Vitamins Are A Waste Of Money

[Firmbottoms]

Taking vitamins to protect against disease is a waste of money, according to a report.
The study said that the millions of people taking daily doses of vitamins C and E and beta-carotene were not protecting themselves from cancer, heart problems, strokes and other potentially fatal disease.

The scientists said that people would be better off eating fresh fruit and vegetables.

Dr Jane Armitage from the University of Oxford's clinical trial services unit said the £21m five-year study had given disappointing results for vitamin use.



Vitamin pills are a waste of time

Rory Collins, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Oxford

"It was disappointing we did not see any benefits at all in either heart diseases or cancer."

But she added that the trial, by the Heart Protection Study, had only looked at a specific combination of vitamins and that there was no evidence to show that other vitamins did not prove beneficial.

"There is a lot of evidence that vitamins in the diet are a good thing such as eating fresh fruit and vegetables."

The people studied were given relatively high doses of vitamins - 600mg of vitamin E, 250mg of vitamin C and 20mg of beta-carotene.

Rory Collins, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Oxford who led the study which is published in the Lancet, said: "Over five years we saw absolutely no effect.

"Vitamin pills are a waste of time. There was no evidence of any protective effect against heart disease, cancer or any other outcome. They are safe but they are useless."

Protective

He said eating fresh fruit and vegetables was a better way of protecting the body.

"There is no need to supplement this with vitamin pills."

"There have been claims that vitamins might protect you against cataracts, there was no effect; that vitamins might prevent fractures by preventing osteoporosis, there was no effect."

The British Heart Protection Study followed 20,000 people aged 40 to 80 from 69 British Hospitals and looked at vitamins as well as the effect of cholesterol-lowering statins.

They found that the cholesterol lowering drugs worked within a year and had major effects within five years.


Dr Jane Armitage: Eating fresh fruit and vegetables is more beneficial


Other studies have suggested that the vitamins might have a protective effect against some diseases.

A spokesman for the Health Supplements Information Service said vitamins had widely proven benefits when taken by the general population as a supplement to a balanced diet or to boost nutrients.

He said that they were not intended to be used over a short time to treat or prevent serious illness among people at high risk of heart disease.

He said: "Vitamins, including antioxidants play a general preventative role with health.

"However, they are not intended to be used for the treatment or prevention of serious illnesses such as heart disease or cancer in these circumstances."

[Buddha_Red]

The problem is, that almost NO ONE can or does eat enough food to cover all the vitamins we need everyday.

Like me, i cannot eat most veggies, ive tried all my life. without multi vitamins i would be in trouble.

Yeah, maybe they dont keep you from getting cancer or heart disease but atleast i know im covered in my daily needs with one pill.

So twice a day i take the pill and hope thats all i need.

[BigMike J]

I agree with The Buddha. I don't take vitamins to protect myself from cancer, heart disease, or whatever the fuck else i might get. I just use them to cover the nutrition that i might not be getting from solid food.

[NightOp]

i agree with the above posts as well.. another thing to remember is that one study is just that... one study.. i have seen case studies and many other studies like this one where one study says this and the other says that and then they completely change results a few years later when the same study is done... what im saying is that you can't always believe what you read... there was a study saying that steroids do not increase strength... imean comon.