What is Digg?121 Comments
- BeShirtHappy, on 12/21/2008, -10/+51I get tired of how something is good for you one day and bad the next; and bad for you - and then good for you. I'm going to continue to take my vitamins...
- ileftfark, on 12/22/2008, -0/+30The article doesn't say that vitamins in general are no good for you- it simply states that studies are showing that the usage of vitamin supplements is ineffective at fighting cancer and some other life-threatening conditions. You guys can still take your vitamins if you want, but being a grown-up Flintstone Kid isn't going to remove the malignant lump on your pancreas, as some have suggested. It's important for people with grave illnesses to know what treatments show promise, and which ones don't. You do have to be careful, though, as many supplements have *many* times more of particular vitamins or minerals that a person should have in a single day, and over time, can cause issues of its own. The article concludes with a simple truth that for some reason people try to avoid at all costs - the best way to be healthy is through diet and exercise. I'm amazed at how much we do to find 'workarounds' or 'cheats' to these two things. Unless you have some disorder or other condition, you should be getting all the nutrition you need through your diet, not from some processed pills in a bottle.
- jggube, on 12/21/2008, -2/+30Interesting. I hope vitamins are good for something though, or else they'd be just a waste of your money.
- inactive, on 12/22/2008, -7/+24Bury this article as innacurate.
"There's no evidence that vitamin supplements help most people stay healthy, and vitamin deficiency is very rare in this country. Daily vitamins might be beneficial to some people who are on a very low-calorie diet, who are vegetarian, or women who are pregnant."
Oh really? The average "balanced diet" in America consists of a Burger King meal a day - that's good caloric intake. Are you saying that balanced nutrient diet is NOT important as long as you take your caloric intake? That is the most pathetically unscientific thing I ever heard in my life.
Besides, "vitamin supplements" don't just have vitamins, so saying vitamin deficiency is rare doesn't really kill their utility. They have minerals and oils important to a balanced diet. I have a congenital anemia. Without the extra iron and B group vitamins I get from my supplements, I get easily tired, low on energy, and my immune system fails completely.
Thanks, pseudo-scientists paid by pharmaceutical corporations! Great advice - VodkanLemons, on 12/22/2008, -2/+17you know how it took FOREVER for them to finally say that smoking will kill you
wait until they say the truth about high fructose corn syrup
we are all ***** - dissolutionman, on 12/22/2008, -1/+15You don't take them to prevent cancer, you take them to fill in the gaps in your diet.
People taking vitamin supplements as cancer medication are idiots. - DarkCloud515, on 12/22/2008, -2/+13Well, they're called vitamin SUPPLEMENTS for a reason. They don't prevent anything. Only you can prevent forest fires.
- cl2yp71c, on 12/22/2008, -1/+10I don't expect them too.
However, vitamin upplements are sometimes crucial for those who aren't as fortunate as us, as we probably get 500% of the daily recommended doses.
Vitamin deficiency is sometimes as deadly as cancer. - nunu4u, on 12/22/2008, -0/+8Patients taking chemotherapy are requested to stop taking vitamin C. The reason? The C protects the cells the chemo is trying to destroy. A study on this was released last month. So I guess vitamins do something.
- pyrobaby, on 12/22/2008, -1/+9This study seems pretty dumb to me. So if something doesn't keep you from getting cancer, it's worthless?
I've used supplements to help my skin, keep my energy up, and keep me from getting colds, but I've never taken anything specifically to not get cancer. - JherekCarnelian, on 12/21/2008, -6/+14The article didn't mention Linus Pauling and his belief that Vitamin C fights cancer. Too much of a sacred cow?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Pauling#Molecul ... - cadebbie, on 12/22/2008, -0/+7My Oncologist told me not to take Vitamin C because it is not good to take with having breast cancer.
- Target91, on 12/22/2008, -5/+12So their a placebo?
- TrellSaracen, on 12/22/2008, -0/+6Science is the cancer that is curing Digg.
- Ymeg, on 12/21/2008, -8/+14Going to say there is a problem with their studies or how they interpret the data. Possibly having fat soluble taken with no food or having too much taken.
Vitamin D pills are regularly assigned to those who receive little sun light. I am not sure about you, but scurvy does not sound so good. As for Vitamin C, I think the results are skewed because of the abundance of it. A 8oz bottle of children's orange juice has 100% of the daily amount. - whiledo, on 03/25/2009, -0/+6First, scurvy isn't cancer, stroke or cardiovascular disease. Second, if there's an abundance of vitamin C, why take supplements unless there is some added benefit of taking supplements? Third, deciding there is a problem with their studies because they didn't come up with the same answer as you wanted is a very poor way of approaching science.
