THE SAFETY OF VITAMINS AND FOOD SUPPLEMENTS

[Guest guest]

THE SAFETY OF VITAMINS AND FOOD SUPPLEMENTS

 

(A presentation by Andrew W. Saul to the Government of Canada, House

of Commons Standing Committee on Health, specifically in reference to

C-420, on May 12, 2005, Ottawa, Canada.)

 

Honorable Ladies and Gentlemen:

 

Natural health products, such as amino acids, herbs, vitamins and

other nutritional supplements, have an extraordinarily safe usage

history. In the USA, close to half of the population takes herbal or

nutritional supplements every day. That is over 145,000,000 individual

doses daily, for a total of over 53 billion doses annually.

 

The most elementary of forensic arguments is, where are the bodies?

 

To try to answer this question, we may turn to the 2003 Annual Report

of the American Association of Poison Control Centers Toxic Exposures

Surveillance System, published in the American Journal of Emergency

Medicine, Vol. 22, No. 5, September 2004.

 

(

 

http://www.aapcc.org/Annual%20Reports/03report/Annual%20Report%202003.pdf)

This report states that there have been four deaths attributed to

vitamin/mineral supplements in the year 2003. Two of those deaths were

due to iron poisoning. That means there have been two deaths allegedly

caused by vitamins, out of over 53 billion doses. That is a product

safety record without equal.

 

Pharmaceutical drugs, on the other hand, caused over 2,000 poison

control-reported deaths, including

 

Antibiotics: 13 deaths

 

Antidepressants: 274 deaths

 

Antihistamines: 64 deaths

 

Cardiovascular drugs: 162 deaths

 

It would be incorrect to state that only prescription drugs kill

people. In 2003, there were 59 deaths from aspirin alone. That is a

death rate nearly thirty times higher than that of iron supplements.

Furthermore, there were still more deaths from aspirin in combination

with other products.

 

Fatalities are by no means limited to drug products. In the USA in the

year 2003, there was a death from " Cream/lotion/makeup, " a death from

" Granular laundry detergent, " one death from " Gun bluing, " one death

from plain soap, one death from baking soda, and one death from table

salt.

 

Other deaths reported by the American Association of Poison Control

Centers included:

 

aerosol air fresheners: 2 deaths

 

nailpolish remover: 2 deaths

 

perfume/cologne/aftershave: 2 deaths

 

charcoal: 3 deaths

 

dishwashing detergent: 3 deaths

 

(and interestingly, weapons of mass destruction: 0 deaths)

 

In America in 2003, there were 28 deaths from heroin, and yet

acetaminophen ( " Tylenol " ) alone killed 147. Though acetaminophen

killed over five times as many, few would say that we should make this

generally-regarded-as-safe, over-the-counter pain reliever require

prescription. Even caffeine killed two people in 2003, a number equal

to the two fatalities attributed to non-iron vitamin/mineral

supplements. Tea, coffee and cola soft drinks are not sold with

restriction, prescription, or in childproof bottles, and rather few

would maintain that they need to be.

 

A CLOSER LOOK AT ALLEGATIONS OF VITAMIN FATALITIES

 

Nutritional supplements are exceptionally safe. In 2003, there were no

deaths from multiple vitamins without iron. There were no deaths from

amino acids. There were no deaths from B-complex vitamin supplements.

There were no deaths from niacin. There were no deaths from vitamin A.

There were no deaths from vitamin D. There were no deaths from vitamin

E.

 

There was, supposedly, one alleged death from C and one alleged death from B-6.

 

The accuracy of such attribution is questionable, as water-soluble

vitamins such as B-6 (pyridoxine) and vitamin C (ascorbate) have

excellent safety records stretching back for many decades. " Vitamin

problem " allegations are routinely overstated and unconfirmed. The

latest (2003) Toxic Exposures Surveillance System report indicates

that reported deaths are " probably or undoubtedly related to the

exposure, " a clear admission of uncertainty in the reporting. (p 340)

 

Even if true, such events are aberrations. For example, In 1998, the

American Association of Poison Control Centers' Toxic Exposure

Surveillance System reported no fatalities from either vitamin C or

from B-6. In fact, that year there were no vitamin fatalities

whatsoever. For decades I have asked my readers, colleagues, and

students to provide me with any and all scientific evidence of a

confirmed death from either of these two vitamins, or from any other

vitamin. I have seen none to date.

 

HERBAL SUPPLEMENTS

 

The 2003 Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers

Toxic Exposures Surveillance System

 

(

 

http://www.aapcc.org/Annual%20Reports/03report/Annual%20Report%202003.pdf)

indicates a total of 13 deaths attributed to herbal preparations.

