News-No Deaths from Vitamins

by | Apr 1, 2015

No Deaths from Vitamins, Absolutely None: 31 Years of Supplement Safety Once Again Confirmed by America’s Largest Database

by Andrew W. Saul

Editor, Orthomolecular Medicine News Service

There were no deaths whatsoever from vitamins in the year 2013. The 31st annual report from the American Association of Poison Control Centers shows zero deaths from multiple vitamins. And there were no deaths whatsoever from vitamin A, niacin, vitamin B6, any other B vitamin, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, or any vitamin at all.

Zero deaths from vitamins. Want to bet this will never be on the evening news?

Well over half of the US population takes daily nutritional supplements. If each of those people took only one single tablet daily, that makes about 170,000,000 individual doses per day, for a total of well over 60 billion doses annually. Since many people take far more than just one single vitamin tablet, actual consumption is considerably higher, and the safety of vitamin supplements is all the more remarkable.

Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD, repeatedly said: “No one dies from vitamins.” He was right when he said it and he is still right today. The Orthomolecular Medicine News Service invites submission of specific scientific evidence conclusively demonstrating death caused by a vitamin.

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References

Mowry JB, Spyker DA, Cantilena LR Jr, McMillan N, Ford M. 2013 Annual Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers’ National Poison Data System (NPDS): 31st Annual Report. Clin Toxicol. 2014;52:1032–1283. Free full text download at https://aapcc.s3.amazonaws.com/pdfs/annual_reports/2013_NPDS_Annual_Report.pdf. ISSN: 1556-3650 print / 1556-9519 online. doi:10.3109/15563650.2014.987397. Vitamin data discussed above can be found at the very end of the report, pp. 1254–1256, Table 22B.

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Editorial Review Board

Ian Brighthope, MD (Australia) 
Ralph K. Campbell, MD (US) 
Carolyn Dean, MD, ND (US) 
Damien Downing, MD (UK) 
Michael Ellis, MD (Australia) 
Martin P. Gallagher, MD, DC (US) 
Michael Gonzalez, DSc, PhD (Puerto Rico) 
William B. Grant, PhD (US) 
Michael Janson, MD (US) 
Robert E. Jenkins, DC (US) 
Bo H. Jonsson, MD, PhD (Sweden) 
Peter H. Lauda, MD (Austria) 
Thomas Levy, MD, JD (US) 
Stuart Lindsey, PharmD (US) 
Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, PharmD (Puerto Rico) 
Karin Munsterhjelm-Ahumada, MD (Finland) 
Erik Paterson, MD (Canada) 
W. Todd Penberthy, PhD (US) 
Gert E. Schuitemaker, PhD (Netherlands) 
Robert G. Smith, PhD (US) 
Jagan Nathan Vamanan, MD (India) 
Atsuo Yanagisawa, MD, PhD (Japan)

Andrew W Saul, PhD (US), editor and contact person. omns@orthomolecular.org. 

This is a comments-only address; OMNS is unable to respond to individual reader e-mails. However, readers are encouraged to write in with their viewpoints. Reader comments become the property of OMNS and may or may not be used for publication.

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Author

  • Andrew W. Saul has served as Editor-in-Chief of the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service for nearly 20 years. He is the author or coauthor of twelve books and editor of 13 more. The author is not a physician and is obviously not a confidant of very many allergists. Work directly with your doctor before making any medication or other treatment changes.

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