Massachusetts Personal Injury Library
The ongoing debate about vitamins in Andover, MA
Massachusetts attorney Thomas M. Kiley, http://www.tomkileylaw.com, concentrates on legal cases regarding health issues in Boston. People have been using vitamin supplements for many years, but there is ongoing debate about their need or effectiveness, as evidenced by studies the past few years. A recent article in the New York Times, cites Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Linus Pauling as one of the first to promote megadoses of essential nutrients 40 years ago. Today, according to the article, about half of all adults use some form of vitamin supplement, at a cost of $23 billion a year.
Another recent study by the Women’s Health Initiative tracked eight years of multivitamin use among 161,000 older women. This study published in The Archives of Internal Medicine found that multivitamins did not lower the risk of heart disease or certain cancers, as earlier findings had shown. And another study that tracked 15,000 male physicians for ten years also reported no differences in cancer or heart disease rates among those using Vitamins E and C, compared to those not taking vitamins. A third study of 35,000 men found that high doses of vitamin E and selenium did not lower the risk of prostate cancer.
Most people know that they need certain vitamins that are essential nutrients that the body can’t produce on its own. According to the National Institute of Health vitamins are substances that the body needs to grow and develop normally. The 13 vitamins a body needs are vitamins A, C, D, E, K and the B vitamins (thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, biotin, vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12 and folate). Each vitamin has specific jobs.
But a balanced diet usually provides adequate levels of these nutrients, and today many foods are fortified by extra vitamins and minerals. Researchers know that people who eat lots of nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables have lower rates of heart disease and cancer. Now they want to know whether ingesting high doses of the same nutrients in vitamin form have similar benefits.
In 2007, The Journal of the American Medical Association reviewed mortality rates in random trials of antioxidant supplements. In 47 trials of 181,000 participants, the rate was 5 percent higher among the antioxidant users. The antioxidant vitamins have been shown to mop up free radicals, the damaging molecular fragments linked to aging and disease. But some free radicals are essential to proper immune function, and getting rid of them may cause harm.
With drugs, research testing is a randomized clinical trial in which some patients take a drug and others a placebo. But vitamins are essential nutrients that people ingest in their daily diets; there is no way to withhold them from research subjects. Scientists think that the benefits of a healthful diet come from eating the whole fruit or vegetable, not just the individual vitamins found in it.
Vitamins given in high doses may also have effects that science is only beginning to understand. In a test tube, cancer cells gobble up vitamin C, and studies have shown far higher levels of vitamin C in tumor cells than are found in normal tissue.
The Federal Drug Administration and the American Academy of Family Physicians recommend taking vitamin supplements for certain health conditions, if people are vegetarians or vegans, or they are pregnant or breastfeeding, http://www.fda.gov/consumer/updates/vitamins111907.html.
They recommend that consumers educate themselves about dietary supplements because some include less familiar substances such as herbals, botanicals, amino acids, and enzymes. Patients should consider checking with health care providers before combining or substituting them with other foods or medicines.
The FDA and AAFP recommend that consumers have an overall strategy for how they will get the vitamins they need. The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans advises that nutrient needs be met primarily through consuming foods, with supplementation suggested for certain sensitive populations. These guidelines, published by the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), provide science-based advice to promote health and to reduce risk for chronic diseases through diet and physical activity. They form the basis for federal food, nutrition education, and information programs.
