Multivitamins 'raise cancer risk'
Updated on 15 May 2007
Overdosing on vitamins can increase the risk of deadly prostate cancer, new research suggests.
US scientists investigated the impact of vitamin use on cancer in 295,344 men enrolled in a national diet and health study.
After five years, they found a surprising link between rates of advanced and fatal prostate cancer and men who regularly took multivitamins.
Those who used the supplements more than once a day were significantly more likely to suffer dangerous advanced forms of the disease than men who took no multivitamins.
The correlation was strongest for men with a family history of the disease, and who also took selenium, beta-carotene or zinc supplements. No similar association was seen between heavy multivitamin use and localised prostate cancer.
The explanation for the findings, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, remains a mystery.
Researchers from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland said the findings warranted further research.
A total of 10,241 of the men studied were diagnosed with prostate cancer. Of these, 8,765 had localised cancers and 1,476 advanced cancers. During a separate follow-up period of six years, 179 men died from the disease.
Men taking large amounts of multivitamins were 1.32 times more likely to develop advanced prostate cancer and nearly twice as likely to have a fatal condition as those who did not use multivitamins. The vitamins and minerals found in fruits and vegetables are known to be essential to good health and long life.
However, some analyses of pooled trial data have suggested that beta-carotene, vitamin A and vitamin E supplements may shorten life rather than extend it.
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