Save Cash by Not Buying Things That Don’t Work!
Tue, November 25, 2008 at 03:00AM In these hard times it’s pretty dumb to be spending a lot on so-called health products that have been shown not to work. There has recently been a rash of publications disproving the effectiveness of many popular (and sometimes expensive) products. Here’s a short list of touted items that are more snake-oil than medicine:
Ginko biloba to prevent Alzheimer’s and other dementias. In a large study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association 120 mg twice daily for an average of 6 years was not effective in reducing dementia or Alzheimer’s in over-75s with normal mental functioning or slight mental impairment.
Vitamins E and C won’t prevent heart disease. A large, 10-year study in men of these supplements (vitamin E 400 IU and vitamin C 500 mg daily, respectively), which was also published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, failed to show any effect on the risk of cardiovascular disease, in particular heart attack and stroke.
Vitamins E and C also don’t give protection from cancer. In the same set of subjects (the Physician’s Health Study), as those reported above, the same investigators found there was no protective action on the frequency of all cancers – or rather the total number of cancers.
Vitamin D plus calcium supplementation doesn’t reduce the risk of breast cancer. This was reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Data from the Women’s Health Initiative Study, which included 36,000 women, showed that those given 1000 mg of calcium with 400 IU vitamin D, daily, for an average of 7 years, had no reduction in their incidence of breast cancer. Of course, the supplements may have been beneficial for other purposes (e.g. helping prevent osteoporotic fractures).
The supplements glucosamine and/or chondroitin are no better than placebo in slowing knee damage due to osteoarthritis, according to a summary in the National Institutes of Health News. Over 570 patients with knee osteoarthritis were studied for 2 years or more. As with other studies, the investigators were unable to demonstrate a relevant difference in joint space width loss on X-ray with treatment using either drug or both.
Finally, DHEA, touted as the anti-aging hormone, doesn’t help retention of memory, overall well-being, and so on. A study reported in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society examined 235 older people who took dehydroepiandrosterone or a placebo daily for 2 years. There was no measurable effect of the supplement on memory or other mental abilities, quality of life, libido, sexual function, or general well-being.
These 5 well-founded clinical studies show clearly that several popular substances have little if any beneficial effect in most of the population. Older folk are particularly susceptible to the promotional efforts for such products. They should save their cash for things that really do help lead to a healthier, longer life – good nutrition, exercise, and social interactions.
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