Articles related to VITAMINS/SUPPLEMENTS

The VITAL trial enrolled more than 25,000 men and women over age 50. Supplemental vitamin D showed no significant benefit vs. placebo in preventing the common fractures of osteoporosis.

In 2021, melatonin was the most frequently reported substance involved in pediatric substance ingestions, resulting in 4,000 hospitalizations, 287 ICU admissions, and 2 deaths in children under the age of 2. Melatonin supplements can have 500% more melatonin than indicated on the label and about 30% of OTC products tested had serotonin as well.

In this update to its 2014 recommendation, the USPSTF concluded “with moderate certainty that the harms of beta carotene supplementation outweigh the benefits for the prevention of cardiovascular disease or cancer.”

Levothyroxine, which is the third most popular drug in the US and the main drug used to treat primary hypothyroidism, also possesses clinically significant interactions with food, beverages, and supplements that can change the safety and efficacy of thyroid-hormone replacement therapies. This review article from Pharmaceuticals reviews 925 hypothyroid patients that highlighted “disturbing” lifestyle and diet patterns.

An analysis by an Australian physician is making waves by suggesting that an infamous study of vitamin C treatments for sepsis may be fraudulent. The study author alleges that the pre- and post-comparison groups involved in the 94-patient study were too similar to be realistic and that the data were fabricated.

This meta-analysis examined 1,212 published articles and abstracts, of which the 30 fulfilling their criteria were analyzed to evaluate the effect of vitamin D levels on OS, PFS, and secondarily on time to treatment, relapse rate, and non-relapse mortality in patients with hematologic malignancies. Lower vitamin D level at diagnosis was related to a significantly impaired prognosis for myeloid and lymphoid malignancies, as previously reported.