I wanted to address this since I’ve been seeing headlines pop up again and again this past week in my newsfeeds. Headlines like,” Vitamin D And Fish Oil Supplements Mostly Disappoint In Long-Awaited Research Results” or “New study: Fish oil and vitamin D pills no guard against cancer or serious heart trouble”.
It drives me nuts when things like this happen, because the majority of people will read headlines like this, without reading the articles, and conclude that vitamins are worthless. It’s upsetting because these articles are very much click bait. If you actually read the articles, the very same article that says how fish oil and vitamin D does nothing reports, “African-Americans in the study experienced a 77 percent lower risk of heart attack compared with taking a placebo” and for all people found a 25 percent risk reduction for heart attack for all people.
Additionally, Fish Oil and Vitamin D have been the subject of countless studies with a whole assortment of different benefits, from reduced risk of cold and flu with vitamin D and tons of benefits for bone health; whereas omega 3 fish oil has been shown again and again to be beneficial for so many things from brain function to inflammation and joint health to lowering cholesterol, and much, much more. Plus, while fish oil has tons of benefits, cancer prevention is not one that I’ve ever heard of as a reason why to take omega 3 fish oil…
It’s sad in a way, that some people are so excited to find a negative study on vitamins and supplements when there are literally thousands showing positive benefits for all kinds of issues. So our advice is to not throw out the baby with the bathwater, and to read articles like these critically, since that is one of the things with science, that there can be a study with one result and then another with an opposite result, which is often due to dosages or the specific people involved in the actual studies.
It’s important to be your own advocate, and do your own health research, reading articles with a critical eye. Don’t let one article or one study color your views on the many, many documented benefits of vitamins and supplements.