Apr 03 2009
Move Evidence for Vitamin Supplement Effectiveness
The above title is borderline bogus. Who wrote that? Oh, I did. Why is it bogus? Because the answer to the question, Do vitamin supplements work? is not Yes or No, but which vitamins? It is more scientific to speak and write about specific vitamins than it is to make general judgments.
So allow me to re-write it: “More Evidence That Some Vitamin Supplements Are Effective.” Or even better, “Research Shows That Vitamin Supplement Containing Selenium, Vitamin E, and Beta-Carotene Improves Health.”
I’ll let the lead paragraph of the ScienceDaily post tell it:
Individuals who took a dietary supplement called “factor D”, which included selenium, vitamin E, and beta-carotene, continued to have lower gastric cancer and overall mortality 10 years after supplementation ceased compared with individuals who did not take the supplements, according to long-term follow-up data from the randomized, double-blind General Population Nutrition Intervention Trial in Linxian, China.
Ten years . . . randomized double blind . . . and there were almost 30,000 subjects! Holy cow! What great quality (seemingly, it was made in China so I’m a bit skeptical), what great quantity. I’m impressed.
And the write-up includes details. Numbers even! My cup of curiosity runneth over!
How much was the overall mortality rate reduced? 5% fewer of those in the experimental group died over those ten years. Unbelievable. Unbelievable? 11% reduction in gastric cancer mortality.
As an illustration of just how complicated the study of health treatments is, check out this finding:
Esophageal cancer incidence decreased by 17% in participants under the age of 55, but increased by 14% in those participants over age 55.
Great! . . . Oh, not so great.
I wouldn’t go out and buy a crate of “factor-D” just yet. Though Ponce de Leon might. But the finding is intriguing.
[...] study of the benefits of vitamin supplementation, described in Science Daily, and believes there’s something there but let’s not get over-enthusiastic as the subject is very complicated and there’s some bad news as [...]