He commented that for the first time in 18 months as he

He commented that for the first time in 18 months, as he was on his way to meet me he had had an attack of indigestion. Ordinarily I might have nodded in sympathy and offered him a crafty Rennie, but if it persists he’d be much better off nipping round to his local sawbones. He might find that there’s something other than sausages and mash swirling around in his stomach.. When you edit the health pages of a newspaper, an awful lot of guff crosses your desk: ancient Japanese healing techniques, weird theories about weight loss, utterly implausible anti-ageing “breakthroughs” – and stacks of stuff about the wonders of vitamins and minerals. I like to think that part of my job is to spare you, readers, from speculation, blind faith, wishful thinking, brazen profiteering and pure baloney and bring to these pages only unbiased information that is backed up by huge studies conducted by famous institutions over a great number of years.

The report, from Oxford University (quite a famous institution), studied more than 20,000 people at high risk of heart disease and strokes, who were given antioxidant vitamins, (vitamins C and E and beta carotene) over a period of five years. The vitamins, while harmless, did nothing to reduce their risk of heart attacks, strokes or cancer. For a supplement junkie like me, this is disappointing.So how did I end up taking so many supplements in the first place? It all began two years ago, when a major study appeared in The Lancet summarising evidence from 80 studies involving selenium. Selenium is a remarkable mineral essential to the proper functioning of the immune system, and the study showed that it can boost male fertility and help to prevent miscarriage, depression and even cancer.

In one trial, deaths from all forms of cancer were halved among those taking selenium. Perhaps most significantly for supplement junkies, the study also showed that, due to depleted levels in Europe’s knackered soil, it is well nigh impossible to obtain adequate levels of selenium in a normal, balanced diet.Cancer rates halved? That was good enough for me. I’d never taken a supplement in my life, but I was having this one. I lost both my parents to cancer within a year of each other.