Do Antioxidants Increase Mortality?

Response From Quest Vitamins

DO ANTIOXIDANTS INCREASE MORTALITY? – ABSOLUTELY NOT!

In fact, antioxidants are a vital element of the daily diet, be it from food or supplements.
The media have been busy with sensational headlines that suggest "Treatment with beta carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E may increase mortality." Do we now all stop taking our daily vitamin supplements? Before we do that, let's first examine this study.

"This is a flawed analysis...the totality of the evidence indicates that antioxidants from foods or supplements have many health benefits, including reduced risk for cardiovascular disease, some types of cancer, eye disease, and neurodegenerative disease...they are a key to an enhanced immune system and resistance to infection."

Dr. Jeffrey Blumberg, Director of the Antioxidants Research Laboratory at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts

First of all, the conclusions of this study were based entirely on a statistical review of selected old data. There was really no experimental design or actual study done here. Further, it was published by the same "scientists" that denounced antioxidants in a Lancet article in 2004. The latter was dismissed as science fiction by most credible scientists but the authors are back again with even more nonsense. They discount most of the well-established scientific support for antioxidants and go on to conclude that antioxidant vitamins increase death from all causes.

Wrong Dosages Evaluated
If one wants to see whether or not a nutrient is effective in preventing or curing illness one must at least use the correct dosage. The statistical review used suboptimal, very wide and inconsistent dosage ranges for the antioxidants evaluated.

Supplement Dose range
Vitamin A (synthetic) 1,333-200,000*** IU
Alpha Tocopherol (synthetic) 10-5,000 IU
Vitamin C (synthetic) 60 – 2,000 mg
Selenium (natural) 20 – 200 mcgWho in their right mind takes 200,000 IU of vitamin A for 3 months of time on their own? The way this review is put together one would assume that everyone does this and ends up poisoning himself or herself.

Poor Selection of the Study Population for Too Short Duration
The studies selected for review used an average age of 62 for their subjects for an average of 3.3 years. No one in their right mind could possibly hope that the use of selected antioxidants could somehow be beneficial in prolonging life in those that had already endured a lifetime of oxidative damage.

In other words, giving 60 year old plus smokers who had been taking at least 3 or more drugs some antioxidants is like using petrol to put out a fire. Yet, this is similar to what these authors did.

Overwhelming Antioxidant Safety and Efficacy Studies Ignored
Several hundred studies published in peer reviewed medical journals have used large populations of individuals studied for decades (not 3.3 years) and concluded highly significant life extending benefits of antioxidant supplements.