Be very careful about supplements

Scary stuff from the Johns Hopkins University health reports:

“… vitamin E supplements in dosages of 200 IU or greater raise the risk of death. The Hopkins team analyzed data from 19 studies involving nearly 136,000 participants that compared vitamin E supplements with placebo. They found that increasing amounts of vitamin E were associated with a greater risk of , and the risk was especially great in people taking more than 400 IU of vitamin E daily. It is important to note that it is impossible to consume this much vitamin E from food alone. The typical American diet supplies just 6 to 10 IU daily; the recommended daily allowance for vitamin E is about 22 IU daily.

Much of the fanfare for antioxidant supplements came from the largely unregulated industry that manufactures and sells them. But many doctors recommended antioxidant supplements because of the recognized dangers of free radicals and because some benefits were reported from observational studies of people taking antioxidant supplements and eating antioxidant-rich foods. The trouble with such observational studies is that 1) they could not tell whether antioxidant supplements caused the benefits; 2) people may not accurately report what they eat; and 3) the health-conscious people who usually take part in such research may be less likely to smoke and more likely to practice other good health habits. These factors — or a combination of them — may be responsible for the protective effect attributed to antioxidant supplements. So these benefits may only be a perception — not real.

Meanwhile, test-tube studies have found that high doses of antioxidants can turn into pro-oxidants, in other words, produce free radicals. Antioxidant supplements, unlike the nutrients found in food, may somehow upset the balance of antioxidants absorbed into the body. Carefully controlled clinical trials, the gold standard in medical research, have not yet found any positive evidence for antioxidant supplements.”

Here’s the bottom line based on the studies:

“… not to spend your money on vitamin E or C, selenium, or beta carotene supplements, or on any of the antioxidant tails on the market. To help your body fight aging and disease caused by free radicals, your best course of action is to eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables (especially leafy greens), and whole grains. Nuts, in moderate amounts, are an excellent addition. … A healthy diet should be your chief source of vitamins, minerals, and other life-giving nutrients.”