Word: vitamins
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...Vitamins are America's favorite supplements; you may be among the 40% who took at least one within the past month. All told, we spend $1.7 billion a year on those pills and capsules--most commonly vitamin C, which originally attracted attention as a supposed cold remedy. But interest in these supplements has been fanned in recent years by hints that antioxidants such as vitamins C and E and selenium soak up free radicals, those by-products of metabolism that can damage cells and have been implicated in a wide variety of diseases, from cancer and cardiovascular disease to Alzheimer...
...Krimsky, deliver a sobering dose of reality. There is insufficient scientific evidence, the team concludes, to support the notion that taking megadoses of dietary antioxidants can prevent chronic diseases. But the report goes even further. "Extremely large doses [of antioxidants]," it says, "may lead to health problems." Megadoses of vitamin E, for instance, can put you at greater risk of bleeding, while too much vitamin C causes diarrhea and may interfere with cancer treatments. Take too much selenium, and you can lose hair and even fingernails...
...folks who've been tossing back handfuls of vitamin supplements for years now, the latest news from the National Academy of Sciences may be hard to swallow. There is no need, according to the report released Tuesday, for most people to take major doses of antioxidants, or vitamins C and E - we should stick to the Recommended Daily Allowance, because there is little or no evidence, after all, that large doses of antioxidants prevent chronic disease. Predictably, the academy recommends the natural intake of antioxidants; instead of gulping down a few pills, everyone should concentrate on eating the fruits...
...talk enough about vitamin toxicity," says TIME medical contributor Dr. Ian Smith. "And people don't know as much as they should about the potential for overdosing on supplements: It doesn't happen often, but the risk is there." And although most vitamin fanatics are accustomed to sifting through studies and so-called breakthrough announcements about various benefits and risks, the NAS study could still cause confusion among the health-conscious, because it bucks recent reports that antioxidants are great - and that lots of antioxidants are even better. Even in light of the academy report, the bottom line...
...apostle of the new economy is now citing increasing productivity as a source of inflation. To many economists, it's like saying vitamin C causes colds. The chairman is also concerned that we're feeling a little too cocky these days and spending too much of our stock-market wealth. He's gone so far as to suggest that stock prices should not rise more than the growth of the overall U.S. economy--in other words, less than...