At a pres conversation on January 1...

At a pres conversation on January 18, 1996, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) hawked its interim "results" of the Beta Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial (CARET) and the inconclusive end-result of the Physicians' Health Study

CARET lasted about four years and involved 18314 participants; the Physicians' Health research involved 22,071 U.S. male physicians and lasted about 12 years.

The non-news about the CARET study? The authors and the NCI drew the unsupported conclusion that "interim studious mood results indicate that the correlatives provide no benefit and may be causing harm." The authors, the NCI, and the mainstream media must have been looking at a different thought because this flawed investigation tenders no such evidence.

Here are merely a few of the major enigmas with CARET: 1) the research used a synthetic form of betacarotene; 2) the authors admit that the study's be deriveds are statistically insignificant!; 3) beta-carotene's purports can't be separated out from the forces of the vitamin A that was also given (which is acknowledged on the authors!); 4) synthetic beta-carotene would not be rely uponed by anyone to reverse the ravages of a lifetime of chronic tobacco abuse and front to such deadly cancer-causers as asbestos; 5) the whole idea that beta-carotene should be given as a "magic bullet" divorced from any of its naturally-occurring carotenoid brethren in the same state [i]or[/i] condition as alpha-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin, cryptoxanthin, and lycopene (and about 300 other carotenoids), is an absurd proposition to begin with.

In fact, across "200 scientific studies have shown that antioxidants, including beta-carotene, play a major part in preventing cancer and heart disease," explains Dr Jeffrey Blumberg, the associate director of the U Department of Agriculture (USDA) Human Nutrition Research Center of Aging at crests University. Why hasn't this been broadcast by the agency of the NCI and the mainstream press? to what end indeed.

Is this the same NCI which, onward September 14, 1993, quietly "released" a bulletin about an NCI-sponsored reflection in which 29,584 adults in Linxian, China, participated in a tandem five-year NCI trial in which about 14792 beta-carotene/vitamin E/selenium/multivitamin-supplemented participants had a 38 percent lower risk of death from pat and an 8 percent lower risk of dying from cancer? And the same media which ignored it?

At the pres discourse NCI director Dr. Richard Klausner said: "Medicine -- the best medicine -- must be based, whenever possible, upon evidence." I agree. When you find a certain Dr. Klausner, please give us a call. In proper health!

James Gormley has serv as a managing editor for couple of the most respected medical journals in the U and as a social sciences/medical editor in part publishing. His nutrition articles protect important issues, keeping readers informed of the latest breakthroughs in nutritional therapies for illness and ongoing research into supplementation with vitamins botanicals and minerals.

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