2 Big Lies: No Vitamin Benefits And Supplements Are Very Dangerous

Chopping Down Propaganda About The Effects Of Nutritional Supplements

---

Claims that there are no vitamin benefits (or few and minor, at best), and that nutritional supplements are a big public danger have been promoted by opponents of these health products for decades. They are usually little more than outright lies or manifestations of profound ignorance.

Every once in a while, someone goes through extra lengths to discredit vitamins and health supplements. Occasionally, it is by publishing a book about the topic.

Previously, I had written about such a laborious, albeit flawed and misleading, account of vitamin scaremongering (in the article "Scaremongering About Vitamin Side Effects: How Supplement Truths Get Distorted" –see 'Recommended next page(s)' at the end of this article for a direct link to it).

One of the more recent scathing books on nutritional supplements and side effects is from a devoted representative of mainstream medicine, Paul A. Offit, MD, called "Killing Us Softly: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine" (Offit, 2013; Kindle/Paperback Editions). The Kindle/Hardcover 2013 Editions are entitled "Do You Believe in Magic? – The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine" (see references). The title of the 2014 reprint paperback edition is: "Do You Believe in Magic? – Vitamins, Supplements, and All Things Natural: A Look Behind the Curtain".

Accompanying this work are a couple of articles by Paul Offit, "Vitamins: stop taking the pills", published online in The Guardian (Offit, 7-June-2013), and "Don’t Take Your Vitamins", published online in The New York Times (Offit, 8-June-2013), that served to promote the book's upcoming release.

In those vitamin-bashing works, Offit promotes the notion that dietary supplements represent a very significant danger to public health because they, "can" or "could", increase people's "risk of cancer and heart disease and shorten their lives" (Offit, 8-June-2013). And, that we generally get all the essential nutrients (e.g., vitamins) through "a routine diet" (Offit, 7 & 8-June-2013) so that, overall, no vitamin benefits are obtained by taking nutritional supplements. Offit exempts a few supplements, as they "might be of value", such as folic acid in pregnancy to prevent birth defects (Offit, 7-June-2013).

A more detailed examination of Offit's allegations (i.e., virtually no vitamin benefits from supplements, food supplements are very dangerous) reveals that his anti-supplement publications are really all about politics.

Not the facts. Not the truth.

Primarily, these offerings are propaganda pieces aimed at denouncing and diminishing the vital status of the supplement industry (or, in more general terms, the health industry or alternative medicine), as an obvious, continuously-growing competitor of the business of the orthodox medical profession (Haley, 2000).

Indeed, the unscrupulous US governmental-medical industrial complex has been decisively and specifically targeting to combat and sabotage the dietary supplement industry since at least the 1980s (Lisa, 1994). In 1990, for instance, William Campbell Douglass II, MD, 1926-2015, wrote:

“Anyone who has studied the history of the FDA knows they have a very cozy relationship with the drug industry. They are now brazenly (and illegally) joined with the drug industry, the Post Office police, the AMA [=American Medical Association] and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in an all-out attempt to destroy the natural health movement in the U.S.” (Douglass, 1990) [explanation added]

Equivalently, an independent UK health researcher and author, Martin Walker, said the following in an interview of 2004:

“When I was writing 'Dirty Medicine' from 1988 to 1993, I don't think I realized the importance of the attack on vitamins and mineral supplements. It's only recently that I've understood that the people attached to the Campaign Against Health Fraud (CAHF – now called Health Watch) in the UK, the American National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF) and Quackbusters in America were only the first wave of a more organized, powerful and centralized attempt to destroy vitamin and mineral supplements. […] people supported by multinational agencies involved in a continuous conflict over supplements and holistic health therapies. […]. The techniques they were using – the character assassination of alternative practitioners and researchers, the commissioning and planting of press stories; the linking up with more formal agencies like the FDA [=U.S. Food & Drug Administration] and the MCA [=U.K. Medicines Control Agency]; raiding premises; striking people off professional registers; bringing people before disciplinary board hearings; conducting bogus scientific trials, the undeclared work with large corporations. All these things were linked to a kind of regulatory ground clearing exercise.” (Mclean, 2004) [emphasis & explanations added]

It's also important to understand that these various corrupt and disingenuous shill groups (“Astroturfers”), serving the criminal state-corporate medicine business, regularly change their names –for instance, the US quackbuster underlings morphed into phony “science-based” or “Skeptics” outfits– a move taken largely to avoid liability in legal actions taken against them.

The (covert) longstanding historical existence of a deliberate and orchestrated anti-supplement campaign or endeavor is verified and certified by the FDA itself in a FDA report of 1993 in which you find the agency's bare admission to making efforts to curtail the nutritional supplement business because it clashes with the allopathic medical drug business (Manders, 1995).

(Prior to the 1980s the dominating criminal state-medical allopathy complex often simply ignored remarkable science-based and empirical evidence on vitamin benefits (Martin, 1977; Goodwin & Tangum, 1998) as a broad public awareness about the incredible health benefits of supplements didn't exist and fewer research and clinical data on nutritionals were available so that more pro-active coercive manipulative action by this authoritative syndicate wasn't necessary. Yet, both the omission of known real facts and distortion of known real facts that immensely serve the general public are acts of profound criminality –that is, crimes against humanity).

The entire multinational government-allopathy consortium (including first-rate medical journals, state health agencies, and the 'World Health Organization') –a clan some medical insiders referred to as the “Medical Mafia” (Lanctôt, 2002; Gøtzsche, 2013)– is involved in this depraved psychopathic scheme of truth suppression (Emord, 2008; Grant, 2018). (For more on this deviant repressive operation see also my essay on the Criminal State-Medical Industrial Complex's Deceptive Rationale For More Stringent Supplement Regulation).

Since this organized broad-spectrum effort of the vile official transnational allopathic medical cartel –and its colluding mainstream news media, social media outlets, and Google's YouTube behemoth– against high dose vitamin supplementation is an ongoing affair it is unsurprising that these criminal psychopathic forces also resorted to powerful vitamin censorship activities (e.g., the suppression of vitamin benefits from proper vitamin C therapeutics) during the fabricated CoronaVirus panic (i.e., “Coronamania”, the COVID-19 “pandemic”, the Covid-19 PlanDemic, the corona-virus ScamDemic) of 2020 because they want preferably everyone to take their highly profitable drugs and vaccine concoctions (Saul, 21-Feb & 1-Mar & 11-May-2020; Ji, 27-Mar & 8-Apr-2020; Tips, 2020; Chossudovsky, 2020; SPR, 2020; Kennedy, 2020; Rasmussen, 2020; Simmons & Smith, 2020; Willis, 2020; Corbett, 2020; Roberts, 2020; Sacré, 22-Apr & 13-May-2020; Cummins, 2020; Mercola, 2020; Bigtree, 2020; Shilhavy, 15-May-2020).

How does Offit (try to) accomplish his scalding defamation of the natural health industry (“alternative medicine”)?

By resorting to scaremongering about vitamin side effects, by presenting data in a deceptive manner, or using misleading or flawed research data, and by taking recourse in hype, to create a false public perception about vitamin benefits and dangers. Those are traditional tactics used by his numerous like-minded predecessors (Carter, 1992; Haley, 2000).

Good judgment is a result of good perception. Good perception requires good information.

But...

That's exactly where Offit's weak spot is, that's where he falls so short... at dispensing good information about vitamin benefits and safety.

(NOTE: A condensed version of this long article has been published in the peer-reviewed publication Orthomolecular Medicine News Service (OMNS), a non-profit, non-commercial informational resource, as "Anti-Vitamin Publications: Misinformation Presented As Truth" by Rolf Hefti, Vol. 9, No. 14, 18-July-2013 [direct link: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v09n14.shtml])

How Do You Judge The Credibility Of A Person's Dispensed Information?

–By The Person's Status, Transparency, Honesty, Lack Of Conflict-Of-Interests, Commitment To The Facts... Use Of Humor?

“Nothing dismisses an argument better than humor.” (Paul A. Offit, MD, Vaccine Industry Chief Spokesman)

The fundamental lack of scientific significance and credibility of Killing Us Softly/Do You Believe In Magic and the concomitant promotional articles is quite well epitomized in a statement by Offit from a few years ago:

"If they were willing to look at all the studies that were done with vaccines, they would find that they are, I think without question, the safest, best-tested thing we put into our bodies. I think they have a better safety record than vitamins [...]." (Leung, 2009) [emphasis added]

But, incidentally, Paul Offit, MD, isn't a stranger to making such non-sensical comments...

For example, he claimed that an infant can safely tolerate 10,000 vaccines all at once (Offit, et al., 2002). And topping that, a few years later he stated "[...] you probably could [safely] get 100,000 vaccines every day" [explanation added] (CLS, 2008). (There are people who are still waiting for Offit to conduct these experiments on himself.)

Dr. Offit's utterly false, pseudo-scientific, absurd presentation of the vaccine safety profile is proved and exposed by an irrefutable real-life fact:

“The plague of corruption is enormous and encompasses many areas of our scientific, medical, and daily political existence. The pharmaceutical companies have corrupted the laws regarding vaccinations, and a corrupt media has poisoned the mind of the public. The public does not ask the simple question: if vaccines are as safe as sugar water [per the medical propaganda of the colluding state-allopathy syndicate], why do the pharmaceutical companies need to have complete financial immunity [via The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) of 1986 (Kohls, 2019)] and be protected by a battalion of lawyers from the US Department of Justice? […]. As of this writing, the Vaccine Court has paid out more than four billion dollars in claims to children who have been injured by vaccines.” (Judy Mikovits, PhD, US Molecular Biologist, Biochemist, Former US Government Scientist, And Medical Whistleblower [Heckenlively & Mikovits, 2020]) [emphasis & explanations added]

As of 2020, over 4 BILLION dollars have been paid out to vaccine-injured children in the US alone (Heckenlively & Mikovits, 2020), and it had already reached staggering amounts of money at the time when Offit made those bogus statements! So, the true reality is –and not the fake reality fabricated and spun by the lies, fake news, fake studies, and propaganda of the state-allopathic disease business (Rappoport, 2024) and its colluding mass and social media cabal (which have “poisoned the mind of the public”)– that authorized vaccines are NOT safe by any sensible standard.

Besides Offit's disregard of copious and crucial scientific evidence on serious vaccine side effects (e.g., Sinclair, 1992; Coulter, 1993; Scheibner, 1993; King, 2005; Neil & Miller, 2008; Habakus, et al., 2012; Obukhanych, 2014; Wakefield, 2016; Grundvig, 2016; Bollinger, 2017; Kohls, 2019; Burrowes, 2019; Heckenlively & Mikovits, 2020), it makes little biological (and common) sense that a body-foreign (non-essential) material, such as a vaccine, is going to be safer than a body-familiar (essential) substance, such as a vitamin (or a mineral, or water). His silly, unscientific statement is analogous to saying that taking vaccines is safer than drinking water.

(Apart from the general public, allopathic physicians generally, too, reveal a profound vaccine ignorance –i.e., they falsely believe “vaccines are safe and effective”– largely because they get a smidgen of meaningful education in medical school about state-authorized toxic vaccines they go on peddling to unsuspecting customers to enrich themselves [Burrowes, 2019]. Even a US government virologist admitted her (initial) vaccine ignorance: “At the start of my journey in 2009, I didn’t realize I was an unconscious follower of the government and scientific propaganda regarding vaccines. In retrospect, I should have questioned more. But I find that most of those who now find themselves on the so-called “anti-vax” side started off in much the same way.” (Judy Mikovits, PhD, Molecular Biologist, Biochemist, Former Government Scientist, And Medical Whistleblower (Heckenlively & Mikovits, 2020) [emphasis added]. Evidently, this general state of vast vaccine misinformation and ignorance is established by a systemic cultural indoctrination with official propaganda).

How did Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., MD (1809–1894), refer to a person who's uttering such "logical evidence" as Offit's cited above?

"Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man's upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground floor."

A closer look at Offit's background proffers insightful clues to such baffling remarks of his. And, it describes the larger context for understanding his anti-supplement publications.

Offit has been a major spokesman for, and defender of, the vaccine industry and has patent shares on a vaccine (the sale of the royalty interest of those patents earned him millions of dollars [Attkisson, 2008; Olmsted &  Blaxill, 2009; Holland, et al., 2011; Bollinger, 2017]). As a vaccine patent holder, Offit was on an advisory panel recommending vaccination to government health authorities, thereby exerting influence on key decisions affecting public health from a position of conflict-of-interests (King, 2005; Olmsted &  Blaxill, 2009; Bollinger, 2017). Apparently, the predicament was not an ethical problem for him, presumably because the conflicted situation helped him greatly financially.

Offit had also been caught lying about his well-documented monstrous conflict-of-interests (also known as competing interests) and his self-serving ties to the pharmaceutical industry (Crosby, 2011; Orange County Register, 2011). Even a prestigious medical journal, such as the New England Journal of Medicine, publicized a case where Offit falsified some data (Poling, 2008; King, 2008).

Since Offit has been caught more than once in misrepresenting crucial facts (Holland, et al., 2011; Gladen & Levine, 2014; Vaccine Papers, 2015), is it hard to imagine he could do it again with his attacks on dietary supplement safety and his claim that there are few to none vitamin benefits from nutritional supplements?

Based on the data from the aforementioned sources, this is a man who unscrupulously propagates his self-interests and that of the medical establishment.

Above and beyond being a chief spokesman for the vaccine industry, Offit is a perfect spokesman for (the business of) the medical industry, selling drugs and other medical interventions.

Arguably, Offit belongs to the same group of staunch, but highly unreasonable, defenders of the interests of the conventional medical establishment as the ruthless Morris Fishbein, MD (1889-1976), was during the first half of the 20th century. And more recently, Stephen Barrett, MD, a lying fraudulent decoy and propagandist of the government-allopathy collusion alliance (Ferrie, 2002; Koren, 2005; Frompovich, 2015), both of whom –Fishbein and Barrett– Offit cites favorably in his book (Offit, 2013). (Even more recent representations of this ilk are important-sounding self-ascribed "science-based" medical Skeptics (Frompovich, 2015) –some people call them “fake skeptics” or “pseudo-Skeptics”).

Because...

