by Mark McCarty
(OMNS Dec 21, 2013) “Centrum Silver Adults 50+” was the low-dose multivitamin tested in a much-trumpeted recent study that “proved that supplements don’t work.” Here is the manufacturer’s webpage for this paragon of applied nutritional science: http://www.centrum.com/centrum-silver-adults-50-plus#tablets However, to actually see in detail what’s in the product, you have to click the tiny “Product Labeling” link directly under the package illustration . . . and then scroll all the way down to the fine print in the “Ingredients” box.
[Sponsored Link: Layman's Guide to Silver, Intramax]
But it is worth the effort. In addition to three artificial colors, note the whopping big doses (this is satire, now) of protective nutrients such as:
Vitamin D – 500 IU (Bet they thought they were going way out on a limb, adding that great extra 100 IU!)
Vitamin E – 50 IU (All provided by cutting edge, synthetic dl-alpha-tocopheryl acetate)
Magnesium – 50 mg (Wow, one-eighth of the RDA, in the ever-so-soluble oxide form!)
Zinc – 11 mg (Cleverly well below the elevated range shown to exert any “dangerous antioxidant activity” by inducing metallothionein [1])
Calcium – 220 mg (Note the 4.4 to 1 ratio of calcium to magnesium; way too high, and that is not a satirical comment)
Lutein – 250 mcg (Macular degeneration is now a thing of the past!)
Evidently, the failure of this nutritional powerhouse to prevent dementia can only mean that all supplementation is inherently worthless.
Granted this supplement did reduce cancer incidence by 8% (http://www.nbcnews.com/health/daily-multivitamin-cuts-mens-cancer-risk-8-percent-large-study-1C6519472), but who can remember back that far?
Of course, you would think that even modest, conservative doses of micronutrients might provide some benefit to the many mentally-challenged people whose baseline diets are overloaded with empty calories. So to give the supplement the very best chance to demonstrate efficacy, the researchers chose a population of research subjects most likely to be nutritionally deficient: American physicians!
Now that we have gotten all this supplements nonsense out of our systems, we can all go to our doctors to get prescriptions for the many drugs proven to prevent dementia (of which there are none).
But as for vitamins, thank heavens our ever-vigilant media have set us straight again! What would we do without them?
(Mark McCarty is a nutritionist and Research Director at the non-profit organization Catalytic Longevity. He is also President of NutriGuard Research, and a consultant to several medical clinics.)