When science becomes propaganda

On Feb. 20, 2017, a writer named Stewart Lawrence published a brief article on the website, www.studyfinds.org. The article cites a study, conducted in China, which says that taking dietary supplements are not only bad for you, but that taking them could shorten your life.

“A study conducted in China, where aging is akin to a national obsession these days, claims that antioxidants don’t work as billed. The study is published in the journal Redox Biology.

The study finds that antioxidant supplements may be more harmful to the human body than believed. Rather than extending longevity, researchers say they trigger a stress reaction hat causes the body to age more rapidly. In other words, those expensive life-enhancers may actually be killing you.”

This is pure government-sponsored propaganda and I’ll tell you why.

First, there were no clinical trials, which are the gold standard for measuring the impact of vitamins, pharmaceuticals, minerals, enzymes, you name it. A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial—which can involve thousands of patients and take years to complete—was not cited. The Chinese doctors appear to have just made it all up.

Vitamin supplements are not readily available in China. I know this because my stepdaughter, who was living in Beijing, had a bad cold and I suggested that she take some vitamin C. However, in Beijing, one can only buy very small dosages, such as 5 mg (which is nothing).

It is impossible to buy doses of vitamin C in 500mg or greater, and this is true of all other dietary supplements. They are not easily available to the public.

However, the article, originally published in the South China Morning Post, insists that young Chinese people are harming their health by taking vitamin C, beta-carotene, and other supplements. It’s hogwash, and most likely government-sponsored hogwash.

The article also claims that Danish scientists (conveniently unidentified) validated the Chinese research. But there was no research, no clinical trials.

In America, and other Western countries, the value of taking dietary supplements has not only been well established, there are thousands of clinical trails which support their findings: your body needs vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and Omega 3 oils. There is no way around it.

Just as your car needs gasoline to run, your body needs nutrients to keep you going through the day. If your car’s gas gauge is on empty, you won’t get very far.

There are other reasons for the necessity for taking dietary supplements—in addition to the health benefits. The first is that most of the food we eat is nutritionally deficient. Drinking a glass of orange juice won’t give you much vitamin C, but it will give you a lot of sugar (a toxin). Therefore, supplementing with C is essential, a minimum of 500mg per day; thousands of studies confirm this.

Another reason for taking supplements is that we are continually subjected to toxins, in the air we breath (the air in Beijing is highly toxic), the foods we eat, and some of the beverages we drink. Taking dietary supplements helps to rid the body of anti-oxidants and toxic buildup.

But it’s not just the Chinese media; there seems to be a full-court press to discourage people from taking dietary supplements—even on Wikipedia. The pharmaceutical companies pay physicians large sums to write propaganda, discouraging the use of nutritional supplements.

Bottom line: take a good multi-vitamin every day, along with vitamin C, and Omega 3 fatty acids. These are not only health-promoting nutrients, your body needs them. Good scientific research is available online, but you have to watch out for propaganda.

Russ Mason, MS
As Teo, Saipan