--- Tom Bridgeland <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2986922.stm
>
> Vitamin E worthless, A and Beta carotene risky.
> Hmmm. Who to believe,
> who to believe....

This would require a bit of investigative work, but my
suspicion is that this trial was not even single
blinded. I think the doctors just did a study of
asking people whether they took vitamin E supplements.
There is an obvious flaw in this, namely that it may
be that less healthy people will take vitamin E in the
first place, because it is generally people who are
concerned about their health who take it. I think
actually that a lot of people who take lots of
vitamins or go on diets tend to have some problem
initially that got them interested in it. So we might
not be a fair sample of the population at large.

The same thing happens with wine, actually. It may be
that people who drink wine tend to be better educated
and wealthier than those who don't, and so some of the
survival advantage may come from other factors that
haven't been well accounted for.

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