|
|
Why Are There Reports That Say Supplements Are Not Effective?
If you pay attention to the media, periodically
you will see a report put out by some expert saying supplements are
not effective. Some even say taking a supplement seems to cause an
increase in the incidence of cancer or heart disease or death. How
can that be?
I've read numerous of these reports. It puzzles
me. I know from research and personal experience adding a high
quality supplement to a good diet is a healthy thing to do. Research
shows antioxidants are a basic requirement to fight free radicals.
(1) Healthy cells are necessary for a healthy body. So how can these
reports say supplements are not effective or worse? And they often
say the only
effective vitamins & antioxidants must come from fruit and
vegetables. Does that make sense to you?
Here are some key points for you to consider when
you read one of these reports:
 | Not all supplements are created equally.
Almost all supplements contain synthetic vitamins. For example
there are ten different synthetic types of Vitamin E, each is a variation
of tocopherol. Only one type, α
tocopherol, is a "natural" formulation
of Vitamin E. Seventy percent (70%) of supplements contain
g-tocopherol
which is a different configuration and only about 10-20% as
effective as the "natural" version,
α tocopherol. (2)(3)
 | Quality control of vitamins is not
regulated by the FDA or anyone else. |
| The vitamin must be usable by your body.
Not all of products can be digested and used the same.
Nurses call supplements bed pan bullets for a reason. Many
come out like they went in. |
|
| The amount of the vitamin being studied needs
to be adequate to make a difference. The minimum RDA is not an
effective quantity unless you are studying rickets or scurvy. |
| Vitamins work best together. Vitamin C and E
are extremely effective together. Taken separately their
effectiveness is cut tremendously. A top quality multivitamin is
many times more effective than its individual components.
Vitamins work together. (2) |
| Not all the results of the study groups are
reported equally. The report that said Vitamin E wasn't
effective in reducing cardiovascular disease apparently didn't report the
findings for all the groups in the studies examined. The data was taken
from many studies and was selectively chosen. (2) |
| The way supplements are looked at in these
studies is the same as drugs are evaluated. The groups took this
vitamin and didn't get the results. Vitamins do not work like
drugs. Vitamins do not work in isolation. They work together.
Testing Vitamin E by itself is minimally effective, especially
if you are using a poor synthetic version. It may take
10-20-30 years of bad nutrition for disease to show. You can't take
vitamin E for 2 weeks or two years or five years and expect
miracles. Supplements may help people that already have disease
but their true effectiveness is to help healthy people prevent
disease. Many researchers recognize this and call for different
kinds of studies on vitamins. (2) |
| Do the people issuing these reports critical
about supplements have any conflicts of interest like being
funded by the pharmaceutical companies? |
I ask the questions again. How can vitamins in
fruits and vegetables be recommended and considered effective, and
supplements containing the same compounds be considered
useless or even hazardous? (4)
Who would have a vested interest in discrediting
or controlling supplement use in the US and the rest of the world?
And if you assume that supplements may help people stay healthy, who
would have an interest in a lot of people not being healthy?
Footnotes:
| (1)
Antioxidants and Cancer Prevention: Fact Sheet
National Cancer Institute - US National Institutes of Health
www.cancer.gov |
| (2)
Oxidative pathways in cardiovascular disease Roles, mechanisms,
and therapeutic implications - (5.3.2. Antioxidant
supplements in cardiovascular disease) - Suvara Kimnite
Wattanapitayakula, , Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of
Medicine, Srinakharinwirot University, Sukhumvit 23, Bangkok
10110, Thailand; & John Anthony Bauerb - Division of
Pharmacology & OSU Heart and Lung Institute, College of
Pharmacy, The Ohio State University, 500 West 12th Avenue,
Columbus, OH 43210, USA (This entire article is worth reading.)
PDF |
| (3)
Nomenclature of
Tocopherols and Related Compounds (reference
1.3) World Wide
Web version prepared by G. P. Moss Department of Chemistry,
Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS,
UK PDF |
| (4)
Read
Another Supplement, Under the Microscope by Michael Mason, New York
Times
Published: March 13, 2007
to see how these attacks are carried out. |
|
|
| |
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and
Drug Administration. This web page or any products found here are not intended
to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. If you find information here
that is of interest to you, take it to your medical doctor for conversation and
evaluation. Do not stop taking any prescription drugs without consulting with
your medical doctor.
© 2007 Donabee.com - All Rights Reserved
|
