Article from Johns Hopkins Medicine

"Is There Really Any Benefit to Multivitamins?"  A Johns Hopkins Medicine Editoral

This editorial appeared in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine and was entitled "Enough is Enough: Stop Wasting Money on Vitamin Supplements"     Three studies were reviewed. One found multivitamins did not reduce risk for heart disease or cancer. The next found no reductions for the risk of mental declines. The third found a high dose multivitamin did not reduce heart attacks, surgeries, or deaths between the test group taking the vitamins and the control group that did not.

There is another article on this website analyzed from the same Johns Hopkins Medicine but just a different group of Scientists found here. Much of the same information is in this new article.  And the analysis evaluations are similar as well. One needs to put the proper perspective on the conclusions reached. The study results are limited to the form of vitamins and dosages consumed by participants in the study. 99% of Multiple Vitamins contain flaws that could limit reaching positive results. 

Does Nature have another scenario to explain these results? Multivitamins today lack family members and the forms that are the ones with benefits for the conditions under study, cancer, heart disease, and dementia. These are mentioned and listed here.

For more specific vitamin flaws in form:  Beta Carotene, Vitamin E, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, and B complex vitamins. The dosages for many of these vitamins are also in question.

Perhaps the most striking fact is that mainstream vitamin Scientists have missed or presented mis-leading analysis of the scientific research that highlights this new vitamin reality. 

ANALYSIS for Vitamin E forms

Here is a simple yet revealing explanation for vitamin E forms that a heart Doctor discovered after measuring blood levels of all of the vitamin E family forms between his heart patients and healthy subjects. While all the past heart disease studies tested various amounts of only the d'alpha tocopherol vitamin E form, this Doctor found that both subject groups exhibited nearly the same d'alpha tocopherol levels. Thus, a vitamin E deficiency of the d'alpha tocopherol might not be associated with heart disease, or at least not by itself. What this Doctor did find was that another vitamin E family form, d'gamma tocopherol, was lower in heart patients. ref A twist is mentioned next that may show that d'alpha tocopherol is important, but why all forms are also needed.

Now, here is another piece of the puzzle that might add some clarity. The body has the ability to convert each of three tocopherol forms, beta, delta, and gamma, into the alpha form when more alpha is needed. But, this conversion is not reciprocal since the alpha form does not convert into any other form. Nature must know that the alpha form is vital to health. But this conversion process when and if needed would reduce the amount of the other three tocopherol forms to perform their unique functions. Functions that the alpha form either does not do or does somewhat limited. It turns out that alpha tocopherol works to control oxygen radicals but does not touch nitrogen radicals. It is the gamma tocopherol form that is in charge of working to neutralize the nitrogen radicals.

Sidebar: Nature was correct to include all the tocopherols together in foods. A healthy body needs all the forms to work in tandem. When vegetable oils, such as corn oil, are produced, the first pressing out oil contains all the four tocopherols. But then the Lab workers, using the same conversion technique that can occur naturally in the body, chemically converts the other three forms of tocopherol into just the alpha form. This process eliminates any benefits from the other three vitamin E family members plus synergistms they porvide. Plus, this over exposes the body to higher alpha tocopherol levels. This could be the reason for negative vitamin E study results using only the alpha form.