Pitchforks and torches

Pitchforks and torches

Sometimes the mainstream media acts like a hulking, simple-minded, Frankenstein.

Here’s the latest from “Frank” on vitamin E: “Vitamin E cause stroke. Me no like stroke. Me no like vitamin E! Argh!”

Thanks, big guy. That’s really…not helpful at all.

It’s alive!

With headlines such as, “Vitamin E increases risk of internal bleeding stroke,” and “Vitamin E could trigger a stroke,” the mainstream media has, once again, completely botched the reporting.

For instance, here’s a Washington Post blog article: “It turns out that taking Vitamin E, while reducing risk of ischemic stroke by about 10 percent, actually increases risk of the more-dangerous hemorrhagic stroke by 22 percent.”

Well, no, it doesn’t “turn out”–as if, finally, this is the end of the story. And there’s zero evidence that a quality vitamin E supplement would “actually increase risk” of hemorrhagic stroke.

This vitamin E news isn’t based on a clinical trial. It was a meta-analysis of several clinical trials, so it’s open to all kinds of interpretation.

And you know who saw right through all that? Washington Post readers. It was like they became a mob of angry villagers, grabbing torches and pitchforks to go after the mainstream Frankenstein.

In the comment section included with the blog article, several readers asked about the forms of vitamin E used and the dosages. In comment after comment there are intelligent questions that SHOULD have been raised by the blogger, who instead just parroted the conclusion of the study.

So what’s the real deal with the meta-analysis? Well, it’s a mess. As usual!

First of all, many of the subjects in these studies weren’t at all healthy to begin with.

One study enrolled only smokers–more than 28,000! That’s a HUGE cohort already at risk of stroke. Another study recruited only subjects who had experienced cardiovascular disease events. And in two studies, a combined total of more than 17,500 subjects were at high risk of
cardiovascular disease.

And vitamin E played a role in their strokes? Riiiight.

But wait. It goes from very bad to much worse…

Of the nine studies included in the analysis, four of them used a synthetic form of E known as dl-alpha. Which is simply junk. In fact, Dr. Spreen recommends that dl-alpha only be used topically because, over time, it may actually do harm when taken internally.

The subjects in those four “synthetic” studies accounted for about half of all the subjects in the combined studies. Which means that half of this meta-analysis is based on junk.

So here’s the ACCURATE headline for any media report on this study: “Junk form of vitamin E may slightly increase stroke risk among unhealthy patients.”

Honestly, I don’t have all the numbers, so my made-up headline is possibly misleading. But I’ll bet it’s more accurate than the blatantly absurd headlines suggesting that any vitamin E supplement increases hemorrhagic stroke risk.

You can put a torch to that one and stick a pitchfork in it.

Sources:
“Effects of vitamin E on stroke subtypes: meta-analysis of  randomised controlled trials” BMJ, Vol. 341, No. 5702,  11/4/10, bmj.com
“Is that right? Vitamin E boosts cardio health?” Jennifer LaRue Huget, Washington Post, 11/5/10, voices.washingtonpost.com