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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, October 12, 2011

What Kind of Medical Study Would Have Grandma Believe that Her Daily Multivitamin is Dangerous?

by Robert G. Smith, PhD

(OMNS, Oct 12, 2011) A newly released study suggests that multivitamin and nutrient supplements can increase the mortality rate in older women [1]. However, there are several concerns about the study's methods and significance.

• The study was observational, in which participants filled out a survey about their eating habits and their use of supplements. It reports only a small increase in overall mortality (1%) from those taking multivitamins. This is a small effect, not much larger than would be expected by chance. Generalizing from such a small effect is not scientific.
• The study actually reported that taking supplements of B-complex, vitamins C, D, E, and calcium and magnesium were associated with a lower risk of mortality. But this was not emphasized in the abstract, leading the non-specialist to think that all supplements were associated with mortality. The report did not determine the amounts of vitamin and nutrient supplements taken, nor whether they were artificial or natural. Further, most of the association with mortality came from the use of iron and copper supplements, which are known to be potentially inflammatory and toxic when taken by older people, because they tend to accumulate in the body [2,3,4]. The risk from taking iron supplements should not be generalized to imply that all vitamin and nutrient supplements are harmful.

Hepatitis
Autoimmune Hepatitis, Toxic Hepatitis, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C

Wobenzym in complex therapy of chronic liver diseases
Vasilenko A. M., Svec S. V. Wobenzym in complex therapy of chronic liver diseases. State Medical Academy in Dnepropetrovsk. II National Congress of Rheumatologists in the Ukraine, Kiev, 1997

Current complex therapy of chronic liver diseases focuses on elimination of basic pathogenetic syndroms of the disease. Glucocorticoids (GC) are the most effective in the treatment of chronic autoimmune hepatitis (CAH) and active liver cirrhosis (LC) with a significant autoimmune process. They appear to be effective regulators of immune reaction which suppress antibody production. One of the undesirable side-effects of GC is formation of circulating middle size immune complexes (CIC) which intensify cytolytic syndrom ( 1, 2, 4). One of the main characteristics of CIC - pathogenesity - is mainly determined by the size of complexes. Pathogenesity is caused, among others factors, also by a quantitative relation between antigen and antibody. During overproduction of antibodies against any antigen or in the case of equivalent relation when antigen is fully or partially bound, large CIC are formed. Mild excess of antigen over appropriate antibody (ratio 3:2) leads to a formation of middle sized immune complexes. Insufficient antibody production causes a formation of low molecular weight complexes. Literature data (l, 2, 4) show that cytolysis is higher when middle size CIC prevail. Optimal conditions for middle size CIC formation arise in 2nd - 3rd week of the treatment by big doses of GC. Wide use of GC is limited also by risk of possible side-effects: pathological changes in organs of digestive system and kidney, insufficient anti-inflammatory effect, impossible induction of remission of the disease. All above mentioned facts speak for a necessity to search for new methods to treat chronic liver diseases. Systemic enzyme therapy seems to be one of the prospective options.

Hepatitis C is an infectious disease of the liver that can cause miserable symptoms including fatigue, lack of appetite, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. Caused by a virus, hepatitis C affects about 200 million people worldwide. In the U.S. alone, one to two percent of the population is infected. Not only can this infectious disease cause scarring of the liver, cirrhosis, and eventually liver failure, but a significant number of people with hepatitis C also develop sometimes fatal liver disease or cancer.

Executive Summary
The Hepatitis C Trust held a web-based survey from April 2006 to September 2007 that asked about people’s experience of anti-viral hepatitis C treatment and in particular how they felt up to 3 years after finishing the treatment. 500 respondents completed the questionnaire.

Key findings:

* 90% of people reported ongoing symptoms/side effects for longer than 12 months after treatment ended.

* The five most frequently reported post treatment symptoms/side effects were fatigue, joint aches/pains, brain fog, depression and mood swings.

* Regardless of SVR (sustained virological response), 40% of people felt worse after treatment than before and 31% felt better.

For those who had attained SVR
37% felt better and 36% felt worse

A new study by the Washington Post finds that women who take a popular hormone replacement drug after menopause not only increase their chances of getting breast cancer but also seem to face an increased risk of dying from the disease. The Washington Post article based its report on a landmark federal study.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) can breach the blood-brain barrier and infect support cells in the brain, triggering inflammatory changes that ultimately result in damage to neurons, suggests new research published in the open access online journal PLoS One.

This was forwarded to us regarding another companies dealings with FTC / FDA regulations on free speech.

A few months ago, we notified you that the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or “Commission”) intended to change its standard for “competent and reliable scientific evidence” as it applies to claims for over-the-counter (“OTC”) drugs, dietary supplements and functional foods, starting by imposing the new standard on individual companies through consent decrees. Now, as predicted, the FTC has introduced that new standard into consent decrees with Iovate Health Sciences, Inc. (“Iovate”) and Nestle HealthCare Nutrition, Inc. (“Nestle”).

Specifically, yesterday’s FTC consent decree with Iovate Health Sciences imposed a provision under which Iovate is barred from representing that its products cause weight loss or rapid weight loss unless the claims are truthful and backed by “competent and reliable scientific evidence” in the form of:

1.    At least two adequate and well-controlled human clinical studies,
2.    of the product at issue or an essentially equivalent product
3.    conducted by different experts independently of each other,
4.    that conform to acceptable designs and protocols and whose results, when
considered in light of the entire body of relevant and reliable scientific evidence, are sufficient to substantiate the claim.