Time to redress some of the shockingly untruthful and misleading media reports about the safety of vitamins now. According to a piece in FoodsMatter, there have been no deaths attributed to vitamins in the US in the last 27 years.
Compare that to a piece recently in the New Scientist about the deaths from medicines which shows 197,000 deaths PER YEAR in the EU:
New Scientist 18.6.11 “DO WE NEED CITIZEN MEDICINE?” by Janet Krska & Tony Avery.
Janet is Prof. of Pharmacy Practice at Liverpool John Moores Uni and Tony is a GP & Prof. of primary health at Nottingham University.
“Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to prescription medicine costs billions to treat and kill over a million people globally, yet professionals are unwilling to listen to the real experts – patients.
A paper from the Royal Society of Medicine journal shows 557,978 ADR-associated admissions to hospital. These are up by 76.8% over the decade from 1999-2008. The European Commission estimate ADRs kill 197,000 EU citizens annually at a cost of 79 billion euros. A ‘Lancet’ letter from top researchers and doctors states ADRs have reached epidemic proportions, increasing at twice the rate of prescriptions. It’s estimated 90% of ADRs are not reported by doctors.
Only 8.5% of 2000 people questioned had heard of the Yellow Card Scheme where patients can report their suspected ADRs by post, phone or internet, without telling a doctor. The two professors would like to know what the results would be if there was a prominent publicity campaign to tell the public of the existence of the Yellow Card Scheme. Some pharmacists have Yellow Cards.”
Details: www.primm.eu.com
Undoubtedly, some medicines are needed and life-saving. But so are most vitamins and minerals. What do you think you are made of? I wish we had a much more collaborative approach where we could get the benefit to all citizens of BOTH medical approaches. It’s not too much to ask, is it?