All of them have one credibility-eroding trait in common: they all declared, without generally providing much meaningful scientific substantiation, that practically any healing therapy outside the confinements of the medical orthodoxy is nothing but a scam. But most telling about their irrational tirades is another common denominator amongst them: they all have (or had) unmistakable vested interests because they are (or were) devoted members and ostentatious mouthpieces (i.e., salesmen) of orthodox medicine.

How Both The Medical Industry And The Mainstream Media Look To It That You Mainly Know About NEGATIVE News On Nutritional Supplements

–Presenting A Half Truth As If It Were The Whole Truth

"A half-truth is a whole lie." (Jewish Proverb)

Vested (competing) interests are common in scientific research, public health policy making, and conventional medicine, leading to a preferential validation of the orientation of the funding source(s), which most commonly is the business called "orthodox medicine" or "the medical industry" (Rampton & Stauber, 2002; Ioannidis, 2005; Smith, 2006; Wells & Farthing, 2008; Bion, 2009; Jagsi, et al., 2009; Lathyris, et al., 2010; Lundh, et al., 2010).

Unsurprisingly, Offit, as an ostentatious representative and promoter of the business interests of the medical industry, has displayed previously such biased favoritism. For example, he has a history of disregarding the sound evidence against the safety of vaccines while promoting the evidence of the alleged safety of vaccines, favoring his own and his sponsor's (=medical-pharmaceutical/vaccine industry) ideology (Holland, et al., 2011; Gladen & Levine, 2014; Vaccine Papers, 2015).

He plays the same game of biased favoritism in his anti-vitamin book and articles. 

He cherry-picks the "evidence" that nurtures the interests of his conflicted affiliation and allegiance (i.e., to the medical establishment), by listing a bunch of anti-supplement data.

The solid evidence of remarkable health benefits of vitamins,
gathered from extensive clinical practice and research studies,
is totally ignored.

Both the mainstream medical establishment as well as the mainstream news media (for whom the medical-pharmaceutical industry is one of their main advertising clients) frequently disregard positive findings of vitamin benefits but are inclined to strongly raise public attention about negative findings.

Thus, spreading "a half-truth" to the public at large.

Here is a fitting example of this everyday practice. A scientific investigation, a randomized controlled study, representing the alleged pinnacle of "evidence-based medicine", released online in May of 2013, showed that the high intake of some B vitamin supplements (at levels practically impossible to obtain from a "routine diet" alone –or even from a very healthy diet) very greatly (by 90%) reduced brain shrinkage (a symptomatic sign of Alzheimer's Disease) in older folks with pre-existing "mild cognitive impairment" and with high homocysteine levels (Douaud, et al., 2013) which tend to be elevated in people with Alzheimer Disease (Ho, et al., 2011).

Yet, I've noticed that this impressive news story received very sparse coverage from the corporate media conglomerate and the orthodox medical profession.

Others also observed the shocking indifference of the mainstream medical establishment (and Alzheimer's charities) to the uplifting news on vitamin benefits from food supplements. The blog article (Burne, 2013) by Jerome Burne, an award-winning health journalist, entitled "Alzheimer’s: we want a cure but please don’t mention B vitamins", referring to an ominous prejudice of the medical profession, is a good example of attempting to raise attention about the eery silence of the dominant culture regarding these stunning vitamin benefits, elicited from "premium grade research".

So Burne, pondering the near total lack of acknowledgment of this important study by the medical orthodoxy, wondered:

"Could it be because drugs are simply preferred to vitamins whatever the evidence?" (Burne, 2013) [emphasis added]

It suggests that the ruling pillars of influence in a society are not (necessarily, or as commonly assumed) after the truth but after guarding and sustaining prevailing medical perspectives and orientations, such as the use of drug therapies.

There are other ways ruling forces of the culture merely give you "a half-truth" on nutritional supplements...

For instance, in Offit's Killing Us Softly/Do You Believe In Magic there is no mention of the fact that many so-called evidence-based studies against micronutrient supplements are seriously flawed. Actually, Offit uses several of these poorly-designed or otherwise misleading studies as, supposedly, reliable examples to discredit the use of vitamins and food supplements. Offit's supplement-opposing works, for instance, discourage the general use of vitamins (i.e., "Don’t Take Your Vitamins" [Offit, 8-June-2013]), yet he cites studies to support his sweeping generalization where the findings do not (or barely) apply to the public on the whole.

Specifically, Offit (Offit, 2013; 7 & 8 June, 2013) lists a number of studies showing that high doses of vitamins and minerals increase the risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and mortality. However, many of those investigations were conducted on already sick people or on people with an increased risk of death, cancer, or heart disease (due to heavy smoking, for instance).

For example, to prove his point he cites two "anti-supplement" studies (NEJM, 1994; Omenn, et al., 1996) which found an increased risk of death from lung cancer in heavy, longterm smokers (NEJM, 1994) or either heavy longterm smokers and longterm asbestos workers (Omenn, et al., 1996), supposedly because of supplemental nutrition. Additional re-evaluations of these two papers and similar research studies revealed this increase was only in smokers who also "drank alcohol" (Baron, et al., 2003).

Also, in the 5-8 years-long NEJM study of 1994, which had been coined “The Finnish Study”, "the beta carotene group smoked one year more than the no beta carotene group", tweaking the incidence of lung cancer (further) in disfavor of the supplements via this bias, an obvious flaw the study authors did not elaborate on (Hoffer, 1994).

This truth-distorting disadvantage of timespan was further exacerbated because Finland was one of the first countries that got hit heavy by the carcinogenic radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, which was another confounding factor the study authors (NEJM, 1994) had overlooked (Weeks, 2003).

Additionally, because the entire group consisted of heavy, longterm (35+ years) smokers "it is certain that a large fraction already had the cancer" when the study began (Hoffer, 1994), albeit undiagnosed.

Most telling, however, is the admission of the study authors in their paper regarding their finding of a carcinogenic effect from beta carotene supplements:

“We are aware of no other data at this time, however, that suggest harmful effects of beta carotene, whereas there are data indicating benefit. Furthermore, there are no known or described mechanisms of toxic effects of beta carotene, no data from studies in animals suggesting beta carotene toxicity, and no evidence of serious toxic effects of this substance in humans. In the light of all the data available, an adverse effect of beta carotene seems unlikely; in spite of its formal statistical significance, therefore, this finding may well be due to chance.” (NEJM, 1994) [emphasis added]

Curiously, the Finnish study ignited a media blitz at the same day (!) or prior of its publication (Weeks, 2003). The findings of the "Finnish study" on the purported lack of vitamin benefits from beta carotene supplements, respectively their potential cancer-causing risk, were published in anchors of the corporate-owned lay media, such as The New York Times (Kolata, 1994).

Yet in a very similar study (to the NEJM, 1994 & Omenn, et al., 1996 investigations) on almost all healthy subjects (Hennekens, et al., 1996) there was no increase in risk of cancer, heart disease, or mortality from the use of these supplements. On the contrary, the study by the Baron group (Baron, et al., 2003) showed that those people who "who neither smoked cigarettes nor drank alcohol" had a significantly decreased risk of recurrent cancer.

But Offit uses the two studies on longterm chain-smokers to make his "don't take vitamins" recommendations as if they were to reliably apply to the public on the whole (Offit, 2013 & 7 & 8 June 2013). Why (cherry-) pick the evidence that does not reflect the situation for most people as most people are not longterm chain-smokers who also regularly consume alcohol? It makes one wonder just how carefully he examined these studies. Or is Offit hoping no one notices?

Similarly, another study (Miller, et al., 2005) Offit utilizes to form his advice for the general population to "stop taking vitamin pills" (Offit, 7-June-2013) showed that high doses of vitamin E "may" increase the risk of mortality. However, it was performed on primarily older (over 60 years of age) "patients with chronic diseases" (Miller, et al., 2005). Even the study authors raised attention about this and other obvious study limitations, such as the small study size of many of the trials included in the meta-analysis:

"The generalizability of the findings to healthy adults is uncertain." (Miller, et al., 2005) [emphasis added]

But this obvious uncertainty to project the study findings from older, gravely sick people onto younger, otherwise healthy people didn't stop Offit from using it to build his case of certainty against general supplement use. Is it maybe because Offit simply followed (blindly) the "conclusions" of the study authors (Miller, et al., 2005) in which they committed the same scientific blunder of data generalization in spite of their recognition of their own data's significant limitations?

Offit also mentions some Cochrane database reviews as evidence against nutritional supplements. Unlike the popular assumption that Cochrane's data are highly reliable because it is purportedly an "independent organization", the Cochrane Collaboration is an entity with conflicting interests involving the medical (i.e., pharmaceutical) industry (e.g., Moynihan, 2003; Lenzer, 2004).

In view of this nefarious connection, it probably isn't surprising that the supposedly "disinterested" Cochrane conglomerate, at several occasions, recommended that “antioxidant supplements should be regulated as drugs” (e.g., Bjelakovic, et al., 2004). If that were the case, the public will lose its free access to these non-patentable (i.e., natural) health products (especially to effective supplements), a subsequent ramification of which would be an increased public reliance on patentable, pharmaceutical medications, rather than on dietary supplements and other therapies of natural medicine.

So, there they are again. Those pesky conflicts-of-interests. They are, it appears, quite frequently present in anti-supplement studies... if you only look a bit closer.

Why does Offit give reference to studies from an organization conflicted with competing interests? Could it be because Offit himself is conflicted by vested interests linked to the same industry –that is, the medical-pharmaceutical establishment?

And, more often than not, on the heels of conflict-of-interests follow slanted studies of "evidence-based medicine".

The particular Cochrane group centering around Bjelakovic is made up almost exclusively of professional members of the organized medical business, i.e., allopathic medical doctors (e.g., Bjelakovic, et al., 2007), and has been spewing out several anti-supplement publications over a number of years.

The review studies by Bjelakovic and colleagues about vitamin benefits or harms from supplements tend to be meta-analyses. A meta-analysis is a systematic review of a bunch of hand-picked studies. This "selection criteria" makes meta-analyses more susceptible to error (bias) or fraud (a meta-analysis allows you to "prove" virtually any outcome that's desired).

More than one of the Bjelakovic meta-analyses on vitamin hazards is blatantly and inexcusably biased. For example, in their meta-analysis of randomized trials, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2007 (Bjelakovic, et al., 2007), the study authors selected trials with a very wide dosage range of vitamin E supplements and very wide usage ranges, spanning from 4 weeks to 14 years, leading to unreliable, meaningless generalizations. Worse, the investigators omitted hundreds of trials on antioxidant supplements showing zero mortality, and two of the excluded studies found a significant reduction in mortality from the intake of nutritional supplements, biasing the analysis by the Bjelakovic team in disfavor of supplements (Frei, 2007).

Further, a re-analysis of their 2007 meta-analysis (Bjelakovic, et al., 2007) found that only 4% of practically all the included trials described a negative outcome from supplementation on the disease being examined (Biesalski, et al., 2010), making the negative conclusion of the Cochrane study misleading at best.

It didn't end there with the "sterling proof" against supplements created by these scientists on behalf of the "independent" Cochrane organization.

The exact same authors of the 2007 paper by Bjelakovic and colleagues (Bjelakovic, et al., 2007) published yet another systemic review study of randomized clinical trials (meta-analysis) in 2012 in which they, again, discounted the value of nutritional science (i.e., vitamin benefits through proper supplementation), claiming that "Beta-carotene and vitamin E seem to increase mortality [...]" (Bjelakovic, et al., 2012). Another updated follow-up analysis of the 2012 Cochrane study by some of the same scientists concluded, once again, with the sweeping, supposedly generally applicable, statement that "Beta-carotene and vitamin E in doses higher than the RDA seem to significantly increase mortality [...]" (Bjelakovic, et al., 2013).

While this increase was tiny at 3% (Bjelakovic, et al., 2013), much more informative is that, quite some time prior to 2013, a longtime vitamin scientist backed with research data had brought to the attention of the anti-supplement scientists of the Cochrane affiliation that the biological effects of vitamin E may not be uniform, but rather inconsistent and heterogeneous, across the population (Hemilä, 2013).

Yet, the Bjelakovic group had consistently ignored these useful facts about vitamin E, even in their 2013 meta-analysis of the notorious study with Finnish smokers (NEJM, 1994) despite that at the time of their meta-analysis this inconsistency in supplemental vitamin E outcomes had already long been recognized to exist in the Finnish study (Hemilä, 2013).

The seasoned vitamin supplement expert explained that the 2013 meta-analysis by the Cochrane team (Bjelakovic, et al., 2013) is affected by a well-known study bias, the “ecological fallacy” (Hemilä, 2013). The ecologic fallacy enunciates that associations or correlations at the population level don't reflect associations at the individual level.

This significant pool of evidence makes the generalized anti-vitamin conclusions of the Bjelakovic team (supposedly applicable to anyone, smoker or not) –repeated multiple times over the years in their various meta-analyses (basically rehashes of their original meta-analysis)– highly suspect if not invalid.

Politely speaking, it's "scientific" noise, not scientific substance.

Arguably more evidence in favor of the aforesaid vitamin scientist's concerns raised about these meta-analyses, and incriminating proof against these "objective" Cochrane researchers, is the following.

In February of 2008, a so-called reputable journal of the orthodox medical establishment, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), published a "correction" of the 2007 meta-analysis by the Bjelakovic squad (Bjelakovic, et al., 2007), citing many data mistakes in that anti-vitamin study (JAMA, 2008).

Presumably, the corrections were made by the flawed paper's authors although no authors are cited in the JAMA rectification piece and it isn't readily apparent from reading the formal paper to conclude the Bjelakovic group had written the public release.

The JAMA correction article (JAMA, 2008) concluded with, and keep in mind when reading the conclusion that this was probably written by Bjelakovic and associates, "None of the data errors altered the overall results of the study" (i.e., it is a disparaging indictment against vitamin benefits and, instead, of vitamin harms) yet it lists such grave errors –characteristically encountered in cases of  junk or “fake science” (pseudo-science) or “shill science” (vested interest-based science)– as:

• "[...] in the first paragraph of the “All Randomized Trials” subsection, the sentence that read “Heterogeneity was not significant [...]” should have read “Heterogeneity was significant [...]”" or
  
  
• "[...] in the first and second sentence of the subsection “Antioxidant Supplements Given Singly or in Combination” that read “Beta carotene used singly significantly increased mortality [...]. This effect was not significant when combined with other supplements” should have read “Beta carotene used singly or in combination with other antioxidant supplements did not significantly affect mortality”" or
  
  
• "[...] on page 848 that read “Selenium given singly or in combination with other antioxidant supplements had no significant influence on mortality when analyzed separately [...]” should have been divided into 2 sentences that should have read “Selenium given singly had no significant influence on mortality. Selenium given in combination with other antioxidant supplements significantly decreased mortality [...].”" [all emphasis mine]
  
  

Curiously, this particular "corrective" JAMA piece (JAMA, 2008) wasn't listed in PubMed, allegedly the world's largest biomedical database, when I searched for it in November of 2016. Oddly, when I tried looking it up by the article's title PubMed re-directed the search quest and displayed the abstract of the 2012 supplement-vilifying meta-analysis (Bjelakovic, et al., 2012). When I searched by its DOI code PubMed rendered this: "The following term was not found in PubMed: jama.299.7.765-a".

