Since late 2008, there’s a growing number of articles from the mainstream media about the proported dangers of nutritional supplements and the greater need for more regulations and restrictions. However, almost all of them are biased, citing poorly designed studies. Furthermore, most of authors misunderstood the conclusions of the studies.
The objective seems to be to restrict access to supplements, rather than to protect the public. My impression is they’re equating the miniscule risks of supplements with the significant dangers of prescription drugs, which by the way, cause an estimated 106,000 deaths/year in the US alone.
Some of these articles cover the supposed dangerous responses from nutritional supplements including:
* antioxidants showing no benefit for decreasing cancer risks
* antioxidants increasing the risk for cancer
* antioxidants interfering with chemotherapy treatment
These are biased summaries of the few studies which anyone having a good grasp of nutritional biochemistry would recognize as being poorly-designed.
Most oncologists believe that antioxidants interfere with chemotherapy treatment. In fact, this is taught in medical schools. This is absolutely wrong! In a recent 2-part paper published in the Jan/Feb and Mar/Apr issue of Alternative Therapeutics in Health and Medicine:2007;13:40-47, researchers reviewed the medical literature from 1965 to 2003 regarding antioxidant use with concurrent chemotherapy. They concluded that:
“Since the 1970’s, 280 peer-reviewed in vitro and in vivo studies, including 50 human studies involving 8521 patients, 5081 of whom were given nutrients, have consistently shown that antioxidants do not interfere with therapeutic modalities for cancer. Furthermore, non-prescription antioxidants and other nutrients enhance the killing of therapeutic modalities for cancer, decrease their side effects, and protect normal tissue. In 15 human studies, 3738 patients who took non-prescription antioxidants and other nutrients actually had increased survival.”
This implies that many patients at their greatest time of need are being given wrong information with deadly consequences. This also implies that many oncologists are not reading the research literature.
The vast majority of research points to the benefit of antioxidants for prevention, safety and benefit for nutritional support required for cancer control.
Dr Husbands is a Chiropractor, a Certified Clinical Nutritionist, an Anti-Aging Healthcare Practitioner and a Functional Medicine Doctor. For more information, visit http://www.drhusbands.com.
Copyright © 2009; Douglas Husbands, DC, CCN, ABAAHP. All rights reserved
