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How do they do it? How do
science deniers manage to
convince themselves that the evidence
for global warming, evolution and
vaccine safety is so much fake news? For
those of us who prefer to remain based
in reality, the denialists represent a
conundrum. Plenty of them are
intelligent and educated — yet
they just will not accept
scientific findings as true. At
least not when it comes to inconvenient
truths that mess with their self-interest
or self-identity.
Luckily, most science geeks would
never deny the settled science in a
field where multiple peer-reviewed,
placebo-controlled studies find the
same thing over and over. They would
never be lulled into believing that
thousands of scientists have conspired
to delude people into accepting a
phony consensus.
Or would they?PILL POPPERS
Late in 2013, a week before Christmas,
the Annals of Internal Medicine
published three papers on the role of
vitamin and mineral supplements in
the prevention of disease or death.
The first reviewed three large trials of
multivitamins and 24 trials of single
or combined vitamins involving over
400,000 people. The conclusion:
no convincing evidence that the
supplements prevent or delay cancer,
heart disease or death.
The second study, a randomized trial
following 5,947 men aged 65 or older
for 12 years, found no difference in the
mental functioning or verbal memory
of those who took a multivitaminversus those who took a placebo.
The third compared a high-dose,
28-component multivitamin with
placebo in 1,708 men and women
who had survived a previous heart
attack. After 4.6 years, no difference
was seen between the two groups in
their subsequent rate of heart attacks
or strokes.
An editorial accompanying the three
studies noted: “Evidence involving
tens of thousands of people randomly
assigned in many clinical trials shows
that beta-carotene, vitamin E, and
possibly high doses of vitamin A
supplements increase mortality and
that other antioxidants, folic acid and B
vitamins, and multivitamin supplements
have no clear benefit.”
Of course, all vitamins, by
definition, are essential for health in
small amounts. And while doctors dosometimes prescribe particular vitamins
to treat specific medical conditions,
most of us get all we need from
food. It’s the widespread belief in
vitamin supplements to prevent or
treat heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s
or the common cold that simply does
not stand up to scientific scrutiny.
The same month that those papers
were published, Gallup released a poll
showing that 50 percent of Americans
said they “regularly take a multivitamin
or any other type of vitamin or
mineral supplement.” Interestingly,
the higher the education level of the
person, the greater the chances that
they took a vitamin. Just 43 percent
of those with only a high school
education said they took a
vitamin, compared with 51
percent of those with some
college, 55 percent of college
graduates and 65 percent of those
with postgraduate degrees.
No reliable national polls on the
subject have come out since. But a
May 2016 report by Nielsen examined
sales data from 91,000 grocery, drug,
convenience and value stores, analyzing
approximately 738,000 individual SKU
product codes in 53 categories — in
other words, pretty much everything
sold in retail outlets. It found that
“vitamins and supplements had the
largest increase in total store sales over
the past two years,” outpacing sales of
food and, well, everything else.
By comparison, the proportion of
people who deny that global warming
is caused by pollution from human
activities — who insist it’s simply
a result of natural changes in the
environment — dropped from 46
percent in 2010 to just 31 percent in
2016, according to Gallup polls.
As for herbal remedies, in 2015
New York’s attorney general, Eric
Schneiderman, released results of DNA
testing of echinacea, ginseng and St.
John’s wort from four national retailers:
Target, Walmart, Walgreens and GNC. JW LTD/GETTY IMAGESNo Denying It
What happens when the scientific data
don’t play along with the view we have
of ourselves? BY DAN HURLEY50%
of Americans said
they regularly take
vitamins or mineral
supplements.
Prognosis