Avid scientific news readers like me and you are aware that a number of articles have hit the mainstream media recently claiming that vitamin supplementation does very little indeed, particularly with regard to preventing cardiovascular disease, cancer, etc. These studies typically contain several problems that completely mitigate their scientific relevance, but these problems are unfortunately overlooked by those reporting on them.

The Life Extension Foundation has put together an excellent rebuttal that provides a concise rundown on the problems with these studies, and it’s worth a read:

Preliminary Rebuttal to Recent Attacks Against Dietary Supplements

By William Faloon

The media recently ran headline news stories claiming that vitamins C, D and E do not prevent heart attack, stroke or breast cancer. This report represents Life Extension’s preliminary response to these media attacks that are based on egregiously flawed studies. We will submit this report for formal peer review and referencing and expect to post our official report within a few weeks.

Needless to say, when these biased attacks are launched, we are not given prior notice so that our side of the story makes it into the mass media.

In the early 1990s, several large population studies showed significant reductions in cardiovascular disease in those who consumed vitamin C or vitamin E.

The most widely reported study emanated from UCLA, where it was announced that men who took 800 mg a day of vitamin C lived six years longer than those who consumed the recommended daily allowance of 60 mg a day. The study, which evaluated 11,348 participants over a 10-year period of time, showed that higher vitamin C intake reduced cardiovascular disease mortality by 42%.

These kinds of findings did not go unnoticed by the federal government, who subsequently invested hundreds of millions of dollars in an attempt to ascertain if relatively modest vitamin doses could prevent common age-related diseases.

In a study that received extensive media coverage, four groups of male doctors were given various combinations of vitamin C and/or vitamin E or placebo. After eight years, there was no reported difference in heart attack or stroke incidence among the groups. This led the media to state that consumers should not buy these supplements.

As you will read, there were so many egregious flaws in this study that the findings are rendered meaningless. Regrettably, consumers who trust their lives to the mainstream media may fall victim to this latest charade to discredit validated methods to reduce cardiovascular disease risk….<snip>

…Read more at LEF’s news page