Why Age?

Do Vitamins Cure Cancer?

May 12, 2009 – 7:59 pm | by admin

A lot of people take vitamins for general health, many take them periodically in large dosages to hasten recovery from a cold, and others take them as part of preventative or curative programs for cancer or heart disease.

Is this medicalisation of vitamins of any use?

A new study adds weight to the growing consensus amongst research doctors that vitamins are a waste of time and money, and in fact may be doing more harm than good.

It’s natural to embrace all possibilities when one is grappling with a disease like cancer but the use of vitamins to prevent it, let alone cure it, is a concept slowly joining the sanguine realms of faith healing and quack cures.

A big, long-term study of post-menopausal women by the Fred Hutchinson Research Center in Seattle, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in February 2009 sought to determine risk factors for cancer, heart disease and bone health.

161,808 women participated in the study over an eight year period. Because 41% of those women took multivitamins, it gave lead study author Dr Marian L. Newhouser the opportunity to contrast their results with the control group of women who did not take vitamins. If the 41% of women showed statistically significant lowered risks for cancer, then a conclusion could be drawn that vitamins reduce cancer risk.

Unfortunately they didn’t.

Those women were no more likely to avoid diagnosis of cancer, whether endometrial, colorectal, stomach, kidney, bladder, ovarian, lung or breast than those who didn’t take multivitamins. In fact, taking multivitamins did not help prevent heart attacks, strokes, or blood clots or reduce the risk of death from any cause during the study interval.

Studies like this keep piling up but the medicalising of vitamins continues to grow in the retail sector and the imagination of consumers.

Other studies have focused on popular supplements like selenium, beta-carotene and vitamins E, C, D,B6 and B12, probing their cancer-preventing qualities and have come up empty-handed.

Now this is perplexing, given that many other studies have shown that diets high in micronutrient-rich fruit and vegetables do in fact reduce cancer risk.

Dr Newhouser of the Fred Hutchinson study suspects that the absence in multivitamins of other bio-active compounds in foods, like anti-oxidants and a host of phytochemicals are the key to understanding why vitamins alone are of no apparent use in preventing cancer. These compounds help absorb vitamins and activate them in the body. They act synergistically with each other and a range of nutrients in a way far more complex than we are currently able to determine.

I don’t see the problem here.

If studies show vitamins taken on their own are of limited or no use to the body but are biologically active when consumed in the food that contains them, then bon appetit!

It’s actually very liberating to know that nature has us covered, and supplies us with all the nutrients we need in tasty packages. Giving up vitamins and eating more fruit, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts and seeds will save us some money too. The Nutrition Business Journal estimates that of the $23 billion dollars Americans spend on nutrition supplements, one third of that was on vitamins.

The body needs 13 vitamins and 15 minerals to be healthy and functional and those requirements are easily supplied by filling your plate with fruit, vegetables and grains. It is very rare in prosperous societies to have a case of vitamin deficiency.

Special vitamin requirements, such as folic acid for expectant mothers and the vitamin K given to newborns to prevent bleeding will probably always have a place but the rest of us gain little or no benefit from multivitamins.

Even the elderly and ageing among us.

We have special needs and can be prone to undernutrition but this is more likely to come from declining eating habits. It’s more important for anti-agers to concentrate on healthy whole foods than on perusing vitamin bottles. Getting the appetite and digestion going with regular exercise is important too.

Another study indicates that vitamins may even be harmful to us.

Analysis in 2009 of a previous study looking at the effects of folic acid (Vitamin B9) and aspirin on prostate cancer brought up a disturbing finding. 843 men had taken one mg of folic acid daily - more than twice the amount recommended for men and for women not pregnant or nursing. Not only did the folic acid not reduce risk for prostate cancer, it increased risk by 163%.

Perhaps taking vitamins is not so benign after all. Another study found high dosages of beta-carotene promoted lung cancer in heavy smokers. 

Release yourself from the clutches of Vitamania and indulge in nature’s packaging instead.