- RobotBuddha, on 12/22/2008, -0/+6At the risk of sounding like an *****, the better way to go about it is to bypass the idiot pop-science reporters and get a basic education in experimental methodology and then read the actual studies.
- RobotBuddha, on 12/22/2008, -1/+7Having worked in a peripheral way with it, I can say that for the most part the pharmaceutical industry pays almost no attention to the alt. medicine crowd at all. They know most of it doesn't do ***** because they run studies to see if there's anything there they can use to make a profit off of. If there's not, they toss it away, people who believe in it use it, continue to stay sick, go to a hospital and use their stuff instead because it actually does something.
- Propethic, on 12/22/2008, -1/+6So then he has an actual condition that needs him to take vitamins?
The article is about vitamin supplements for healthy individuals, that is those who don't *need* to take vitamins for any specific reason - Atomic05, on 12/22/2008, -1/+6Duh? They aren't some sort of wonder drug, and there's a reason they're called supplements. If you eat healthy and get most of those vitamins in the food you eat, then you very probably don't need these things. However, if you're like me and you can't find the time to cook or if you just can't afford to stock up on fresh fruits and vegetables all the time, a cheap bottle of vitamins that you can take once a day is a great alternative.
- inactive, on 12/22/2008, -3/+8Yeah, fvck Science, lets listen to Talking snakes, Talking burning bushes, and Dead and rising sons instead ok, Einstein?
- ricksite, on 12/22/2008, -0/+4Next thing they will tell us is that are bodies aren't full of toxins!
- Shynndig611, on 12/22/2008, -1/+5Flintstones gummy vitamins are the *****! Although i guess i should stay away from that vitamin A since i smoke, or maybe i should stop smoking....
- Ellipsys, on 12/22/2008, -2/+6Uh. If he really has a type of anemia, its very easily verified. Fatigue is extremely common, and immune complications can arise. Taking extra vitamins (B12) can certainly help with certain types - I'm guessing the above poster could have a type of pernicious anemia that is categorized by the impaired absorption of B12. Iron is frequently prescribed for many kinds of anemia that are either caused by, or lead to, iron deficiency.
- pyrobaby, on 12/22/2008, -0/+4"only" 2000 calories?
Granted depending on activity levels and body size it differs (if I go over 1900 or so I'll start gaining weight) but if you're regularly eating 2000 in one meal, you're in trouble...
I cut to about 1450/day to lose weight, and at first I thought it would be really hard and I'd starve to death, but some days it's hard to even make it that far (I'm too cheap for pre-packaged food and rarely go out to restaurants, though) - inactive, on 12/22/2008, -0/+4If he has pernicious anemia, he'd better be injecting his B12...
- Murdats, on 12/22/2008, -1/+5it couldn't be possible that those who sell supplements and stuff have a vested interest in making people believe they cure everything could it?
- shimmyNshake, on 12/22/2008, -0/+4I wonder what Ray Kurzweil thinks about this.
- ricker2005, on 12/22/2008, -0/+4First off, arginine is an amino acid. Second, arginase has been found to be upregulated in tumor cells because it's promotes cell proliferation. Here's one of the many papers on the subject.
http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abst ...
And finally, taking lots of arginase would likely have the unfortunate side effect of filling your body with tons of excess urea. Not a good thing. - blackdeath88012, on 12/22/2008, -5/+8Marijuana, my anticancer
- RobotBuddha, on 12/22/2008, -0/+3Ricker has a point, and I want to join in eating maize. I mean, really. Who wants to eat GMO things that even admit they're filled with acid?
- Surferess, on 12/21/2008, -18/+21Well they still make me feel better, so I wish the medical community would stop discounting them completely.
- Droogie768, on 12/22/2008, -1/+4I'm waiting for corn oil myself.
- P1um, on 12/22/2008, -6/+9IMHO vitamins are a waste of money for the average person.
- RobotBuddha, on 12/22/2008, -1/+4Jesus, seriously? I only get about 1500 in an entire day and I have a pretty active lifestyle.
- ricksite, on 12/22/2008, -0/+3I <3 Smacky the Frog.
- inactive, on 12/22/2008, -0/+3Whose side are they on: the patient's, or the tumor's?
- firebirdx01, on 12/22/2008, -3/+6The vitamin business, a multi-billion dollar industry spends a lot of money lobbying this idea that vitamins work and are helpful and shutting down anything that goes counter to it.