Naturally, the disingenuous corporate press was all too eager to feast on the Cochrane-sanctioned "scientific" evidence against supplemental vitamin benefits generated by Bjelakovic and his co-workers.

As an example, after the publication of the 2007 meta-analysis by the Bjelakovic workers (Bjelakovic, et al., 2007), the tabloid news media swiftly and ostentatiously got these negative results about antioxidant supplements out to the public with fearmongering headlines such as "Vitamins 'could shorten lifespan'" (BBC News, UK, 28-Feb-2007) or "Supplements 'raise death rate by 5%'" (The Times, UK, 28-Feb-2007). As expected, the same pattern of vitamin bashing by the corporate world media played out after the 2012 rendition of the Cochrane study authored by the Bjelakovic group (Bjelakovic, et al., 2012).

In parallel, and in terms of erroneous flawed studies against supplements that are not meta-analyses, Isabelle Bairati led a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized vitamin supplement study regarding cancer prevention among cancer patients who underwent orthodox treatment, which found that beta-carotene or vitamin E (alpha tocopherol) supplement users had a notably higher risk of suffering a recurrence of their cancer and a higher mortality rate –both in cancer mortality and total mortality– than those who didn't take any supplements (Bairati, et al., April & Aug-2005, and 2006).

However, a re-evaluation of their own original data a couple of years later (Meyer, et al., 2008) revealed that their previous study publications –which discounted vitamin benefits through supplementation– were highly misleading and wrong (such as their specious sweeping generalization: "long-term supplementation with high-dose antioxidant vitamins could increase mortality" [Bairati, et al., 2006]) because their established negative effects from nutritional supplements (i.e., increased rates of cancer recurrence, and increased cause-specific and all-cause mortality) were almost exclusively found among supplement users who smoked cigarettes during radiation therapy, representing about a third of all patients (Meyer, et al., 2008).

In their previous scientific publications the Bairati team merely controlled –or not at all– for the confounding factor of smoking  in terms of "current" (up until the onset of cancer treatment) or "past" smokers (or never smokers), but did not assess for patients who smoked during the period of radiation treatment (Bairati, et al., April & Aug-2005, and 2006) despite that a link between smoking, supplementation, and adverse effects had been observed and recorded for quite some time. Perhaps the methodological lapse can be partly attributed to the Bairati group's knowledge that, typically, patients are advised to stop smoking during radiation therapy (Meyer, et al., 2008).

This time around, the world press was oddly quiet about this substantial and stunning finding that rather exonerated, instead of condemned via lackluster hyperbole study findings, the value of dietary supplements (at a minimum for non-smoking users during radiation therapy).

One paper Offit mentioned (Klein, et al., 2011) found that vitamin E supplements increased the risk of prostate cancer in healthy men. Yet in those men who also received selenium supplements there was no statistically significant increase in risk (Klein, et al., 2011). Also, many of the study authors had conflict-of-interests as they disclosed financial affiliations with the pharmaceutical industry (Klein, et al., 2011).

Another study Offit mentioned (e.g., Offit, June, 2013; Offit, 7-June-2013) in his very small arsenal of evidence against the general use of vitamin supplements that found a higher mortality rate among multivitamin users, is an observational study (Mursu, et al., 2011), thus fails to proffer a causal link between intake of supplements and mortality risk in women, a limitation the study authors admitted to. But the study contains several other grave limitations not mentioned, such as a lack of clear definition of the term "supplement user", making it a highly flawed paper. Pooling subjects together who could have used supplements daily, monthly, or yearly (or other variations of time-use) and then making reliable projections based on such an unstandardized group leads to unpredictable, unreliable findings and conclusions.

Also, Alan R. Gaby, MD, pointed out that the Mursu group study (2011) never mentioned the actual death rate in their investigation, only the "adjusted" death rates without describing how they made those adjustments (Fitzgerald, 2012). Gaby noted that the researchers "artificially adjusted the death rate of the vitamin users upward" (Fitzgerald, 2012), leading to an unfavorable finding for the group of supplement users.

Moreover, in numerous instances of negative study findings on vitamins and health supplements, it had been known for a long time that the studies were faulty, thus their results and conclusions unreliable. But...

... that critical evidence continues to be ignored by disciplines of the medical profession (such as Offit) and the mainstream establishment in general,

... thereby misrepresenting and distorting the actual facts on nutritional supplements, such as on the side effects of supplements or vitamin benefits.

In other words, the control of information is not just funneled at its "source" (such as with biased meta-analyses, for example) but also "at the second tier", when dissenting evidence that debunks the official but wrong claims about vitamin benefits and toxicities surfaces.

Here are some examples of this trick to mislead the public regarding the truth about nutritional supplements...

Offit totally discredits Linus C. Pauling, PhD, (1901-1994), a two-time Nobel prize winner and pioneer of orthomolecular medicine, for his claim that high dose vitamin C supplements have a notable effect on the duration or severity of infections of the upper respiratory tract, such as the common cold or the flu (Offit, 7-June-2013). Offit cites an investigation from the early 1940s where the scientists concluded there were no noteworthy vitamin C benefits from supplements on those types of infections (Cowan, et al., 1942). Although, a re-analysis of the study data of the Cowan team by Dr. Linus Pauling (Pauling, 1974) revealed that even a moderate daily dose of vitamin C (roughly 200mg) led to "a 31-percent decrease in the amount of illness" (=fewer days of illness, less severe symptoms), a significant finding the study authors simply dismissed to Pauling's amazement. It's an exhibit of lying by omission.

And, this is not a single incident in history. Several officially highly acclaimed studies or reviews had claimed that there are no health benefits of vitamin C supplements on the duration and severity of colds when in actually "the original conclusions of the authors were inconsistent with the published data" (Hemilä, 2006). Or, pertinent research data on vitamin C and the common cold, such as the nutrient's proper therapeutic usage, is omitted in studies claiming no vitamin benefits from vitamin C supplements against the respiratory infection (Hickey & Roberts, 2005).

Improper, false, or misleading interpretations or conclusions of the published data by the study authors have been recognized in other "anti" nutritional supplement studies. For instance, in a randomized controlled trial (Lee, et al., 2005) evaluating "whether vitamin E supplementation decreases risks of cardiovascular disease and cancer among healthy women", the published numbers show that those women who received the vitamin E supplements had a significant 24% reduction in mortality from cardiovascular disease (in the women age 65+ the reduction was 49%!).

Yet...

In the study's conclusion Lee and colleagues stated that the vitamin E supplements "provided no overall benefit for major cardiovascular events or cancer, did not affect total mortality, and decreased cardiovascular mortality in healthy women. These data do not support recommending vitamin E supplementation for cardiovascular disease or cancer prevention among healthy women" (Lee, et al., 2005).

Also, Offit ridiculed Pauling's claim that megavitamin therapy (orthomolecular medicine) can "treat cancer" (Offit, 7-June-2013).

Dr. Linus Pauling was right (and still is) about the administration of high doses of vitamin C (vitamin C therapy) in the fight against cancer (e.g., Hickey & Roberts, 2004).

Pauling and a colleague conducted a couple of studies on terminal cancer patients, considered "untreatable" by orthodox medical standards. They found that high doses of vitamin C supplements (as L-ascorbic acid) increased survival by 50+ times in treated patients over untreated subjects (Cameron & Pauling, 1976 & 1978). Subsequently, two randomized, placebo-controlled studies (Creagan, et al., 1979; Moertel, et al., 1985), conducted by representatives of the orthodox cancer establishment (i.e., Mayo clinic, spearheaded by the National Cancer Institute), claimed to have disproven the studies by Cameron and Pauling with exact replications of their studies.

Offit cited both of these rebuttal studies, showing no vitamin benefits from vitamin C in the treatment of cancer, in his book (Offit, June 2013).

These anti-vitamin studies, unlike the Cameron & Pauling investigations, received wide public attention from the popular media, presumably to "show" or "prove" to public just how ineffective dietary supplements are in the fight against cancer.

Dr. Pauling and his collaborator, Dr. Cameron, however, convincingly demonstrated (Cameron & Pauling, 1979), and later Linus Pauling on his own (Pauling, 1986), that the two Mayo studies were hopelessly flawed because they did not follow his and Ewan Cameron's study protocol. The scientific replication of a study demands that the exact same methodological protocol is adhered to, otherwise it is slander, an invalid comparison, and thus the ill-designed studies are nothing but junk science in relation to the base studies.

The New England Journal Of Medicine (NEJM) published the inconsequential studies (Creagan, et al., 1979; Moertel, et al., 1985) that falsely asserted to have exactly repeated the vitamin C studies by Pauling and Cameron. But, the NEJM rejected repeatedly to publish Pauling's correct critique of those papers (Hoffer, 1987; Richards, 1988).

There are other highly acclaimed medical journals that had also been noted to suppress truthful information:

"The Journal of the American Medical Association has quickly published reports about some hypothesized dangers of vitamins, presumably for the public good, even when these dangers are manufactured. But it has steadfastly refused to publish letters or articles which pointed out the errors in these reports." (Hoffer, 1987) [emphasis added]

In the US, people supposedly live in a land of "a free press". The auxiliary term "free" suggests to the public that the press is automatically providing them with the truth. In reality, "a free press" means a press free to suppress information to accommodate an agenda rather than the truth (Mantel & Skrovan, 2006). As Ernest J. Sternglass, PhD, a radiation physicist, had stated once, "when vital information is secretly kept from free people, they are no longer free."

In order for Linus Pauling to get his truthful critique out to the public at large, passed the oppressive forces, it left him with nearly no other option than to publish it in one of his own books (Pauling, 1986). A thorough independent investigation by a science historian of the vitamin benefits in the ascorbic acid-cancer matter strongly validated much of the allegations brought forward by Pauling and Cameron against the esteemed representatives of the medical orthodoxy and, conversely, demonstrably invalidated much of the authoritative, albeit scientifically hollow, claims advanced by the state-medical industrial complex against the two vitamin C researchers' salient evidentiary work (Richards, 1988).

In Offit's supplement-slandering works he omitted to mention the critical evidence that the two Mayo clinic studies are scientifically irrelevant in their attempt to disprove Pauling's claim.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI), too, failed to alert the public about the serious flaws in the Mayo trials (Pauling, 1986). Even today the NCI lists the two supplement-bashing Mayo studies under the rubric of "High-Dose Vitamin C/Early Ascorbate-Only Trials" without any reference to the fact that they are scientifically irrelevant (cancer.gov; official site of NCI, accessed June 2013), giving you the erroneous impression that Cameron/Pauling's studies are invalid while the Mayo trials are valid –when the opposite is true.

And...

... despite that even 21st century US government sponsored studies, almost exclusively authored by scientists affiliated with the NIH and the FDA, admitted to powerful vitamin benefits in cancer, by distinctly demonstrating that high dose vitamin C treatments has strong and selective cancer cell-killing action in cell culture mediums and decreased the growth of aggressive tumors in animal models, with the investigators of one of these studies commenting that "these findings give plausibility to i.v. [=intravenous] ascorbic acid in cancer treatment" (Chen, et al., 2005 & 2008) [explanation added].

And...

... despite a quite detailed scientific understanding of the physiological mechanisms of how the potent benefits of vitamins from vitamin C therapy can come about in terms of cancer (Frei & Lawson, 2008).

And...

... in spite of that other more current investigators (e.g., Ohno, et al., 2009) noted:

"[...] evidence from case studies has continued to mount that ascorbate therapy could be effective if the right protocols were used [...]." [emphasis added]

The "right protocols" for cancer encompass especially high dose intravenous vitamin C treatment.

Because we live in a culture where the propagation of half-truths by the dominant forces is an everyday event, very few people know of the sound evidence that debunked the hailed "evidence-based" Mayo studies (Hickey & Roberts, 2004).

Furthermore, the public deserves to know that in the early 1980s Mayo Clinic's Charles G. Moertel, MD (1927-1994), was also the lead investigator of a government-funded human clinical trial of “amygdalin” and its effects on cancer (Moertel, et al., 1982). Amygdalin is also referred to as “laetrile” or “vitamin B 17”, a compound (nitrilosides) found at high concentration especially in apricot seeds/apricot kernels.

Akin to Charles Moertel's skewed cancer studies on the vitamin benefits from ascorbic acid (vitamin C), this laetrile study's "results do not support Moertel et. al.'s [anti-amygdalin] conclusion" (Dr. Stephen Krashen) pertaining to the value of amygdalin in cancer prevention and control, because the Moertel group did not follow the standard protocol of administration and, thus, was "set up to fail" (Dr. Ralph Moss), as both Stephen Krashen, PhD, and the cancer investigator Ralph W. Moss, PhD, had explained and documented (Krashen, 2009; Merola, 2014).

Moss, a former official at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, demonstrated irrefutably how the mainstream medical establishment, including government health agencies, are actively involved in the stifling and suppression of valid therapeutic modalities (or data thereof) outside the dogmatic dictum of corporate medicine (Merola, 2014; Moss, 2014), such as the remarkable cancer-controlling substance amygdalin or impressive vitamin benefits from nutritional supplement therapy, a.k.a “orthomolecular therapy” or “orthomolecular medicine” (Saul, 2003; Janson, 2006).

These coercive, oppressive maneuvers of the commercialized medical orthodoxy (including the FDA, National Cancer Institute, and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center) against threats to their bottom line and other selfish interests, such as from alternative cancer treatments, have persisted continuously to the present time (Carter, 1992; Horwin, 2001; Merola, 2010 & 2013).

