More Costly Things That Don’t Work

A few weeks ago I suggested many of you could save money by not buying health ‘cures’ that don’t work. Here’s another collection for your consideration.

Vitamins E and C don’t reduce the risk for prostate cancer or, indeed, total cancer incidence; this is according to a large study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Data came from the 10-year Physicians Health Study II, which enrolled 14,000 men. Half of them took supplements of 400 IU of vitamin E every other day and 500 mg of vitamin C daily; the other half took placebos.

In a similar study, reported in the same journal, selenium supplementation (400 micrograms daily) was also shown to have no beneficial effect on the incidence of prostate cancer or total cancer incidence.

The use of vitamin E has had another setback – it’s ineffective in preventing rheumatoid arthritis, according to a report in the journal Arthritis Care and Research.

A severe blow to the ‘free radicals/oxidative stress’ theory of aging has been delivered by UK scientists in the journal Genes & Development. In particular, the role of superoxide free radicals must be downplayed considerably. Admittedly the critical finding was made in a worm (Caenorhabditis elegans), but this creature is a well-accepted model for aging research. So maybe you can temper your goal of consuming as many antioxidants as possible – you probably won’t alter your lifespan.

I don’t want to let the surgeons off the hook. Much money is spent on surgery for by an injured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the knee. But, according to a study in Arthritis & Rheumatism, 2-5 years after treatment patients had the same muscle strength and function whether they had physical therapy & training plus surgery, or no surgery. Over 120 patients were randomly assigned to have training plus reconstructive surgery or training alone (which lasted at least 4 months). There were no significant differences in the results on long-term follow-up.

Finally, despite the establishment of rapid-response teams in hospitals to prevent cardiac arrest deaths, there’s no good evidence that they work. In fact, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that the improved survival after a heart attack in hospital is not attributable to the existence of such teams, but to other quality improvement programs and improved technologies. To be fair, this was a large study, but confined to a single hospital. However, if the findings are confirmed elsewhere, hospitals can probably save a lot of money by dropping this approach.