If you are taking an antioxidant or an antioxidant vitamin, or are thinking of going on antioxidants, consider the information in this fully referenced guide before you do. The undeniable legacy of antioxidant vitamin use at today's high doses is an assemblage of confusing and conflicting studies and reports of bad side effects in hordes of unsuspecting victims. Only by knowing this information, reviewed in consultation with your healthcare professional, can you make an informed decision about your healthcare. If you are a user of antioxidant vitamins A, C or E, or multivitamins, this book contains vital information for you.
Most of the antioxidant side effects discussed are likely unknown to your busy doctor. Although they are knowledgeable about routine medical problems, few have heard of increased risks for cancer, heart disease, and strokes caused by use of these vitamins; fewer still associate increased mortality with antioxidants. As a surgeon, medical research scientist, biochemist and practicing doctor, Dr. Howes is appalled by the lack of information in the medical community on the full range of side effects of the antioxidant vitamins.
Antioxidant Vitamins A, C, and E in the Twenty-first Century offers a selective reference source and summary demonstrating the ineffectiveness and adverse side effects of the antioxidant vitamins A, C, and E.
DEATH IN SMALL DOSES: BOOKS 1 & 2
Antioxidant Vitamins A, C & E in the 21st Century: Book One Also contains: ANTIOXIDANT VITAMINS ARE MAKING A KILLING: Invalidation Of The Free Radical Theory BOOK TWO: A HEALTH IMPACT STATEMENT FOR MEDICAL SCIENTISTSBy Randolph M. HowesTrafford Publishing
Copyright © 2010 Randolph M. Howes
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4269-3798-9 Contents
About The Author.....................................................................vFundamental Value Of Creative Ideas..................................................xviChapter One: Inform Yourself.........................................................1Chapter Two: The Facts.... Just The Facts............................................10Chapter Three: An Epic Chronology Of Antioxidant Vitamin Studies.....................15Chapter Four: The Gigantic Antioxidant Vitamin Experiment............................42Chapter Five: Science Is Getting A Little Crazy......................................45Chapter Six: False Profits.... Er, Propherts.........................................52Chapter Seven: Where Are The Bodies?.................................................58Chapter Eight: A, C & E And Multivitamin Summaries...................................67Chapter Nine: Free Radical Theory Fails The Scientific Method........................76Chapter Ten:.........................................................................83Chapter Eleven: Improved, New Alternate Theories:....................................86Chapter Twelve: Now You Have The Facts, You Decide...................................96
Chapter One
Inform Yourself
If you are taking an antioxidant or an antioxidant vitamin or are thinking of going on antioxidants, this fully referenced book, Antioxidant Vitamin A, C & E in the 21st Century, is a "must read" for you. The undeniable legacy of antioxidant vitamin use at today's high doses is an assemblage of confusing and conflicting studies and reports of bad side effects in hordes of unsuspecting victims. Only by knowing this information, and in consultation with your healthcare professional, can you make an informed decision about your health care. If you are a user of antioxidant vitamins A, C or E, or multivitamins, you must read this book. Most of the antioxidant side effects I discuss are likely unknown to your busy doctor. Although knowledgeable about routine medical problems, few have heard of increased risks for cancer, heart disease and strokes and fewer still associate increased mortality as being antioxidant-related. As a surgeon, medical research scientist, biochemist and practicing doctor, I was appalled by the lack of information in the medical community on the full range of side effects of the antioxidant vitamins. This book is a selective reference source and summary demonstrating the ineffectiveness and adverse side effects of the antioxidant vitamins A, C and E.
Americans are the biggest pill poppers on the planet. Unrestrained marketing of healthcare supplements permeate all forms of media on a constant and daily basis. The old adage is that "It probably won't hurt me and it might help me. So, why not take it?" Unfortunately, when it comes to the antioxidant vitamins A, C and E, it is becoming manifestly clear that these are agents with unknown or questionable benefits and with known harmful side effects. Thus, the sensible, safe and prudent questions are, "So, why take them at all in the absence of a deficiency state?" "Why waste your money for pills that are only marginally effective, if effective at all or even harmful?" "Is it possible that this entire antioxidant sector of the health industry is driven by market forces and not by medical science?" "Are they just trying to con an unsuspecting public?"
The accumulated evidence on antioxidants and EMODs can be maddeningly contradictory. Antioxidant vitamins are no longer about science, they are about marketing.
Why take pills that are potentially harmful?
Aggressive marketing, testimonials and unrestricted advertising have led to wild claims and to the erroneous belief that antioxidant vitamins, such as A, C and E, are protective from common diseases and that they can effectively help reverse or cure a veritable laundry list of diseases, such as breast cancer, prostate cancer, skin cancer, colon cancer, head and neck cancer (including oral premalignant lesions), bladder cancer, colorectal adenomas, polyps of the colon, cardiovascular disease (including ischemic heart disease, hypertension, atherosclerosis, hyperhomocysteinemia, intimal thickening, lowering of cholesterol and triglycerides), strokes, diabetes (including endothelial dysfunction and insulin resistance), macular degeneration, cataracts, pre-eclampsia, Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson's disease, tardive dyskinesis, blood platelet disorders, renal insufficiency, and adverse effects of radiation therapy.... and yada, yada, yada.
However, in this far-reaching selective review, I report on 181 scientific reports (including prospective, cohort and randomized controlled trials, utilizing analysis and/or meta-analysis) that have shown that antioxidant vitamins produce either marginal effects, negligible effects, no effects at all or harmful effects with many of the disease conditions that I just listed in the above paragraph. And, that is not all. I provide alternative possibilities for safe disease prevention and cure, based on prooxidants.
The scale of the antioxidant vitamin use problem is worldwide. In all honesty, I should not be writing a book, which points out the dangers of antioxidant supplements and you should not have to be reading such a book, which describes your increased risk for disease and premature death from these vitamins. Had the investigators, manufacturers and profiteers been honest, these studies would have been stopped long ago and the truth would have been common knowledge. Thus, this book would have been unnecessary.
In a nut shell, the antioxidant vitamin supplements have failed to live up to their exalted, overstated expectations or to the rosy speculative predictions of the free radical theory.
Predictions of disease prevention and reversal by common antioxidants, such as vitamins A, C and E, have been based on the free radical theory, which was introduced in the mid 1950s by Dr. Denham Harman. It basically stated that harmful metabolic products of oxygen randomly accumulate over time and serve as the cause for most diseases and aging. It was founded on the following three ideas:
1) oxygen free radicals are harmful and deleterious, causing disease and aging
2) antioxidants will negate or scavenge free radicals and therefore,
3) diseases and aging can be prevented, cured and/or reversed by the use of antioxidants, including the common vitamins A, C and E
ANTIOXIDANT HOGWASH Today's marketing concepts with the antioxidant vitamins have an inadequate scientific basis and meager biochemical plausibility.
A Global Public Health Issue
However, studies on antioxidant vitamins have been rife with inconsistencies, confusing results and unpredictability. These studies were based on Harman's free radical theory, which is a testable theory. Surprisingly, the free radical theory has...