Unsurprisingly, at numerous occasions, opponents of food supplements have used the reference to such unsound, invalid research, like these two so-called evidence-based studies denigrating vitamin benefits from ascorbic acid against cancer, as a validation to propagate the general notions that "supplements don't work" or that "there are no vitamin benefits".

But...

If you study something in non-biological or otherwise misleading ways (e.g., too short of a study period, supplement doses too low, studying (very) ill people and extrapolating the results and conclusions onto healthy people, low compliance, flawed replication of previous studies, etc.), even if you resort to evidence-based research methodologies, you end up getting junk findings (Michels & Frei, 2013). Junk in, junk out. And junk research findings are prevalent in science, even in premium evidence-based medical investigations (e.g., Gøtzsche, 1989; Ioannidis, et al., 2010).

But in spite of this solid (but greatly ignored) evidence that Pauling was/is (mainly) right regarding the facts about vitamin C, Offit feels entitled and justified to resort to an ad hominem attack against the deceased dual Nobel laureate by referring to him as "arguably the world's greatest quack" (Offit, 7-June-2013).

The medical establishment considered Dr. Linus Pauling a giant of medical science, as long as he didn't step on their self-interests with his well-founded claims. But as soon as Pauling did, as with his non-orthodox propositions of vitamin benefits, fanatics of the medical industry declared him a quack. It is the medical orthodoxy's convenient, self-serving relegation of Pauling from penthouse to doghouse. Unsurprisingly, (profiteering) zealots of the medical industry, such as Offit, continue to keep up the unsound mockery of Pauling.

At this point it is of interest to note that at numerous occasions (Offit, June-2013), Offit cites an anti-supplement publication by Dan Hurley, whose misrepresentation of the actual scientific data I had discussed in a different article (see Scaremongering About Vitamin Side Effects: How Supplement Truths Get Distorted).

Bottom line...

Gatekeepers of the medical industry (such as Offit and the mainstream news media) tend to welcome negative news about nutritional supplements uncritically, while displaying an inclination to dismiss and ignore positive research findings on supplement benefits (Goodwin & Tangum, 1998).

In other words...

Offit, and the anti-vitamin lobby in general, are not portraying the whole truth, they are giving you a half truth (that serves their own, and affiliated, interests),

... presented as if it were the whole truth.

But, rather than being "the whole truth", as the public is supposed to believe, the Jewish proverb postulates that "a half-truth" is nothing but "a whole lie".

(By the way, there are other arenas of modern medicine where only "a half-truth" is widely known. One such example is presented in my (e)book The Mammogram Myth: The Independent Investigation Of Mammography The Medical Profession Doesn't Want You To Know About, see Mammograms: Dangerous! Mammography Risks, Myths & Breast Cancer Facts).

Obscuring The Whole Truth

–Vested Interests Distort The Right Perspective

"It is recognized that objectivity is difficult to foster in an environment where conflicts of interest exist." (Jonathan P.S. Knisely, MD & Louis Potters, MD)

Many people live under the impression (or illusion) that medical research is "objective". That you get "the real truth" from the most prestigious medical journals in the world.

Not so.

The immense significance of how vested interests, or conflict-of-interests, in scientific research distort the truth about nutritional supplements (in their disfavor) has been demonstrated (Kemper & Hood, 2008).

Kathi J. Kemper, MD, and Kaylene L. Hood (Kemper & Hood, 2008) reviewed a one year's worth of issues from about a dozen medical journals –including some of the world's most prestigious publications, such as the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), and the British Medical Journal (BMJ)– to evaluate the influence of pharmaceutical advertisements in those journals in relation to reports on dietary supplements.

Here's what they (Kemper & Hood, 2008) found:

• the more pharmaceutical advertisements in an issue of a journal, the less reports on nutritional supplements,
• the more pharmaceutical advertisements in an issue of a journal, the more likely the reports on dietary supplements were negative (=depicted as "unsafe"),
• the more pharmaceutical advertisements in an issue of a journal, the more likely there are reports that supplements are "ineffective" (=zero or insignificant vitamin benefits).

Long ago, the relationship between the pharmaceutical-medical industry and medical journals had been described as a “marriage of convenience” (Moser, 1977).

Because conventional doctors rely on the information publicized in those allegedly elite medical journals, it is easy to recognize that, virtually unbeknownst to them, they can be misled and wrong in their perception of the TRUE value of vitamins and health supplements. And so can be the society at large.

As Kemper and Hood remark:

“[...] pharmaceutical advertising biases journals against non-drug therapies. […]. [...] most primary care clinicians subscribe to established and highly visible general medical journals; articles in these journals are frequently cited in professional practice guidelines and by the media to guide the general public.” (Kemper & Hood, 2008)[emphasis mine]

"To guide the general public"... like Paul A. Offit, MD, does with Killing Us Softly/Do You Believe In Magic.

Moreover, and as this study indicates, entities with conflicts-of-interest such as orthodox doctors (i.e., Dr. Paul Offit), representing the interests of the medical industry (i.e., "drug therapies", etc.), are more likely to offer you a slanted, one-sided perspective of nutritional supplements. And, this version of perception is likely going to be one of negativity in regard to supplements (as in Killing Us Softly).

In medical science, the truth-tweaking influence of conflict-of-interests is well established (not just regarding health supplements). Yet members of the multi-trillion dollar medical orthodoxy (Papanicolas, et al., 2018), a Very Big Business officially deemed and popularly known as “the health care system”, are often inclined to dismiss and ignore it (presumably because these are scientific facts that are not in their favor). The cloak of "personal commitment to good science" is worn for predatory purposes, whenever it suits a medical authority's private interests.

In an article entitled “Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption”, Marcia Angell, MD, former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), explained that:

“After much unfavorable publicity, medical schools and professional organizations are beginning to talk about controlling conflicts of interest, but so far the response has been tepid. They consistently refer to “potential” conflicts of interest, as though that were different from the real thing, and about disclosing and “managing” them, not about prohibiting them. In short, there seems to be a desire to eliminate the smell of corruption, while keeping the money.” (Angell, 2009) [emphasis added]

Similarly, Michael E. Dean, PhD, writes in his award-winning book of 2004:

“[...], it is painfully obvious that science is biased, consumers of scientific information are biased, and science is routinely used to advance personal, political and economic agendas that have nothing to do with increasing the store of generalized knowledge.” (Dean, 2004) [emphasis added]

This supports the idea that you should not ignore this "story of corruption" (Angell, 2009). That is, the pivotal connection between conflict of interests and the falsification of the truth, if you want to get to the real truth about vitamin benefits and risks.

Because...

• the process to generate scientific evidence is mainly funded by business interests of a private cartel –that is, the medical industry (Lathyris, et al., 2010). This leads to institutional bias, such as in fostering the publicizing of predominantly negative studies on supplements,
• the mainstream media (see Burne's observation on the one-sided coverage of supplement benefits above) is complicit in this imbalanced, biased presentation of the facts on vitamins and supplements,

... the public at large will end up, as a result of this information control, with the (erroneous) perception that supplements are harmful and that there are no (or little) vitamin benefits.

Therefore, wouldn't it make sense to seriously question and be critical of the people and organizations promoting well-known "half-truths" (which some people would call progaganda or lies)?

Offit portrays the supplement industry in a negative manner as it prevented the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an organization Offit depicts positively, from regulating "dangerous" megadose vitamins (Offit, 2013; Offit, 8-June-2013).

Yet, once again, this is another "half-truth".

The FDA has a history of trying to restrict free public access to nutritional supplements. Not primarily because of an intent "to protect the public's health" but because of politics (Emord, 2008). The FDA is a captive of the medical industry, serving their interests (Emord, 2008 & Nov. 2010). The FDA had been caught more than once making false statements about the safety of nutritional supplements and censoring truthful information on vitamin benefits (Schauss, 2007; Emord, 2010), rather analogous to Offit's handling of data on nutritional supplements.

The establishment of the public perception that dietary supplements are "ineffective" and "harmful" by the medical establishment (with the assistance of government public health authorities) means ultimately that more customers will flock (back) to their profitable business of mainly treating health problems, away from the business of alternative medicine which is fundamentally about preventing health issues (i.e., maintaining health).

One of the still poorly perceived or largely unknown truths is that so-called alternative medicine (a.k.a “natural medicine”) is the real health-care industry while the medical industrial establishment (a.k.a “modern medicine” or “chemical medicine”) is mostly the sickness-care industry.

A widespread decline in the number of people confiding in the "alternative" health approach of reducing the odds of getting ill will also automatically create a greater number of sick people, increasing the customer base for the medical orthodoxy effortlessly.

What Anti-Supplement Crusaders Fail To Tell You About Nutritional Supplements

–Vitamin Benefits: Very Real... Particularly At High Doses

"Nutritional dogma has blocked the use of nutrients as supplements for nearly forty years. [...]. The dogma is: (1) a balanced diet will obviate the need for supplements, (2) vitamins are only needed to cure vitamin deficiency diseases such as scurvy or pellagra, (3) any excess of vitamin over Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) is a waste and harmful. We now know these guides are misleading and wrong." (Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD, 1917-2009, in 1987)

Do dietary supplements work?

Well, peculiarly, Offit fails to mentioned the much greater volume of relevant evidence that documented highly significant vitamin benefits regarding cancer, heart disease, and mortality (and a plethora of other conditions). His omission of that data, however, suggests an absence of such evidence to an unsuspecting reader.

But let's not forget that "half of the truth" since it receives relatively little news coverage, making it largely unknown.

Here, for instance, are some remarkable examples of scientifically researched vitamin benefits from supplements in regard to cancer, cardiovascular disease, and mortality:

• In a sample of over noninstitutionalized (=presumably healthy) 11,000 adults, the men with the highest intake of vitamin C obtained from supplements, above the amount you get from the "routine diet" (Offit, 7 & 8-June-2013) or a RDA-based supplement, had a significantly lower all-cause mortality rate (they lived 6 years longer), including from all cancers and all cardiovascular diseases (Enstrom, et al., 1992).
• Marked health benefits of niacin dietary supplements have also been recorded. A randomized, placebo-controlled study (Canner, et al., 1986; Berge & Canner, 1991) found that after 15 years of consuming very high doses of niacin supplements, the supplement takers had a significant reduction in mortality over the placebo group, both in deaths from coronary/cardiovascular events as well as cancer (and other categories). This is especially remarkable considering that most niacin side effects are minor, or transient, in nature –even at high doses– with proper niacin therapy (Hoffer, et al., 2012). Indeed, "most niacin side effects are positive" (Hoffer, et al., 2012).
• The authors of a study using some low-moderate dose vitamins and mineral supplements (i.e., beta carotene, vitamin E and selenium supplements) reported a significant reduction in total mortality, mainly from lower cancer rates (Blot, et al., 1993).
• Multivitamin benefits have also been chronicled: the longterm, daily use of a multivitamin or moderate-high dose vitamin E supplements resulted in a roughly 50% decreased risk of colon cancer compared to non-users of the corresponding supplements (White, et al., 1997).
• In a randomized double-blind study, those people who received large-quantity vitamin E supplements daily for 6 years had no "coronary disorders" (including heart damage) whereas around 10% of the low-dose vitamin E supplement users experienced coronary events (Takamatsu, et al., 1995).
• Here's another study on vitamin benefits for men. A cohort study on men reported an almost 50% reduction in heart attacks in users of vitamin supplements (Meyer, et al., 1996).
• A large, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study (Clark, et al., 1996) reported very significant benefits of selenium –that is, selenium supplements reduced total cancer mortality by 50%.
• Here is more impressive research data on vitamin E benefits from supplements. Vitamin E supplements (at moderate-high doses) were linked to a very significantly reduced risk of coronary heart disease in both women (Stampfer, et al., 1993) and men (Rimm, et al., 1993).
• A credible epidemiological study, lasting for almost a decade, with over 11'000 elderly people recorded highly imposing vitamin benefits. The users of vitamin E supplements had an all-cause mortality reduction by 34%, and their risk of dying from heart disease (coronary disease) was cut by 47% (Losonczy, et al., 1996). The health benefits of vitamin E and C were the most pronounced if they had been taken simultaneously. The combined consumption of vitamin E and vitamin C supplements decreased the risk of total mortality by 42% and coronary death by 53% (Losonczy, et al., 1996). Vitamin E users also had a 59% lower risk of cancer mortality (Losonczy, et al., 1996). And, these findings remained largely unchanged no matter someone's history of smoking, alcohol intake, or the type of medical conditions a person had throughout the study period.

  Most noteworthy, the study compared people who took no vitamin supplements, those who took "one-a-day vitamins" (low-potency multivitamin supplements), and those folks who consumed high-dose vitamins (vitamin E and C). The individuals who ingested low-dose supplements (one-a-day multiples), which are commonly taken, fared no better than the non-users of supplements. Therefore, the study corroborated the tremendous value of long-lasting megavitamin therapy (and the marked absence in value of an orthodox supplement regimen).

• In a study on almost 90,000 women who were free of cancer at the onset of the investigation, the use of multivitamin supplements (containing folic acid) for more than 15 years resulted in a very significant reduction in the risk of colon cancer (Giovannucci, et al., 1998).
• In a cohort study, consisting of over 1 million people, those who took a multivitamin in combination with vitamin A, C or E, for at least five years, had a significant reduced risk of mortality compared to nonusers (Watkins, et al., 2000).
• Another population-based study of more than 77,000 people, above the age of 50, the regular use of supplements of vitamin C and E for over 10 years, particularly at higher dosages, recorded also a decrease in the risk of death (Pocobelli, et al., 2009).
• Investigators studied a group of people who previously had colorectal adenomas (=polyps), the most common precursors of colorectal cancer. They randomized the subjects and divided them into two groups (treatment group and control/placebo group). After the treatment subjects had received green tea extract supplements for one year they had a 50% reduction in the risk of colorectal adenomas over the control group (Shimizu, et al., 2008).
• Offit also ridiculed that there are significant vitamin benefits in the fight against AIDS (Offit, 7-June-2013). Yet, in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial on women, the use of multivitamins led to a 27% reduction in the risk of mortality from AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) compared to the placebo group (Fawzi, et al., 2004).
• More evidence of multivitamin benefits: in women without a history of cardiovascular disease, the longterm use (5+ years) of a multivitamin resulted in a 40% decreased risk of heart attacks (Rautiainen, et al., 2010).
• The longterm consumption of antioxidant vitamin supplements reduced cancer mortality by 48% and all-cause mortality by 42% (Li, et al., 2011).
• In a large-scale, randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled study, men who took a daily multivitamin (even though it was a rather poorly designed formulation, containing many additives) had a modest but significant reduction in the risk of total cancer, compared to men who received a placebo (Gaziano, et al., 2012).
• A population-based, longitudinal study reported that those women who took calcium supplements (with doses up to 1000mg/day) had a significant mortality reduction of 22% over non-supplement users (Langsetmo, et al., 2013).
• Here's another study on vitamin benefits for women. A study of a pool of undiagnosed women found that those women with a high intake of vitamin C (primarily through supplementation) had a 25% reduced risk of mortality from breast cancer over the women with the lowest intake of vitamin C (Harris, et al., 2013).
• In a randomized clinical trial (Fang, et al., 2013), using high doses of folic acid supplements on a group of people, aged 50+ and healthy at the beginning of the study, it was found that those subjects who took the nutritional supplements had a 51% reduction in the risk of colorectal cancer, compared to the control group (placebo group), after three years of product intake.

