Do vitamins kill older women?

This study recently came out in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
archinte.ama-assn.org...
The study involves 38 772 older women from 1986 to 2008. They state,"In older women, several commonly used dietary vitamin and mineral supplements may be associated with increased total mortality risk; this association is strongest with supplemental iron. In contrast to the findings of many studies, calcium is associated with decreased risk."
More can be read here.
junksciencecom.files.wordpress.com...

I actually prefaced the articles, devoting about 20 minutes of effort. Then I accidentally hit the back button and wiped off everything that I wrote.
However, when reviewing this article, there appears to be some legitimate concern. I'll let the readers decide for themselves.

I think it's because certain supplements can either mask serious conditions or grievously aggravate things by feeding cancers.
Truth is people are capable of self diagnosing what's good for them and going overboard on the vitamins. Too much of anything can kill you.

there was another article (if not the same one) being discussed in October
1) www.abovetopsecret.com...
2) www.abovetopsecret.com...

I think we debunked this claim by the horrible statistical analysis....If I recall the tests basically went "we tracked 39,000 women and some died......they were taking vitamins so it must be those that cause it."



I think this post by Tiredofcontrolfreaks sums it up

reply to post by Corruption Exposed Reply to Corruption Exposed: You are 100 % absolutely correct and you win the prize! This is a quote from the actual study: We documented cancers of the breast (invasive), colon/rectum, endometrium, kidney, bladder, stomach, ovary, and lung; CVD (myocardial infarction, stroke, and venous thromboembolism); and total mortality. Results A total of 41.5% of the participants used multivitamins. After a median of 8.0 years of follow-up in the clinical trial cohort and 7.9 years in the observational study cohort, 9619 cases of breast, colorectal, endometrial, renal, bladder, stomach, lung, or ovarian cancer; 8751 CVD events; and 9865 deaths were reported. Multivariate-adjusted analyses revealed no association of multivitamin use with risk of cancer (hazard ratio [HR], 0.98, and 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.91-1.05 for breast cancer; HR, 0.99, and 95% CI, 0.88-1.11 for colorectal cancer; HR, 1.05, and 95% CI, 0.90-1.21 for endometrial cancer; HR, 1.0, and 95% CI, 0.88-1.13 for lung cancer; and HR, 1.07, and 95% CI, 0.88-1.29 for ovarian cancer); CVD (HR, 0.96, and 95% CI, 0.89-1.03 for myocardial infarction; HR, 0.99, and 95% CI, 0.91-1.07 for stroke; and HR, 1.05, and 95% CI, 0.85-1.29 for venous thromboembolism); or mortality (HR, 1.02, and 95% CI, 0.97-1.07). Conclusion After a median follow-up of 8.0 and 7.9 years in the clinical trial and observational study cohorts, respectively, the Women's Health Initiative study provided convincing evidence that multivitamin use has little or no influence on the risk of common cancers, CVD, or total mortality in postmenopausal women. This is a link to the actual study: archinte.ama-assn.org... You will notice that the reported hazard ratios were often lower than 1 (where 1 reports the hazard ratio of getting the disease in question if you were simply a member the of general population) and the confidence interval straddled 1.0 (the range started at some point below 1 and ended at some point just above 1). This results indicate that there is no significant difference between the risk of getting these diseases if you take the vitamins or if you don't! Therefore the difference in risk of death between 40 and 41 % was also insignificant (ie no difference). This study also has the weakness that the only true information that was gathered was through the use of questionaires. People often bias their answers in health questions in hopes of making themselves "look" better to the staff. This is bona fide junk science! And the press release is deliberately misleading! This was published for the political reasons to support the Codex Alimentarius (ie we the government have to control the use of vitamins and nutritional supplements because you the people are at increased risk of death). Ah - governing through fear.....and how many sheeple will fall for it! Never settle for just a newspaper article and a press release. Always read the original study and see what it really says. Tired of Control Freaks

The FDA does not inspect Prescription medicine to verify it is safe and IS actually what they claim it is.

Nobody's looking at Vitamins. You could fill capsules with horse manure and sell it as a Vitamin and you'd never get caught. Which is likely what's been happening since ever since.

They may have been taking the vitamins because they had other serious health concerns...

Not sure if this relevant but i have several female freinds who have been convinced of bone deterioration from using Depo Provera,

Depo Provera decreases oestrogen levels. Over time, this can cause a loss of bone mineral density and increase the risk of osteoporosis. This is particularly important for adolescents and young women whose bones might not yet be fully developed, as it is unknown if the injection will lower their peak bone mass and hence increase the risk of osteoporotic fractures later in life.

And guess what they all have bone anatomy issues.. makes you think..