Vitamin Supplement may increase risk of death
- From: "truth" <truth@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:03:21 GMT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/apr/16/medicalresearch
Vitamin supplements may increase risk of death
a.. James Randerson, science correspondent
b.. The Guardian,
c.. Wednesday April 16 2008
d.. Article history
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This article appeared in the Guardian on Wednesday April 16 2008 on p6 of
the UK news section. It was last updated at 11:59 on April 16 2008.
Vitamin supplements taken by millions of people do not increase life
expectancy and may raise the risk of a premature death , according to a
review of 67 studies with more than 230,000 subjects.
The review, by the Cochrane Collaboration which regularly pools data from
trials to evaluate drugs and treatments, found supplements vitamin A,
vitamin E and beta-carotene are detrimental to health. In 47 trials with
180,938 people and a low risk of bias, the "antioxidant supplements
significantly increased mortality", the authors wrote. When the antioxidants
were assessed separately and low risk of bias trials were included and
selenium excluded, vitamin A was linked to a 16% increased risk of dying,
beta-carotene to a 7% increased risk and vitamin E to a 4% increased risk.
Evidence for vitamin C and selenium was more equivocal, suggesting there was
no benefit to taking these pills compared with a placebo.
"The bottom line is current evidence does not support the use of antioxidant
supplements in the general healthy population or in patients with certain
diseases," said Goran Bjelakovic, who performed the review at Copenhagen
Universityhospital in Denmark. "There was no indication that vitamin C and
selenium may have positive or negative effects. So regarding these we need
more data from randomised trials."
All the supplements are categorised as antioxidants; research has suggested
these chemicals underlie some of the beneficial effects of eating fruit and
vegetables because they soak up harmful byproducts of metabolism which can
damage cells and cause aging.
While the evidence of a beneficial effect of a diet rich in fruit and veg is
solid, the Cochrane data suggest antioxidant supplements are either useless
or detrimental.
Bjelakovic's team evaluated 67 randomised clinical trials with 232,550
subjects; 21 of the trials were on healthy subjects, while the rest tested
patients with a range of diseases. The evidence suggests it would be safer
to obtain the chemicals not as supplements but by eating plenty of fruit and
vegetables.
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