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Vitamins and supplements: Do "actual harm"

Still believe in the benefits of vitamins and supplements? Still have trouble grasping the idea that vitamins and supplements are a well devised scheme by the pharmaceutical and supplement industries to separate you from your hard earned money?

Then maybe this article from Consumer Reports will finally convince you otherwise.
Americans .............. spent an estimated $10 billion on them [vitamin and mineral pills] in 2008, according to the Nutrition Business Journal. But recent studies undertaken to assess their benefits have delivered a flurry of disappointing results. The supplements failed to prevent Alzheimer's disease, cancer, heart attacks, strokes, type 2 diabetes, and premature death.

"We have yet to see well-conducted research that categorically supports the use of vitamin and mineral supplements," says Linda Van Horn, Ph.D., a professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. "Most studies show no benefit, or actual harm."

While some people may need supplements at certain stages of their lives, nutritional deficiencies are uncommon in the U.S. "Almost all of us get or can get the vitamins and minerals we need from our diet," says Paul M. Coates, Ph.D., director of the Office of Dietary Supplements at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Just more evidence supporting what I've been trying to tell everyone all along. Vitamins and supplements do more harm than good, and it's what I attribute my contracting MCL to, and it's the complete stopping of taking any vitamins or supplements that I attribute my longevity (8 years without treatment), along with high intensity exercise, and [of course] wine. :)

Even if you don't believe me, at least believe Consumer Reports. They don't have any axes to grind.

Read the entire article.
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