A few days ago it was saw palmetto that was being torched. And before that, echinachea, vitamin E, and St. John’s Wort. Once again, though, if you read past the headlines saying women over 50 gain no benefit in preventing osteoporosis or colorectal cancer by taking calcium and vitamin D, you begin to wonder about the headlines.
Buried in the New York Times article about the study is the information that among women over 60 in the study, there was a 21% reduction in hip fractures among the group taking the supplements. The article then goes on to suggest that statistical differences within subgroups are nearly meaningless. Yet this subgroup happened to consist of 10,000 women taking supplements, and another 10,000 taking placebos. And wouldn’t you tend to expect women over 60 to be most prone to the effects of osteoporosis?
And the Women’s Health Initiative, sponsor of the study, itself says in its conclusion, "We know that the use of these supplements for an average of 7 years slows loss of bone density and may help protect against hip fractures." Doesn’t sound like "no clear benefit" as stated in the New York Times article.
Beyond all that, there’s nothing in the articles or study summary about the vagaries of nutritional supplements. For example, calcium and vitamin D can be absorbed differently by different people, depending on their forms. Vitamin D as "cholecalciferol" is generally thought to be absorbed best by the body, but it isn’t clear what form the women in the study used.
More certainly to come in this arena, so stay tuned.
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