At 7:55 PM -0800 2/15/2000, Technotranscendence wrote:
> > If there _were_ such a thing as practical life extension, many of
>> us would no doubt do that. But while there have been many studies
>> showing some correlations between diets containing certain nutrients
>> and certain health benefits, there has not been a single study I'm
>> aware of to show that popping vitamin pills has any positive health
>> benefit at all.
>
>What about the UCLA study of vitamin C published in 1992? This was not the
>most rigorous study, but it tracked over 11K individuals over about a
>decade. The findings? Men taking 800 mg of vitamin C per day lived about 6
>years longer than those taking 60 mg of the same per day. Another 9 year
>study completed in 1996 with a similar population size seemed to confirm
>this, though the study focused on vitamins C and E, rather than just vitamin
>C. Granted, those are only two studies, but that beat Lee Daniel's above
>statement.
The problem with these studies is that there's no way to control
for other variables.
The kind of person who takes 800 mg of vitamin C probably does a
great many other things to enhance life extension: e.g. exercise, eat
a low-fat diet, and of course take other vitamins. The person who
takes 60 mg probably isn't too serious. Until it's possible to do an
extensive long-term study of individuals so isolated that every
possible variable affecting their health is controlled it won't be
possible to take these studies seriously. And who would volunteer?
-- -John Thomas
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:03:48 MDT