Three of these are from ephedra, two from yohimbe, and two from

ma-huang. I have worked extensively in the alternative health field

for nearly 30 years, and I have known of virtually no one who has

taken ephedra, yohimbe, or ma-huang, and certainly not in the

deliberately abusive high quantities that it takes to kill someone.

Nevertheless, accepting all seven deaths attributed to these products,

we still find that there were 30 times as many deaths from aspirin and

acetaminophen.

 

Only three deaths are attributable to other " single ingredient

botanicals, " and oddly enough, their identity remains unnamed in the

Toxic Exposures report.

 

Millions of persons take herbal remedies, and have done so for

generations. Indigenous and Westernized peoples alike have found them

to be safe and effective, and the 2003 Report of the American

Association of Poison Control Centers Toxic Exposures Surveillance

System confirms this (p 388-389). There have been no deaths at all

from " cultural medicines, " including ayurvedic, Asian, Hispanic, and

in fact, from all others.

 

Additionally, we find:

 

Blue cohosh: 0 deaths

 

Ginko biloba: 0 deaths

 

Echinacea: 0 deaths

 

Ginseng: 0 deaths

 

Kava kava: 0 deaths

 

St John's wort: 0 deaths

 

Valerian: 0 deaths

 

Furthermore, there have been no deaths from phytoestrogens,

glandulars, blue-green algae, or homeopathic remedies.

 

MINERAL SUPPLEMENTS

 

Of the eight deaths in the category, five of them are from

non-supplement sources rightly termed " electrolytes " : two from sodium

and three from potassium (p 389). Two deaths were allegedly due to

iron overdose. Since 1986, there has been an average of two deaths per

year " associated with " iron supplements. The sole remaining death was

from calcium, a mineral that is employed medically for its antidote

properties. In fact, in 2003, calcium was used as a lifesaving

antidote in 5,228 cases (p 344). There is no evidence that the single

listed calcium death was from a supplement, and the odds are

overwhelming that it was not.

 

AMINO ACID SUPPLEMENTS

 

In 2003, poison control centers reported no deaths whatsoever from

amino acids. This is in itself a strong safety statement.

 

IN PERSPECTIVE

 

Supplementation's harshest critics have traditionally railed against

vitamins (especially in large doses) as being outright " dangerous " and

at the very least " a waste of money. " Yet nutritional supplements are

very safe, and for much of the population, very necessary. . . To

illustrate how extraordinarily important supplements are to persons

with a questionable diet, consider this: Children who eat hot dogs

once a week double their risk of a brain tumor. Kids eating more than

twelve hot dogs a month (that's barely three hot dogs a week) have

nearly ten times the risk of leukemia as children who ate none.

(Peters JM, Preston-Martin S, London SJ, Bowman JD, Buckley JD, Thomas

DC. Processed meats and risk of childhood leukemia. Cancer Causes

Control. 1994 Mar; 5(2):195-202.)

 

 

However, hot-dog eating children taking supplemental vitamins were

shown to have a reduced risk of cancer. (Sarasua S, Savitz DA. Cured

and broiled meat consumption in relation to childhood cancer. Cancer

Causes Control. 1994 Mar; 5(2):141-8.)

 

It is curious that, while theorizing many " potential " dangers of

vitamins, the media often choose to ignore the very real

cancer-prevention benefits of supplementation. . . Media

supplement-scare-stories notwithstanding, taking supplements is not

the problem; it is a solution. Malnutrition is the problem.

 

The number one side effect of vitamins is failure to take enough of

them. Vitamins are extraordinarily safe substances. Drugs are not.

There are over 106,000 deaths from pharmaceutical drugs each year in

the USA, even when prescribed correctly and taken as prescribed.

(Lucian Leape, Error in medicine. Journal of the American Medical

Association, 1994, 272:23, p 1851. Also: Leape LL. Institute of

Medicine medical error figures are not exaggerated. JAMA. 2000 Jul

5;284(1):95-7.)

 

Public supplementation should be encouraged, not discouraged.

Supplements are a cost-effective means of preventing and ameliorating

illness. Supplement safety is outstandingly high. Natural health

products should be classified as foods, not drugs.

 

(end)

 

 

 

--

Diana Gonzalez

 

 

 

 

Nothing wastes more energy than worrying - the longer a problem is

carried, the heavier it gets. Don't take things too seriously - live a

life of serenity, not a life of regrets.

-Unknown