Vitamin supplements do not prolong life and may be harmful

People from all over the world have sent their comments to many news sources expressing concerns about a newly published Cochrane review that shows no evidence for vitamin benefit

The review looked at 67 studies involving 233,000 people who were either sick or healthy and had been taking very high-dose synthetic vitamins supplements for disease prevention. The outcome that they looked at was death from any cause and the researchers found no reduction in death from taking antioxidant supplements. They also found increased risk of death from vitamin A, beta-carotene and vitamin E, but no significant effects from vitamin C or selenium.

The authors concluded that there is "no evidence to support antioxidant supplements for primary or secondary prevention" and sufficient evaluation should be carried out before marketing these supplements.

Source: "Antioxidant supplements for prevention of mortality in healthy participants and patients with various diseases." Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2008, issue 2

Vitamin supplements or no supplements?

The Telegraph reported on 15 Feb that a scientist who spoke at the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement claimed that taking multivitamin could reduce cancer risk.

However, on 26 Feb, it reported that the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) warned that vitamin supplements may do more harm than good and urged people to eat healthy diet raher than rely on supplements. This is contradicts the findings of a new report from the Copenhagen University Hospital that found betacarotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E may increase mortality. The results were based on 47 trials involving more than 180,000 people. They found that antioxidant supplements increased mortality by 5 per cent.

The news has attracted a lot of interesting comments from the public.

Vitamin supplements may not protect your heart

Some previous researches have found viatmin C, E and beta carotene linked to reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, but a new study published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine casts doubt on these findings.

The latest study involved 8000 women who have a history of cardiovascular disease, randomly assigned to 2 groups : one taking vitamin alone or in combination and one a placebo over 9 years. The results showed that the antioxidants, either alone or in combination had no effect on reducing the risk of heart disease or death in high-risk women.

Some experts suggested that the form of vitamin in over-the-counter dietry supplements may be different from the vitamins found in fruits and vegetables and recommended that lifestyle change with healthy diet and regular exercises is the key to prevent heart disease.

Read the abstract - "A Randomized Factorial Trial of Vitamins C and E and Beta Carotene in the Secondary Prevention of Cardiovascular Events in Women - Results From the Women's Antioxidant Cardiovascular Study " Arch Intern Med. 2007;167 (15):1610-1618. 13-27 August.