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Attitudes About Micronutrient Supplements in American Academic Medicine

Arch Intern Med. 1998;158:2187-2191.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

INTRODUCTION

THROUGHOUT THE 20th century American academic medicine has resisted the concept that supplementation with micronutrients might have health benefits. This resistance is evident in several ways: (1) by the uncritical acceptance of news of toxicity, such as the belief that vitamin C supplements cause kidney stones; (2) by the angry, scornful tone used in discussions of micronutrient supplementation in the leading textbooks of medicine; and (3) by ignoring evidence for possible efficacy of a micronutrient supplement, such as the use of vitamin E for intermittent claudication.

Part of the resistance stems from the fact that the potential benefits of micronutrients were advanced by outsiders, who took their message directly to the public, and part from the fact that the concept of a deficiency disease did not fit in well with prevailing biomedical paradigms, particularly the germ theory. Similar factors might be expected to color the response of academic medicine to . . . [Full Text of this Article]

UNCRITICAL ACCEPTANCE OF NEWS OF TOXICITY: THE EXAMPLE OF HIGH-DOSE VITAMIN C

SCORNFUL, DISMISSIVE TONE: THE EXAMPLE OF DAILY MULTIPLE VITAMIN SUPPLEMENTATION

IGNORING CLAIMS OF EFFICACY: THE EXAMPLE OF VITAMIN E FOR INTERMITTENT CLAUDICATION

WHY THE RESISTANCE?

CONCLUSIONS

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