Scientifically misleading editorial wrongly demonizes dietary supplements, fools media outlets

(http://www.theglobeandmail.com) A misleading editorial, "Enough is Enough: Stop Wasting Money on Vitamin and Mineral Supplements," along with three accompanying studies, was recently published online in the Annals of Internal Medicine, and several articles based on the report have since falsely said that "there's enough evidence to advise against dietary supplementation."

The authors wrote that most supplements "do not prevent chronic disease or death, and they should be avoided."

However, as Dr. Irvine Mason, MD, commented, "The authors totally disregarded the best and most comprehensive study to date, [the Physicians' Health Study II] published [by] the American Medical Association, November 2, 2012. That study followed nearly 15,000 male doctors older than 50 for up to 13 years," and it revealed an 8% reduction in risk of non-prostate cancer for men taking only Centrium Silver multivitamin. While ignoring this vital study, which is "the only large scale, randomized double blind, placebo-controlled trial testing the long term effects of common multi-vitamins," the researchers admittedly relied on studies that "were limited in scope and size."

Vitamin and mineral supplements are prescribed by real doctors the world over for a variety of medical conditions: antioxidant lutein vitamins for macular degeneration; prenatal vitamins to prevent spina bifida, meningomylocele and other neural tube defects; and vitamin C for recurrent urinary tract infections. Higher vitamin D levels have been linked to lower breast cancer risk, and a new study shows that it can reduce fibromyalgia symptoms.

No harm from daily multivitamin supplementation was shown by any of the studies cited by the authors. The authors also ignored a two-year, double-blind study which showed that vitamin B can effectively reduce brain shrinkage due to Alzheimer's disease.