‘The Case Against Vitamins’ Is a Case Against Our Health

Tara Parker-Pope's Wall Street Journal story “The Case Against Vitamins,” published March 20, was quickly picked up by other media. This story appeared at a time when scientific and clinical evidence of vitamins as effective, safe alternatives to a variety of diseases has been mounting. Last week, the Dr. Rath Health Foundation published on its website the latest results of our research documenting that nutrients working in synergy can decrease infectivity of the influenza virus, its multiplication and spread. With the media-ignited hype of a bird flu pandemic, it was another blow to the pharmaceutical industry.

The article appeared at a time that the pharmaceutical industry’s credibility has been brought into question. More and more studies are documenting the ineffectiveness and dangers of pharmaceutical medicine. Just in January, researchers discovered that a pharmaceutical blood thinner increased risk for osteoporosis-linked bone fractures in elderly patients, antidepressants can have a negative impact on the immune system, and the FDA announced that a haemophilia drug had been linked to deaths, strokes and heart attacks in patients. In addition, ethical problems and the insatiable greed of the pharma multinationals are evident not only to the patients, often driven to bankruptcy, but also to the people and the economies of Third World countries.

This is the background on which The Wall Street Journal article should be discussed, because The Wall Street Journal is not a scientific publication, but a platform discussing business issues. Tara Parker-Pope is also not a scientist. As a matter of fact, the business aspect was outlined already in the second paragraph of the article, where it is mentioned that about 70% of Americans buy vitamins and spent about $7 billion on them last year. When people buy vitamins and not drugs, it is not good for the pharma business. But, it is not so much about the vitamin sales alone. What this business is most concerned with is the impact that vitamins have on our health, which can lead to a collapse of the pharmaceutical “business with disease.” As Dr. Rath has stated repeatedly, the pharmaceutical industry is an investment business that relies on the existence and expansion of diseases as a market for their symptom-oriented drugs. These drugs do not cure, so the diseases continue. Vitamins, on the other hand, eliminate the most frequent causes of disease, which are nutrient deficiencies or their imbalances. As such, they make the disease market shrink. This is the reason why people spend money on vitamins, despite the fact that vitamins are not reimbursed by insurance (only drugs are). By taking vitamins people are feeling and getting better!

When it comes to scientific evidence, there is no doubt that vitamins and other micronutrients will form the future of our health. According to the National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health PubMed database, there are 174,000 studies with the word “vitamin” in their title or abstract. Of these, Parker-Pope highlights less than one percent of one percent, selectively omitting all reliable data supporting the legitimacy of vitamin use for health, including their mechanistic aspects.

While she criticizes the Nobel laureate Linus Pauling, who “extolled the virtues of vitamin C more than 30 years ago,” she fails to mention the recent study conducted at the NIH proving that Dr. Pauling and Dr. Rath have been right -- and explaining the mechanisms of how vitamin C can selectively kill cancer cells. Evidently, many cancer patients have noticed these results and have started questioning the basis of chemotherapy and its devastating effects on their bodies. The breakthrough discoveries and remarkable results of our own research at the Dr. Rath Research Institute showing the effectiveness of nutrients in stopping metastasis have been a blow to the “business with cancer,” but not only this. Nutrient effectiveness in the natural reversal of heart disease, in improving symptoms associated with AIDS, and, most recently, in impairing the infectivity of a flu virus at the cellular level are the true reasons for this anti-vitamins outburst. Is it a coincidence that this article was published at a time when the governments of many Third World countries have been pressured by the bird flu hysteria to spend billions on Tamiflu, a drug that, in clinical trials, only reduced the median time of flu symptoms for merely one day for influenza A and B and was never tested in a clinical study on the bird flu? Even more, prophylactic use of Tamiflu in individual cases of the bird flu sent warnings regarding its wide application.

In its attempt to discredit vitamins, The Wall Street Journal article highlights a few studies that are not even “statistically meaningful” while hundreds of others that have clearly demonstrated benefits – and no side effects – are ignored. The author of the article has been criticized for misinformation in The Wall Street Journal coverage before, such as in her article distorting the health problems associated with aspartame. “An article saying there is no evidence aspartame poses any risks to kids per pediatricians is not only a falsehood but appalling,” wrote Dr. Betty Martini in a letter critical of a story Parker-Pope wrote in 2004. “Babies and children are in the care of their parents for protection, as they cannot protect themselves. A misinformed article can stumble millions and cause disability and death to the victims.”

The same statement can be made about Parker-Pope’s latest misleading article on vitamins. “The Case Against Vitamins” is in reality the case against our health and we cannot leave it unanswered!

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