Vitamin supplements may increase risk of death

[Guest guest]

Any thoughts? Personally, I used to take a multivitamin but never

noticed any difference to when I wasn't, except I would pee more

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/apr/16/medicalresearch

Vitamin supplements may increase risk of death

* Randerson, science correspondent

* The Guardian,

* Wednesday April 16 2008

About this article

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.

Gareth Snelson

Milton Keynes, UK