Dangers of Vitamin E

THIS WEEK IN THE HSI FORUM

"So what do we do now?"

That question was posted on an HSI Forum thread titled "Vitamin
E" by a member named Delores who was one of many who
responded to the controversial vitamin E study released last week
(see Tuesday's e-Alert "The Purest Bunk" below).

Delores says that she takes 400 IU of vitamin E every morning and
wonders if she should "throw it away". I've got a feeling that she
doesn't really mean it. And if she does, I expect she'll reconsider
when she reads how other HSI members reacted to this flawed
study. Here are some quotes from three different vitamin E
threads:

Zark: "David Seckman, NNFA's (National Nutritional Foods
Association) executive director and CEO, didn't hold his tongue on
this one, stating: 'This is arm chair science at its worst!'"

Crazyliblady: "I take 800 IU vitamin e…and a B complex every
day. Before I went to a chiropractor and started taking vitamin and
mineral supplements, my body was a toxic waste dump of the
'medicines' like pain killers, decongestants, inhalers, allergy shots,
antibiotics, etc. Today, I have my asthma and allergies under
control, clear skin, more energy, and the list goes on. And yet I
keep seeing studies and hearing M.D.s saying this is not healthy!
The truth is because I am no longer sick, it's not healthy for their
pocketbook!"

Roz: "There's all kinds of Vitamin E supplements. From the bottle
shown on National TV News last night, it looked like a grocery
store variety. However, even w/the good Vit E supplements, too
much is not advisable. Sounds like another potential reason for the
FDA to interfere, to me."

PKL: "My friend, an ND, said 2 years ago that as the date for the
USA to comply with codex alimentarius rules approached
(Aug.2005) we would see scare stories coming out in the media
about the 'dangers' of common vitamins and supplements. He was
right."

Michael: "I am quite suspicious of this article and others very
recently which are slamming antioxidant supplements. This is due
to the fact that the Codex meetings taking place right now in
Germany (with influence from big pharma) may want to severely
regulate supplements. Before you throw away your vitamin E,
check to see if it is natural and is accompanied by mixed
tocopherols. At this point I would not worry about 400 IUs of
vitamin E per day."

Howard: "No distinction was made between the natural and the
synthetic forms avail. What are we supposed to do about foods that
contain natural forms of vit E? Avoid them? This is just one more
lame attempt by big pharma to eliminate competition by using the
main stream media (who are the benefactors of their multi-billion
dollar TV/Radio/Newspaper ad campaigns) to scare the bejebbers
out of the man/woman on the street and to drive him/her to their
local doc."

In several e-Alerts, HSI Panelist Allan Spreen, M.D., has noted the
important difference between natural vitamin E and the synthetic
form (dl-alpha tocopherol). He believes the synthetic should never
be taken internally, and yet it's easy to find inferior brands (or in
Roz' words "grocery store" varieties) that contain only synthetic E.

Here's Dr. Spreen's comment from an e-mail he sent me this week:
"If nothing else, this study (assuming it showed anything at all!)
may only be suggesting that synthetic vitamin E should not be
taken. Most studies done by standard allopathic medicine only use
dl-alpha tocopherol (which is a bad deal), but this study doesn't
even tell us what any of their 'selected' studies used. My bet is they
couldn't care less, and may not even know the difference among
the different types."

Other topics on the HSI Forum this week include:
* Eye health
* Sinus surgery
* Age-related hair thinning
* Bone-healing nutrients
* Niacin
* Help for IBS

You can easily reach the Forum on our web site at
www.hsibaltimore.com. Just click on "Forum," and join in with
any of the dozens of discussions about nutrition and natural health
care.

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RAVEN MAD

Well, traffic was a little lighter than usual Monday morning in
Baltimore. It must have been all those Monday morning
quarterbacks taking the day off.

After his first come-from-behind, overtime victory, Kyle Boller
didn't leave enough for them to gripe about. He threw for 213
yards, 2 TDs and no interceptions. He protected the ball when he
was under pressure, and led a couple of impressive drives to score
17 unanswered points - after being down 14-0 on the road!

But I'm sure that won't be good enough for some Baltimore fans -
or his critics around the NFL. We'll hear it was a fluke or that he
stepped back one step too far before throwing or whatever else
they can come up with. Maybe it's just that football fans don't
know how to be satisfied.

Sorry to disappoint you, but this Ravens fan is more than satisfied:
I'm ecstatic. This was an important win because the team needed it
mentally and because it could have play-off implications.

The Ravens, genuinely led by Kyle Boller for only the first or
second time, improved to 6-3 this week. That's the record of about
half of the AFC teams at this point so every game from now on is a
must-win if we want a shot in the play-offs.

Enter the Cowboys. 

All I can say is if they look the way they looked against Philly in
Monday night's game, Kyle Boller and Jamal Lewis should have
career days and the Ravens will be 7-3 before sundown. (Sorry,
Len.) The Dallas defense wasn't stopping anything the Eagles were
bringing. Come on! They gave McNabb over 14 seconds to get rid
of the ball in what will be one of the most repeated highlights of
the week and the season.

And if Vinnie is ready to throw interceptions, I know a couple of
Ravens that will be happy to accommodate him. (It's only fair
because he rarely threw to us when he played here.)

So Sunday will likely end up with the Ravens going to 7-3 with
only one loss in the AFC North. Now if Pittsburgh could just stop
winning…

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       Why you shouldn't waste another penny
          on "grocery store" vitamins…

A recent article in the Journal of the American Medical
Association actually admitted that vitamin deficiencies
cause problems. Eureka! Coming from a mainstream source this
is quite an affirmation of the nutrition-based health support
that you and I believe in. Then again, if you're an HSI
member, you've already known this for some time - and
you're no doubt already taking some type of supplemental
vitamins…

However, many of today's store-bought vitamins fall
painfully short of the complete nutritional necessities -
putting your health at risk.

Take a quick crash course in vitamin shopping - and learn
the 5 things your multivitamin should be doing for you.
 
http://www.youreletters.com/t/77190/6626398/650760/0/

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