Last week, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) ran a story about a multivitamin study that torpedoed the efficacy of multivitamins, saying they offer “no benefit in preventing chronic disease” and should be avoided. According to the article …
“Multivitamins offer almost no benefit in preventing chronic disease “and they should be avoided,” experts said Monday in a medical-journal editorial accompanying the publication of two new clinical trials.
The rigorously conducted studies, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, showed multivitamins had no effect on cognitive function or cardiovascular health. They are the latest in a series of reports — including a review last month of 26 vitamin studies—indicating that supplements have little health benefits in generally well-nourished, Western populations.”
To continue reading the full article from the WSJ, click here.
Taking a deeper look into the study, well-known thinker, author and futurist Ray Kurzweil found issues with the results and how they were represented to the public. According to his public response to the WSJ story …
“Readers have asked, “What is your response to the recent ‘anti-supplement’ research study?”
The study quoted by The Wall Street Journal is misleading. It only looked at low potency (and low quality) supplement combinations and set a very high bar requiring dramatic reductions in cardiovascular disease and other conditions. There is no way that a routine commercial, low potency, low quality vitamin combination is going to meet that bar. In terms of contraindicated substances, there are potentially harmful ingredients in some combinations. Iron is generally harmful for men in terms of promoting oxidation. Vitamin A is potentially harmful, people should take its precursor Beta Carotene. What goes for “Vitamin E” in most commercial formulations is not vitamin E at all but Alpha Tocopherol, which is only one of the eight factions of vitamin E. Alpha Tocopherol suppresses Gamma Tocopherol, which is the faction found naturally in food and the most important type. A better recommendation is to take “mixed tocopherols,” which is what I take.
To read his full response, click here. And be sure to check out the rebuttals to the study claim-by-claim to help arm your field.
