Vitamins doing us more harm than good!! News today

[Pennylane]

It's what I've long suspected anyway but the news is full of it today.

I am as guilty as anyone for jumping on the vitamin & health supplement bandwagon but I jumped off it a couple of years ago and am none the worse health-wise but much better off financially!

Some of that stuff is seriously expensive and now it has been confirmed that it's doing more harm than good .......... we can save our hard-earned cash,;)

[Ted_Hutchinson]

It's what I've long suspected anyway but the news is full of it today.

I am as guilty as anyone for jumping on the vitamin & health supplement bandwagon but I jumped off it a couple of years ago and am none the worse health-wise but much better off financially!

Some of that stuff is seriously expensive and now it has been confirmed that it's doing more harm than good .......... we can save our hard-earned cash,;)First I'd like to correct the impression the title gives that the research was looking at ALL Vitamin/ Supplements.
In fact they found increased risk of death from any cause in relation to vitamin A (16%), beta-carotene (7%) and vitamin E (4%),

There were no significant effects on mortality from either vitamin C or selenium.
I haven't yet read the actual study so cannot comment but I've read a lot of studies on vitamins/supplements and most of them are rubbish because they fail to distinguish between natural and synthetic.

We all know that this matters. I spend all my time trying to show people what the scientific medical research actually says but most of it gets deleted because people haven't the sense to realise that buying vitamins or supplements at the wrong strength or in the wrong form is a waste of money.

People need to know, before making a vitamin purchase what form of vitamin has medical scientific research to support it's use. Providing links to that scientific research isn't medical advice by moneysaving information. We all know that doctors make the same mistake as most members of the public when it comes to using the most expensive form when sometimes it is the cheapest is most effective. (http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/84/4/694)

If you read articles like this (http://www.westonaprice.org/basi!!!!rition/vitaminasaga.html)you see the point of ensuring your diet contains lots of sources for NATURAL vitamin A. This article explains What's Wrong With Vitamin E? (http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2002/may2002_report_wrong_01.html) that most of us buy. Again you need to have done some research to find which form of the vitamin/supplement you are buying/using is likely to be effective.

New Scientific Findings on Whole Foods versus Supplements (http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=faq&dbid=33#faqtitle) This article explains why getting your vitamins/minerals from food is the best idea but of course we all know Vit d is the exception as that has to come mainly from direct exposure to UVB or the NATURAL form the body actually uses D3 (http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/PDFs/diagnosis-vitdd.pdf).

It is somewhat misguided to think that because researchers have found studies showing using the wrong form of vitamins/supplements does more harm than good that this also applies to other vitamins/supplements or that it applies equally to natural rather than synthetic versions.

It is somewhat strange that the press did not give the same coverage to the research showing Review: vitamin supplementation decreases all-cause mortality in adults and older people (http://ebm.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/13/2/47).