Bill Sardi's analysis of the study purporting that vitamin C and E up heart 
disease death. What I find so amazing is the way researchers run with data 
that is not statistically significant. 

11/20/2002
MORE BAD SCIENCE: BOGUS STUDY FALSELY CLAIMS ANTIOXIDANT VITAMIN PILLS NARROW 
CORONARY ARTERIES AND INCREASE MORTALITY AMONG POSTMENOPAUSAL FEMALES WITH 
HEART DISEASE  
By Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc. 
The headlines today read: "Antioxidant vitamins and hormone replacement in 
older women show no heart health benefits among older women who already have 
heart disease. Heart disease appears to progress more quickly among 
postmenopausal women who take high doses of vitamins E and C and hormones… 
and their use should be discouraged." [Associated Press Nov. 19, 2002]
The bogus study behind these headlines was published in the prestigious 
Journal of the American Medical Association. [J Am Med Assoc 288: 2432-40, 
2002] The study involved 423 postmenopausal female patients, mean age 65 
years, with heart disease who took 800 IU of vitamin E, 1000 milligrams of 
vitamin C, or estrogen pills. All the women underwent pre and post-treatment 
angiograms, a form of x-ray that shows the course of blood through blood 
vessels and chambers of the heart. At least one coronary artery was narrowed 
by 15 to 75 percent among women at the beginning of this study. Over a period 
averaging 2.8 years, changes in the diameter of the blood vessels were 
measured. 
Patients who received inactive placebo pills experienced progression of 
artery narrowing at the rate of 0.028 millimeters per year whereas the 
vitamin and hormone-treated patients experienced narrowing at the rate of 
0.044 to 0.047 millimeters per year. But the groups were too small to make 
meaningful comparisons. Twenty-six patients experienced a nonfatal heart 
attack, a stroke, or died in the hormone replacement group, 26 in the vitamin 
group and 18 in the control group. The study indicated decreases in the inner 
blood vessel diameter were greater in each of the 3 groups compared to 
placebo tablets, "but these trends were not statistically significant." Yet 
the conclusive statement at the end of the study said high doses of vitamins 
E and C "should be discouraged" among women with coronary artery disease. In 
reality, 6.1% of the vitamin and 6.1% of the hormone users and 4.3% of the 
placebo pill users died, for a difference in hard numbers of only 1.4% 
between groups. But scientific studies use relative numbers which give the 
appearance of significance. For the rest of the article go to:
http://askbillsardi.com/sdm.asp?pg=news&specific=54

Namaste, Liz
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