Nutraceuticals and nootropics for anti-aging

Irresponsible news industry: the latest scare

Although many people consider journalism in the U.S. to be largely a bad joke, this joke has some very unfunny consequences. A good example is the latest media-produced scare over vitamin E.

A group of statisticians recently published a study consisting of an analysis of previous studies of vitamin E. The studies they analyzed were clinical trials, dating back to the 1960s, in which vitamin E played a role. The statisticians reached the conclusion that higher doses of vitamin E were associated with higher death rates. How much higher was the death rate? 0.38% higher — that’s 38 hundredths of a percent.

Even if we were to assume that this figure is correct, this would be a very small risk — about the same as the average American’s risk of dying by homicide. But there’s no good reason to think that the vitamin E study was even correct. It turns out that some of the studies that went into the analysis were studies of patients with serious diseases who happened to be taking vitamin E. The analysis did not take into account the fact that sicker patients often take higher doses of vitamins as a last resort at treatment; instead, these patients’ poorer condition was, in effect, attributed to their vitamin usage.

This highly questionable statistical study has been blown out of proportion by irresponsible journalists in their eternal quest for readership at any cost. In November, headlines such as “Vitamin E linked to high death rates” and “Vitamin E Supplements Carry Death Risk” were used to sell a few extra newspapers at the cost of misleading millions of readers. Many people are now shunning vitamin E supplementation. And at least one important clinical trial, in which vitamin E is being used to study prostate cancer, is in jeopardy because participants are reluctant to take the vitamin E which is an essential part of the treatment being studied.

Link to news article with scare-headline:

High doses of vitamin E could be deadly, researchers warn

Link to report about clinical trial being jeopardized by vitamin E scare:

Massive study threatened by vitamin E report scare

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LifeLink carries two vitamin E products: Vitamin E mixed tocopherols in 400 i.u. softgels, and Vitamin E Tocotrienols in 34 mg softgels.