{"id":453,"date":"2017-03-20T01:15:06","date_gmt":"2017-03-20T01:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myvitaminpacks.com\/mvp\/?p=453"},"modified":"2022-12-05T07:58:39","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T07:58:39","slug":"medias-influence-on-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.personanutrition.com\/blog\/medias-influence-on-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware the Media Spin Machine"},"content":{"rendered":"A recent editorial published in the Annals of Internal Medicine1 made the claim that, \u201cMost supplements do not prevent chronic disease or death, their use is not justified, and they should be avoided.\u201d\u00a0 This opinion was penned as a summary of three other articles published in the same journal, all of which concluded that multivitamins had no beneficial effect on specific health outcomes.However, the conclusion drawn by the authors of the editorial is hasty at best.\u00a0 Here\u2019s why:The first article2 discussed in the Annals editorial piece was an assessment of several studies which looked at the use of supplements by adults at least 65 years of age with no known nutritional deficiencies and evaluated whether vitamin and mineral supplements worked as primary prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer.\u00a0 This included subjects who took a single vitamin or mineral (like Vitamin C on its own), paired combinations (like a Calcium-Magnesium tablet), or \u201cmultivitamins\u201d which they defined as a combination of three or more vitamins and minerals.\u00a0 In the marketplace, a typical multivitamin supplement contains dozens of vitamins and minerals; thus to lump comprehensive multivitamins in with simpler combinations like a B-Complex, is misleading.\u00a0 On the surface, it appears that the authors reviewed a large sample of studies \u2013 28 in total.\u00a0 However, of those, only four included their definition of \u201cmultivitamin.\u201d And of the remaining 24 studies of single or paired supplements, they found three or fewer studies of each nutrient.\u00a0 They also stated, \u201ctrials varied considerably in principal aims, study design, and recruitment criteria,\u201d and, \u201cfor some supplements the evidence of no benefit was inconsistent.\u00a0 In one of two studies of selenium, for example, cancer risk decreased.\u00a0 Likewise, 1 of 2 studies of calcium plus vitamin D supplementation in women found a decreased cancer risk.\u201d\u00a0 In short, this review compares too few apples to too few oranges, and ends up woefully short of a comprehensive fruit salad.The second article3was a nutritional intervention within the Physicians\u2019 Health Study II,4 which looked at the long-term effects of a daily multivitamin versus a placebo on cognitive function and memory later in life.\u00a0 The subjects were male physicians over the age of 65.\u00a0 They were given either a daily multivitamin or a placebo for twelve years starting in 1997; during that time they completed up to 4 repeated cognitive assessments by phone.\u00a0 The study found no significant difference in cognitive function between the participants who took the multivitamin and those who took the placebo.\u00a0 This is a well-designed study, but its use as evidence that multivitamins have no useful role in the health of the general public is limited.\u00a0 The subjects were male physicians over the age of 65; from that one may draw the conclusion that each likely led a relatively healthy lifestyle prior entering the study and had adequate financial means to maintain his health.\u00a0 The researchers themselves point out that, \u201cdoses of vitamins may be too low or the population may be too well-nourished to benefit from a multivitamin.\u201dArticle number three5 was another study involving a multivitamin versus placebo.\u00a0 The subjects, in this case, were people with an average age of 65 who had already suffered one heart attack.\u00a0 The study\u2019s purpose was to see if a daily multivitamin would reduce the incidence of a second cardiovascular event, including a second heart attack, stroke, heart surgery, or angina requiring hospitalization.\u00a0 The study was well-designed, but the rate of non-compliance was high with 46% of participants discontinuing the intervention and 17% withdrawing from the study.\u00a0 The researchers did not find a statistically significant difference between the study groups, but stated, \u201cthis conclusion is tempered by the nonadherence rate.\u201dVitamin and mineral supplements are not the \u201cbe all, end all\u201d in maintaining good health; it is also important to practice healthy dietary habits, get daily physical activity, and attend to your mental health.\u00a0 But supplements can help fill the ever-widening nutritional gaps in your diet attributed to factors like factory farming which depletes the soils (and the food it produces) of nutrients, free radicals caused by environmental pollution, chronic systemic inflammation brought on by consuming too much animal protein and processed foods.Sadly, it is often the view of westernized medicine that supplements should be used and studied in the same way as prescription drugs: that they should be used as a magic bullet to treat a specific disease state.\u00a0 However, the actual objective of nutritional supplements is to improve and maintain one\u2019s quality of life, not just to stave off a single disease state.\u00a0 Nutrients work together synergistically to re-establish homeostasis (balance) in the body over a period of time.The authors of the Annals editorial are right, \u201cEnough is Enough\u201d.\u00a0 Health care workers and researchers must stop sensationalizing health claims and mislead the public with sound-bite-worthy article titles. The editorial published in the Annals acknowledges briefly that not all supplements are without value, but their title certainly does nothing to imply that.Sources1Eliseo Guallar, SaverioStranges, Cynthia Mulrow, Lawrence J. Appel, Edgar R. Miller, III; Enough Is Enough: Stop Wasting Money on Vitamin and Mineral Supplements. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2013 Dec;159(12):850-851.2Stephen P. Fortmann, Brittany U. Burda, Caitlyn A. Senger, Jennifer S. Lin, Evelyn P. Whitlock; Vitamin and Mineral Supplements in the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer: An Updated Systematic Evidence Review for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2013 Dec;159(12):824-834.3Francine Grodstein, Jacqueline O\u2019Brien, Jae Hee Kang, RimmaDushkes, Nancy R. Cook, Olivia Okereke, JoAnn E. Manson, Robert J. Glynn, Julie E. Buring, J. Michael Gaziano, Howard D. Sesso; Long-Term Multivitamin Supplementation and Cognitive Function in MenA Randomized Trial. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2013 Dec;159(12):806-814.4Physicians\u2019 Health Study II, Harvard University.\u00a0 November 5, 2012.\u00a0 http:\/\/phs.bwh.harvard.edu\/index.html5Gervasio A. Lamas, Robin Boineau, Christine Goertz, Daniel B. Mark, Yves Rosenberg, Mario Stylianou, Theodore Rozema, Richard L. Nahin, Lauren Lindblad, Eldrin F. Lewis, Jeanne Drisko, Kerry L. Lee, for the TACT (Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy) Investigators; Oral High-Dose Multivitamins and Minerals After Myocardial InfarctionA Randomized Trial. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2013 Dec;159(12):797-805.If you are looking for the highest quality Vitamin and Mineral Supplements personalized for you, please go to www.personanutrition.com and take their on-line questionnaire providing individualized vitamin and mineral recommendations. Persona is the only Science Based supplement provider on the web today! Take advantage of their knowledge and use it to your health\u2019s benefit!This information is not intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional or any information contained on or in any product label or packaging. Do not use the information from this article for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing medication or other treatment. Always speak with your physician or other healthcare professional before taking any medication or nutritional, herbal or homeopathic supplement, or using any treatment for a health problem. If you have or suspect that you have a medical problem, contact your health care provider promptly. Do not disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking professional advice because of something you have read in this article.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent editorial published in the Annals of Internal Medicine1 made the claim that, \u201cMost supplements do not prevent chronic disease or death, their use is not justified, and they should be avoided.\u201d\u00a0 This opinion was penned","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":3973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7,8,10,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-and-nutrition","category-health-and-diet","category-micro-nutrients","category-minerals-2","category-vitamins"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.personanutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.personanutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.personanutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.personanutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.personanutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.personanutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8438,"href":"https:\/\/www.personanutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions\/8438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.personanutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.personanutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.personanutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.personanutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}