Diet, Exercise Better Than Vitamins in Promoting Health

Harvard men's health watch is telling everyone how dangerous vitamin supplements are. Unfortunately they are not kidding!

Please know that although we have our references to try to refute these statements, your patient's families will be hearing this stuff.

While it was once hoped that supplements of folic acid could help reduce colon cancer, new research has shown that taking more than the minimum daily requirement would be harmful. Simon says other studies underscore the downside to dietary supplements, which are unregulated in the United States. "The most striking example is beta carotene, which we used to be very hopeful about, but actually increases the risk of lung cancer in smokers. Vitamin E increases the risk of second head-neck cancers in people who have been successfully treated for a first malignancy."

The truth is that the folic acid most get in supplements is not the natural form that is called 5'MTHFR (Metafolin by Merck of Germany) and since it is over $12,000 a Kilogram it is not in most supplements. Read more...