Hillary Swank is a Vitamin Junkie

Hillary Swank downs a reported 45 supplements a day! She’s quoted as saying:

“This is my Aloe C, which I dissolve in water. Here’s my flax. This one’s for my immune system, and this one is my BrainWave - it’s great, like if I have a lot of lines to memorise. I just took my most important ones, which are my Oz Garcia Longevity Pak. I shoved them in my mouth right before I met you, which I actually shouldn’t do, because I choked on my vitamins once before.”

So are vitamins and supplements really the fountain of youth?

Unfortunately the data on supplements has been dissappointing.  Consider these studies:

High Dose Beta Carotene and Vitamin A supplementation in smokers: This study found that smokers who took beta carotene and Vitamin A supplements had an increased risk of lung cancer by 28% over those who did not take supplements! Additionally the death rates increased by 46% for cancer and by 26% for cardiovascular disease. The results were so compelling the study was stopped 21 months early for ethical reasons.

Vitamin E - Hope Trial - double blind, placebo controlled study involving 9541 patients with cardiovascular disease or diabetes with 7 year follow up
The Vitamin E group (400IU/day) group had a:
19% increased risk of Heart Failure
21% increase in hospitalizations for Heart Failure
No benefit in preventing cancer or major cardiovascular disease

Vitamin E - Women’s Health Study: 39,876 healthy women at least 45 years old followed for an average of 10 years. Vitamin E (600IU/day) showed no benefit in reducing cardiovascular disease or cancer.

Woman’s Antioxidant Study: Women with a history of cardiovascular heart disease, or 3 cardiac risk factors were given Vitamin C (500 mg/d), Vitamin E (600IU), Beta-Carotene (50 mg every other day). No Benefit was observed among women at high risk for heart disease.

Bottom line, under the rigors of controlled studies pill popping vitamins have not been shown to consistently improve health. In fact the opposite is true. And the studies suggesting potent harm should serve as a warming. Supplements will in no way substitute for a diet full of unprocessed fruit and veggies. You can’t have your Ho- Hos and Yodels and pop some vitamins and think your covered.

It is short sighted to think that beta-carotene is for instance the “anti-cancer” vitamin when it is one of over 600 carotenoids. Vitamins work in concert with each other, and grossly oversupplying one vitamin over another upsets this balance. In fact studies done in ferrets suggest that supplying beta carotene in high doses actually creates pre-cancerous lesions leading to lung cancer formation.

Here’s the take home message. The best source of vitamins is a diet rich in unprocessed fruits and veggies.

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