“The publication under discussion (1) involves the combined evaluation of 2 placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized clinical studies (RCTs): NORVIT, Norwegian Vitamin Trial (2), and Western Norway B Vitamin Intervention Trial (3).
“The headline ‘The dark side of vitamin C’ recently appeared in the German newspaper service ‘Die Welt online,’ prompted by an American study showing that artificial antioxidants (N-acetyl cysteine and Trolox) support the metabolism of tumor cells that have become detached from the tumor and could thus promote metastasis.”
“A study published recently, which followed 161,808 women from the Women's Health Initiative over eight years, claimed to provide ‘convincing evidence that multivitamin use has little or no influence on the risk of common cancers, cardiovascular disease, or total mortality in postmenopausal women.’ This message was immediately sent around the world by the news media, leading people everywhere to believe that taking a daily multivitamin does no good and is a waste of money. Is it, really? Actually, nothing could be further from the truth.”
“Every micronutrient unfolds a specific effect in the human organism. These effects are complex, sometimes dose-dependent and can vary from one type of tissue or organ to another;
“Antioxidants, vitamins C and E in particular, are suspected of increasing the risk of diabetes in athletes” – this message is a reaction by the press to a study by Ristow et al.
“Children from socially deprived families, older people and people from ethnic minorities are worst affected, but there is a nation-wide deficiency of vitamin D in the general population which needs to be addressed.
“On March 10, 2009, a summary of a study was published which reports a higher incidence of prostate cancer after several years’ (up to 10.8 years, median 7 years) intake of folic acid.
“A recently published evaluation of data from the VITamins And Lifestyle cohort study discusses the connection between antioxidants and the incidence of lung cancer.
“It is surprising how difficult it has been to develop widely acceptable data relating diet and chronic disease. In spite of epidemiological and animal studies supporting many of these relationships, focused human clinical studies have often been negative or at best equivocal. There is no good explanation for this.”
“Recently the results of a meta-analysis on antioxidant supplements generated some worrying headlines in the public press all over Europe: ‘Meta-analysis calls antioxidants into question,’ ‘Caution: Vitamins! ,’ ‘Supplements may shorten your life.’ Some months later, a balanced analysis of the study is appropriate.”
