Do Vitamins Block Disease? Some Disappointing News

[pnwmom]

86. Your title falsely implies a more general conclusion than is warranted

by the studies.

They didn't address the question of "do vitamins block disease"? They asked about specific vitamins and specific diseases: the aging of the brain and heart disease.

We already know that SOME vitamin/mineral supplements prevent and/or reduce the risk of some diseases:

Vitamin C -- scurvy

Folic acid -- spina bifida

B-12 -- pernicious anemia

iron -- iron deficiency anemia


Nothing about these two studies leads to a general conclusion about the usefulness of vitamin/mineral supplements.

Also, the jury is still out on whether multivitamins can help prevent heart disease or cancer:

http://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f6840

Evidence is lacking for or against multivitamins to prevent heart disease or cancer, US task force says

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/16/a-challenge-to-vitamins/

The editorial in the Annals is accompanied by two new studies reporting dismal results for multivitamins in helping preserve cognitive function and preventing heart attacks. In one study of nearly 6,000 male physicians 65 and older, participants who took a multivitamin for over a decade were no more likely to retain cognitive function as they aged than similar doctors who took a dummy pill.

But Dr. Francine Grodstein, one of the lead authors of that study, said that since physicians tend to have healthy diets and be well-nourished, the added nutrients may not have made a difference in their cases. “I do think there’s room for more research,” said Dr. Grodstein, who did not write or sign the editorial.

Demonstrating the prevention of chronic diseases can take decades and conducting long-term, randomized, controlled trials is both tricky and very costly. “We don’t and probably never will have randomized trial data over decades,” she said.

The results of another clinical trial published in the journal found that high-dose vitamins and minerals did not protect heart attack patients 50 and older from experiencing additional cardiovascular events, though the research was marred by a high dropout rate.

There have been few randomized clinical studies of the effects of multivitamins and minerals on heart disease, cancer and risk of death, said Dr. Stephen P. Fortmann, of the Kaiser Center of Health Research, who led the task force review. A draft of new task force recommendations, based on the updated review, said there was insufficient evidence to recommend taking or not taking vitamins.