The Skinny Kid

AP Wire | 02/27/2007 | Antioxidants don’t help you live longer

Antioxidant vitamins taken by tens of millions of people around the world won’t lead to a longer life, according to an analysis of dozens of studies that adds to evidence questioning the value of the popular supplements. The large review of separate studies on thousands of people found no long-life benefit from vitamins A, E and C and beta carotene and selenium.

On the other hand, they might kill you.

Then again, there is no guarantee the study is correct.

Dr Ioannidis wrote: “Published research findings are sometimes refuted by subsequent evidence, with ensuing confusion and disappointment.” He argued that there is increasing concern that in modern research, false findings may be the majority or even the vast majority of published research claims, and went on to try and prove that most claimed research findings are false.

However, in this week’s PLoS Medicine, Ramal Moonesinghe (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and colleagues demonstrate that the likelihood of a published research result being true increases when that finding has been repeatedly replicated in multiple studies.

So there you have it.

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Selenium may cut prostate cancer risk in some men

Overall, the researchers found no association between serum selenium and prostate cancer risk. However, higher serum selenium correlated with a lower likelihood of prostate cancer in men who reported a high vitamin E intake (more than the average of 28 IU per day) and those taking multivitamins.Also, for smokers, high selenium levels appeared to reduce their prostate cancer risk.

So if you don’t smoke or take multi-vitamins, don’t worry. But if you do, make sure you get selenium as well. No wonder most vitamin E supplements also include selenium.