Don’t believe the news that vitamins are ineffective

Bill Sardi, consumer advocate and health care research analyst, explains why an editorial in the Annals of Internal Medicine that says vitamins are ineffective is based on fundamentally flawed studies.

• None of the studies obtain blood levels of nutrients before and at the completion of the study.
• They only deal with mortality (death) rates, not morbidity (presence or rate of disease).
• The dosages of vitamins studied are often very low.
• They don’t account for drugs that induce nutrient deficiencies.
• The researchers’ affiliations with commercial interests were not disclosed.
• The sweeping condemnation of vitamins is not justified, considering two thirds of Americans never take vitamins and the remaining third don’t take them very often.

The editorial concluded vitamins are a waste of money and the “case was closed.” Hardly, says Bill Sardi.