–Despite tighter FDA rules red yeast supplements may not contain the active ingredient– or far too much of it. A new study offers fresh evidence that it is impossible for consumers (or their doctors) to know what they are getting when they buy dietary supplements. Dietary supplements have long been, at best, loosely regulated in…
Pendulum Swings Further Away From Vitamin D Supplements
April 5, 2017 by 5 Comments
A new randomized controlled trial offers no support for the use of increasingly popular vitamin D supplements to prevent cardiovascular disease or reduce mortality. But the trial, published in JAMA Cardiology, is also not the last word on the subject and leaves open the possibility that vitamin D may be found beneficial in the future…
Calcium Levels and CV Risk: New Study Finds No Link
October 24, 2016 by 1 Comment
–But most agree dietary calcium is preferable to supplements A new review concludes that a high level of calcium intake, whether from food or supplements, is not linked to increased cardiovascular risk, as long as the total calcium intake remains below the tolerable upper level of intake (2,000-2,500 mg/day). The systematic review, published in Annals…
Calcium Supplements Linked To Increased Cardiovascular Risk
October 12, 2016 by 2 Comments
–But the observational study suggested an overall benefit for dietary calcium. A new observational study finds that calcium supplements may increase cardiovascular risk. By contrast, dietary calcium was linked to a protective effect. Many people– in particular, older women– take calcium supplements to prevent or treat osteoporosis, though the supporting evidence for this use is…
Why The Internet Stinks– Part 1
July 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Like many other bloggers and journalists I get a lot of unsolicited and unwanted pitches. For years I just threw them in the trash. Now I’m going to share some of these gems with the rest of you. Here’s the first installment (click to enlarge):…
Study Suggests Vitamin D Can’t Prevent Diabetes
October 1, 2014 by Leave a Comment
A vitamin D pill can’t substitute for a healthy diet and sunshine, a new genetic study published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology suggests. In recent years many people have been seduced by observational studies that found low levels of vitamin D in people who developed type 2 diabetes. The new study instead suggests that the association is not…
Studies Provide Little Support For Guidelines On Dietary Fats And Supplements
March 17, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The precise cardiovascular effect of dietary fats and supplements has been the subject of heated controversy. Although there is no strong supporting evidence from clinical trials, current guidelines tend to discourage or minimize the role of saturated fats and trans fats and to encourage the intake of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Two new studies published today help clarify…
Vitamin Supplements Come Up Short Once Again
February 24, 2014 by 1 Comment
Once again the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has concluded that there is no good evidence to support the routine use of multivitamins or most individual or combination vitamins by healthy adults to prevent cardiovascular disease or cancer. The USPSTF also recommended against the use of two specific vitamins — beta-carotene and vitamin E. Beta-carotene has been…
More Evidence That Omega-3 Supplements Don’t Work
September 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Once again researchers have failed to find any clinical benefit for omega-3 supplements. In a new meta-analysis and systematic review published in JAMA, Evangelos Rizos and colleagues analyzed 20 randomized controlled trials including 68,680 patients and found no significant effect on any of the endpoints: all-cause mortality: relative risk (RR) 0.96, CI 0.91 – 1.02 cardiac…
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