"Do You (Still) Believe In The Magic" (i.e., misinformation) of Paul Offit?

The existence of this relevant, substantial, scientific evidence on vitamin benefits, in juxtaposition of Offit's claim (backed by largely meaningless evidence) that "the data is clear: high doses of vitamins and supplements increase the risk of heart disease and cancer" (Offit, 7-June-2013) suggest that:

Modern medicine is using and putting value on the best type of evidence (such as randomized controlled studies) when it suits THEIR ideological paradigm (i.e., when the studies find negative findings on supplements).

Or...

Medical dogma takes PRECEDENCE over sound evidence (=the truth) to accommodate self-serving interests.

Follow facts, not dogmas.

Fact is, there are thousands of other genuinely relevant research studies that have documented significant, very impressive vitamin benefits from supplements in both the prevention (as a kind of a “nutritional insurance”, or rather "nutritional assurance", against disease) and treatment of hundreds of afflictions and health conditions (a conceptualization termed “nutritional therapy” or “nutritional medicine”), as compiled in a vitamin guide (Gaby, 2011).

The long list includes vitamin B6 benefits, benefits of vitamin D, vitamin K benefits, health benefits of vitamin E, vitamin B12 benefits, selenium benefits, to marked outcomes with other mineral supplements, such as from taking calcium supplements, and with many other types of nutrients (Gaby, 2011).

In an interview, Alan R. Gaby, MD, explained that:

"People often say there’s not enough research [= on nutritional supplements]. One of the reasons I wrote "Nutritional Medicine" is to put all of the research in one place so that people will realize how much there is." [explanation & emphasis added]

The research listing of robust science-based supplement benefits from above demonstrates that some of the best health supplements are multivitamins, and vitamin C and E supplements.

And, most often, the significant vitamin benefits noted in the medical literature are obtained by the use of synthetic vitamins, rather than whole food supplements, because they tend to be studied most routinely in scientific trials.

Clearly, there is no question about the compelling benefits of supplements. But are concerns about the serious health risks of dietary supplements (such as side effects of dietary supplements) generally justified?

Let's see...

Evidence-Based Research And Anecdotal Evidence Used By The Medical Industry Whenever It Suits Their Self-Interests

–Bias In Both The SELECTION And PRESENTATION Of Evidence

"The more efforts to silence, the more education gets out." (Andrew W. Saul, PhD, 1955-2024, US Orthomolecular Medicine Lecturer & Author)

You can "prove" just about any perspective if you arbitrarily select, acknowledge, and present the data that confirms your perspective while arbitrarily discrediting and disregarding anything that threatens your view.

To that effect, to (further) bolster his poorly founded anti-vitamin accusations, Offit described a number of "dramatic real-life stories" of people who got severely injured from vitamin use (Offit, June 2013 & 7-June-2013). Presumably, to demonstrate to the reader just how great a danger nutritional supplements are to the general public.

Ironically, the medical industry usually pooh-poohs such personal accounts as "anecdotal evidence", barring almost no scientific significance, when the countless "dramatic real-life stories" describe cases of vitamin BENEFITS. Now, with anecdotal evidence discrediting supplements ("dramatic real-life stories" of supplement INJURIES), it is supposed to be highly relevant (just because Offit positions it that way).

In other words...

Evidence loses or gains scientific significance and credibility based on the whims of conventional medicine.

The same double-standard is played out with the strategic reference to evidence-based studies. Offit cited a few "anti-vitamin" studies (albeit most of these investigations are flawed or misleading papers) qualifying for evidence-based research, such as meta-analyses (e.g., Bjelakovic, et al., 2004; Miller, et al., 2005) or randomized, controlled trials (e.g., NEJM, 1994; Omenn, et al., 1996), the latter considered the methodological pinnacle of evidence-based medicine, as ammunition against the general use of nutritional supplements.

Yet, other randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) on very impressive vitamin benefits (e.g., Canner, et al., 1986; Berge & Canner, 1991; Takamatsu, et al., 1995; Clark, et al., 1996; Fawzi, et al., 2004; Lee, et al., 2005), representing the types of supplements Offit claims are either very dangerous (at high doses) or have no health benefit (since Offit wants you to believe that only four types of supplements –calcium, folic acid, omega-3 fatty acids, and vitamin D– are scientifically validated), he conveniently omits to acknowledge, giving you the impression they don't exist or somehow "lost" their scientific importance.

You are supposed to ignore "dramatic real-life stories" of vitamin benefits (i.e., anecdotal evidence) or RCTs on vitamin benefits but strongly heed "dramatic real-life stories" and RCTs of supplement harm.

Apparently, the truth about food supplements is what Offit says it is (=arbitrarily demonstrates) –not what the actual facts are.

Offit as the truth, rather than facts as the truth.

It is information management. It is information distortion. It is information control.

The end result?

The public is being misled by an unilaterally-presented subset of data, rather than being educated with the overall facts. Instead of getting the truth, you get propaganda.

Is It The Function Of Supplement-Bashing Information To Distract The Public From A Real But "Uncomfortable" Truth?

–Keeping You Systematically Focused On A SMALL Risk, Rather Than On A HUGE Risk

“[...] before doctors [and the public at large] rush to condemn the weak evidence base underpinning these [“alternative”] therapies they should pause and consider the record of orthodox medicine.” (Lancet, Dec. 2000) [explanations & emphasis added]

“I am really impressed with the concern some scientists share over those “dangerous” vitamins. I wish they were as worried over those dangerous poisons called drugs. Each bottle of pills should have a poison label with skull and bones, and the word “poison” in large letters. [...]. I am always amazed at the chicanery and slipperiness of vitamin critics. Perhaps they realize they are beginning to lose the public and they are flailing out in all directions. Almost all of my patients, whenever they read one of these screeds, laugh at it because they know firsthand how wrong it is.” (Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD, 1917-2009, Canadian Orthomolecular Physician [Saul, 2009])

Dubiously, what you never hear from anti-supplement zealots (or, if you do, only in conjunction with accompanying quibbles of denial) is that, in the US alone, the scientific evidence shows the proper consumption of allegedly highly regulated pharmaceutical medications kills over 100,000 people every single year, while extremely few people die annually from both properly and improperly taking highly unregulated nutritional supplements (Lazarou, et al., 1998; Leape, 2000; Starfield, 2000; Dean, et al, 2003; American Association of Poison Control Centers, 1983-2008).

THAT is proof beyond any reasonable doubt of what is truly a MASSIVE danger to public health.

First be terrified of your traditional doctor, not your alternative medicine man/woman.

Therefore, to more accurately reflect the proper perspective of the actual reality, Offit's book should aptly be named "Killing Us Softly (With Alternative Medicine) Versus Killing Us Quickly & Massively (With Conventional Medicine)".

Also, Offit stated that "the dietary supplement industry is unregulated" (Offit, 7-June-2013). That is false. The supplement industry is regulated under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994. Although, dietary supplements are poorly regulated, resulting in a market swamped with predominantly ineffective products. But is it good judgment to put a lot of effort in implementing tighter regulations for health products that, generally, are an extremely small public health risk compared to pharmaceutical drugs (and over-the-counter drugs)?

Offit remarked that "I learned that all therapies should be held to the same standard of proof [...] ." (Offit, June, 2013). What about proof of safety? What about taking the death toll, or the magnitude of harm of a therapy, as a most reasonable standard of proof of safety? Evidently, safety isn't a suitable "standard of proof" that should be applied to the toxic products and interventions of the medical industry.

Offit stated that "There's no such thing as alternative medicine. There's only medicine that works and medicine that doesn't." (Offit, 2013). The core message is, based on the content and titles of his book (i.e., "Do You Believe In Magic") and articles, that in reality it is primarily conventional medicine that "works", aside a few exceptions here and there coming out of the camp of alternative medicine (but there, findings of effectiveness are merely "due to the placebo response" [Offit, 2013]).

(By the way, traditionally and more often than not, the reference to the placebo effect suits the allopathic medical profession to dismiss anything that they don't understand how it works, or to dismiss an effective "alternative" healing method as inherently ineffective. This provides them also with the specious ammunition to, for instance, equate and deride regular supplement consumers as being absorbed in a vitamin myth.)

Here, once again, Offit utters a half-truth (i.e., a lie, per the aforementioned Jewish proverb). Although Offit claimed he carefully evaluated scientific studies (Offit, 2013), he conveniently forgets the myriad of randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies on many different health supplements (above and beyond the mere four nutrient supplements Offit gives scientific credit to), showing outstanding benefits. Therefore, Offit's anti-supplement works are anything but an accurate representation of the facts about vitamins.

According to Dr. Paul Offit, it is the purported high degree of effectiveness which makes conventional medicine "work" (Offit, 7-June-2013).

But what about safety?

If there is "medicine that doesn't work", meaning it is ineffective, what is the evidence that standard medicine causes an enormous amount of human damage? Evidence that conventional medicine only (supposedly) works in terms of effectiveness as it cannot be evidence that it works in terms of safety since the magnitude of harm inflicted on people by the medical profession constitutes one of the top leading causes of death and injury in both Europe and the US (Lazarou, et al., 1998; Leape, 2000; Starfield, 2000; Dean, et al, 2003; Kauffman, 2006; Gøtzsche, 2013)?

If a medical system fails abysmally in terms of safety, causing a medical genocide each year, would you consider it a system that "works"? Who then does it actually "work" for?

The actual fact that the proper administration of pharmaceutical drugs kills a mountain of people every year, compared to roughly an anthill from both the proper and improper consumption of "dangerous supplements" combined, is reasonable proof that traditional medicine does not work per a humane standard.

However, per the existing permissible standard of the medical profession (which is supported by government authorities), it (almost) always works for them... economically.

It isn't uncommon for businesses to do a "cost-benefit analysis" to discern whether their mode of operation is profitable ("works"), or not.

As the reigning "healthcare" player, wouldn't it make sense, from a purely ethical angle, for the medical officialdom to conduct a harm-benefit analysis? I'm not aware that government-allied corporate medicine has ever conducted such a comprehensive harm-benefit analysis, never mind a trustworthy one.

The medical orthodoxy's typical polished marketing and advertising efforts to promote and sell their lucrative products and interventions indicate that they believe their merchandise and procedures do more good than bad. So, these specious medical advertisements are a sign of some sort of self-assessed harm-benefit "analysis" by the medical empire.

The glaring absence of meaningful reliable quantifiable data about the harms caused by their glorified products –as one can see, for instance, in misleading mass media drug advertisements, or frequently in the medical literature in support of their "therapeutic" interventions (mammography is a good example of that, see my e-book "The Mammogram Myth")– reveals the systematic lack of legitimate objective science that is backing their business merchandise, at least as far as safety goes.

In terms of the management of chronic degenerative disease, the harm and carnage caused by symptom-relief commercialized medicine (excluding its excelling arena of “emergency medicine”, a.k.a trauma medicine or crisis medicine) to the public would most probably greatly outperform the real benefits to them in a relevant independent harm-benefit analysis (i.e., not conducted by the medical enterprise) considering that the traditional disease-treating profession creates a medical holocaust year after year –which has been going on, practically unchanged, for decades (Lazarou, et al., 1998; Leape, 2000; Starfield, 2000; Dean, et al, 2003; Kauffman, 2006; Gøtzsche, 2013).

It's actual organized medical warfare against the population by a genocidal, albeit officially glorified, purportedly advanced and evidence-based, formal medicine empire. These obfuscated yet true scientific facts prompted some individuals to aptly call the allopathic medical profession "maimstream medicine".

In other words, according to such a sound eligible harm-benefit analysis, standard medicine arguably does not work for the public because the damages notably outshine the benefits.

Again, the actual reality in healthcare indicates that:

Medical dogma takes PRECENDENCE over sound evidence and patients' wellbeing (safety) to accommodate self-serving interests.

It's primarily about politics, not your health.

Yet, in his reports of misinformation (i.e., propaganda) Offit makes it appear as if nutritional supplements are a huge health problem with scaremongering statements and hype such as, "most people don't realise megavitamins can be unsafe. So why don't more people know this? And why haven't regulatory agencies sounded an alarm? The answer is predictable: money and politics" (Offit, 7-June-2013).

Well, I'd assume many or most people have the common sense understanding that anything (even water) "can be unsafe" if you take "too much" of it. But could it be that most people are not aware of the baseless allegation (=nonsense) that supplements are a big public health threat because there isn't much reliable, relevant, biological evidence supporting it? And, because it does not reflect the real-life experiences and personal observations of most people as many enjoy striking vitamin benefits? After all, people who commit suicide don't use "unsafe" nutritional supplements but routinely resort to "safe" pharmaceutical and over-the-counter drugs (American Association of Poison Control Centers, 1983-2008).

The really important questions everyone should ask are:

• Why don't more people know about the astronomical damage caused by the proper administration of pharmaceutical medications? (The extent of harm is many times higher if you include the improper consumptions of drugs and all the other therapeutic interventions of the medical industry. [e.g., Dean, et al., 2003]) After all, this has been known for decades.
  

• If a regulatory agency such as "the FDA [...] holds drugs to a high standard of safety and efficacy before licensure" (Offit, 7-June-2013), unlike for supplements, how come these products inflict such horrific injury to people? Why do regulatory agencies continue to approve prescription medications that cause so much harm? [discussed in my article Tougher Supplement Regulation: A Necessity Or Politics?]
  

