Antioxidant supplement researchers seem to WANT to get it wrong

Full of Holes

The newest high-profile antioxidant study is impressively large (more than 14,000 subjects), impressively long (an eight-year follow up of a ten-year study), from an impressive source (Brigham and Women’s Hospital), and published in an impressive periodical (Journal of the American Medical Association).

And given all that dazzling impressiveness, here’s what’s most impressive: It’s totally useless.

Really – if the Titanic had this many holes in it, it would have sunk in two minutes flat.

May Day!

Brigham and Women’s researchers tracked about eight years of cardiovascular events in subjects who had participated in the Physicians’ Health Study II. In that study, thousands of doctors were asked to take vitamin E, vitamin C, both, or a placebo.

Results: Risk of major cardiovascular events was not affected by a decade of E and/or C supplementation. And worse: Men who took vitamin E had 74 percent increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke.

Yikes! Vitamin E will kill you! Well…that’s how it APPEARS, anyway.

Which brings us to HOLE NUMBER ONE: Your chance of suffering a vitamin E- induced stroke is about the same as your chance of being hit by lightning. Twice. In the same day. While sitting in your basement. 74 percent? Here’s how it really breaks down: 23 subjects in the placebo group suffered hemorrhagic stroke (Yikes! Placebos kill too!), while 39 suffered the same type of stroke in the E group. So, yeah, that’s a 74 percent increased risk of statistical triviality when you’re talking about 14,641 subjects.

Better strap on a life preserver because it only gets worse from here.

Maybe you’ve heard this one…

By now, e-Alert readers know what to do when a study finds vitamin E to be ineffective: Check to see what form of E was used.

It never fails. Show me a study that finds problems with vitamin E and I’ll show you a study that did not use mixed tocopherols – the most effective form of the vitamin. And the Physicians’ Health Study is no different. HOLE NUMBER TWO: They used a- tocopherol – a synthetic form of E that’s about half as effective as mixed tocopherols.

HOLE NUMBER THREE: Subjects in the E group didn’t even take their supplement every day! They were instructed to take their 400 IU dose of a-tocopherol every other day.

Gee…it’s almost as if someone WANTED this study to fail.

William Faloon of the Life Extension Institute summed it up nicely: “It is rather ludicrous to think that these study subjects would reduce their vascular disease risk by taking modest dose, every other day, of a form of vitamin E with inferior anti-oxidant capacity.”

But here’s what’s really ludicrous: the Associated Press coverage of this leaky ocean liner of a study. The AP article actually LEADS with the irrelevant statistic about vitamin E and stroke risk. Then, in paragraph two, the hit job is turned over to Barbara Howard, a “nutrition scientist” who helpfully suggests that while we’re questioning the effectiveness of E and C supplements, “we have to worry about potential harm.”

Then the AP follows that nonsense with a very generous helping of hogwash: “As for vitamin C, some research suggests it may aid cancer, not fight it.” Does the article offer any evidence AT ALL to backup that absurd claim? Of course not. That baseless “information” is just randomly dropped in to ratchet up the fear factor.

Before the article bottoms out, the AP turns things over to Barbara Howard again for this little financial tip: “In these hard economic times, maybe we can save some money by not buying these supplements.”

Well done, Barbara. These may be hard economic times, but somewhere you’ve made a drug company executive smile.

Sources:
“Vitamins E and C in the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in Men” Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 300, No. 18, 11/12/08, jama.ama-assn.org
“Studies: Vitamin Pills Don’t Prevent Heart Disease” Marilynn Marchione, Associated Press, 11/9/08, ap.org
“Preliminary Rebuttal to Recent Attacks Against Dietary Supplements” William Faloon, Life Extension Institute, November 2008, lef.org