it seems like the medical establishment has been making examples out of a couple of extreme cases--there was another recent story in alberta where the family owned a supplement company. you're right that these extreme examples don't relate here. acute illnesses vs chronic disease.

often we find 'side benefits' from using supplements/diet/lifestyle changes. when i had my first arthritis flareup, my doctor was so much less than helpful when i started asking her questions about how to prevent the arthritis inflammation in the first place. she had me taking so much ibuprofen my stomach started bleeding. luckily i knew about hoffer, and i had first hand experience about the efficacy of biomedical treatments and was able to do my own research into the why's of the inflammation/pain. i immediately made dietary changes to eliminate inflammatory foods and added in anti inflammatory supplements. niacin worked so much better than ibuprofen and even in small doses, took the pain right away. ibuprofen didn't even touch the pain. i just don't have much respect for the way that modern medicine treats chronic disease. in my experience, it makes things worse.