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Multivitamin Blog

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Taking Multivitamins Won't Prevent Canker Sores, Study Says

Posted 5 Apr 2012 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, April 5 – Although vitamin deficiencies have been linked to canker sores, taking a daily multivitamin won't prevent this common mouth ailment, a new study finds. The study found that people with recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS), the medical name for canker sores, received no benefit from taking a daily multivitamin as a preventive measure. Previous research on canker sores had shown a benefit to patients with vitamin deficiencies when they took large doses of vitamins. Participants in the new study did not have significant vitamin deficiencies, and the vitamin dose was much smaller – although still equivalent to the recommended daily dose. Patients taking a placebo treatment had no more episodes of the oral lesions than those taking a vitamin regimen. "Giving patients prone to RAS multivitamins did not reduce the duration or frequency of canker sores, so in clinical ... Read more

CDC: Americans' Levels of Vitamins, Nutrients Basically OK

Posted 2 Apr 2012 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, April 2 – Most Americans have good levels of vitamins A and D and folate – a B vitamin – but some groups of people need to increase their levels of vitamin D and iron, according to a federal report released Monday. The study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also found that rates of vitamin and nutrient deficiencies vary by age, gender and race/ethnicity, and can be as high as 31 percent for vitamin D deficiency among blacks. The study results were based on measurements of vitamins and nutrients in blood and urine samples collected between 1999 and 2006 from participants in the CDC's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. "These findings are a snapshot of our nation's overall nutrition status," Christopher Portier, director of CDC's National Center for Environmental Health, said in an agency news release. "Measurements of blood and urine levels ... Read more

No Cancer Benefit From Vitamin B, Omega-3 Supplements in Heart Patients

Posted 13 Feb 2012 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, Feb. 13 – Patients with a history of heart disease will most likely not reduce their risk for developing cancer by taking vitamin B and/or omega-3 fatty acid supplements, a new French analysis suggests. "In the population we studied, we found no beneficial effects of either B vitamins or omega-3 fatty acids taken over five years on cancer occurrence or cancer-related death," noted study author Valentina Andreeva, who is with the nutritional epidemiology research unit at the University of Paris XIII in Bobigny, France. Andreeva and her colleagues report their findings in the Feb. 13 online edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine. To explore the protective potential of B vitamins and fatty acid supplements, the authors did a secondary analysis of data that had been collected in a previous study involving almost 2,000 French men and 500 women. All were between 45 and 80 years ... Read more

Heart Patients Using Vitamins May Take Meds Improperly

Posted 15 Nov 2011 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Nov. 15 – People with heart conditions who take vitamins may be less likely to take some of their other medications properly, according to a new study. Researchers from the Intermountain Medical Center in Utah asked 100 people with an irregular heartbeat – known as atrial fibrillation – what they knew about warfarin (Coumadin), a commonly prescribed blood thinner. The patients were also asked how well they followed their prescription for the drug, and whether or not they also took vitamins or other supplements. People taking warfarin need regular monitoring because too much of the drug can cause bleeding, and too little can allow blood clots to form, increasing the risk for stroke. In addition, diet also plays a role in warfarin's effectiveness. The study, presented Monday at the American Heart Association's annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., found that 62 percent of patients ... Read more

Dietary Supplements May Harm Older Women: Study

Posted 10 Oct 2011 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, Oct. 10 – Far from being healthy, supplements such as multivitamins, minerals and folic acid may actually raise the odds for death in older women who take them, a new study suggests. Dietary supplements are widely used in the United States, often with the hope of avoiding chronic disease. However, the long-term health consequences of many compounds are unknown, the researchers said. "Our study raises concerns about the safety of a number of commonly used dietary supplements," said lead researcher Jaakko Mursu, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Eastern Finland, in Kuopio. "We would advise people to reconsider whether they need to use supplements and put more emphasis on a healthy diet," he said. The report was published in the Oct. 10 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. For the study, Mursu's team collected data on nearly 39,000 women who took part in the ... Read more

Smokers Mistakenly Believe Vitamins Protect Them From Cancer

Posted 5 Aug 2011 by Drugs.com

FRIDAY, Aug. 5 – Smokers who take a multivitamin pill may think they can smoke more because the supplement protects them from the harmful affects of cigarettes, according to a new study. Researchers found that some people who smoke mistakenly believe the vitamins will reduce their risk of cancer, allowing them to light up more often. The study noted that such trading of a virtuous behavior for a subsequent indulgence, known as the "licensing effect," could undermine smokers' urge to kick the addiction. "Smokers who take dietary supplements can fool themselves into thinking they are protected against cancer and other diseases. Reminding health-conscious smokers that multivitamins don't prevent cancer may help them control their smoking or even encourage them to stop," said the study's lead author, Wen-Bin Chiou in a journal news release. The study, published online Aug. 2 in the journal ... Read more

