Older men who smoke shouldn't bother to take common "cold fighting" vitamins in an attempt to ward off respiratory illness, new study findings suggest.
The investigators found no protective association between dietary vitamin C or E or beta-carotene and the incidence of self-reported colds.
The researchers evaluated data from a study of nearly 22,000 male smokers that investigated whether supplementing their diets with 50 units of vitamin E and 20 mg of beta-carotene daily had any effect on whether they developed cancer.
Past studies have found some evidence that vitamin C can help guard against the common cold, and that vitamin E may strengthen the immune system in older people.
Although vitamins C and E may affect susceptibility to respiratory infections in restricted groups of subjects under special circumstances, the results of the present analysis and the findings of several other studies indicate that such subpopulations are not large in the Western countries.
Epidemiology January 2002;13:32-37
I don't believe that 50 units of vitamin E is a sufficient dose to check for its effectiveness. Additionally, there are other factors associated with vitamin E related to its ability to be effective which were not accounted for in this study.
However, I do believe the central point of the article is valid. Supplements are not the way to address poor lifestyle choices. I am no big fan of smoking, but I sincerely believe that, for the vast majority of people, large amounts of sugar are far more devastating to one's health.
If one tries to stop smoking prior to improving their eating plan or being treated for the underlying emotional issues, it is likely their underlying anxiety or depression will worsen and the act of trying to improve one's health will actually worsen it.
Interestingly, it is likely that cigarettes are being used as an antidepressant for many people. So if one is interested in treating the root cause of the problem they should consider some system that addresses that.
In my experience, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) in skilled hands can rapidly resolve most cases of depression in short order.Once the depression is resolved, the cigarettes can easily be stopped.
If you are interested in finding out how you can learn EFT please go to the EFT Resource page to find a number of different options that are available.
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Vitamin E is NOT Good for Everyone