Antioxidant Supplements Lower Cancer and Overall Mortality in Men!

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Anthony Colpo,
December 10, 2004.

One of the functions of this site is to report the results of those studies that the medical mainstream does not want you to know about, studies that are typically ignored by major media outlets.

One such paper appears in the November 22, 2004 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. It reports the results of the SU.VI.MAX study, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial examining antioxidant supplementation in over 13,000 French adults (7,876 women aged 35-60 years and 5,141 men aged 45-60 years)(1).

The participants took either a single daily capsule containing 120 mg of ascorbic acid, 30 mg of vitamin E, 6 mg of beta carotene, 100 mcg of selenium, and 20 mg of zinc, or a placebo. Among this population, 7.5 years of supplementation showed no effect on cardiovascular mortality in men or women, or on cancer or overall mortality in women. However, cancer and overall mortality in men were both significantly reduced, by thirty-one and thirty-seven percent, respectively--a pretty hefty reduction by anyone's standards! (I submit that this reduction would have been even more impressive had the participants also taken high-potencies of B-vitamins, 100mg of Coenzyme Q10, and 200-400mg of elemental magnesium daily).

So why the large benefit in men but not in women?

No-one can say with any certainty, but the women in this study did have higher baseline blood levels of vitamin C and beta-carotene than their male counterparts, while sporting lower fasting blood glucose values. As the study authors speculated, the ineffectiveness of supplementation among the women in this study may have been due to their better baseline antioxidant status.

This by the way, is not the first time that selenium-containing supplements have been shown in controlled trials to lower cancer mortality; large trials from China and the U.S. have shown substantial mortality benefits among those randomized to receive selenium(2-4).

Getting the true picture

There has been a recent stream of reports in the media recently about studies purportedly showing harmful effects from the use of vitamin and mineral supplements. I won't state that the sudden proliferation of these scare-mongering reports, and the lack of press given to supportive studies like the ones mentioned above, have anything to do with a desire by vested interests to lower resistance among the public to the looming implementation of the anti-supplement CODEX legislation. After all, that would make me a conspiracy 'nut', and we all know that there is no such thing as conspiracies, and that big government and big business always act in an honest, ethical, transparent manner, right?

(For those who are a bit slow out of the gate today, yes, that last sentence was written with a super-sized helping of sarcasm).

Fight for your right to freely use supplements

In recent newsletters I have been alerting readers to the very real threat posed to free access to nutritional supplements by CODEX, the Draconian regulation that is to be imposed globally beginning mid-2005. The successful results of studies like SU.VI.MAX will only increase the determination of the monopolistic drug giants and their compliant bureaucratic lackeys to stomp all over our liberties and restrict our access to supplements. After all, when it comes to safety and efficacy, they do not have anything that even begins to compete with dietary supplements for the primary prevention of cancer.

For those who think that the proposed CODEX legislation can't really be all that bad, please read the following article by Suzanne Harris, J.D., from the Law Loft, with special emphasis on her concluding paragraphs.

Do Three Interlocking Events In November Signal The End Of Health Freedom?

Don't be complacent and think that someone else will somehow take care of "this whole CODEX thing" for you. Please support the efforts of the Alliance for Natural Health and the International Advocates for Health Freedom, both of which are diligently working to fight the draconian CODEX proposals. The latter also distributes a regular newsletter keeping readers up to date of the latest developments in the ongoing CODEX saga; you can sign up by visiting the IAHF link above.

U.S. readers wishing to write their Representative in Congress can find the name and contact details of their Congressperson here.

References

1. Hercberg S, et al. The SU.VI.MAX Study: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial of the Health Effects of Antioxidant Vitamins and Minerals. Archives of Internal Medicine, Nov 2004; 164: 2335-2342.

2. Clark LC, et al. Effects of selenium supplementation for cancer prevention in patients with carcinoma of the skin. A randomized controlled trial. Nutritional Prevention of Cancer Study Group. Journal of the American Medical Association, Dec 25, 1996; 276 (24): 1957-1963.

3. Yu SY, et al. Protective role of selenium against hepatitis B virus and primary liver cancer in Qidong. Biol Trace Elem Research, 1997; 56 (1): 117-124.

4. Blot WJ, et al. Nutrition intervention trials in Linxian, China: supplementation with specific vitamin/mineral combinations, cancer incidence, and disease-specific mortality in the general population. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Sep 15, 1993; 85 (18): 1483-1492.

Anthony Colpo is an independent researcher and certified fitness consultant with 20 years' experience in the physical conditioning arena. To contact: [email protected]