Down goes fish oil

I'll admit it.  Every morning (or at least most mornings) I open my little pill box thing and I take a multi-vitamin, a fish oil Omega 3 capsule, a glucosamine tablet, something called Eye Guard that my eye doctor recommended, and an Apple Cider Vinegar concentrate capsule.

They are all supposed to be good for me and so why not.  About once a year I pony up several hundred dollars at the vitamin store to replenish my supplies, usually waiting for some kind of sale (which almost always seems to be going on).

Then comes this:  Washington Post.  Fish oil supplements, according to the latest scientific research, don't have any measurable effect on health.

OK.  But there's still glucosamine.  Mayo Clinic.  Some studies using one particular supplier of glucosamine sulphate found that it seemed to work for knee problems but not for other osteoarthritis symptoms.  They specifically warn against assuming that product from other suppliers is equally effective.  OK.  I have knee problems so this is perfect.  Except that I don't know if my supplement was sulphate and I doubt that it was from the specific supplier.  I just ran out so I don't have an empty bottle to check.

How about Eye Guard?  There is a history of Advanced Macular Degeneration (AMD) in my family.  My father and his moth both had it.  So makes sense to take precautions.  Here's what WebMD has to say:

This supplement regimen, however, was not shown to prevent the onset of AMD, slow its progression in early stages, or improve vision already lost.

Oh.  OK.  Turns out, reading further, that most of the benefit appears to come from two carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin, which are found in leafy green vegetables and highly colored fruits and vegetables.  Tons of both in spinach, especially cooked spinach, oddly enough.  So maybe I just need to eat more spinach.  It would certainly be cheaper and I need to eat more vegetables anyway.

Apple Cider Vinegar?  I take that for acid reflux.  I was waking up with severe acid reflux in the middle of the night.  I started taking the supplement and it seems to have completely gone away.  I also stopped drinking beer in the evening, and stopped eating desserts late at night.  If I have a dessert I try to have it early in the day or evening, and stay up for at least a couple hours after dinner is over.  My suspicion is that the latter had as much to do with the problem as the former, and the latter was free.

I'm not even going to look up the efficacy of multi-vitamins.   I need to continue to believe something otherwise my world view may be shattered.   But hey, science.  

Recently there have been a couple more revelations.

1. Not only is salt not as bad for you as you have been told, but the government guidelines on salt consumption may be too low.  That's right, too low.  You aren't getting enough salt in your diet. 
2. Eating food high in cholesterol (like eggs, lobster, etc) may not affect your bodies cholesterol levels.

So once again everything we have been told may be wrong.

Funny how every time I make an argument against man made global warming I get accused of being anti-science.  The faithful refuse to listen to the  scientific arguments against their positions, but each of the supplements above is taken as a matter of faith.  Glucosamine works for joint pain, fish oil helps your heart, salt is bad for you, eggs are bad for you, etc.  The science is irrelevant and you can't even bring up any of the subjects without being viewed as a bit of a crank.

Oh well.  We still have Vitamin C for colds.

Wait, what?