Do Antioxidant Supplements Actually Increase the Risk of Death?

Many Americans take antioxidant supplements in order to ward off deadly illnesses such as heart disease and cancer. However, a controversial new study suggests that people who take antioxidants may actually be increasing their risk of death.

Researchers who analyzed the results of 68 studies on the effects of antioxidants have concluded that the use of some antioxidant supplements may increase death rates. The results appear in the February 28 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"Our findings contradict the findings of observational studies claiming that antioxidants improve health," the researchers wrote.

Dr. Goren Bjelakovic, from the Center for Clinical Intervention Research at Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark, led the study. A total of more than 232,600 subjects had taken part in the trials analyzed by Bjelakovic's team. No overall increase in mortality was discovered when all of the trials were taken together. However, when researchers placed trials into categories, use of beta carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E supplements was linked to higher death rates. Vitamin C and selenium were not linked to higher death rates.

Some researchers call the study's results misleading and the study's methods seriously flawed.

"One of the major premises of doing such a meta-analysis is that the studies should be comparable," said Jeffrey Blumberg, director of the Antioxidants Research Laboratory at Tufts University in Boston. The Antioxidants Research Laboratory does not accept money from the supplement industry; it is primarily funded by federal agencies. "Here, they looked at primary prevention, treatment, old people, young people, smokers, nonsmokers. Only when they used their own criteria of what was good and what was bad were they able to show an increase in all-cause mortality."