Multivitamins don’t protect against cancer, heart disease
Using multivitamins does not protect against cancers or heart disease, according to an eight-year study of 161,808 postmenopausal women, which appears in the Feb. 9th issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine.
The study analyzed data on women in their 50s and up who participated in long-running government studies on postmenopausal women. Almost 42 percent of the women said they used multivitamins regularly. After about eight years, roughly equal numbers of vitamin users and nonusers developed common cancers, heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems. Overall, there were 9,619 cases of cancer, including cancers of the breast, lung, ovary, colon and stomach; and 8,751 cardiovascular ailments including heart attacks and strokes. In addition, 9,865 women died, also at similar rates in multivitamin users and nonusers, according to an MSNBC article.
Despite these results, study co-author Dr. JoAnn Manson said this research doesn't necessarily mean that multivitamins are useless. The data are observational, and it's unclear if taking vitamins could help prevent cancers that take several years to develop, said Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Harvard's Brigham & Women's Hospital.
She said multivitamins may still be useful "as a form of insurance" for people with poor eating habits, the article reports.