TEN WAYS TO SPOT ANTI-VITAMIN BIASES IN A SCIENTIFIC STUDY
by Andrew Saul "The Doctor Yourself Newsletter"
http://www.doctoryourself.com
1. Where's the beef? How much of the original study is quoted in the
media? Are you just getting factoids, or are data provided? Has the
journalist writing about the subject actually read the original
paper?
2. What exactly was studied, and how? Was it an IN VITRO (test-tube)
study or an IN VIVO (animal) study? Was there a CLINICAL STUDY on
people, or is its application to real life a matter of conjecture?
3. Follow the Money. Who paid for the study? Cash from food
processors, pharmaceutical giants, and other deep pockets decides what
gets studied, and how. It is very difficult, if not impossible, for
researchers to present findings that embarrass their financial backers.
Published research will often indicate sources of funding, possibly at
the end of the paper in an acknowledgements paragraph. If not,
correspondence addesses of principle authors are invariably provided.
Write and ask.
4. Check the dosages. Any vitamin C study using less than 2,000 mg a
day is a waste of time. Any vitamin E study employing less than 400
International Units (I.U.) is a waste of time. Any study using less
than 1,000 mg niacin a day is a waste of time. All low-dose studies are
set up to fail. Low doses of vitamins do not cure major diseases.
Large doses cure diseases.
5. Check the form of supplement used. Was the vitamin used in the study
natural or synthetic? Any carotene study using the synthetic form of
beta-carotene only is a waste of time. Any vitamin E study using the
synthetic DL-alpha form is a waste of time.
6. Use the Pauling Principle: read the entire study and interpret the
data for yourself. Do not rely on the summary and/or conclusions of
the study authors. As Linus Pauling pointed out repeatedly, many
researchers miss, or dismiss, the statistical significance of their own
work. Such behavior may be human error, or it may be politically
motivated. Beware of editorializing.
7. Beware of Pauling-bashers. If a media article is critical about
twice Nobel prize-winning Linus Pauling, you can be confident it has
been spin-doctored.
8. Watch for these throw-away slams against supplements:
"You get all the vitamins you need form your daily diet."
"Vitamins are dangerous if you take too many of them."
"Excess vitamins are wasted."
"More research is needed before supplements can be recommended."
"There is no scientific support for large vitamin doses."
9. Watch for pontifical public recommendations at the end of the
article such as:
"Vitamins can do some good things, but can do some bad things as well."
"You are better off not popping vitamin pills."
"Just eat a balanced diet."
"If you take vitamins, take no more than the US RDA."
10. Use the media backwards. The more headlines about a particular
study, the more politically charged the subject and the less likely
that the reporting, or the original study, is positive towards
vitamins. Negative news sells newspapers, and magazines, and gets lots
of viewers. Positive drug studies do get headlines, of course.
Positive vitamin studies do not. Is this a conspiracy? You mean with
shady people all sitting around a shaded table in a darkened back room?
Of course not. It is nevertheless an enormous public health problem
with enormous consequences. Consider what might be called Saul's Law of
the Media: "Press and television coverage of a vitamin study is
inversely proportionate to the study's clinical usefulness." In other
words, the more media hoopla, the worse the research. Truly valuable
research does not scare people; it helps people get well. There are
over 3,000 scientific references at Doctor Yourself.com for people who
share in this goal.
Reprinted from the book FIRE YOUR DOCTOR, copyright 2001 and prior
years by Andrew Saul, Number 8 Van Buren Street, Holley, New York 14470
USA Telephone (716) 638-5357
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If You Choose to Take Vitamin C Supplements, Stick to it --->
http://osu.orst.edu/dept/lpi/new/vitamincancer2.html
Test-Tube Science Plus Irresponsible Journalism Equals Consumer Confusion
http://www.crnusa.org/Shellnr061501.html
CRN's Letter to the Tan Sheet
http://www.crnusa.org/Shellnr061501TAN.html
New Research Findings On Vitamin C Safety: An Interview with Dr. Balz Frei
http://www.nutritionfocus.com/nutrition_library/frei1.html
This earlier article could also be of interest in this context:
A Critical Analysis of The National Academy of Sciences' Attack on Dietary
Supplements
May 9, 2000
http://www.lef.org/featured-articles/may2000_canasads_01.html