Thus sayeth jama. Read on and become enlightened "oye" ye people who
refuse to accept big pharma into your lives and be advised that
vitamins may be even more evil and dangerous that........chelation
therapy! Maybe even as dangerous as.......as...........oh my this is
truly frightening........than Chiropractors! ( You're next! ):

Studies: Vitamin pills don't prevent heart disease
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione, Ap
Medical Writer – Sun Nov 9, 1:17 pm ETNEW ORLEANS –


Vitamins C and E — pills taken by millions of Americans — do nothing
to prevent heart disease in men, one of the largest and longest
studies of these supplements has found.

Vitamin E even appeared to raise the risk of bleeding strokes, a
danger seen in at least one earlier study.

Besides questioning whether vitamins help, "we have to worry about
potential harm," said Barbara Howard, a nutrition scientist at
MedStar Research Institute of Hyattsville, Md.

She has no role in the research but reviewed and discussed it Sunday
at an American Heart Association conference. Results also were
published online by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

About 12 percent of Americans take supplements of C and E despite
growing evidence that these antioxidants do not prevent heart disease
and may even be harmful.

Male smokers taking vitamin E had a higher rate of bleeding strokes
in a previous study, and several others found no benefit for heart
health.

As for vitamin C, some research suggests it may aid cancer, not fight
it. A previous study in women at high risk of heart problems found it
did not prevent heart attacks.

Few long-term studies have been done. The new one is the Physicians
Health Study, led by Drs. Howard Sesso and J. Michael Gaziano of
Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

It involved 14,641 male doctors, 50 or older, including 5 percent who
had heart disease at the time the study started in 1997. They were
put into four groups and given either vitamin E, vitamin C, both, or
dummy pills. The dose of E was 400 international units every other
day; C was 500 milligrams daily.

After an average of eight years, no difference was seen in the rates
of heart attack, stroke or heart-related deaths among the groups.

However, 39 men taking E suffered bleeding strokes versus only 23 of
the others, which works out to a 74 percent greater risk for vitamin-
takers.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and several
vitamin makers. Results were so clear that they would be unlikely to
change if the study were done in women, minorities, or with different
formulations of the vitamins, Howard said.

"In these hard economic times, maybe we can save some money by not
buying these supplements," she said.

A second study found that vitamins B-12 and B-9 (folic acid) did not
prevent heart disease either, supporting the results of previous
trials. That study involved more than 12,000 heart attack survivors
and was led by Dr. Jane Armitage of the University of Oxford in
England.

___

On the Net:

JAMA: http://jama.ama-assn.org/

Heart meeting: http://www.americanheart.org/


P.S. Must be that Dr's Coy, Wilson, Roberts all waved hands over me
and suddenly I arose and walked again. Chelation, vitamins, change in
lifestyle, eating habits. quit smoking etc had nothing to do with it.