A study published earlier this month, “Effects of Nutritional Supplements and Dietary Interventions on Cardiovascular Disease. An Umbrella Review and Evidence Map,” concluded there is little evidence to support the use of most supplements and dietary interventions to benefit heart health.
The review examined 16 nutritional supplements and 8 dietary interventions (including the Mediterranean Diet) from 277 published clinical trials involving nearly 1 million people from around the world.
Sounds impressive right? Not really!
First, the authors themselves state that the study has the following critical limitations: “Suboptimal quality and certainty of evidence.”
Second, epidemiological studies were excluded. Such studies analyze the patterns, causes, and effects of health and disease conditions in defined populations. Epidemiological studies also serve as the basis of many recommendations made in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans that is produced every 5 years by the Federal Government.
Third, 13 of the 14 authors on the paper are physicians. And the fact is, medicine in the U.S. is biased against nutrition intervention. Doctors are trained to treat disease with drugs rather than prevent disease with diet and lifestyle changes before they need to be treated.
Finally, it’s important to know that not one of the studies investigated the bioactive ingredients found in Olivino™.
The Council for Responsible Nutrition, the leading trade association for the dietary supplement industry, stated: “This study is a coordinated, all-out assault on nutrition and the crucial role it plays in maintaining health and reducing the risk of chronic disease....this attack recklessly disregards decades of comprehensive carefully developed and well-conducted nutrition research on the benefits of both supplemental nutrients and health dietary patterns.”
Here is what Dr. Jeffrey Blumberg, Director of the Antioxidants Research Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University and a member of the OlivinoLife Scientific Advisory Board, has to say about this controversial study:
“It is impossible to summarize the myriad limitations associated with the approach the authors used to evaluate the research in this paper”. Further, the Annals of Internal Medicine has a long history of encouraging and publishing anti-supplement research, reviews and editorials.”