Scott Gant says:

It’s because living in western society, everyone wants a pill to make everything ok. They don’t want to hear the “eat right” phrases out there. They want to eat anything they want, as much as they want, and then just take a pill to add what they’re not getting.

The supplements industry are snake-oil salesman, nothing more. There are no regulations, they can claim anything they want and they make billions and billions of dollars off of these people that want quick fixes. With the amount of money at stake, they’ll fight tooth and nail to stay where they are. Of course they’re going to say that JAMA is full of it.

I’m going to let you all in on a guaranteed way to lose weight and get the vitamins you need to survive: Expend more calories than you take in and eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and whole-grains. There…no need to buy a book. No need to spend a fortune on vitamins. But no one wants to hear that. They want the next new diet that eliminates carbs…or no, this diet over here that excludes all fats…no no, this diet over here that only relies on eating red meat. The first thing all of these diets and diet books tell you is not to listen to medical and nutritional experts as they can’t possibly know more than the author of the book, and the brain-washed public goes along with it. Apply a little critical thinking on this folks.

Expend more calories than you take in. It’s as simple as that. Eat right to get your vitamins. Stop with the pills. Stop trying to take shortcuts.

TJGeezer says:

I take vitamin E in large doses (about 1000 units daily) because that has been shown in a Harvard study to heal small lesions inside the smallest blood vessels. Don’t know if it has affected my asymmetrical macular degeneration, but it has been suggested by the usual quacks that it should, and my vision problem is staying asymmetrical. Healing lesions in tiny vessels should help retard or avoid retinal proliferation among diabetics as well, another common cause of blindness.

My VA doctor told me large doses of vitamin E can result in earlier death so I should stop it. I looked up the study he cited – it was a review of existing studies similar to this one. The studies reviewed focused on different subjects, vitamin E intake was included as one datum but was not the primary subject, and even so of the six studies re-analyzed, only one showed a statistically insignificant drop in lifespan. The others all showed the expected slight increases.

Personally, I doubt how conclusive a finding can be when it is based on re-analysis of multiple other studies designed to produce findings about entirely different subjects. Like reviews of the literature, I suspect such reviews of other people’s findings are good only for suggesting avenues to further research.

In other words, don’t take it too seriously. It proves nothing, though it does suggest a topic for further, properly targeted research.

MacBandit says:

Everyone seems to be missing the obvious. They didn’t hand pick a group of healthy people for the study group they chose a group of people that are already using vitamins. I would be willing to hypothesize that by and large groups of adults that use a large number of vitamins have pre-existing health conditions. So in fact there study would be skewed towards people with existing and possibly life threatening health conditions, thus the shortened life span.

Angel H. Wong says:

That explains the short expiration date of Trophy wives 😉

DBR says:

First of all, it isn’t “dutch research” it’s Danish, specifically
from the same hospital that provided the model for “The
Kingdom”. which should speak volumes in itself. Secondly,
this “research” used data from every report under the sun,
including some far more questionable than any funded
by supplement manufacturers. Thirdly, the conclusions
deduced from actual valid research were based upon
subjects who for the most part were , to put it mildly,
of rather advanced illness., who only some wretched
ripoff south-0-de-border “clinics” would’ve claimed that
any vitamin therapy regimen would’ve helped.

Jude says:

Here in the U.S there are around one hundred thousand deaths each year due to poorly precribed drugs. Also I am now completely confussed on wheather I should be taking my daily vitamin E tablet. I take only one tablet per day. I also take a flax seed daily. I take the flax seed for over all heath and within three weeks it had cleared up a medical problem I had for fifteen years. I was completely suprised. Yes, my doctor was treating me for that illness. I have been taking the flax for two years now and don’t see my stopping anytime soon. Plus I was supprised to learn why we don’t have the natural ingredient of flax in our food anymore.