I’m always on the lookout for bad science, and recently a lot of research has come out on the pros and cons of dietary supplements, aka “vitamins.” An article in the Atlantic, The Vitamin Myth, did a great overview of studies showing that vitamins, although widely marketed as healthy, are potentially the opposite. From early death to prostate cancer, evidence suggests that multivitamins and more specific supplements like Vitamin E are potentially harmful. More recently, Discover published a short article on why doctors say people shouldn’t take vitamins. Interestingly, reader comments show noticeable distrust of these findings. One person writes, “Doctors are quick to deny the benefit of MANY drugs that they can’t write a prescription for. Because you have to make another office visit to renew that prescription. That is called job security [ for the MD] and the BUISNESS [sic] of medicine.”
This outlandish accusation blew my mind. An article lines up study after study showing that vitamins are pointless for all but the most malnourished of individuals. These studies show they’re probably harmful for most adults. And this guy thinks its all a trick by physicians to dupe people into spending money on… what? Contrary to what this commenter believes, writing prescriptions is not a highly lucrative practice. Not to mention, if they were so hell-bent on making money, they’d probably just stop writing refills rather than try and get you to stop taking vitamins. To the extent they are allowed by law, docs write for multiples because they want you to take your meds. (Note to argumentative guy, office visits are usually required by oversight bodies, and are employed by doctors who want to monitor and keep up a relationship with their patients — sounds evil.)
Doctors are often the front line in combating the profit-driven, ill-informed agendas of companies just trying to dupe consumers into spending money. According to the logic that doctors want “job security” and nothing more, wouldn’t they encourage people to smoke, drink, and sit on the couch all day…? But, when was the last time a physician told you it was okay to keep smoking, or to get less exercise?!? It’s weird how much people seem to dislike doctors, but I think we need a wake up call about what doctors really deal with.
There are dozens of professions with better hours, better pay, and better Quality of Life. Hospitals suck. Sickness sucks. Dealing with administrators, insurance companies, and malpractice lawyers sucks. Who would want to spend all day in a hospital or clinic and not nice germ-free office? Realistically, maybe investment bankers choose their path for the money, but doctors choose medicine BECAUSE they care about people. Anyone dumb enough to try to pick medicine it for financial reasons (of which there are increasingly few) probably doesn’t make it past the front door, i.e. getting into school.
It’s a LITTLE harder than this.
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4 years ago, I distinctly remember the day I was walking to work from class, and called my dad on the way to chat. I asked him how his day had been, if he’d been busy at the hospital, any interesting cases, etc. At the time, he’d just left an OR (Operating Room) case where they patched a young South American woman back together after she was attacked with a machete by her boyfriend — a drug dealer with a temper. He described how the woman tried to defend herself by throwing up her arms and hands, and as a result, was missing many fingers and sporting numerous gashes. Horrified at the image, I asked, “Is she going to survive??” He responded that she was stable, probably would be missing a few fingers that they couldn’t find, and would have scars on her face and upper body, but yes, would survive. That was his morning, while I was sipping a latte reading a book. Yikes.
Years later, my family sat outside enjoying a cold beverage before dinner, and we were going through the usual “How was your day?” routine. Everyone went around the table and said a few things about what they’d done that day, and when it got to my dad, he described another “typical” afternoon:
“Well, we had a minor crisis in the OR, couldn’t figure out why this one patient’s stats were rapidly declining… blah blah… intubated a 10 month old… hydrocephalus case… woman who needed an epidural…valve replacement…etc” And on it went. My brother, who works in finance, made the comment that it sounded 10x more interesting than anything he’d ever do at work, to which my dad dismissed with a wave. I piped in, “Yeah, sometimes Dad’s stories are crazy – Do you remember the woman who was attacked with a machete?”
To my surprise, no, my dad in fact did not remember that case at all. Why? Because it was par for the course. Just another day. It wasn’t that he didn’t care. It was that he’d seen so many crazy things since then, so many violent crimes and attacks and people torn up that needed patching, he didn’t know which one specifically that I was referencing.
Not many careers involve such mentally and emotionally grueling situations. Every day, doctors take responsibility for others who are sick and hurt, sometimes even dying, right before their eyes. Despite what they go through all day, most of them carry on with perfectly ‘normal’ lives. The average American could not handle what doctors see and do, and we wouldn’t want to. In fact, the average American couldn’t even pass the chem, orgo, bio, physics, etc. pre-req courses required to even get IN to medical school. And they wouldn’t even want to try.
Anyway. If people want to trust their local GNC, fine. But it annoys the daylights out of me that people have such little faith in their physicians. For the most part, the men and women who become doctors deserve our respect and gratitude. If we need to point fingers, we should probably look at 1) the bureaucracies that surround medical care, e.g. hospitals, 2) the insurance companies that play both sides and purposefully obscure and put barriers up for patient care, 3) the manufacturers of drugs and devices who stand to gain billions from product sales and purposefully manipulate legislation.
Just sayin. To the idiot who thinks doctors run fake studies just to keep him from taking vitamins that are at best a waste of money and at worst hurting him: OMG.
Help! The internet is full of idiots.
Filed under: Article Reviews, Reality, Research
