So, will health food stores, and apothecaries in the UK and around the world
be forced to put signs up warning people not to take certain vitamins if
they think they might have stomach cancer?
A few years ago it was Vitamin A that made lung cancer patients who smoked
die younger, and now it's stomach cancer that's in the news.
Now if only Adam Dreamhealer's remote cancer prevention powers could be put
to the test to see if his clients die sooner if they use his services. But,
I think hell might freeze over first before the media or scientists would
give it a wack.
What we need here is for the health food industry to provide evidence that
the thousands of products that are marketed around the world do anything to
improve longevity, cure cancer, and reduce pain and suffering.
In Canada, the snake oil is flowing quite nicely under the new NHPD, and the
claims coming out of the nutraceutical labs of British Columbia, Ontario and
Alberta are certainly not going to be stopped by the people who are supposed
to regulate them.
When was the last time that a negative study about herbs came from Canadian
researchers? As far as I can tell, there are no negative studies being
published in Canada.
Hmmm. That almost sounds like the pharmaceutical industry, doesn't it?
I say, give the nutraceutical people all the money they want, but let's do
the research under the envelope of real science, and not allow multi-level
marketers, and entrepreneurs who bury their money or send their profits to
offshore bank accounts to profit from false claims about their products.
Hold them to the same standards as the pharmaceutical industry to see
whether their products flop, or injure, or even kill people prematurely. We
need all the help we can get.
Stop the testimonials, fire the p.r. people, and force regulated health
professionals to stop their paid promotions and road trips on behalf of the
nutraceutical industry. Have the same tight standards for conflict of
interest that now govern the pharmaceutical industry apply for those in the
nutraceutical industry.
If vitamin X is going to increase disease, then we need to know it. If herb
Z is going to interfere with drug Y then we need to know it.
But, the freedom fighting brigades led by people like Canadian pig pill
makers like Tony Stephan and David Hardy, or muckraking wannabees like
Trueman Tuck or Chris Gupta and Hulda Clark's Tijuana taxi driver Tim Bolen
really don't care when bad news comes from real research into the harmful
effects of supplements. They will just continue to flog their products,
write opinion pieces on Google News, or on their own web sites without a
shred of scientific credentials behind them. They will be blowhards until
the end of time.
So, when the smoke clears, who will be left standing? I hope that the
readers and observors of the media take notice and come to the right
conclusion. You can't take a handful of vitamins or mineral and herbs, throw
them into a bucket and call them a cure for anything. That is health fraud,
and no matter what the government does or does not do to the manufacturers,
or vendors of this snake oil, they will continue to say whatever they want,
and sell whatever they want in Canada without fear of effective oversight by
Health Canada.
Terry Polevoy, MD
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3703498.stm
Vitamins pills do not stop cancer
Vitamin supplements do nothing to prevent gut cancers and may shorten life
expectancy, research suggests.
A review of 14 trials involving more than 170,000 people found antioxidant
vitamins, like vitamin E, offered no protection against these cancers.
People taking some supplements died prematurely, the European researchers
said in the Lancet.
Cancer Research UK cautioned the findings were preliminary and did not offer
convincing proof of hazard.
We could not find evidence that antioxidant supplements can prevent
gastrointestinal cancers.
Lead researcher Dr Goran Bjelakovic
The study authors themselves emphasised that they had only studied the
effect of certain antioxidant supplements.
"The results should not be translated to the potential effects of vegetables
and fruit, which are rich in antioxidants and other substances," they said.
Antioxidants are thought to stop cancer by preventing or slowing damage
caused by certain oxygen compounds.
Dr Goran Bjelakovic and his colleagues, working at the Copenhagen Trial Unit
in Denmark, looked at the supplements beta-carotene, vitamins A, C and E and
selenium as different combinations or separately.
They compared the rate of gastrointestinal cancers, such as stomach, liver
or bowel cancer, among people taking the antioxidant supplements and people
taking fake tablets with no active ingredient.
Other than selenium, regular use of antioxidant supplements did not prevent
gastrointestinal (GI) cancers.
In half of the 14 trials reviewed, vitamin tablets appeared to shorten life
expectancy.
Food better than pills
The combination of beta-carotene and vitamin A or vitamin E increased risk
of premature death by 30% and 10%, respectively.
Dr Bjelakovic said: "We could not find evidence that antioxidant supplements
can prevent gastrointestinal cancers.
There are no shortcuts to prevent bowel cancer. If you're taking
vitamins to protect yourself against the disease, you're wasting your money.
Dr Richard Sullivan of Cancer Research UK
"On the contrary, they seem to increase overall mortality."
He said the potential merits of taking selenium to prevent GI cancers should
be further investigated.
Dr Richard Sullivan of Cancer Research UK said the research could have been
biased because many of the people in the study were smokers, who have a
higher death risk anyway.
"There are no shortcuts to prevent bowel cancer. If you're taking vitamins
to protect yourself against the disease, you're wasting your money.
"The best way to lower the risk is to eat a healthy diet and not smoke."
He said the study added to the evidence that trials into the benefits of
selenium are warranted.
'Scary speculation'
"There is currently a study of the protective effects of selenium in
prostate cancer in the US, but further research is needed into the wider
role of selenium."
Selenium is found in nuts, white fish, liver and kidney, shellfish, cereals,
bread and dairy products.
Douglas Altman from Cancer Research UK told the Lancet in an editorial: "If
their findings are correct, 9,000 out of every million users would die
prematurely as a result."
He said this was a "scary speculation" given the vast quantities of vitamin
supplements used.
He said more research was needed and described the study as "work in
progress" that offered no convincing proof of hazard.
Martin Ledwick from CancerBACUP said: "Further investigation is needed into
the effects of vitamin supplements.
"In the meantime, it's probably sensible to avoid taking very large doses of
vitamin supplements and to try to get the necessary vitamins from eating
five or more portions of fruit and vegetables every day."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/3703498.stm
Published: 2004/10/01 03:36:03 GMT
� BBC MMIV
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