• Who primarily manipulates the research process? Who posits so-called evidence-based studies to produce sponsor-favorable results? Who looks to it that negative findings about dietary supplements get broad media attention while positive results get relatively little coverage? Who is the biggest private sponsor of scientific studies? There is one answer to all: the medical establishment.
  

Asking and pursuing these questions will arguably lead you to the whole or real truth. A truth of "money and politics" involving the medical-pharmaceutical industry and government bodies, first and foremost.

You would think that if Paul Offit, MD, and the FDA are really seriously and honestly after protecting the health of the public, with Offit's publication of Killing Us Softly/Do You Believe In Magic and the FDA's censorship of truthful information on vitamin benefits and supplement safety and the agency's suppressive activities against the supplement industry, they would focus on combating in healthcare whatever does the greatest harm to people. Namely, the workings of conventional medicine not alternative unconventional medicine (such as the modality with nutritional supplements).

The fact that they don't is reasonable proof that their anti-supplement efforts have everything to do with politics, not with what is the right thing to do.

As Jonathan W. Emord, Esq., a constitutional lawyer, pointed out:

"The FDA yawns broadly when a drug company deceives the public, resulting in widespread injury or even death, but it attacks with a vengeance little supplement companies that mention the therapeutic effects of their products in the market." (Passwater, 2011)

The age-old trick to point the finger to a comparatively much less significant problem (or "enemy") is a way of keeping the (hopefully) unsuspecting public distracted from the real perpetrators causing highly significant damage. Some people call this deception. (By the way, this is also a tactic routinely employed by other private corporate interests, besides those of the medical profession, in the political arena [e.g., Jaeger, 2010].)

Thus, Offit's anti-supplement publications are little more than an exercise in sensationalism and fearmongering, making a mountain out of a molehill, via misleading hype (cleverly disguised as sound science). Essentially, they are smear campaigns against nutritional supplements and the evidence of vitamin benefits. 

Other common frames of anti-supplement bias include the use of derogatory language, such as referring to a large percentage of people who regularly consume nutritional supplements as being afflicted by "vitamania".

Keep on the outlook for more of these types of misleading shenanigans from mouthpieces of the gigantic business of corporate medicine as the supplement and alternative health industries continue to grow. Thus, becoming steadily a greater competitor of organized allopathy, threatening their enormous profits.

Just as the dominant medical culture and the mainstream media conglomerate use their influence to raise broad public attention preferentially on negative findings about nutritional supplements (while marginalizing positive findings of vitamin benefits), this anti-supplement cartel, conversely, use their immense power to preferentially hide from the public negative findings on pharmaceutical drugs and other medical interventions and services (while oftentimes exaggerating the successes of their "advanced" therapies and interventions [e.g., just look at the general dismal failure of "the war on cancer"]).

As scientific data had revealed, whenever vested interests (=self-interests) are involved, the more likely it is that the research findings are incorrect, thus public health policies and expert opinions are based on dogma, rather than sound science, whereby the perogative tends to shift to primarily serving special private interests (e.g., the medical profession), rather than you –the public.

The same dishonest maneuvers to denounce vitamin benefits and exaggerate supplement dangers, as Offit had resorted to, have been utilized for a very long time by stout enthusiasts of the medical establishment. In 1986, for example, the holistic doctor Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD, (1917-2009), noted:

"[...] [orthodox medical] traditionalists have been the most aggressive critics of mega-vitamin therapy, using every means possible including misrepresentation, selective literature reviews and promulgation of vitamin toxicities which do not exist." (Hoffer, 1986) [explanation added]

In 2011 the author Andrew Saul, PhD, (1955-2024), summarized the recurring trend of attacking well-founded vitamin safety and well-established vitamin benefits:

“Well, you can say one thing for vitamin critics: at least they are consistent. Consistently wrong, but consistent.”

Here's The BIG Bottom Line

–The Management Of Public Perception On Vitamin Benefits And Health Risks

“The greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803–1882, Writer & Philosopher)

I suspect that only those people with a lack of proper knowledge about vitamin benefits and supplement safety, or the truly gullible, or the fervent (irrational) defenders of the reigning status quo of healthcare will fall for Offit's largely unsubstantiated anti-supplement charade.

Always keep this in mind (and act accordingly)...

Any person (or publication) who advocates "Don't Take Your Vitamins" is creating, either willfully or by ignorance, ...

> the erroneous public perception <

...that there are practically no vitamin benefits and/or that nutritional supplements are very dangerous while...

> the actual facts <

... show practically the exact opposite.

Instead of the facts about dietary supplements, it is an incorrect public perception on nutritional supplements (regarding vitamin benefits and supplement safety)...

... a perception that goes against the public's best own interests.

(Originally published: ca. June-2013 | This is a revised version)

---

---

===================
Recommended next page(s):
===================

• Dietary Supplements And Risks –The Attacks On Supplement Safety
• Health Risks Of Dietary Supplements –The Proper Perspective
• Side Effects Of Dietary Supplements –Top 10 Tips To Avoid Them
• Forbidden Epic Truths On The Covid-19 Coronavirus Pandemic
  

---

========================================
Article Index On The Politics Of Nutritional Supplements
–How You Get Deceived
========================================

