Editorial: To your health

Monday, March 5, 2007 | 7:16 a.m.

Just when we thought it was safe to go back to the health food store, a groundbreaking and controversial study published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that some of the popular vitamins and supplements that health buffs take may not help prolong life at all.

What is worse is the study concluded that three popular antioxidant supplements - beta carotene, vitamin A and vitamin E - may increase the likelihood of death.

Lovely.

"The main message is that prevention by beta carotene, vitamin A and vitamin E cannot be recommended," the study's senior author, Dr. Christian Gluud, told the Associated Press. "These three antioxidant supplements may increase mortality."

Gluud's team at the Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark analyzed 68 studies on antioxidants involving 232,606 people and found the antioxidants had no positive impact on a person's life expectancy. The most reliable of those studies, they said, showed that the mortality rate was 4 percent higher for people taking vitamin E, 7 percent for beta carotene and 16 percent for vitamin A.

Researchers don't know why that is. There is speculation that the reason may be that people with serious diseases and illnesses, such as cancer, load up on the supplements. The vitamins and antioxidants are believed to be fine in their natural form. The question is whether taking the supplements in high doses is healthy. Vitamin companies and others are attacking the study, saying it draws on too wide a pool of research. The attack is not surprising considering that last year Americans alone spent $2.3 billion on nutritional supplements and vitamins.

Some experts are urging caution before you throw out the supplements, saying the study has problems and is far from definitive.

Confused?

It can be baffling trying to do the right thing for your health when studies continue to change or reverse the boundaries of healthy living. We will stick with the recommendation of one expert who applied a heavy dose of common sense to this latest study. Go with what we know works. Eat food rich in vitamins and antioxidants.

That is good advice. We'll eat to that.