Science: Articles & Press Releases
The Safety and Efficacy of Vitamins - Part 1: "Toxic Vitamins"
The safety of vitamins has been clearly demonstrated by the toxicological literature and further by the experience of orthomolecular physicians over the past forty years. Why then, is the public subjected to periodic outbursts of information about how toxic vitamins are? We do not have similar outbursts against the use of drugs even though vitamins have a zero death rate while drugs in the United States alone kill 106,000 patients in hospitals annually.
The Safety and Efficacy of Vitamins - Part 2: "Safe Upper Levels" for Nutritional Supplements: One Giant Step Backward
In May, 2003, the Expert Group on Vitamins and Minerals (EVM), an advisory group originally commissioned in 1988 by the then Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food, and subsequently reporting to the Food Standards Agency in England, published a report that set "Safe Upper Levels" (SULs) for the doses of most vitamin and mineral supplements. The establishment of SULs was based on a review of clinical and epidemiological evidence, as well as animal research and in vitro studies. For those nutrients for which the available evidence was judged insufficient to set an SUL, the EVM instead established "Guidance Levels", which were to be considered less reliable than SULs.
The Safety and Efficacy of Vitamins - Part 3: "Side Effects of Over-the-Counter Drugs"
Primum non nocere. Every doctor has learned the Hippocratic Oath, the most well-known and most important ethical rule in medicine: "Above all, do no harm." This is the physicians first rule: a treatment prescribed to a patient must not harm the patient. It does not say harm should be relative, although that is how the rule is interpreted. It does make the point that the harm, ideally, should be as little as is humanly possible. Paracelsus wrote, Sola dosisfacit venenumtoo much of anything will hurt you. For centuries, this has precipitated the question, How much is too much?
Death by Vitamins Versus Death by Pharmaceutical Drugs
In order to provide the viewer with a sense of the actual risks associated with the consumption of food supplements, the following graphic demonstrates a comparison of deaths per million annually attributed to Hospital Care, Pharmaceutical Drugs, Traffic Accidents, Foods and Dietary Supplements.
Low vitamin D levels linked to higher blood pressure
25 July 2007: According to the American Journal of Hypertension, people with low blood levels of vitamin D may be at an increased risk of higher blood pressure - a problem that could be easily remedied with supplements, says a new study. "This finding may have public health significance, as vitamin D levels can easily, and cheaply, be increased by a modest increase in sun exposure or vitamin D supplementation," wrote lead author Robert Scragg in the American Journal of Hypertension.
A vitamin B12 a day may keep birth defects away
19 May 2007: Globe and Mail – Article by Paul Taylor. Pregnant women with low levels of vitamin B12 are at a heightened risk of having a child with a serious birth defect, according to Canadian researchers. For their study, led by Joel Ray of St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, the researchers examined blood samples from a large group of pregnant women. The findings, published in the journal Epidemiology, revealed that women with the lowest levels of vitamin B12 had three times the risk of delivering babies with neural tube defects such as spina bifida, in which the spine is severely deformed. The main dietary sources of B12 are fish, meat, dairy products and eggs.
Vitamin D casts cancer prevention in new light
28 April 2007: For decades, researchers have puzzled over why rich northern countries have cancer rates many times higher than those in developing countries and many have laid the blame on dangerous pollutants spewed out by industry.
But research into vitamin D is suggesting both a plausible answer to this medical puzzle and a heretical notion: that cancers and other disorders in rich countries aren't caused mainly by pollutants but by a vitamin deficiency known to be less acute or even non-existent in poor nations.
Those trying to brand contaminants as the key factor behind cancer in the West are "looking for a bogeyman that doesn't exist," argues Reinhold Vieth, professor at the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto and one of the world's top vitamin D experts. Instead, he says, the critical factor "is more likely a lack of vitamin D."
New Study Reveals Children who eat more good fats less likely to be overweight
07 April 2007: In a study of 182 children, researchers measured the dietary habits and body mass index (BMI) of 4-year-olds recruited from pediatric health centers in Göteborg, Sweden. The study determined that young children who consume more unsaturated fat have a lower body weight. The researchers also found that, of the 182 children studied, 20 percent were classified as overweight and 2 percent as obese. A surprising quarter of these children's total energy intake came from junk food (candy, ice cream, cookies, and sweet beverages). In addition, most of these children had a higher intake of saturated fat and sucrose—and a lower intake of omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, and iron—than recommended.
Folic acid recommended to protect against heart disease, say British scientists
27 November 2006: British Medical Journal Reports that despite some controversy in reports of the benefits of folate consumption on cardiovascular disease risk, the evidence is now strong enough to publicly recommend the vitamin for heart health.
New Study Links Vitamin E Levels to Lowered Mortality Risk
23 November 2006: NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A large new study suggests vitamin E may help prevent death from cancer and heart disease in middle-aged men who smoke, contradicting the findings of some previous studies on the subject. Men with the highest levels of vitamin E in their blood were 18 percent less likely to die than those with the lowest levels, the researchers found. They also had a 21-percent lower risk of death from cancer, a 19-percent lower risk of dying from heart disease, and a 30-percent lower risk of death from other causes.
Omega-3, fiber, vitamin E linked to lower Lymphoma risk
12 July 2006: American Journal of Epidemiology: Study finds a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids, dietary fiber, beta-carotene and vitamin E offers significant protection against non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). The study of 591 participants also found that consuming certain antioxidant vitamins, commonly found in some fruits and vegetables, was associated with lower risk of overall NHL and some common subtypes. Additional Note: According to the American Cancer Society, over 50,000 new cases are diagnosed in the US alone every year.
Low-Fat Diet Does Not Cut Health Risks, Study Finds
08 February 2006: New York Times - The largest study ever to ask whether a low-fat diet reduces the risk of getting cancer or heart disease has found that the diet has no effect. The $415 million federal study involved nearly 49,000 women ages 50 to 79 who were followed for eight years. In the end, those assigned to a low-fat diet had the same rates of breast cancer, colon cancer, heart attacks and strokes as those who ate whatever they pleased, researchers are reporting today.
Vitamin E Safety Confirmed by New JAMA Study
07 July 2005: Several studies have pointed to increased risk of death from vitamin E, although such studies have used purified or synthetic vitamin E and involved diseased persons. This new study in JAMA fills several information gaps.
Britain to add folate to bread
17 May 2007: London – United Press International reported that British food regulators say folic acid should be added to all packaged white bread. Folic acid is a source of folate, a B-vitamin needed for the rapid cell division and growth that takes place during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, when women are advised to take a supplement of 400 micrograms a day. The Food Standards Agency's action marks the first compulsory fortification of food since WWII, when the addition of calcium, iron, vitamin B1 and B3 to flour was mandatory.
Experts say antidepressant drugs cause suicides instead of preventing them
In June 2001, a jury in Wyoming determined that the antidepressant drug Paxil caused a man to kill his wife, daughter and granddaughter before killing himself. The jury awarded the surviving family $8 million in damages, according to American Medical Publishing's Prescription Medicines, Side Effects...