• Facts About Vitamins –The Politics Of Nutritional Supplements

---

References

• American Association of Poison Control Centers, “Annual Report from 1983- 2008”, http://www.aapcc.org
• Angell M, “Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption”, The New York Rev Books, January 15, 2009
• Attkisson S, "How Independent Are Vaccine Defenders?", CBS, July 25, 2008
• Bairati I, Meyer F, Gélinas M, et al., "A randomized trial of antioxidant vitamins to prevent second primary cancers in head and neck cancer patients", J Natl Cancer Inst. 2005 Apr 6;97(7):481-8.
• Bairati I, Meyer F, Gélinas M, et al., "Randomized trial of antioxidant vitamins to prevent acute adverse effects of radiation therapy in head and neck cancer patients", J Clin Oncol. 2005 Aug 20;23(24):5805-13. Epub 2005 Jul 18.
• Bairati I, Meyer F, Jobin E, et al., "Antioxidant vitamins supplementation and mortality: a randomized trial in head and neck cancer patients", Int J Cancer. 2006 Nov 1;119(9):2221-4.
• Baron JA, Cole BF, Mott L, Haile R, Grau M, Church TR, Beck GJ, Greenberg ER, "Neoplastic and antineoplastic effects of beta-carotene on colorectal adenoma recurrence: results of a randomized trial", J Natl Cancer Inst. 2003 May 21;95(10):717-22.
• Berge KG, Canner PL, "Coronary drug project: experience with niacin. Coronary Drug Project Research Group", Eur J Clin Pharmacol. 1991;40 Suppl 1:S49-51.
• Biesalski HK, Grune T, Tinz J, Zöllner I, Blumberg JB, "Reexamination of a meta-analysis of the effect of antioxidant supplementation on mortality and health in randomized trials", Nutrients. 2010 Sep;2(9):929-49.
• Bigtree D, “Dr. David Brownstein M.D. And Dr. Richard Ng M.D. On Treating COVID-19”, TheHighWire, www.bitchute.com, 20-Apr-2020 [https://is.gd/K2Bb4j | https://tinyurl.com/ybtj84j6 | http://archive.is/x8iEb; accessed 16-May-2020]
• Bion, J., Financial and intellectual conflicts of interest: confusion and clarity.”, Curr Opin Crit Care., 2009 Oct 21.
• Bjelakovic G, Nikolova D, Simonetti RG, Gluud C, "Antioxidant supplements for preventing gastrointestinal cancers", Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2004 Oct 18;(4):CD004183.
• Bjelakovic G, Nikolova D, Gluud LL, Simonetti RG, Gluud C, "Mortality in randomized trials of antioxidant supplements for primary and secondary prevention: systematic review and meta-analysis", JAMA. 2007 Feb 28;297(8):842-57.
• Bjelakovic G, Nikolova D, Gluud LL, Simonetti RG, Gluud C, "Antioxidant supplements for prevention of mortality in healthy participants and patients with various diseases", Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2012 Mar 14;(3):CD007176. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD007176.pub2.
• Bjelakovic G, Nikolova D, Gluud C, "Meta-regression analyses, meta-analyses, and trial sequential analyses of the effects of supplementation with beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E singly or in different combinations on all-cause mortality: do we have evidence for lack of harm?", PLoS One. 2013 Sep 6;8(9):e74558. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0074558. eCollection 2013.
• Blot WJ, Li JY, Taylor PR, Guo W, Dawsey S, Wang GQ, Yang CS, Zheng SF, Gail M, Li GY, et al., "Nutrition intervention trials in Linxian, China: supplementation with specific vitamin/mineral combinations, cancer incidence, and disease- specific mortality in the general population", J Natl Cancer Inst. 1993 Sep 15;85(18):1483-92.
• Bollinger T (Host), "The Truth About Vaccines", www.thetruthaboutvaccines.com [https://archive.fo/KaIFS], 7-Episodes Documentary Series, Originally Aired April 12-19, 2017
• Burne J, "Alzheimer’s: we want a cure but please don’t mention B vitamins", Published at www.jeromeburne.com, May 21, 2013
• Burrowes B, "Vaxxed II: The People's Truth", Film Documentary, www.vaxxed2.com, 2019 [https://is.gd/JlTzYQ | https://tinyurl.com/y84752w6 | http://archive.is/fxmxX; accessed 16-May-2020]
• Cameron E, Pauling L, "Supplemental ascorbate in the supportive treatment of cancer: Prolongation of survival times in terminal human cancer", Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1976 Oct;73(10):3685-9.
• Cameron E, Pauling L, "Supplemental ascorbate in the supportive treatment of cancer: reevaluation of prolongation of survival times in terminal human cancer", Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1978 Sep;75(9):4538-42.
• Cameron E, Pauling L, "Cancer And Vitamin C", 1979
• Canner PL, Berge KG, Wenger NK, Stamler J, Friedman L, Prineas RJ, Friedewald W, "Fifteen year mortality in Coronary Drug Project patients: long- term benefit with niacin", J Am Coll Cardiol. 1986 Dec;8(6):1245-55.
• Carter JP, "Racketeering in Medicine: The Suppression of Alternatives", 1992
• Chen Q, Espey MG, Krishna MC, Mitchell JB, Corpe CP, Buettner GR, Shacter E, Levine M, "Pharmacologic ascorbic acid concentrations selectively kill cancer cells: action as a pro-drug to deliver hydrogen peroxide to tissues", Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 Sep 20;102(38):13604-9. Epub 2005 Sep 12.
• Chen Q, Espey MG, Sun AY, Pooput C, Kirk KL, Krishna MC, Khosh DB, Drisko J, Levine M, "Pharmacologic doses of ascorbate act as a prooxidant and decrease growth of aggressive tumor xenografts in mice", Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Aug 12;105(32):11105-9. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0804226105. Epub 2008 Aug 4.
• Chossudovsky M, “After The Lockdown: A Global Coronavirus Vaccination Program…”, GlobalResearch, www.globalresearch.ca, 24-Mar-2020 [https://tinyurl.com/vsndehw | https://archive.is/8XwpN | https://is.gd/WM9UDx; accessed 24-Mar-2020]
• Clark LC, Combs GF Jr, Turnbull BW, Slate EH, Chalker DK, Chow J, Davis LS, Glover RA, Graham GF, Gross EG, Krongrad A, Lesher JL Jr, Park HK, Sanders BB Jr, Smith CL, Taylor JR, "Effects of selenium supplementation for cancer prevention in patients with carcinoma of the skin. A randomized controlled trial. Nutritional Prevention of Cancer Study Group", JAMA. 1996 Dec 25;276(24):1957-63.
• Coalition for the Life Sciences (CLS), "Are Childhood Vaccines Safe?", Presentation by Dr. Paul Offit, 2008 Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus Briefing, https://bit.ly/2CXptpH, 11-June-2008
• Corbett J, "Bill Gates’ Plan To Vaccinate The World”, The Corbett Report, www.corbettreport.com, Episode 378, 8-May-2020 [https://is.gd/EyAcno | http://archive.is/i8p6H | https://tinyurl.com/y7jo4f7k; accessed 8-May-2020]
• Coulter HL, "Vaccination, Social Violence, and Criminality: The Medical Assault on the American Brain", 1993
• Cowan DW, Diehl, HS, and Baker, AB, "Vitamins for the prevention of colds", J. Am. Med. Assoc. 120, 1267-1271, 1942.
• Creagan ET, Moertel CG, O'Fallon JR, Schutt AJ, O'Connell MJ, Rubin J, Frytak S, "Failure of high-dose vitamin C (ascorbic acid) therapy to benefit patients with advanced cancer. A controlled trial", N Engl J Med. 1979 Sep 27;301(13):687-90.
• Crosby J, "Paul Offit Lies About Jake Crosby; Tara Palmore Throws Him Out and NIH Covers it Up", Published at www.ageofautism.com, Dec, 2011
• Cummins R, “Murder Most Foul: The Perps Behind COVID-19”, Regeneration International, www.regenerationinternational.org, 30-Apr-2020 [http://archive.is/AmmNA | https://is.gd/RKkf6P | https://tinyurl.com/y9n96sba; accessed 16-May-2020]
• Dean C, Feldman M, Rasio D, Smith D, Null G, “Death By Medicine”, Independent review commissioned by the Nutrition Institute of America, 2003
• Dean, ME, “The Trials of Homeopathy: Origins, Structure, and Development”, 2004
• Douaud G, Refsum H, de Jager CA, Jacoby R, E Nichols T, Smith SM, Smith AD, "Preventing Alzheimer's disease-related gray matter atrophy by B-vitamin treatment", Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Jun 4;110(23):9523-8. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1301816110. Epub 2013 May 20.
• Douglass WC, "Hydrogen Peroxide – Medical Miracle", 1990
• Emord JW, “The Rise Of Tyranny”, 2008
• Emord JW, “Global Censorship Of Health Information”, 2010
• Emord JW, “Bureaucratic oligarchy rules at the FDA”, USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), November 2010
• Enstrom JE, Kanim LE, Klein MA, "Vitamin C intake and mortality among a sample of the United States population", Epidemiology. 1992 May;3(3):194- 202.
• Fang JY, Gao QY, Chen HM, Chen Y, Wang Y, Wang ZH, Tang J, Ge ZZ, Chen XY, Sheng JQ, Fang DC, Yu CG, Zheng P, "Folic acid prevents the initial occurrence of sporadic colorectal adenoma in Chinese over 50 years of age: a randomized clinical trial", Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2013 May 16. [Epub ahead of print]
• Fawzi WW, Msamanga GI, Spiegelman D, Wei R, Kapiga S, Villamor E, Mwakagile D, Mugusi F, Hertzmark E, Essex M, Hunter DJ, "A randomized trial of multivitamin supplements and HIV disease progression and mortality", N Engl J Med. 2004 Jul 1;351(1):23-32.
• Ferrie H, "The Quackbusters", Vitality, May-2002 [http://archive.is/jM5w4; accessed 10-Sep-2018]
• Fitzgerald P, "Eggs as Bad as Smoking? Vitamins Linked to Mortality? Making Sense Out of Nutritional Studies With Expert Dr. Alan Gaby", Published at www.huffingtonpost.com, 12/04/2012
• Frei B, "Study Citing Antioxidant Vitamin Risks Based on Flawed Methodology", www.oregonstate.edu, 2-27-2007
• Frei B, Lawson S, "Vitamin C and cancer revisited", Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Aug 12;105(32):11037-8. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0806433105. Epub 2008 Aug 5.
• Frompovich CJ, “The LEGAL Killing Machines”, www.naturalblaze.com, 2-June-2015 [https://is.gd/WuPyMd | https://archive.is/sTlsM; accessed 18-Jan-2021]
• Gaby AR, "Nutritional Medicine", Fritz Perlberg Publishing, 2011
• Gaziano JM, Sesso HD, Christen WG, Bubes V, Smith JP, MacFadyen J, Schvartz M, Manson JE, Glynn RJ, Buring JE, "Multivitamins in the prevention of cancer in men: the Physicians' Health Study II randomized controlled trial", JAMA. 2012 Nov 14;308(18):1871-80.
• Giovannucci E, Stampfer MJ, Colditz GA, Hunter DJ, Fuchs C, Rosner BA, Speizer FE, Willett WC, "Multivitamin use, folate, and colon cancer in women in the Nurses' Health Study", Ann Intern Med. 1998 Oct 1;129(7):517-24.
• Gladen E, Levine S, "Trace Amounts: Autism, Mercury, And The Hidden Truth", Film Documentary, 2014
• Goodwin JS, Tangum MR, "Battling quackery: attitudes about micronutrient supplements in American academic medicine", Arch Intern Med. 1998 Nov 9;158(20):2187-91.
• Gøtzsche PC, “Methodology and overt and hidden bias in reports of 196 double-blind trials of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs in rheumatoid arthritis.”, Control Clin Trials. 1989 Mar;10(1):31-56.
• Gøtzsche PC, "Deadly Medicines And Organised Crime: How big pharma has corrupted healthcare", 2013
• Grant WB, “Vitamin D Acceptance Delayed By Big Pharma Following The Disinformation Playbook”, Orthomolecular Medicine News Service (OMNS), www.orthomolecular.org, Vol. 14, No. 22, 1-Oct-2018 [https://is.gd/BAPG8i | http://archive.is/PQIkk | https://tinyurl.com/y77n8yoq; accessed 16-June-2020]
• Grundvig JO, "Master Manipulator: The Explosive True Story of Fraud, Embezzlement, and Government Betrayal at the CDC", 2016
• Habakus LK, Holland M, Rosenberg KM, (Editors), "Vaccine Epidemic: How Corporate Greed, Biased Science, and Coercive Government Threaten Our Human Rights, Our Health, and Our Children", Revised and Expanded Edition, 2012
• Haley D, "Politics in Healing: The Suppression and Manipulation of American Medicine", 2000
• Harris HR, Bergkvist L, Wolk A, "Vitamin C intake and breast cancer mortality in a cohort of Swedish women", Br J Cancer. 2013 Jun 4. doi: 10.1038/bjc.2013.269. [Epub ahead of print]
• Heckenlively K, Mikovits J, "Plague Of Corruption", 2020 [https://is.gd/hDTeIs | https://tinyurl.com/y9lpn8pe; accessed 20-Apr-2020]
• Hemilä H, “Do vitamins C and E affect respiratory infections?”, Academic Dissertation, Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Finland, January 20th, 2006
• Hemilä H, "Vitamin E may significantly increase and decrease mortality in some population groups", [Comment], PLoS One, Vol. 8, e74558, 27-Oct-2013; 10.1371/journal.pone.0074558 [http://archive.is/NPaby; accessed 6-Sept-2016]
• Hennekens CH, Buring JE, Manson JE, Stampfer M, Rosner B, Cook NR, Belanger C, LaMotte F, Gaziano JM, Ridker PM, Willett W, Peto R, "Lack of effect of long-term supplementation with beta carotene on the incidence of malignant neoplasms and cardiovascular disease", N Engl J Med. 1996 May 2;334(18):1145-9.
• Hickey S, Roberts H, "Ascorbate: The Science of Vitamin C", 2004
• Hickey S, Roberts H, "Misleading information on the properties of vitamin C", PLoS Med. 2005 Sep;2(9):e307; author reply e309. Epub 2005 Sep 27.
• Ho RC, Cheung MW, Fu E, Win HH, Zaw MH, Ng A, Mak A, "Is high homocysteine level a risk factor for cognitive decline in elderly? A systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression", Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2011 Jul;19(7):607-17.
• Hoffer A, "The New Debate In Nutrition", Editorial, Journal Of Orthomolecular Medicine, Vol. 1, Pg. 72, 2nd Quarter-1986
• Hoffer A, "Is There a Conspiracy?", Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, Vol. 2. No. 3, Pp. 158-165, 1987
• Hoffer A, "The Finnish Antioxidant and Lung Cancer Study", [Editorial], Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, Vol. 9, No. 2, Pp. 67-68, 1994
• Hoffer A, Saul AW, Foster HD, "Niacin: The Real Story", 2012
• Holland M, Conte L, Krakow R, Colin L, “Unanswered Questions From The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program: A Review Of Compensated Cases Of Vaccine-Induced Brain Injury”, Pace Environmental Law Review, Vol. 28, No. 2, Article 6, Jan-2011 [https://is.gd/Dl2eWH | https://archive.is/WVrFG | https://archive.is/i73YB; accessed 18-Jan-2021]
• Horwin ME, "'War on Cancer': Why Does The FDA Deny Access To Alternative Cancer Treatments?", California Western Law Review, Vol. 38, No. 1, Fall 2001
• Ioannidis JP, “Why most published research findings are false.”, PLoS Med. 2005 Aug;2(8):e124. Epub 2005 Aug 30.
• Ioannidis JP, Tatsioni A, Karassa FB, “Who is afraid of reviewers' comments? Or, why anything can be published and anything can be cited”, Eur J Clin Invest. 2010 Apr;40(4):285-7.
• Jaeger J, "Corporate Fascism: The Destruction of America's Middle Class", Documentary, 2010
• Jagsi R, Sheets N, Jankovic A, Motomura AR, Amarnath S, Ubel PA, "Frequency, nature, effects, and correlates of conflicts of interest in published clinical cancer research", Cancer. 2009 Jun 15;115(12):2783-91. doi: 10.1002/cncr.24315.
• JAMA, "Data Errors in: Mortality in Randomized Trials of Antioxidant Supplements for Primary and Secondary Prevention: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis", Correction, www.jamanetwork.com, JAMA. 2008;299(7):765-766. doi:10.1001/jama.299.7.765-a [http://archive.is/8ns8p; accessed 9-Nov-2016]
• Janson M, “Orthomolecular medicine: the therapeutic use of dietary supplements for anti-aging”, Clin Interv Aging. 2006;1(3):261-5.
• Ji S, “Dr. Andrew Saul And Sayer Ji Discuss Vitamin C, Coronavirus, And Censorship”, Regenerate Project, www.regenerateproject.com, 27-Mar-2020 [https://archive.is/6lIgH | https://is.gd/eRUq1h; accessed 7-Apr-2020]
• Ji S, “Let's Get Real About This So-Called "Plan-Demic"”, GreenMedInfo, www.greenmedinfo.com, 8-Apr-2020 [https://is.gd/RTp5K0 | https://archive.is/scpqW | https://tinyurl.com/sm5gky2; accessed 8-Apr-2020]
• Kauffman JM, ''Malignant Medical Myths: Why Medical Treatment Causes 200,000 Deaths in the USA each Year, and How to Protect Yourself", 2006
• Kemper KJ, Hood KL, "Does Pharmaceutical Advertising Affect Journal Publication About Dietary Supplements?", BMC Complement Altern Med. 2008 Apr 9;8:11. [https://sci-hub.se/10.1186/1472-6882-8-11]
• Kennedy RF Jr, “Gates’ Globalist Vaccine Agenda: A Win-Win For Pharma And Mandatory Vaccination”, Children’s Health Defense, www.childrenshealthdefense.org, 9-Apr-2020 [https://is.gd/IVl4bw | https://archive.is/w7IDr | https://tinyurl.com/v9q77ew; accessed 14-Apr-2020]
• King PG, "Rebuttal To: 'Conventional wisdom must conquer medical sensationalism'” [An article by Dr. Paul A. Offit, published online on 19 September 2005 by sgvtribune.com], Published at www.dr-king.com, Wednesday, 21-Sept-2005