The medical community has been trying to show this falsehood but they've been getting a lot of flak from people who have become deeply entrenched in the notion that vitamins do something. Take the time to do the research and you'll find few scientific studies that show any benefit (irregardless of dosage size). There are dozens of papers out there, and most of them have been swept under the rug by the industry lobbyists
A possible explanation as to how vitamins cause cancer- is that you are in fact improving your cells ability to proliferate (normally you wouldn't be getting all these nutrients) and in doing so you increase cell division- cancer is a disease of uncontrollable cellular growth- and by increasing the amount of cell divisions, you are increasing the chance of acquiring the mutations needed to have cells in a cancerous state. - ricker2005, on 12/22/2008, -0/+3Yeah, I'd hate to eat those crazy GM crops. Think what those whacky amino acids and DNA molecules will do to us! They're probably undigestable!
Now...if you'll excuse me, I have to get back eating my maize. I don't trust that shady sweet corn. It's not natural! - antonio97b, on 12/22/2008, -3/+6Just like anything. Too much of a good thing can be bad for you. If you take a vitamin that has 100% RDA of everything. Then anything you eat with vitamins in it you are over the limit. Also, a lot of energy drinks are vitamin infused so now you are reaching 200% if you happen to have energy drinks. That is before you even start eating.
- pyrobaby, on 12/22/2008, -0/+3I really do wonder if moving to a country that barely uses HFCS is why I feel so much healthier these days, or if it's just that I started cooking everything from scratch (cause I'm poor). But jesus christ I miss reese cups and junior mints...
- RobotBuddha, on 12/22/2008, -1/+3"As any scientist may know"
Any scientist would also know why studies are not only blinded, but double blinded, and why anecdotal evidence is considered worthless. - Murdats, on 12/22/2008, -0/+2or at least get your news from people who understand science and read the actual studies rather then people who don't and get their information third hand from a press release they don't understand and mutilate - IE mainstream media
- dcpar, on 12/22/2008, -1/+3BS. Vitamins from expensive sources are not better.
Vitamins are chemical compounds. Vit C = Ascorbic acid for example.
If the compound is not a Vitamin, it wouldn't be called one.
Yes, there are helper compounds (such as Rose Hips w/ Vit C) that assist, but even the cheap ones have that now. - RobotBuddha, on 12/22/2008, -0/+2The reasons behind studies are absolutely irrelevant. Either the people putting them together were lying about it or they weren't. The important thing is if they're well designed studies or not. Many of the studies with vitamins, both pro and con, have glaring problems with them. In particular size of the study and whether they're proper experimental studies or must metaanalysis.
- ricker2005, on 12/22/2008, -2/+4Actually, the National Institute of Health. You know...the group that is responsible for virtually all of the publically funded scientific research in the US. Reading the article might help in the future.
- pyrobaby, on 12/22/2008, -1/+3I think this was kind of a ***** article, but if it makes the Scientologists upset, I'm all for it.
- pyrobaby, on 12/22/2008, -0/+2Might be true, but if you find something that does seem to make your quality of life better, why stop? This article didn't seem very conclusive, and it was focused on cancer/no cancer - if you're taking vitamins for a different reason, I say go for it as long as you're not overdoing it. I actually watched a friend give herself vitamin C overdose (on that Japanese soft drink CC Lemon). Wasn't pretty.
- ammundsen, on 12/22/2008, -1/+3The RDA is treated like some magical number by people on all sides. It should really only be looked at as a guide for preventing severe nutritional diseases in the average person. These diseases are much less common in modern American than they were in the past.
As you point out there are questions of how much of a vitamin is absorbed. Different forms of a vitamin are absorbed differently. And vitamins are absorbed differently when consumed with different foods. I think there is plenty more to be learned about vitamins and human health and hope that researchers will continue to look into this.
Oh, and one vitamin that you can have much more than the RDA of is Vitamin D. Your body generates Vitamin D when exposed to sunlight and can safely produce a much greater amount than the RDA. - jotjot, on 12/22/2008, -2/+4I disagree. If your a person who does not eat fruits and vegetables, or have low intake of those food, your most likely lacking vitamins. I think most Americans are in this category, especially those who eat fast foods, etc. Also cooking food actually takes away the vitamins. You need it to be healthy.
I actually watched a documentary called "Food Matters". Check it out! The reason why these studies are conducted is to show that vitamins don't cure anything. Vitamins and a healthy diet is a preventative thing. A healthy diet can actually reverse Diabetes. Also Vitamin C conclusively was shown to reduce the sizes of tumors in cancer.
There are other studies out there not paid by pharmaceutical companies out to put this view that vitamins are bad, and a good heatlhy diet will not help. The drug companies make money from sick people obviously.
Also in the documentary they showed how doctors are not trained in prescribing a healthy diet to their patients. Studies about proper diet is not even touched on in Med School. Doctors are honed to diagnose and prescribe drugs. Go figure. -
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