Vitamin C vs. Heart Disease and Cancer

[X]

I was listening to the radio today, and there was a guest on explaining his "groundbreaking" medical discovery.

He was claiming that vitamin C prevents and cures cancer, heart disease, and other ailments.
He says the government is intentionally making Candian citizens ill by recomending we only take the minimum amount of vitamin C per day necessary to prevent scurvy.
He claims that growing studies (uncited) show that more vitamin C will prevent and cure the most common or scary causes of illness or death, chief among them heart disease and cancer.

I am not a medical expert, nor do I particularly care to be. Doesn't interest me.
However, this fellow's claims set off my skeptisenseTM.

Can anybody fill me in on whether this guy is correct in his claims or is off his rocker?

[Amapola]

This is from the SkepDic (Skeptic's Dictionary):

July 8, 2002. A five-year study involving more than 20,000 people aged 40 to 80 found that a daily dose of vitamin C, vitamin E and beta carotene does not reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, or mental decline. Prof Rory Collins, a co-author of the report at Oxford University's Clinical Trial Service, said: "Over five years we saw absolutely no effect." At the end of the trial, people taking vitamins had exactly the same risk of heart disease, cancer, cataracts, bone fractures, asthma and mental decline as those who took a placebo. In contrast, cholesterol-lowering drugs reduced the risk of heart disease and stroke by around one third.

Here's the link to the article this came from: link (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$4ZRRWXIAAGGTXQFIQMFSFFWAVCBQ 0IV0?xml=/news/2002/07/05/nvit05.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/07/05/ixnewstop.html&_requestid=65203&_requestid=312104)

This idea has been around for a long time. I remember being told this very thing 30 years ago. A bunch of people I knew took "mega-doses" of vitamin C. Over the years they proceeded to die of heart disease and cancer at the same rates as other people.

I think your best bet on preventing heart disease and cancer is good genetics. Sorry.

[X]

I think your best bet on preventing heart disease and cancer is good genetics. Sorry.


Don't be. I'm covered on the genetics part. ;)

[shadron]

The theory was that anti-oxidants (vitamins e, c, beta-carotene and some others) would scavenge oxidizers within cells, preventing them from damaging proteins and DNA by inappropriately altering them. The theory added that such oxidations were typical of the start of cancerous growth.

As Amapola says, it didn't prove out in clinical testing. That, of course, doesn't stop the health additives makers from continuing to push them. And, also of course, Linus Pauling, the Nobel-winning chemist, swore by megadosage vitamin C, which is the classic case of a promising cure not making the step from the test tube to the body.

[Deetee]

;3656393']I was listening to the radio today, and there was a guest on explaining his "groundbreaking" medical discovery.

He was claiming that vitamin C prevents and cures cancer, heart disease, and other ailments.

As indicated, trials have failed to confirm what might have been a plausible hypothesis.
The most recent evidence comes from a large meta-analysis (http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/homepages/106568753/CD007176.pdf) which showed:
Overall, the antioxidant supplements did not seem to reduce mortality. A total of 17880 of 136,023 participants (13.1%) randomised to antioxidant supplements and 10136 of 96527 participants (10.5%) randomised to placebo or no intervention died. In the analyses of the trials with low risk of bias, beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E significantly increased mortality. There were no significant differences between the effects of antioxidant supplements in healthy participants (primary prevention trials) or participants with various diseases (secondary prevention trials). Randomised trials with adequate bias control found no significant effect of vitamin C. In some of our analyses, selenium seems to reduce mortality.

My bold.

Discussed here (http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=111478).

[MRC_Hans]

;3656393']I was listening to the radio today, and there was a guest on explaining his "groundbreaking" medical discovery.

He was claiming that vitamin C prevents and cures cancer, heart disease, and other ailments.
He says the government is intentionally making Candian citizens ill by recomending we only take the minimum amount of vitamin C per day necessary to prevent scurvy.
He claims that growing studies (uncited) show that more vitamin C will prevent and cure the most common or scary causes of illness or death, chief among them heart disease and cancer.

I am not a medical expert, nor do I particularly care to be. Doesn't interest me.
However, this fellow's claims set off my skeptisenseTM.

Can anybody fill me in on whether this guy is correct in his claims or is off his rocker?(my bolding)

The bolded part is a sure-fire woo indicator. So, government, struggling with rising health-care costs to make budget ends meet, deliberately ignores a cheap and readily available cure-all, and opts to keep the population sick instead? Yeah! :nope:

Hans

[Cuddles]

It's interesting to note that it's always vitamin C, and almost never any other vitamins, that is claimed to cure everything. The simple reason for this is that vitamin C seems to be one of the few things that is genuinely impossible to overdose on. Anyone telling people to take massive doses of vitamin A, for example, would soon be in serious trouble since taking just twice the RDA can result in toxicity.

Vitamin C is easy for woos to make claims about because everyone already knows they need it and many people probably feel guilty about not eating enough fruit. Telling them that they need even more than they think isn't such a big jump for people to believe. Since many people don't get enough vitamins, and since it is apparently impossible for vitamin C to hurt anyone, there can be apparent benefits without any drawbacks, and so the woo about vitamin C continues.

[casebro]

...Since many people don't get enough vitamins...

Evidence? Or have you fallen for more Woo?

[soylent]

It's interesting to note that it's always vitamin C, and almost never any other vitamins, that is claimed to cure everything.

Quite often it's "vitamin B-17" which seems to be the new "brand name" for the old amygdalin/laetrile scam.

[Bikewer]

It was Linus Pauling, the Nobel laureate, who started to promote this idea in his dotage. He sold books, went on the talk-show circuit, did the whole thing. Folks took him seriously for a while; Nobel laureate and all...

Alas, no one was able to reproduce any of of his claimed effects or duplicate his findings in any way. Subsequent in-depth studies have utterly quashed the idea of "megavitamins".

Unfortunately, such ideas tend to live on....

[JJM]

Go to www.quackwatch.org (http://www.quackwatch.org) and search for "orthomolecular", "pauling", "vitamin c" (separately, without the quotes).

I expect the safety of high-dose vitamin is discussed there. I do know that high doses cause diarrhea. In a broadcast interview shortly before he died, Linus Pauling said that he takes 50% more of it than he recommends to the public because "it has a nice, laxative effect."

[robinson]

In some sort of irony, Pauling died of prostate cancer. He was 93, but my Grandpa lived to the same age, and never took a vitamin in his life, or ate any health food.