• King PG, "A Review of: 'Vaccines and Autism Revisited - The Hannah Poling Case'”[An article by Paul A. Offit, M.D., NEJM 2008 May 15; 358: 20], Published at www.mercury-freedrugs.org, 30 May 2008
• Klein EA, Thompson IM Jr, Tangen CM, Crowley JJ, Lucia MS, Goodman PJ, Minasian LM, Ford LG, Parnes HL, Gaziano JM, Karp DD, Lieber MM, Walther PJ, Klotz L, Parsons JK, Chin JL, Darke AK, Lippman SM, Goodman GE, Meyskens FL Jr, Baker LH, "Vitamin E and the risk of prostate cancer: the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT)", JAMA. 2011 Oct 12;306(14):1549-56.
• Kohls GG, “Identifying The Vaccinology-Illiterate Among Us”, Transcend Media Service, www.transcend.org, 25-June-2019 [https://is.gd/WRvllD | https://archive.is/G7KB4 | https://tinyurl.com/ycaj3erb; accessed 3-May-2020]
• Kolata G, “Vitamin Supplements Are Seen As No Guard Against Diseases”, The New York Times, www.nytimes.com, 14-Apr-1994
• Koren T, “Dr. Stephen Barrett Of Quackwatch Exposed In Court Cases”, www.canlyme.com, 13-Oct-2005 [http://archive.is/4xbQj; accessed 10-Sep-2018]
• Krashen S, "Does Laetrile Work? Another Look at the Mayo Clinic Study (Moertel et al., 1982)", The Internet Journal of Alternative Medicine, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2009; DOI: 10.5580/7b4
• Lancet, “Complementary medicine: time for critical engagement”, [No authors listed], 2000 Dec 16;356(9247):2023.
• Lanctôt G, "The Medical Mafia", 2002 Edition
• Langsetmo L, Berger C, Kreiger N, Kovacs CS, Hanley DA, Jamal SA, Whiting SJ, Genest J, Morin SN, Hodsman A, Prior JC, Lentle B, Patel MS, Brown JP, Anastasiades T, Towheed T, Josse RG, Papaioannou A, Adachi JD, Leslie WD, Davison KS, Goltzman D; the CaMos Group, "Calcium and Vitamin D Intake and Mortality: Results from the Canadian Multicentre Osteoporosis Study (CaMos)", J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2013 May 24. [Epub ahead of print]
• Lathyris DN, Patsopoulos NA, Salanti G, Ioannidis JP, “Industry sponsorship and selection of comparators in randomized clinical trials.”, Eur J Clin Invest. 2010 Feb;40(2):172-82.
• Lazarou J, Pomeranz BH, Corey PN, "Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients: a meta-analysis of prospective studies", JAMA. 1998 Apr 15;279(15):1200-5.
• Leape, LL., “Institute of Medicine Medical Error Figures Are Not Exaggerated”, JAMA. 2000;284:95-97.
• Lee IM, Cook NR, Gaziano JM, Gordon D, Ridker PM, Manson JE, Hennekens CH, Buring JE, "Vitamin E in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer: the Women's Health Study: a randomized controlled trial", JAMA. 2005 Jul 6;294(1):56-65.
• Lenzer J, "Cochrane proposes further limits on commercial funding", BMJ 2004;328:366.1
• Leung R, "Saying 'No' To Immunization", CBS, February 11, 2009
• Li K, Kaaks R, Linseisen J, Rohrmann S, "Vitamin/mineral supplementation and cancer, cardiovascular, and all-cause mortality in a German prospective cohort (EPIC-Heidelberg)", Eur J Nutr. 2012 Jun;51(4):407-13. doi: 10.1007/s00394- 011-0224-1. Epub 2011 Jul 22.
• Lisa PJ, "The Assault on Medical Freedom", 1994
• Losonczy KG, Harris TB, Havlik RJ, "Vitamin E and vitamin C supplement use and risk of all-cause and coronary heart disease mortality in older persons: the Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly", Am J Clin Nutr. 1996 Aug;64(2):190-6.
• Lundh A, Barbateskovic M, Hróbjartsson A, Gøtzsche PC, “Conflicts of interest at medical journals: the influence of industry-supported randomised trials on journal impact factors and revenue - cohort study.”, PLoS Med. 2010 Oct 26;7(10):e1000354.
• Manders DW, “The FDA Ban of L-Tryptophan: Politics, Profits and Prozac”, Social Policy, Vol. 26, No. 2, Winter 1995
• Mantel H, Skrovan S, “An Unreasonable Man -A Documentary About Ralph Nader”, 2006
• Martin W, “Medical Heroes & Heretics”, Devin-Adair, 1977
• Mclean L, “Interview with Martin J. Walker”, Positive Health Online, www.positivehealth.com, Issue 97, March 2004 [http://archive.is/aoqid; accessed 5-Nov-2017]
• Mercola J, “Judy Mikovits Suggests Retroviruses Play A Role In COVID-19” (Is SARS-CoV-2 A Manufactured Virus?”), A Special Interview With Judy Mikovits, PhD, Mercola, www.mercola.com, 3-May-2020 [https://is.gd/G5K2Bu | https://is.gd/hRSXpR | https://tinyurl.com/y8fl9g8j | https://tinyurl.com/y95y4l2m; accessed 16-May-2020]
• Merola E, “Burzinski: Cancer Is Serious Business”, Movie, Released 2010
• Merola E, “Burzinski: Cancer Is Serious Business” (Part II), Movie, Released 2013
• Merola E, "Second Opinion: Laetrile At Sloan-Kettering", Documentary, 2014 [http://tinyurl.com/2p842sj5 | https://archive.ph/LSeZN; accessed 26-Feb-2024]
• Meyer F, Bairati I, Dagenais GR, "Lower ischemic heart disease incidence and mortality among vitamin supplement users", Can J Cardiol. 1996 Oct;12(10):930-4.
• Meyer F, Bairati I, Fortin A, et al., "Interaction between antioxidant vitamin supplementation and cigarette smoking during radiation therapy in relation to long-term effects on recurrence and mortality: a randomized trial among head and neck cancer patients", Int J Cancer. 2008 Apr 1;122(7):1679-83.
• Michels AJ, Frei B, "Myths, artifacts, and fatal flaws: identifying limitations and opportunities in vitamin C research", Nutrients. 2013 Dec 16;5(12):5161-92. doi: 10.3390/nu5125161.
• Miller ER 3rd, Pastor-Barriuso R, Dalal D, Riemersma RA, Appel LJ, Guallar E, "Meta-analysis: high-dosage vitamin E supplementation may increase all-cause mortality", Ann Intern Med. 2005 Jan 4;142(1):37-46.
• Moertel CG, Fleming TR, Rubin J, Kvols LK, Sarna G, Koch R, Currie VE, Young CW, Jones SE, Davignon JP, "A clinical trial of amygdalin (Laetrile) in the treatment of human cancer", N Engl J Med. 1982 Jan 28;306(4):201-6.
• Moertel CG, Fleming TR, Creagan ET, Rubin J, O'Connell MJ, Ames MM, "High- dose vitamin C versus placebo in the treatment of patients with advanced cancer who have had no prior chemotherapy. A randomized double-blind comparison", N Engl J Med. 1985 Jan 17;312(3):137-41.
• Moser RH, "Advertising and our journal", Ann Intern Med. 1977 Jul;87(1):114- 5.
• Moss RW, "Doctored Results: The Suppression of Laetrile at Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research", 2014
• Moynihan R, "Cochrane at crossroads over drug company sponsorship", BMJ. 2003 Oct 18;327(7420):924-6.
• Mursu J, Robien K, Harnack LJ, Park K, Jacobs DR Jr, "Dietary supplements and mortality rate in older women: the Iowa Women's Health Study", Arch Intern Med. 2011 Oct 10;171(18):1625-33.
• Neil Z, Miller NZ, "Vaccines: Are They Really Safe and Effective", 2008
• NEJM [No Authors Listed], "The effect of vitamin E and beta carotene on the incidence of lung cancer and other cancers in male smokers. The Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta Carotene Cancer Prevention Study Group", N Engl J Med. 1994 Apr 14;330(15):1029-35.
• Obukhanych T, "The Vaccine Illusion", 2014
• Offit PA, Quarles J, Gerber MA, Hackett CJ, Marcuse EK, Kollman TR, Gellin BG, Landry S, "Addressing parents' concerns: do multiple vaccines overwhelm or weaken the infant's immune system?", Pediatrics. 2002 Jan;109(1):124-9. [https://sci-hub.tw/10.1542/peds.109.1.124]
• Offit PA, "Vitamins: stop taking the pills: Vitamin supplements are good for you, right? Wrong, says a new book – they're a multibillion-pound con and in high doses can increase your risk of heart disease and cancer", The Guardian, 7-June-2013
• Offit PA, "Don’t Take Your Vitamins", The New York Times, www.nytimes.com, 8-June-2013
• Offit PA, "Do You Believe in Magic? – The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine", Harper, 18-June-2013
• Offit PA, "Killing You Softly: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine", Fourth Estate, 20-June-2013
• Ohno S, Ohno Y, Suzuki N, Soma G, Inoue M, "High-dose vitamin C (ascorbic acid) therapy in the treatment of patients with advanced cancer", Anticancer Res. 2009 Mar;29(3):809-15.
• Olmsted D, Blaxill M, "Voting Himself Rich: CDC Vaccine Adviser Made $29 Million Or More After Using Role to Create Market", Published at www.ageofautism.com, February 16, 2009
• Omenn GS, Goodman GE, Thornquist MD, Balmes J, Cullen MR, Glass A, Keogh JP, Meyskens FL, Valanis B, Williams JH, Barnhart S, Hammar S, "Effects of a combination of beta carotene and vitamin A on lung cancer and cardiovascular disease", N Engl J Med. 1996 May 2;334(18):1150-5.
• Orange County Register, "Corrections for April 18", Published: April 18, 2011 (Updated: May 23, 2011)
• Papanicolas I, Woskie LR, Jha AK, “Health Care Spending in the United States and Other High-Income Countries”, JAMA. 2018 Mar 13;319(10):1024-1039. doi: 10.1001/jama.2018.1150. [sci-hub.tw/10.1001/jama.2018.1150; accessed 20-Oct-2019]
• Passwater RA, “A New Danger: Are Recent One-Two Punches an Attempt to Knockout the Dietary Supplement Industry? An Interview with Constitutional Attorney Jonathan Emord”, Whole Foods Magazine, Oct. 2011
• Pauling L, "Early Evidence About Vitamin C And the Common Cold", Orthomolecular Psychiatry, Vol. 3, No. 3, Pp. 139-151, 1974
• Pauling L, “How To Live Longer And Feel Better”, 1986
• Pocobelli G, Peters U, Kristal AR, White E, "Use of supplements of multivitamins, vitamin C, and vitamin E in relation to mortality", Am J Epidemiol. 2009 Aug 15;170(4):472-83.
• Poling JS, "Vaccines and Autism Revisited", Correspondence, N Engl J Med 2008; 359:655-656; August 7, 2008; DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc086269
• Rampton S, Stauber J, "Research funding, conflicts of interest, and the meta- methodology of public relations", Public Health Rep. 2002 Jul-Aug;117(4):331- 9.
• Rappoport J, “How Many Diseases Are There?”, www.jonrappoport.substack.com, 1-Feb-2024 [http://tinyurl.com/ywe26fya | https://archive.ph/iucSs; accessed 1-Feb-2024]
• Rasmussen MPF, “Vitamin C Evidence For Treating Complications Of COVID-19 And Other Viral Infections”, Orthomolecular Medicine News Service (OMNS), www.orthomolecular.org, Vol. 16, No. 25, 23-Apr-2020 [https://is.gd/OVAJ8T | http://archive.is/V00TV | https://tinyurl.com/y7avkmbr; accessed 31-May-2020]
• Rautiainen S, Akesson A, Levitan EB, Morgenstern R, Mittleman MA, Wolk A, "Multivitamin use and the risk of myocardial infarction: a population-based cohort of Swedish women", Am J Clin Nutr. 2010 Nov;92(5):1251-6. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.2010.29371. Epub 2010 Sep 22.
• Richards E, "The Politics Of Therapeutic Evaluation: The Vitamin C And Cancer Controversy", Social Studies of Science, Vol. 18, No. 4, Pp. 653-701, 1988
• Rimm EB, Stampfer MJ, Ascherio A, Giovannucci E, Colditz GA, Willett WC, "Vitamin E consumption and the risk of coronary heart disease in men", N Engl J Med. 1993 May 20;328(20):1450-6.
• Roberts PC, "The Cost Of Big Pharma’s Covid-19 Vaccine Will Be Paid In Lives And In Billions Of Dollars", Institute For Political Economy, www.paulcraigroberts.org, 10-May-2020 [http://archive.is/R8xls | https://is.gd/L5mFF2 | https://tinyurl.com/ydg29zlh; accessed 10-May-2020]
• Sacré P, “Covid-19: Check The Source Of Your Information! War Against... Corruption?”, GlobalResearch, www.globalresearch.ca, 22-Apr-2020 [http://archive.is/quRIn | https://is.gd/AGyM1S | https://tinyurl.com/y8x5u5qm; accessed 13-May-2020]
• Sacré P, “COVID-19: An Ocean Of Fears And Lies”, GlobalResearch, www.globalresearch.ca, 13-May-2020 [http://archive.is/pbGJb | https://is.gd/oethE5 | https://tinyurl.com/ycrs3syt; accessed 13-May-2020]
• Saul AW, “Doctor Yourself”, 2003
• Saul AW, “An Interview with Abram Hoffer”, The Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, www.orthomolecular.org, Vol. 24, No. 3, 2009 [https://tinyurl.com/3rbhxhsh | https://archive.ph/uiQml | https://archive.ph/qtukm; accessed 12-Nov-2024]
• Saul AW, “Three Intravenous Vitamin C Research Studies Approved For Treating COVID-19”, Orthomolecular Medicine News Service (OMNS), www.orthomolecular.org, Vol. 16, No. 12, 21-Feb-2020 [http://archive.is/udLE5 | https://is.gd/sfhBv9 | https://tinyurl.com/y9zld2bm; accessed 8-May-2020]
• Saul AW, “News Media Attacks Vitamin C Treatment Of COVID-19 Coronavirus”, Orthomolecular Medicine News Service (OMNS), www.orthomolecular.org, Vol. 16, No. 15, 1-Mar-2020 [https://tinyurl.com/yx6ygfwn | https://archive.is/SW8Av | https://is.gd/9PN2YU; accessed 7-Apr-2020]
• Saul AW, “World-Wide Nutritional Immunity”, Orthomolecular Medicine News Service (OMNS), www.orthomolecular.org, Vol. 16, No. 29, 11-May-2020 [http://archive.is/SjkkN | https://is.gd/Vw7UQ9 | https://tinyurl.com/yde9lm7a; accessed 11-May-2020]
• Schauss AG, “False and Misleading Information in the US FDA’s Adverse Events Monitoring System (1994-1999)”, Journal Of Orthomolecular Medicine, Volume 22, 1st Quarter 2007
• Scheibner V, "Vaccination: 100 Years of Orthodox Research Shows that Vaccines Represent a Medical Assault On The Immune System", 1993
• Shilhavy B, “FTC Shuts Down Dr. Brownstein’s Blog For Explaining How He Was Treating COVID-19 Patients” (a few hours later the title got revised to: “FTC Shuts Down Dr. Brownstein’s Blog For Explaining How He Was Curing COVID-19 Patients”), www.healthimpactnews.com, 15-May-2020 [http://archive.is/ufv87 | https://is.gd/nPXzjU | https://tinyurl.com/ycygrf6j | http://archive.is/9szqN | http://archive.is/SOp4G; accessed 15 & 16-May-2020]
• Shimizu M, Fukutomi Y, Ninomiya M, Nagura K, Kato T, Araki H, Suganuma M, Fujiki H, Moriwaki H, "Green tea extracts for the prevention of metachronous colorectal adenomas: a pilot study", Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2008 Nov;17(11):3020-5.
• Simmons WF, Smith RG, “Vitamin C And Coronavirus: Not A Vaccine; Just A Humble Cure”, Orthomolecular Medicine News Service (OMNS), www.orthomolecular.org, Vol. 16, No. 28, 4-May-2020 [https://archive.is/RzdzF | https://is.gd/dDqp07 | https://tinyurl.com/yaxm2y3q; accessed 6-May-2020]
• Sinclair I, "Vaccination: The Hidden Facts", 1992
• Smith R, “The trouble with medical journals”, J R Soc Med., 2006 Mar;99(3):115-9
• Stampfer MJ, Hennekens CH, Manson JE, Colditz GA, Rosner B, Willett WC, "Vitamin E consumption and the risk of coronary disease in women", N Engl J Med. 1993 May 20;328(20):1444-9.
• Starfield B, “Is US health really the best in the world?”, JAMA. 2000 Jul 26;284(4):483-5.
• Swiss Propaganda Research (SPR), “Facts About Covid-19”, www.swprs.org, 14-Mar-2020 (Updated: 7-Apr-2020) [https://is.gd/ZWpYzG | https://archive.is/4DQEn | https://tinyurl.com/yx3du645; accessed 9-Apr-2020] (May-2020: SPR changed its name to “Swiss Policy Research”)
• Takamatsu S, Takamatsu M, Satoh K, Imaizumi T, Yoshida H, Hiramoto M, Koyama M, Ohgushi Y, Mizuno S, "Effects on health of dietary supplementation with 100 mg d-alpha-tocopheryl acetate, daily for 6 years", J Int Med Res. 1995 Sep-Oct;23(5):342-57.
• Tips SC, “Never Has So Little Done So Much Harm To So Many – The Latest Coronavirus Attack Is A Cover For Restricting Our Health Freedoms”, The National Health Federation (NHF), www.thenhf.com, 4-Apr-2020 [https://tinyurl.com/ucbakkn | https://archive.is/NuTCA | https://is.gd/gNY053; accessed 5-Apr-2020]
• Vaccine Papers, "Dr. Paul Offit’s Aluminum Deceptions and Academic Misconduct", www.vaccinepapers.org, 13-Feb-2015 [http://archive.fo/k2aFZ; accessed 21-Oct-2018]
• Wakefield A, "VAXXED: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe" Film Documentary, www.vaxxedthemovie.com, March-2016
• Watkins ML, Erickson JD, Thun MJ, Mulinare J, Heath CW Jr, "Multivitamin use and mortality in a large prospective study", Am J Epidemiol. 2000 Jul 15;152(2):149-62.
• Weeks BS, “Vitamin A and Beta-Carotene”, Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, www.orthomolecular.org, Vol. 18, Nos. 3 & 4, Pp. 131-145, 2003
• Wells F, Farthing M, “Fraud And Misconduct In Biomedical Research”, 4th Edition, 2008
• White E, Shannon JS, Patterson RE, "Relationship between vitamin and calcium supplement use and colon cancer", Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 1997 Oct;6(10):769-74.
• Willis M, “PlanDemic”, Film Documentary About The Global Plan To Take Control Of Our Lives, Liberty, Health & Freedom, Full-Length Movie Pre-Release Vignette, Part 1: An Interview With Dr. Judy Mikovits, PhD, www.plandemicmovie.com, 4-May-2020 [https://is.gd/t84d13 | https://is.gd/sD43ro | https://tinyurl.com/ybzrm8jn | https://archive.is/LaiwK | https://archive.is/afLTd | https://is.gd/mQkrps | https://is.gd/7itkus; accessed 7-May & 25-July-2020]

GO