Vitamin Supplement Safety Confirmed by America's Largest Database
(OMNS Jan 30, 2013) The new annual report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers shows zero deaths from multiple vitamins; zero deaths from vitamin A, niacin, vitamin B-6, vitamin D, or vitamin E.
Two people are alleged to have died from vitamin supplements in the year 2011, according to AAPCC's interpretation of the most recent information collected by the U.S. National Poison Data System. One death was allegedly because of vitamin C; the other supposedly because of "Other B-Vitamins." As the AAPCC report specifically indicates no deaths from niacin (B-3) or pyridoxine (B-6), that leaves folic acid, thiamine (B-1), riboflavin (B-2), biotin, and B-12 as the remaining B-vitamins that could be implicated. However, the safety record of these vitamins is extraordinarily good; no fatalities have been confirmed for any of them. Vitamin C is also an extraordinarily safe nutrient. No deaths have ever been confirmed from supplementation with vitamin C.
Even allowing that the AAPCC data is correct (and we do not), two deaths in a year associated with vitamins, nationwide, is a very small number. Well over half of the U.S. population takes daily nutritional supplements. Even if each of those people took only one single tablet daily, that makes 165,000,000 individual doses per day, for a total of over 60 billion doses annually. Since many persons take far more than just one single vitamin tablet, actual consumption is considerably higher, and the safety of nutritional supplements is all the more remarkable.
To quote Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD: "No one dies from vitamins." The Orthomolecular Medicine News Service invites submission of specific scientific evidence conclusively demonstrating death caused by a vitamin. Association is not causation; allegation is not proof. If there were such proof, the media would have had it all over their front pages.
If vitamin supplements are allegedly so "dangerous," then where are the bodies?
Reference
- Bronstein AC, Spyker DA, Cantilena LR et al. 2011 Annual Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers' National Poison Data System (NPDS): 29th Annual Report. Clinical Toxicology (2012), 50(10), 911-1164. The data discussed above can be found on p1134, Table 22B. https://aapcc.s3.amazonaws.com/pdfs/annual_reports/2011_NPDS_Annual_Report.pdf
-
Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine
Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org
-
Find a Doctor
To locate an orthomolecular physician near you: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n09.shtml
Comments
Sign in or create a free account to join the conversation.
Sign in to commentI just want to say that I am not advocating drugs against nutrients, but reminding they can be dangerous too, and folic acid is one of them if you call that a nutrient. Folic acid is not the way it is found in nature, and is harmful.
Still, you can often find a situation where solution is drugs and not nutrients; and nutrients, such as excess copper in elderly people who took no supplemental copper, can be dangerous too.
If such things make me a naysayer, I am.
The point to this article is the argument traditional medicine conducts when people question the doctor's prescription during an office visit. Unfortunately our medical professionals are honed in on maintenance rather than cures. Without getting too complicated, just think of statins for example. Yes, statins help reduce cholesterol and may even protect against coronary heart disease, but at what cost? Although not as quickly, fish oil in the form of Eicosapentaenoic Acid (EPA) and Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) accomplishes the same thing. Not only does this Omega-3 essential fatty acid work better than statins, but it costs less, is safer, and has no long-term side effects that statins do. If people consumed enough nutrients, not too much, and not too little, avoided environmental toxins, and got enough exercise chances are that pharmaceutical companies would go bankrupted. Compared to the deaths caused by prescription drugs vitamins are life-savers. http://skinnyliver.com
My mom has hypercholestrolemia and she used fish oil and statins. Though statins are worse than fish oil most of the time, I think fish oil is not necessary. She will try some policosanol when my brother brings it from USA...
I think vitamins and minerals are often used when they aren't doing any good and most multivitamins should eliminate harmful ingredients.
Most fish are much better than fish oils, and they have other good nutrients to supply, that means fish oil is useless.
Something doesn't have to kill you to be harmful to your body. Kind of a ridiculous argument since most people die of diseases where it's hard to put the cause on one particular thing.