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According to researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, vitamin supplements are probably useless when it comes to preventing heart disease and/or cancer.

Their analysis is being used by the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) to update its recommendations on supplement use, and the findings were recently reported by NBC News under the headline: “Vitamins don’t prevent heart disease or cancer, experts find.”

But is this really an accurate evaluation of the available evidence? A strong rebuttal to NBC’s reporting was immediately issued by Dr. Andrew Saul, editor of the
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service.

Dr. Saul has over 35 years of experience in natural health education;
Psychology Today named him as one of the seven natural health pioneers in 2006.

“I would like to apologize for NBC News. It seems that the organization that brought us Lowell Thomas, John Cameron Swayze, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley has lowered its standard of reporting,” he writes.

“NBC’s supplement-bashing headline article… displays an ignorance of clinical nutrition that is difficult to ignore, and, thanks to its media prominence, can’t be.

Of vitamin supplementation, NBC specifically said that a ‘very extensive look at the studies that have been done show it may be a waste of time when it comes to preventing the diseases most likely to kill you.’ The ‘very extensive look’ encompassed 24 preselected studies. It looks like they just possibly may have missed a few…”