Billion-Dollar Scam In a Bottle: Why Vitamins Could Be Useless—or Even Shorten Your Lifespan By Lynn Stuart Parramore, AlterNet If you pop a multivitamin in the morning, you probably think you’re safeguarding your health. But the truth is that a tsunami of research shows that multivitamins — the most popular of all dietary supplements — don’t do much of anything for the health of the average person. Even worse, is growing body of evidence suggests that they may even shorten your life. AlterNet’s Lynn Stuart Parramore has taken a dive into the world of common vitamin supplements, and what she found is both surprising and troubling: “Unless you are taking vitamins to address a specific deficiency, malnutrition or illness,” writes Parramore, “swallowing a multivitamin in hopes of preventing disease or seeking longevity may be one of the most prevalent medical myths of our time.” Scientific consensus is undergoing a sea change on vitamins, but the signs are that Americans not only aren’t getting the message, we’re taking more vitamins that ever. In a weak economy, we take vitamins as an “insurance policy” to try to prevent a costly trip to the doctor. Unfortunately, hope is more powerful than scientific evidence, and it provides the perfect cover for a gigantic, poorly regulated $20-billion-a year-industry so lucrative that hedge funds are tripping over each other to get in on the action. The victim of the scam is not just your wallet. It might be your health.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 11:34:16 +0000
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