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Olive petroleum is practiced for you , doctors say , which is why I drink a methamphetamine a day .
Yes , it ’s well-heeled to see the folly in such reasoning . But not so when it comes to vitamin . People readilyswallow mega - dosesin tablet variety with the logic that if vitamin in nutrient are sizeable then pore them into capsules surely must be sound .
Major study put out in the past few calendar month , however , have reveal that not only do n’t vitamin pills ward off cancer andheart disease , in some cases they make thing much worse .
Easy on the E
Vitamin E , in finicky , need a self-aggrandizing hit . This was once tout for its antioxidant properties , and diets rich in vitamin vitamin E from food sources such as nut and olive are associated with longevity . The commend daily allowance is about 15 milligram or 20 international units ( IU ) . In oral contraceptive pill form the dose is often 100 to 400 IUs . Couple this with the fact that vitamin E is juicy soluble and lingers in the dead body for a while , and you ’ll see the potential trouble .
In September research worker behind a four - year , $ 100 - million subject on Se and vitamin vitamin E for the bar of prostate Crab , funded largely by the National Cancer Institute , call off the study , state participants to stop take their appurtenance . Neither selenium nor vitamin E did anything to prevent Crab , and there seemed to be somewhat more cancers among the serviceman train 400 IU of vitamin E. ( The selenium group had more diabetes . )
By October doctors get along to realize that vitamin Es pill did nothing for the warmness . As detailed in theJournal of the American Medical Association , 400 IU of vitamin E did not prevent cardiovascular disease in the over 14,000 subjects watch over in the monolithic and on-going Physicians ' Health Study II , die hard by Harvard University .
The same field of study found that vitamins E and C , together or exclusively , did nothing to prevent any type of cancer over the course of 10 years . This was reported last week at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Washington , D.C.
Vitamin C for Crab
Meanwhile , researcher at Memorial Sloan - Kettering Cancer Center in New York canvas the fundamental interaction of vitamin C and cancer cells . obviously Crab jail cell love vitamin degree Celsius as much as intelligent cells do . This is why late studies have testify cancer to worsen in patient acquire too much vitamin C.
The researchers found that every chemotherapy drug they tested did not crop as well if cubicle were pretreated with vitamin C. In the cell refinement experiments , 30 to 70 per centum few cancer cells treated with vitamin speed of light were kill depending on the drug tested . Turning to animal study they found that chemotherapy could keep cancer in curb but that tumors uprise more rapidly in mice hand vitamin C.
The researchers speculate that vitamin degree Celsius protect malignant neoplastic disease cells from drug damage at the mitochondria level . These findings were published in the October 2008 issue ofCancer Research .
draw a blank ginkgo
The dietetic add-on ginkgo biloba did n’t halt up well to scrutiny , either . Ginkgo leaf infusion was an ancient therapeutic for asthma attack , bronchitis , fatigue and tinnitus . It never really mold well for those things , and today it is an ancient cure for memory loss , see how the alarming rising rates of dementedness - come to diseases such as Alzheimer ’s disease is a modern phenomenon demanding an ancient cure .
As reported in the current publication of theJournal of the American Medical Association , maidenhair tree supplements did not reduce the rate of dementia or Alzheimer ’s disease among more than 1,500 elderly subject field participants after several year of use . Instead the Ginkgo biloba raised their risk of infection of interior haemorrhage .
Ginkgo ’s not dead , though . There seems to be protective elements in the extract that researchers hope to turn into drugs to treat neurological disorders .
We ’d all love cheap curative in the kind of bottled vitamin and other natural supplements . But the best preventative practice of medicine , which has hold up under the examination of prominent clinical trial , is to corrode a diet rich in the aforementioned vitamins — along with perhaps just a tablespoon or two of olive oil , not a spyglass .
Christopher Wanjek is the author of the books " Bad Medicine " and " Food At piece of work . " Got a question about Bad Medicine ? Email Wanjek . If it ’s really bad , he just might do it in a next column . Bad Medicine seem each Tuesday on LiveScience .
