Posted 12/25/2014 4:05 AM (GMT 0)
TA, that is the bottom line for any so called healthful or helpful thing we try to do. It is all so complicated I don't know how we will ever know, in our lifetimes anyway.
Someone notices that a group with the highest Vit D ( or name it whatever) blood levels of Vitamin D- or maybe those that live in areas with the most sunshine- have the lowest level of a certain cancer, and those with the lowest have the highest. But that is not the same as saying that raising out Vit D levels by taking Vit D pills will lower the cancer rates, is it? Or it doesn't even mean getting more sunshine will help. And finding out that giving Vit D et all inside a lab to Ca cells kills the cells, or given to lab animals helps the animals is very often not going to translate to helping humans with cancer, is it?
But giving Vitamin X in fairly high doses to very large #s of people and seeing who gets cancer when compared to a large group who don't take it, or who with cancer might be helped if any, that might tell us something useful before we decide to try it for ourselves. But who is going to run such a large study with high scientific standards, when there is no money to be made? And if a deep pocket pharmacy or possibly even hospitals with high $ surgeons, radiologists and chemo therapy dispensing their wares, decide to put it to the test, it seems the odds are high no benefit will be found. Because, imagine the financial devastation if- to give an extreme fantasy example, they found out tomorrow that 1000 iu/day of Vit X had no apparent negative side effects and yet cures cancer 100% of the time. Can you imagine the incredible amount of financial incentive to find out instead that the vitamin is worthless?
I know that is a way out there hypothetical example, but the point is: how can we know that the high $ boys, who would do the huge FDA acceptable studies to rigorous scientific standards will not be biased against any approach that does not require a prescription or surgery or radiation etc etc and the doctors who hand this stuff out? And who else is there but the high $ boys capable of doing a study of a large enough scale and with high enough standards to really prove a benefit?
Avoiding any bias, in either direction, is a tough one. And then add all of those variables and unknowns: up-regulating and down regulating receptors, 400 IUs vs 400 or 10000 IUs, vit d2 vs d3 or vit E: which Vit E? Alpha,delta, Tocopherols or tocotrienols or both together in some perfect ratio? Can you really get any benefit with supplements for the drug store, or does it need to be the whole real deal from food?
Wow, there is a lot to know!