Читать книгу Orthomolecular Medicine for Everyone - Abram Hoffer M.D. Ph.D. - Страница 43

In 2003, there was one alleged death from vitamin C and one alleged death from vitamin B₆. The accuracy of such attribution is questionable, as water-soluble vitamins such as B₆ (pyridoxine) and vitamin C (ascorbate) have excellent safety records stretching back for many decades. “Vitamin problem” allegations are routinely overstated and unconfirmed. The 2003 AAPCC Toxic Exposures Surveillance System report indicates that reported deaths are “probably or undoubtedly related to the exposure,” a clear admission of uncertainty in the reporting.

Even if true, such events are aberrations. For example, in 1998, the Toxic Exposure Surveillance System reported no fatalities from either vitamin C or from B₆. In fact, that year there were no vitamin fatalities whatsoever. For decades, I have asked my readers, colleagues, and students to provide me with any and all scientific evidence of a confirmed death from either of these two vitamins or from any other vitamin. I have seen none to date.

Even the mistakenly believed “side effects” of vitamin C have been found to be completely mythical. According to a National Institutes of Health report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (April 21, 1999), none of the following problems are caused by taking “too much vitamin C”: hypoglycemia, rebound scurvy, infertility, or destruction of vitamin B₁₂.

Rather than focus on infinitesimally minimal supplement risk, it is vitamin deficiency that is the vastly more serious public health issue. For example, pyridoxine supplementation should be actively encouraged, as larger-than-food quantities of this vitamin has been demonstrated to prevent both cardiovascular disease and depression, diseases that are enormous public health problems. It has been known for decades that women who use the birth control pill experience vitamin B₆ deficiency, and need to be encouraged to supplement with it.¹⁷

“In decades of people taking a wide variety of dietary supplements, few adverse effects have been noted, and zero deaths as a result of the dietary supplements. There is far more risk to public health from people stopping their vitamin supplements than from people taking them.” —MICHAEL JANSON, M.D.