FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, January 3, 2014

No Deaths from Vitamins. None.
Supplement Safety Once Again Confirmed by America's Largest Database

by Andrew W. Saul, Editor

(OMNS Jan 3, 2014) The 30th 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 B-6, vitamin C, vitamin D, or vitamin E.

It was claimed that one person died from vitamin supplements in the year 2012, according to AAPCC's interpretation of information collected by the U.S. National Poison Data System. That single alleged "death" was supposedly due to "Other B-Vitamins." Since the AAPCC report specifically indicates no deaths from niacin (B-3) or pyridoxine (B-6), that leaves folic acid, thiamine (B-1), riboflavin (B-2), biotin, pantothenic acid, and cobalamin (B-12) as the remaining B-vitamins that could be implicated. However, the safety record of these vitamins is extraordinarily good; no fatalities have ever been confirmed for any of them.

Even if it were to be allowed that the lone alleged fatality claim was correct, one single death in a year associated with nationwide vitamin supplementation is an astonishingly small number. Well over half of the U.S. population takes daily nutritional supplements. If each of those people took only one single tablet daily, that makes 165,000,000 individual doses per day, for a total of over 60 billion doses annually. Since many persons 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.

There isn't any. Case closed.

References:

Mowry JB, Spyker DA, Cantilena LR Jr, Bailey JE, Ford M. 2012 Annual Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers' National Poison Data System (NPDS): 30th Annual Report. Clin Toxicol (Phila). 2013 Dec;51(10):949-1229. doi: 10.3109/15563650.2013.863906. Vitamin data discussed above can be found at the very end of the report, on pages 1197-1200, Table 22B.

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Editorial Review Board:

Ian Brighthope, M.D. (Australia)
Ralph K. Campbell, M.D. (USA)
Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. (USA)
Damien Downing, M.D. (United Kingdom)
Dean Elledge, D.D.S., M.S. (USA)
Michael Ellis, M.D. (Australia)
Martin P. Gallagher, M.D., D.C. (USA)
Michael Gonzalez, D.Sc., Ph.D. (Puerto Rico)
William B. Grant, Ph.D. (USA)
Steve Hickey, Ph.D. (United Kingdom)
Michael Janson, M.D. (USA)
Robert E. Jenkins, D.C. (USA)
Bo H. Jonsson, M.D., Ph.D. (Sweden)
Peter H. Lauda, M.D. (Austria)
Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D. (USA)
Stuart Lindsey, Pharm.D. (USA)
Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D. (Puerto Rico)
Karin Munsterhjelm-Ahumada, M.D. (Finland)
Erik Paterson, M.D. (Canada)
W. Todd Penberthy, Ph.D. (USA)
Gert E. Schuitemaker, Ph.D. (Netherlands)
Robert G. Smith, Ph.D. (USA)
Jagan Nathan Vamanan, M.D. (India)
Atsuo Yanagisawa, M.D., Ph.D. (Japan)

Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D. (USA), Editor and contact person. Email: omns@orthomolecular.org This is a comments-only address; OMNS is unable to respond to individual reader emails. 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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