Researchers Dr. Bonnie Kaplan and Dr. Julia Rucklidge, who specialize in nutrition and mental health, recently published an article in response to a Dr. Paul Offit’s book called Killing Us Softly: The sense and nonsense of alternative medicine.
The two doctors made it clear that they strongly support evidence-based treatments. They point out that while a book exploring alternative medicine could potentially be important to discovering evidence-based therapy, Offit falls short of always providing a balanced perspective.
Dr. Offit seems to have an agenda – to ensure that the public are well informed of negative results so they stop ‘wasting’ their money on alternative therapies. However, to achieve this goal, Dr Offit engages in far too much cherry picking. . . . Cherry picking is one fundamental problem with Dr. Offit’s approach and why the book could do more harm than good.
They go on to point out that Offit diligently shares studies that negate the effects of alternative medicine, criticizes the lack of rigorous research, and claims such products are inert or even harmful. According to the researchers, he is less quick to share the other side of the story.
Let’s take the chapter on the supplement industry. By all means, the supplement industry deserves a lot of criticism. There are numerous unfounded claims that do need to be exposed. However, Dr Offit discusses at great length the potential serious side effects of vitamins as well as the studies that have shown that vitamins increase mortality and morbidity. The problem is, Dr Offit was selective in his reporting. What about the study by Zhang et al published in JAMA that showed there was no evidence that vitamins increased risk of cancer in women: “Combined folic acid, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 treatment had no significant effect on overall risk of total invasive cancer or breast cancer among women during the folic acid fortification era.” Or Roswall et al.’s study showing an inverse association between folic acid and prostate cancer? Wouldn’t the public be interested in these findings?
Turning to micronutrients and mental health, Kaplan and Rucklidge report that Offit left out the numerous studies that show the benefit micronutrients can have on psychiatric symptoms.
This book, alongside the recent editorial from the Annals of Internal Medicine (“Enough is Enough: Stop Wasting Money on Vitamin and Mineral Supplements”), do a disservice to the rigorous and well conducted body of literature that shows benefits of additional nutrients for some people. Not all nutrient supplements are created equally.
Be sure to read the article in its entirety in order to have a critical outlook on the conclusions of the book.