Death by Vitamin!
A BBC article today reports that vitamin supplements, rather than being the great panacea of modern civilization, may in fact shorten life. The article put it rather bluntly:
After various factors were taken into account and a further 20 studies excluded, the researchers linked vitamin A supplements to a 16% increased risk of dying, beta-carotene to a 7% increased risk and vitamin E to a 4% increased risk.
That’s…unfortunate, to say the least, given how many people take this stuff every day.
The article went on to say that just eating well and getting regular amounts of vitamins that way may be the best way to live. Surprise, surprise.
The irony of this is stunning. America is obsessed with all things healthful, and crowning our golden bull of dietary happiness is the almighty vitamin. It’s like someone slipped poison into the Fountain of Youth.
The underlying significance of this report is that it reveals just how deadly an obsession with life can be. As paradoxical as that sounds, it’s true: the more people worry about how they make themselves live longer , the more this takes away from what life they have, if not in span then in enjoyment.
So chill. Live and love for today, not for tomorrow. As a very wise man (Jesus, in fact) once said, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.”
Hey, I just would like to point out how silly this article is that you are talking about. I don’t know about you, but, even without taking any vitamins, my chance of dying was at 100%. So, if by taking these vitamins, my chance goes up to 116%, I really don’t care. I’m still dead, I just have a better chance of dying.
Besides, those flinstone’s taste good!
Don’t try to live too hard? It’ll kill ya….
ha. chance of dying = 100 %. good point.
and the flintstones do taste good.
Correlation is not causation.
This “study,” upon reading the article, seems skewed and has a researcher bias. Maybe it was the way that I read it but I do not see how these results could be valid.
Are they planning on taking any other variables into consideration?
As for me, I will continue to take my vitamins so that I have enough iron to give blood. I can save three lives at the small risk of my own. :)
There is only one problem with taking vitamin,s and it’s certainly not dying. When you take vitamins, your body does not absorbs them well because you need all that comes with the vitamins to absorb them well. When you eat a fruit, which is normally FULL! of vitamins, your body absorbs those very well due to all that comes with it. In fact, any derived products has been proven to be less effective. This is a fact. For example, orange juice is less good than an orange itself.