- Image via Wikipedia
Time was taking a daily multivitamin pill was a sign that you were looking after yourself and trying to improve your health. More and more research though has shown that the addition of most vitamins in the majority of otherwise healthy people is not only not useful it may actually be dangerous.
Vitamin A in excess causes osteoporosis.
Vitamin E supplements seemed to increase the chance of cancer in a couple of studies.
The B vitamins including B12 and even folic acid have had some negative research showing an increase in cancer risk in patients taking supplements. Of course taking folic acid is important for patient who are looking to become or are actually pregnant, so if you are in that situation please do not stop taking the vitamins as it reduces the risk of spina bifida in the fetus.
Vitamin D is the only vitamin that is coming up roses at the moment, but most multivitamins don’t contain enough of this vitamin to really make a difference.
If you are taking a multivitamin it is time to stop. There never really was any reason to start taking one.
In a study done looking at the health of women – the Women’s Health Initiative. found some 40 % of women took a multivitamin, yet after 8 years there was no difference in heart disease or cancer.
There continues to be good evidence that taking fruits and vegetables and exercise both reduces the chance of heart disease and cancer. Once we can all take our exercise and veg’s in pill form chances are we will all take one. What to do in the mean time ?
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=c1d0c111-1be4-4993-84a8-1974f5acfe07)
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Will the B vitamins I’m taking cause a cancer risk in me?
That’s a good question. I think the answer is that there is not as much an advantage to taking additional vitamins if you are already healthy. On the other hand if you have a medical condition which means that you are deficient in any vitamin then you need to take extra of that vitamin to get it to a normal level.
I was really trying to say not that vitamins cause cancer but there is little evidence that they protect us from cancer- whereas there is great evidence that fruit and vegetables reduce our chance of cancer so we need to take them and not substitute a vitamin as it doesn’t seem to have the same benefit and may actually have the opposite effect.
What about me with my condition which supplement would you recommend
Benny
For all patients, unless they have a particular condition which means that they have or are likely to have a vitamin deficiency e.g. perhaps a bowel disorder that reduces absorption of vitamins or in those situations for which there is good evidence that a vitamin is recommended for a particular condition such as folic acid is in pre-pregnancy or pregnancy then additional vitamins are not required. Most people get enough vitamins from their diet and sunshine. The only vitamin that might be needed for normal “healthy” people is vitamin D if the person keeps most of their body out of the sun most of the time or where they live gets little sun.
I will be putting more information about this subject in the future and check for other posts on the website under the category “vitamins”