SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Most popular vitamin and mineral supplements provide no health benefit, study finds
The most commonly consumed vitamin and mineral supplements provide no consistent health benefit or harm, suggests a new study led by researchers at St. Michael's Hospital and the University of Toronto.
Published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the systematic review of existing data and single randomized control trials published in English from January 2012 to October 2017 found that multivitamins, vitamin D, calcium and vitamin C -- the most common supplements -- showed no advantage or added risk in the prevention of cardiovascular disease, heart attack, stroke or premature death. Generally, vitamin and mineral supplements are taken to add to nutrients that are found in food.
"We were surprised to find so few positive effects of the most common supplements that people consume," said Dr. David Jenkins*, the study's lead author. "Our review found that if you want to use multivitamins, vitamin D, calcium or vitamin C, it does no harm -- but there is no apparent advantage either."
The study found folic acid alone and B-vitamins with folic acid may reduce cardiovascular disease and stroke. Meanwhile, niacin and antioxidants showed a very small effect that might signify an increased risk of death from any cause.
What about people who would otherwise eat an incredibly nutrient-deficient diet (e.g. junk food, rice, bread, pasta, french fries, hot dogs, etc.)?
Supplemental Vitamins and Minerals for CVD Prevention and Treatment (DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2018.04.020) (DX)
(Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday May 30 2018, @03:57AM (11 children)
Even if you eat McJunkFood you would or should get enough vitamins etc. You have to be some kind of 300-500 year old Pirate in a timemachine to get scurvy today, or a serious case of malnutrition as some starving third world orphan to not get enough vitamins.
You eat them cause you like them, placebo effect, or because they taste good or you just really like to produce extra expensive urine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 30 2018, @04:15AM (2 children)
Yeah, a few enrichments prevent some of the worst and otherwise most common deficiencies, but otherwise... Do even a little bit of research in nutrition and evidence abounds that pretty much everyone is deficient as all hell in all kinds of things, and public health is awful (in part) for it!
Please don't ignorantly propagate this erroneously dismissive attitude. Either do some research or shut the hell up.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Wednesday May 30 2018, @07:46AM (1 child)
Even mild doses of Water Hemlock [wikipedia.org] can be very efficacious! If you are trying to die. "Pharma" is Greek for poison, don't ya know?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 30 2018, @05:27PM
Are you from Greece or Nebraska? Rhetorical question, we all know you're from Jersey.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday May 30 2018, @05:42AM (1 child)
Uh, actually scurvy is seemingly surprisingly common [slate.com] these days, though woefully underdiagnosed.
And actually, a friend of one of my good friends in college actually was diagnosed with it after eating a really bad diet with no fruits or vegetables. Yes, I actually knew this guy personally (or at least saw him and talked to him a few times). No, he didn't eat only instant ramen, but it was a pretty bad diet that probably had only a few items including stuff like that.
Scurvy is indeed around and in the days of processed foods, it's quite possible to get it.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Goghit on Wednesday May 30 2018, @05:37PM
Thanks for the link. That's hilarious, in a "Fuck this FSM-Forsaken Earth" sort of way.
I'll have to alert my wife about this. She works with autistic children and some of the diets described in that article are straight out of the "Autism for Dummies" handbook.
This study as presented is junk. Lack of impact on CVD does not mean lack of impact on health. There's lots of research showing the negative impact of low Vitmin D on neuromuscular issues, balance, bone health and even certain cancers. Once doctors finally started measuring D levels a lot of of us northerners are at risk due to our indoor slip-slap-slop-fear-the-sun livestyle.
The researchers made a fundamental error by not choosing their words more carefully while talking to the sensation-driven idiots from the press. Or maybe the researchers are idiots too.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday May 30 2018, @06:40AM (2 children)
I Am Absolutely Serious:
"You should floss your teeth. You're gums are bleeding."
"No I have scurvy."
"You cannot possibly have scurvy!"
"I'm a Caltech student; I have scurvy."
I picked up a whole grocery sack of oranges on the way back to Ricketts House.
I had scurvy.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Wednesday May 30 2018, @09:06AM (1 child)
And Rickets, by the sounds of it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 30 2018, @05:40PM
He's on his way to becoming Cricket! Just gotta drop out of the clergy first...
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday May 30 2018, @06:42AM (2 children)
Blood tests find that I have a Vitamin D3 deficiency despite massive doses of prescription ercocalciferol.
I expect there's some reason for that yet cannot be bothered to google it. Perhaps you could help me out.
Possibly the D3 test when I'm done with this second ergocalciferol will motivate my doc to diagnose some manner of inability to metabolize it.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1) by jjr on Wednesday May 30 2018, @01:04PM (1 child)
I have also vitamin D deficiency (but not sure if it's D3 as yours). In my case it's caused by a benign tumor (adenoma) in one of my parathyroid glands, causing calcium to pile up in my blood instead of attaching to my bones. The tumor causes the gland to go overdrive and leaves me out of vitamin D and a lot of calcium to deal with. All I needed for the diagnose was a blood test (showing the amount of calcium in blood, this raised the alarm), echography (to check thyroids, parathyroids and kidneys) and a radiography with radioactive contrast to determine which of the 4 parathyroid glands were malfunctioning. I also took a densiometry to check the status of my bones.
Aside taking calciferol to compensate, the only solution is surgery to remove the tumor, but right now the numbers from the blood test don't qualify me yet for intervention, since my bones are ok and I have no kidney stones yet. In 6 months I'll undergo another blood test to see if I can get the surgery.
(Score: 2) by rondon on Monday June 04 2018, @03:31AM
Jesus Christ this is fucked. Obvious problem, obvious solution, can't obtain solution because...?
I don't know the answer to the problem that JJR just presented, but I do know one solution that isn't working - private insurance.