, chemical imbalances are created within the cells—the end result, as this and many other studies have shown, is an increased risk of disease and earlier death.
This kind of publicity should be devastating for supplement manufacturers—if the public would only listen. Unfortunately, most people are looking for the easy way out—rather than give up their bacon and eggs for breakfast they put their hopes for salvation in vitamin pills. Supplements create multibillion dollar businesses—at best their concoctions are medicines (with side effects) and at worst, they are toxins causing sickness and premature death.
Further information can be obtained from these previous McDougall newsletter articles:
October 2005: Folic Acid Supplements are a Health Hazard
http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2005nl/oct/051000folic.htm
August 2003: Plants, not Pills, for Vitamins and Minerals
http://www.nealhendrickson.com/mcdougall/030800puvitaminsandminerals.htm
November 2004: Vitamins Do Not Prevent Cancer and May Increase Likelihood of Death: How Supplements Can Make You Sicker
http://www.nealhendrickson.com/mcdougall/2004nl/041100pufavorite5.htm
July 2005: Neither Aspirin Nor Vitamin E Will Save Women
http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2005nl/july/050700fav5.htm
February 2004: Treating Homocysteine with Vitamins Fails
http://www.nealhendrickson.com/mcdougall/040200pufavorite5.htm
Bjelakovic G, Nikolova D, Gluud LL, Simonetti RG, Gluud C.
