Such double speak

Science, Dan Brown and now it seems James Cameron can disprove the foundation of Christianity but can't decide if a effing multi-vitamin is good for you.

My basic problem with this report is that doesn't describe the study, how many and what demographics were in it or how long it lasted. It takes three specific vitamins along with a diet and then becomes a wide sweeping generality.

To begin with Vitamin A and beta-carotenes are essentially the same pro-vitamin though the process is chemically different. One major difference is that pill form beta carotene has been linked to increased death rates in people already predisposed to prostate and lung cancer. This isn't new to those in the research and cancer communities.

Vitamin A and Vitamin E are both fat soluble vitamins which means that if combined with a low fat diet, which is the other side of this study, then benefits of these two vitamins are decreased along with a decrease in basic physiological functions like ovulation which is another part of the study.

To make claims against three, extremely well researched compounds, and then generalize that anyone taking any multivitamin has a 5% greater chance of dying. C'mon! Maybe people who take multivitamins are more physically active than those that don't and that the higher mortality is from increased outdoor activity. Maybe the study used geriatrics.

Coffee is good for you one week, bad the next.
Red wine is good for your heart but then your an alcoholic.
Dark chocolate is good for you but it makes you fat.
Exercise increases the quality of your life, unless its running because Jim Fixx died of that.
Driving is good time management but it increases your chances of dying on the road.
I also heard that research is the number cause of cancer in lab rats.

Don't through your endurolytes and flintstone chewables away yet. Keep that tub of powdered carbs close. Next week it will be something else.

From The Times

February 27, 2007

Medical backlash over health foods

Nigel Hawkes, Health Editor

Two of the most popular products in Britain’s vast health food industry come under attack today, as scientists cast doubts on the benefits of vitamin supplements and low-fat dairy products. Research published today suggests that regular consumption of a wide range of vitamin pills, taken by more than ten million people in the UK, may actually increase the risk of dying, while eating low-fat dairy products could make it harder for some women to conceive.

The vitamin study, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, overturns earlier research suggesting that vitamins A, E and beta carotene could protect against heart disease and cancer.

But far from helping, the new study says, the evidence is that taking vitamins, either singly or as part of a multivitamin pill, actually increases mortality by 5 per cent.

The scientists, based at Copenhagen University Hospital, who carried out an in-depth analysis of research involving more than 200,000 people, conclude that the “public health consequences could be substantial”.

A second study in the journal Human Reproduction, by researchers from Harvard Medical School , indicates that the rush into low-fat foods, driven by fear of heart disease and obesity may also have consequences for fertility.

The researchers found that women eating normal amounts of low-fat dairy products stood a higher risk of failing to conceive. Their diet appears to be implicated in a failure to ovulate, which is responsible for 12 to 15 per cent of cases of infertility. Women who ate whole-fat dairy products suffered fewer cases of this form of infertility.