Posted June 13, 2013: by Bill Sardi
You read Dr. Paul A. Offit’s denunciation of vitamin pills in The New York Times (Don’t Take Your Vitamin, June 8, 2013) and you have no doubt left in your mind – the vitamin pill makers must be hiding thousands of dead bodies. Why beta carotene increased the death rate among smokers in Finland in 1994 and that fact was published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.
In all, Dr. Offit refers to five published studies, which in his mind, prove vitamin pills unequivocally represent death in a bottle, might as well have a skull and crossbones printed on their labels and the public should be warned away from them.
Only for Senator Proxmire in the 1970s bending to the demands of vitamin fanatics that vitamin pills now remain beyond the reach of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), says Dr. Offit. Why the FDA would like to wrap their hands around those irresponsible vitamin extremists that peddle thousands of unproven potions and pills if they were permitted to do so, claims Dr. Offit.
Of course, the 1994 study involving beta carotene was mis-reported. There was no significant difference in the death rate from lung cancer among smokers taking beta carotene pills in Finland. You can view a chart taken directly from that 1994 study and see that there was no significant difference in the death rate among beta carotene and non-beta carotene users in that 1994 study. Furthermore, we know why beta carotene was ineffective. Beta carotene converts to vitamin A which competes for storage in the liver with vitamin D. Vitamin D protects against lung cancer and vitamin A diminishes that effect. Now if Dr. Offit can’t accurately interpret a scientific report, why has the New York Times given him unopposed space on their opinion pages?
There must be thousands of dead bodies with evidence of vitamins pills in their stomachs that pathologists can confirm by autopsy. But something is certainly amiss as poison control center data shows there hasn’t been a death attributed to vitamin or mineral supplements in the past few years.
But let’s take a look at the other side of the ledger – prescription drugs.
According to authoritative reports, properly-used prescription drugs, administered by nurses in a hospital (not overdosed), kill about 107,000 Americans every year.
Then recall David Graham, the 20-year FDA drug evaluator who had to flee to Great Britain to report that the FDA and drug companies were hiding 30,000-55,000 preventable deaths from Vioxx, an anti-inflammatory drug that was initially posed to be safer than ibuprofen.
Dr. Ben Goldacre has recently demanded that drug companies and the FDA disclose safety data on drugs that has been withheld from doctors and the public. Doctors do not have adequate data to determine whether one type of drug is safer than another. Is the FDA and Big Pharma hiding even more dead bodies?
David Stouder, health store owner and proponent for vitamin supplements, says (tongue in cheek) if he shoots ten people a day in his store and hides their bodies, the vitamin pills he sells will then become as safe as FDA-approved drugs.
While Dr. Paul Offit is condemning vitamin pills, approximately 40% of Americans are deficient in zinc, magnesium, vitamin B12 and even more suffer symptoms caused by shortages of vitamins C and D.
Vitamin pills are safer than table salt, vaccines, even tap water. – ©2013 Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc.
Posted in Dietary Supplements, Modern Medicine, Vitamins ; No Comments »
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