| Recent headlines from an Oregon State University | | | | words, the studies are purposely designed to show |
| study asserted "Vitamin E trials 'fatally flawed" and the | | | | poor results in order to ward off natural competition |
| following story detailed how most studies on Vitamin E | | | | that might be safer, more effective and/or much less |
| have been flawed to the point of being essentially | | | | expensive. |
| worthless. Here are some excerpts: | | | | The public and our doctors have been told over and |
| CORVALLIS, Ore. - Generations of studies on vitamin | | | | over again that natural alternative such as vitamins, |
| E may be largely meaningless, scientists say, because | | | | minerals and botanical compounds provided by nature |
| new research has demonstrated that the levels of this | | | | are inferior to what man creates in our labs and such |
| micronutrient necessary to reduce oxidative stress are | | | | flawed studies are what are often pointed to for |
| far higher than those that have been commonly used | | | | justification. If the studies are flawed, by design or not, it |
| in clinical trials. | | | | becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Such suspicions of |
| In a new study and commentary in Free Radical | | | | the motives behind flawed studies are magnified when |
| Biology and Medicine, researchers concluded that the | | | | one looks at the apparent agenda of the FDA and |
| levels of vitamin E necessary to reduce oxidative | | | | those behind the push for adoption of a North |
| stress are four to eight times higher than those used in | | | | American Union kind of agreement modeled after the |
| almost all past clinical trials. | | | | European Union model, which limits access to only a |
| This could help explain the inconsistent results of many | | | | select group of natural vitamins, minerals and |
| vitamin E trials for its value in preventing or treating | | | | supplements at dosage levels far below what is |
| cardiovascular disease, said Balz Frei, professor and | | | | effective. |
| director of the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State | | | | It is this author's opinion that we should never fail to |
| University, and co-author of the new commentary | | | | keep in mind that the people behind these studies have |
| along with Jeffrey Blumberg, at the Jean Mayer USDA | | | | a vested stake in a trillion dollar plus annual industry and |
| Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts | | | | a track record of taking no prisoners when it comes to |
| University. | | | | competition. These are, after all, the same people who |
| 'The methodology used in almost all past clinical trials of | | | | trotted doctors and scientists before congress for four |
| vitamin E has been fatally flawed,' said Frei, one of the | | | | decades to testify that vitamins had no benefit and |
| world's leading experts on antioxidants and disease." | | | | were even harmful, before finally giving in to a |
| Such news comes as no surprise to natural health | | | | mountain of evidence they could not hide. These are |
| advocates, but the public announcement of the results | | | | also the same people who assured us of the safety |
| is surprising because it spotlights a common failure of | | | | of Vioxx, Bextra, Allieve, Avandia, Gardasil, Fosamax, |
| testing natural alternatives that has gone on for | | | | mercury vaccines, mercury amalgam fillings, and a long, |
| decades: namely, testing dosage amounts well below | | | | long line of past and present drugs associated with |
| the therapeutic level, | | | | dangerous side effects, including large numbers of |
| Many believe that testing such low dosage amounts, | | | | deaths. |
| along with other flaws such as testing inferior or | | | | The same group of vested interest, despite over half |
| incorrect forms of the item being studied, studying only | | | | a century of abject failure in the war on cancer, still |
| an isolated vitamin, mineral or compound without the | | | | maintain that cutting out, burning out and poisoning out |
| supporting compounds found in nature are the result of | | | | symptoms is superior to addressing the underlying |
| looking at the minimum RDA amounts recommended | | | | causes and natural prevention. And, when you get |
| to maintain good health instead of the therapeutic | | | | down to it, it was pretty much the same group that |
| amounts needed to address illness and disease - as | | | | assured us for generations that cigarettes were |
| well as the fact that only synthetic creations, altered | | | | harmless. |
| natural compounds and uniquely isolated compounds | | | | It was a welcome surprise to many to see a |
| are patentable. | | | | mainstream study point out the failures of how |
| There is no economic incentive for industry to fund | | | | vitamins and other natural therapeutics have been |
| expensive studies and trials of something they cannot | | | | tested. Too bad we don't see such information |
| patent, have a good chance of recovering their study | | | | constantly paraded before the masses on television |
| and trial costs, and then going on to reap large profits | | | | and in journals, popular magazines and newspapers |
| that can run into the billions of dollars. On a darker side, | | | | instead of the barrage of "Ask Your Doctor" ads |
| there are many who suggest that such profits are | | | | clearly designed to condition the viewers into entering |
| behind a great number of flawed industry funded | | | | the wonderful world of managed illness. |
| studies on vitamins, minerals, & botanicals - in other | | | | Live long, live healthy, live happy! |