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Vitamin supplements fail to reduce cancer risk in women

10:27 AM, December 31, 2008

Vite1This has been a dismal year for vitamin supplements. People continue to buy them but data from numerous controlled clinical trials published this year have failed to show that vitamin supplements decrease the risk of various diseases, such as cancer. An overview of the findings was published in the Los Angeles Times earlier this month by reporter Karen Kaplan.

Adding to the tally of failed vitamin trials is a study published yesterday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that found women who took beta carotene or vitamin C or E or a combination of supplements had a similar risk of cancer as women who did not take the supplements. The study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School tested the supplements on 7,627 women. After more than nine years of follow-up, there was no difference in cancer risk.

Studies following the health habits of large groups of people have shown that eating lots of fruits and vegetables is linked to a lower risk of cancer and other diseases, and the advice to eat multiple servings of fruits and vegetables each day has not changed. It will take more research to understand why a healthy diet seems to have disease-prevention powers that are lacking in use of supplements.

In an editorial accompanying the study, Dr. Demetrius Albanes of the National Cancer Institute points out that the new study still contributes to a better understanding of cancer processes. For example, the study found some evidence that vitamin E may reduce colon cancer risk and beta carotene was linked to a modest rise in lung cancer risk. These findings have also been shown in previous trials.

-- Shari Roan

Photo: Vitamin E. Credit: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times 

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Comments

them who do research do so on grants mostly, thus they must say something to justify them selfs, If you do like what you hear today fear not, someone will show other wise in thier research tomorrow.

What I would like to know is if the supplemments used in the study are created in a lab or are they gotten from nature?

Very nice.

A Canadian company, Naturally Nova Scotia, makes supplements from foods instead of synthetics. The have vitamin C from fruit, herbal tinctures, green drinks, vitamin D3, and others.

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Tami Dennis, who takes the word "skeptic" to previously uncharted territory, is the Times' Health and Science editor. She's adamant that pitches promoting awareness days, weeks or months are, by their nature, non-stories. And, because she's an adult, she refuses to use words like "veggies," "tummy" and "yummy."
Rosie Mestel, deputy Health and Science editor, studied genetics before abandoning flies, fungi and DNA for health/medical writing. Her hero is the biologist Ernst Haeckel, whose jellyfish paintings inspired snazzy chandeliers. Her favorite toast-spread is Marmite, a British delicacy made of yeast extract. Her least-favorite word is "millenniums."
Melissa Healy is a staff writer for the Health section reporting from Washington D.C. Healy's a veteran of The Times' National staff, having covered the Pentagon, Congress, poverty and social welfare, the environment, and the White House before shifting to Health in 2003. She writes frequently about mental health and human behavior, about federal health policy, prescription medication and ethics in medicine. More wonk than wellness freak, Healy chooses to believe in the health benefits of coffee and wine, and considers water a better work-out medium than beverage.
Karen Kaplan covers genetics, stem cells and cloning. She and colleague Thomas H. Maugh II comprise about 25% of the unofficial MIT-Alumni-in-Journalism Club, and she is proud to have taken more math (5) than English (0) courses in college. Her contributions to Booster Shots will, she hopes, appear more frequently than postings to her mommy blog.
Thomas H. Maugh II has been a science and medical writer at the Times for 23 years. Before that, he was on the staff of the journal Science for 13 years. He has bachelor's degrees in English and chemistry from MIT and a doctorate in chemistry from UC Santa Barbara.
After a brief stint as a sports writer, Shari Roan turned to health journalism and has covered the topic for The Times for 18 years. She is the author of three books and the mother of two daughters, both teenagers who refer to her as a "health freak." She likes to jog, watch baseball and is very happy that dark chocolate contains some health benefit.
Jeannine Stein writes about fitness, sports medicine and obesity for the Health section. She’s a gym rat from way back and never met an elliptical trainer she didn’t like. Well, maybe one or two. She tempers exercise with a steady diet of reality television because she believes it’s all about balance.