Doctors say vitamins are safe

[Guest guest]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, July 11, 2006

 

DOCTORS SAY VITAMINS ARE SAFE

Follow-Up Report by the Independent Vitamin Safety Review Panel

 

(OMNS July 11, 2006) More and more practicing physicians are coming

forward in support of vitamins. Drawing on decades of actual

experience with many thousands of patients, family doctors and

specialists assert that vitamin supplements are safe and effective

even in high doses.

 

Peter H. Lauda, M.D., of Vienna, Austria writes:

" Over all the years I have prescribed vitamins for prevention and

treatment, for a huge number of patients including both adults and

children. I have never seen any serious problems or dangerous side

effects caused by vitamin supplements. Furthermore, routinely

performed lab analyses did not show any impairments or objective

signs of liver, renal and other organ damage caused by vitamin

supplements. "

 

Robert F. Cathcart, M.D., of California says:

" Vitamin supplements are safe. I have never seen a serious reaction

to vitamin supplements. Since 1969 I have taken over 2 tons of

ascorbic acid myself. I have put over 20,000 patients on bowel

tolerance doses of ascorbic acid without any serious problems, and

with great benefit. "

 

Allan N. Spreen, M.D., of Arizona, says:

" I can certainly state that, after many years of both hands-on

practice and personal research, vitamin supplementation is

extraordinarily safe, even in doses far higher than published daily

recommendations. They are also infinitely safer than any prescription

medications. "

 

Richard P. Huemer, M.D., of California, writes:

" Reports of vitamin toxicity, rare as they are, are sometimes based

on flimsy evidence. Such fallacious reports may appear in medical

journals. In one, it was asserted that a rather unimpressive chronic

dose of vitamin A had caused liver failure, but certain histologic

features of vitamin A toxicity were not described, nor was any

attempt made to quantify vitamin A in the liver or even in the blood. "

 

Jerry Green, M.D., Canada, says:

" After practicing orthomolecular medicine for over 35 years, I have

seen that vitamins are extremely safe particularly when one compares

them to other patient choices such as drugs, surgery, or doing

nothing and thereby suffering from vitamin deficiency from our modern

devitalized foods. "

 

Erik Paterson, M.D., also of Canada:

" As a family doctor, I often see serious adverse effects in my

patients from conventional drugs. I have yet to see any such thing

from megadoses of vitamins. I believe myself to be alive because of

the large doses of vitamins which I take on a daily basis. "

 

Klaus Wenzel, M.D., Germany, writes:

" For more then 20 years I have used vitamin supplements for an

increasing number of patients and medical problems. And from all

these years of medical practice, I can state that vitamin supplements

are very safe. "

 

Chris M. Reading, M.D., in Australia, says:

" I have had measurement done of serum vitamin levels in over ten

thousand patients since 1978, and have safely corrected low levels

with supplements in amounts far higher than the RDA. Vitamin

supplements are safe and essential to correct low vitamin levels and

to correct ill health. In my experience, vitamin supplements can save

people from premature death, depression, suicide, dementia,

psychosis, and heart failure. "

 

Karin Munsterhjelm-Ahumada, M.D., from Finland, writes:

" After nearly 20 years using only conventional medicine, I have an

additional 10 years experience working with high dose vitamins. I can

assure you that not only have they been very safe, but vitamins are

also very helpful in my work with all kinds of very ill patients. "

 

From Sweden, Bo H. Jonsson, M.D., Ph.D., writes:

" Vitamin supplements are very safe, especially when compared to

xenobiotic drugs. Used with knowledge, vitamins are enormously

important for prevention and treatment of disease. "

 

The educators and physicians of the Independent Vitamin Safety Review

Panel assert that:

 

1. There is not even one death per year from vitamins. (Watson WA et

al. 2003 annual report of the American Association of Poison Control

Centers Toxic Exposure Surveillance System. Am J Emerg Med. 2004

Sep;22(5):335-404.)

http://www.aapcc.org/Annual%20Reports/03report/Annual%20Report%

202003.pdf

 

2. Consumers are not getting a fair picture of vitamin safety and

efficacy from government-sponsored sources, particularly the National

Institutes of Health. (

http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v02n05.shtml and

http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v02n06.shtml )

 

3. When they do have all the information, consumers see that vitamin

supplements are safe, far safer than drugs. (Lucian Leape, Error in

medicine. Journal of the American Medical Association, 1994, 272:23,

p 1851. Also: Leape LL. Institute of Medicine medical error figures

are not exaggerated. JAMA. 2000 Jul 5;284(1):95-7.)

 

4. Public access to vitamins should not be restricted. (Testimony

before the Government of Canada, House of Commons Standing Committee

on Health, regarding nutritional supplement product safety. Ottawa,

May 12, 2005).

http://www.doctoryourself.com/testimony.htm

 

5. Vitamin supplementation is not the problem. It is under-nutrition

and over-medication that are the problems. Vitamins are the solution.

 

INDEPENDENT VITAMIN SAFETY REVIEW PANELISTS:

 

Abram Hoffer, MD

Robert F. Cathcart, MD

Michael Janson, MD

Thomas Levy, MD, JD

Erik Paterson, MD

Woody R. McGinnis, MD

Allan N. Spreen, MD

Bo H. Jonsson, MD, PhD

Chris M. Reading, MD

Bradford Weeks, MD

Karin Munsterhjelm-Ahumada, MD

Jerry Green, MD

Stephen Faulkner, MD

Klaus Wenzel, MD

Richard Huemer, MD

Peter H. Lauda, M.D.

Jonathan Prousky, ND

Michael Friedman, ND

William B. Grant, PhD

Harold Foster, PhD

H. H. Nehrlich, PhD

Steve Hickey, PhD

Gert E. Schuitemaker, PhD

 

Andrew W. Saul, Editor. Contact email

drsaul

 

-----

 

What is Orthomolecular Medicine?

 

Linus Pauling defined orthomolecular medicine as " the treatment of

disease by the provision of the optimum molecular environment,

especially the optimum concentrations of substances normally present

in the human body. " Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective

nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information:

http://www.orthomolecular.org

 

-----

 

Update Your Information:

http://www.orthomolecular.org/12all/p_m.php?

mi=50 & nl=1 & ei=TVJTQ000ODcxQGFvbC5jb20= & eid=MjYxNzY=

 

Forward To A Friend:

http://www.orthomolecular.org/12all/p_f.php?

mi=50 & nl=1 & ei=TVJTQ000ODcxQGFvbC5jb20= & eid=MjYxNzY=

 

View All Previous OMNS News Releases:

http://www.orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml