Multivitamins May Fight Cancer

In news that vitamin and supplement manufacturers should be screaming from the rooftops, new research has found that a daily multivitamin could lower your chances for cancer. Researchers focused on older men, so it’s not clear whether the same can be said for other age groups and women.

The researchers studied 15,000 middle-aged men over an 11 year period, examining the long-term effects of multivitamins on chronic disease prevention.

"The main findings were a reduction in total cancers of eight percent,'' says researcher J. Michael Gaziano, MD, MPH, of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Seeming to temper the potential for over-exuberance, Gaziano says their main message to the public is that multivitamins are most beneficial in the prevention of nutritional deficiency. It just so happens there is the potential for a “modest benefit for cancer reduction in men over 50.”

Vitamins and Cancer Risk

About half of the 15,000 men in the study took the Centrum Silver multivitamin every day. The other half of the group took a placebo. Before the study began, researchers new that 1,312 of the men had a history of cancer, but none were actively fighting cancer. They tracked the men to see who developed cancers, with the exception of non-melanoma skin cancers.

Here’s what they found: There were 1,290 cancers detected in the group taking vitamins. The group taking the placebo had 1,379 cases of cancer. About half of the cancer cases across both groups were prostate cancer.

While the researchers found no direct impact on prostate cancer by taking the multivitamin, there was an eight percent reduction overall. Neither group was more prone to a higher risk for death. Since the participants were being monitored for cancer, naturally most of the prostate cancer cases were early stage.

The researchers could not explain the reason for their findings, but they do caution that if there are any cancer-fighting benefits, they aren't seen unless you have been taking a multivitamin for at least several years.

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Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

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