Dietary supplements such as vitamin pills are big business, raking in about $23 billion per year according to The New York Times, but recent studies have shown that extra vitamins are not as effective at preventing chronic diseases, cutting cancer risk, or prolonging life as people think. In early February, the Women’s Health Initiative study found that multivitamins provided no heart disease or cancer-mitigating benefits among more than 161,000 older women over eight years of use. Similar studies have revealed that ingesting high doses of vitamins E and C and selenium in pill form have almost no cancer-risk-reducing effects.

There have been a few exceptions, such as the clinical trial which found that calcium appeared to lower the recurrence of precancerous colon polyps by 15%. Vitamin D has also shown some promise. But most trials have shown no cancer benefits associated with vitamins, and some cases, vitamin studies have actually revealed higher cancer risk among vitamin takers than a placebo control group. This may be due to antioxidant vitamins’ ability to fight free radicals, which are linked to disease and aging but are also necessary to healthy immune function. The conflicting data points to a need for further testing and, perhaps, a shift in consumer expectations as well. For more information about cancer types and treatments, be sure to read through the Dale & Frances Hughes cancer treatment center website.

No Comments

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.