The literature is full of studies that show a beneficial effect of dietary supplements on a variety of degenerative diseases. For example, supplemental vitamin E has been shown to be protective of cardiovascular disease and supplemental vitamin D is known to reduce the chance of developing cancer, autoimmune problems and diabetes in those people who do not receive adequate sunlight. However, despite the growing body of evidence that some dietary supplements are protective of disease, their use continues to be attacked by certain sections of the medical community and mainstream media. So just how safe are nutritional supplements? When looking at statistics for deaths it is important to keep a proper perspective. It is therefore necessary to have a brief look at how many people die of other causes to make a comparison with deaths from taking supplements.
It is interesting to note for instance, that according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 20001, roughly 225,000 people die each year as a result of treatment in the United States medical system. According to the authors, 12,000 people die because of unnecessary surgery, 7,000 die because of medical errors, 106,000 die because of the negative effects of drugs, 20,000 die due to other errors and 80,000 die because of infections. These deaths are called iatrogenic deaths, which means that they have been caused as a direct result of a medical treatment. That does not mean these people died despite medical treatment, it means they died because of it. These statistic place death by doctor as the third leading cause of deaths in the Untied States behind only heart disease and cancer.
A survey carried out by the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death2 in the United Kingdom found that 27 % of all cancer patients have accelerated death because of their cancer chemotherapy. The studies authors claimed that 1 in 4 of the people treated died from the treatment, not the cancer. While most people are fully aware that chemotherapy is the cornerstone of allopathic treatment for certain cancers, most are completely unaware that research has shown that consuming 200 µg per day of selenium as yeast can cut the overall morbidity and mortality of cancer by more than 50 %. It is very unlikely that you will hear either of these statistics on the mainstream media or from your doctor. In fact if you ask your doctor about selenium he is very likely to dismiss it as a worthless expense.
According to the United Kingdom Government’s own 2009 statistic3, 3593 people died as a result of falls, 5278 people died from diabetes, 645 people died from alcohol related injury and 2284 people died in traffic accidents, but the report mentions no deaths from nutritional supplements. Considering the United Kingdom population spend £364 million a year on dietary supplements5, that is a pretty good safety record. Likewise, in 2009 the Annual Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers in the United States reported not one single death attributed to taking a nutritional supplement. The fact is that nutritional supplements have an exceptional safety record that is proven in the statistics and the scientific literature. Supplementing a healthy diet with nutritional supplements is recommended for all those interested in optimum health and who wish to protect themselves from disease.
RdB
