Killer Antioxidants - Supplement Hit Job #37
Thursday, March 1st, 2007
Over the course of the last couple of years, there have been numerous articles and reports in the mainstream press on the negative effects of taking supplements. The most recent subject of scorn are antioxdiant supplements, which, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), apparently increase our risk of death.
The analysis, which pooled data from 68 studies involving more than 232,000 people, found no evidence that taking beta carotene, Vitamin A or Vitamin E extends life span and, in fact, indicated that the supplements increase the likelihood of dying by about 5 percent. Vitamin C and selenium appeared to have no impact — either way — on longevity …
… “The message is: We shouldn’t be putting anything in our mouths until we know whether it works,” said Christian Gluud of the Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark, who led the study. “It appears as if these substances may be harmful.”
The Whole Story?
As a meta-review analysis (essentially an analysis of the existing body of research in aggregate), a key factor determining this study’s outcome is the selection of the studies to include in the analysis. As the study’s abstract notes, the meta-review included all randomized studies examining antioxidants in primary and secondary prevention trials published prior to October 2005.
But the researchers didn’t stop there. They then …
