Lifesavers they say can kill… Clear data - queer conclusions In the last Daily Dose, I told you about a terrible tragedy that befell a hapless 17-year-old girl at the hands of a "safe" over-the-counter treatment. Today, it's the other extreme: A safe form of health therapy you can buy without a prescription (but not necessarily off the shelf) that the medical mainstream is now calling a killer: Multivitamins. As you may know, I've written a lot about daily multivitamins in the past. If you're new to the curmudgeonly-but-conscientious Dr. Douglass fold, I'm a big believer in a good daily multivitamin. Granted, what constitutes a "good" multi in my eyes may be a bit different than what the TV ads say - or what the labels on multivitamins you see in the grocery store might proclaim… But at their very worst, even the bad multivitamins are not in the least bit harmful when taken at anywhere near their recommended dose. Quite a few may be nearly useless, but none are deadly. However, this undeniable fact hasn't stopped the medical mainstream - and the mainstream media - from maligning and ganging up on daily vitamin and antioxidant supplements at every opportunity. Their latest misguided tag-team attempt at this makes me alternately want to laugh AND pull my hair out… According to many mainstream sources (AP, Reuters, Time, BBC, USA Today, etc.) that plastered variations of this theme as "news" across their headlines a few weeks ag MULTIVITAMIN USE LINKED TO PROSTATE CANCER Now, how's that for a scary sound-bite in the mind? It's all the more scary when you read that the source material for the piece is an article in the acclaimed Journal of the National Cancer Institute - based on research conducted by the government-affiliated agency of the same name… But as it turns out (and like anything else the media and government are in cahoots on), you have to read the "fine print" on this study to discern what it means - and what it doesn't. First off, the actual "study" was not a double-blind, placebo-controlled, long-term study among a large pool of men. Only drug companies make enough money to afford to conduct them (that should tell you something right there)… Rather, it was an analysis of years worth of survey and questionnaire data on nearly 300,000 men compiled for the NIH/AARP Diet and Health Study, which kicked off in several key regions of the country in 1995-1996. This analysis pinpointed a correlation between the taking of multivitamins more than 7 times a week and the incidence of advanced-stage and FATAL prostate cancer. The research summary I read contained this gem of unbiased science, written by the study's authors: "Because multivitamin supplements consist of a combination of several vitamins and men using high levels of multivitamins were also more likely to take a variety of individual supplements, we were unable to identify or quantify individual components responsible for the associations we observed." So, to paraphrase: They don't know WHICH vitamins are causing killer prostate cancer, but it's definitely either the ones in the multivitamins or the ones in single-nutrient supplements! Either way, vitamins, nutrients and antioxidants are the bad guys. Can these researchers really be this stupid - or do they just think WE'RE so stupid we can't detect their agenda? This association makes perfect sense, even without some taxpayer-funded study to interpret it for us… It's as simple as this: When people start to get terminally sick (or know that they will soon), they double-up on anything they can take that gives them some glimmer of hope - especially vitamins, which they can get without some doctor waving a prescription pad at them for drugs that cost an arm and leg, make them feel like crap, and don't help them to live any longer. To my way of thinking, I'd think the human race would be stupid if there WEREN'T a strong correlation between aggressive vitamin use and terminal disease of any type. When your back's against the wall, you do whatever you can, right? What bugs me most about this is that we're spending our tax dollars not on research that aims at discovering the simple, healthy truth - but on government-sanctioned "spin" on easily interpreted facts that put millions in Big Pharma's pockets… And gives a black eye to the only treatments that really help the terminally ill to live longer. | 