Multivitamins Don't Reduce Colon Cancer Death Risk

Posted 13 Sep 2010 by Drugs.com

FRIDAY, Sept. 10 – Taking multivitamins does not reduce colorectal cancer patients' risk of dying or, among survivors, the likelihood that the cancer will return, a new study shows. Between 26 percent and 77 percent of cancer survivors in the United States say they take multivitamins in the belief that it will help them fight their cancer, noted the researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. In this study, patients with stage III colon cancer (cancer in the bowel area with some cancer cells that have spread to a few nearby lymph nodes) were asked to complete questionnaires about their use of multivitamins during and after post-surgery chemotherapy. Nearly half of the 1,038 patients who completed the first survey said they used multivitamins while receiving chemotherapy. More than half of the 810 cancer-free patients who completed the second survey six months after ... Read more

More Evidence That B Vitamins Alone Won't Counter Heart Risks

Posted 22 Jun 2010 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, June 22 – A new study by British researchers provides the most conclusive evidence to date that taking vitamins to reduce levels of the blood protein known as homocysteine doesn't lower the risk of heart problems. Homocysteine has been a buzzword among heart disease experts since the early 1990s when scientists noticed that people with elevated levels had an increased risk of heart disease. Because folic acid and other B vitamins are known to lower homocysteine, researchers theorized that taking a daily supplement might lead to heart-related benefits. The study of more than 12,000 heart attack survivors showed that taking a daily folic acid and vitamin B12 supplement for nearly seven years lowered homocysteine levels by an average of 28 percent, but failed to reduce the risk of heart attack, coronary death or stroke. Seven previous large-scale trials that looked at whether ... Read more

Vitamins Fail to Protect Men Against Bladder Cancer

Posted 31 May 2010 by Drugs.com

SUNDAY, May 30 – New research suggests that vitamins may do nothing to protect men against bladder cancer and might even raise the risk of another type of cancer. In one study examining vitamin use, researchers analyzed more than 10,000 questionnaires that men filled out as they took part in prostate screenings. More than 60 percent of the men said they took supplements, with 48 percent taking three or more. Multivitamins, fish oil, and vitamin C were the most common supplements that the men used. "The high prevalence of supplement use reported in this study is of potential concern," the study authors wrote. "Previous studies suggest an association between multivitamin use and increased risk of advanced prostate cancer," which the earlier research had linked to men who used multivitamins seven or more times a week. Researchers also studied 77,719 residents of Washington state, aged ... Read more

Supplements Might Reduce Breast Cancer Risk

Posted 18 Apr 2010 by Drugs.com

SUNDAY, April 18 – Women who take multivitamin tablets along with calcium supplements seem to have a reduced risk of developing breast cancer, new research suggests. The authors of the study, which is to be presented Sunday at the American Association for Cancer Research annual conference in Washington, D.C., did not separate out which specific vitamins might be beneficial but suggested that the interactions of different vitamins together might account for the beneficial effect. "The effect was seen with multivitamins, not with single vitamins," said study co-author Dr. Jaime Matta, a professor of pharmacology, physiology and toxicology at Ponce School of Medicine in Ponce, Puerto Rico. "It's possible that the vitamins work better together than individually." "We found that taking multivitamins and calcium supplements were strongly protective against breast cancer," said Dr. Manuel ... Read more

To Supplement or Not to Supplement?

Posted 29 Mar 2010 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, March 29 – You know you should eat better – but that daily multivitamin pill, calcium supplements and possibly others compensate, right? Perhaps. But nutrition experts say that getting crucial nutrients from food, when possible, is better than popping pills. The American Dietetic Association, in fact, has updated its guidelines on nutrient supplementation and now stresses that eating a wide variety of nutrient-rich foods is the best way to get needed nutrients and reduce the risk of chronic disease. The update comes at a time when nutrient supplementation continues to be a growing trend in the United States. Americans spent more than $23 billion on dietary supplements in 2007, according to the association's report, and one-third of adults use a multivitamin and mineral supplement regularly. Others use a variety of supplements, which prompts worry among health experts about the ... Read more

Folic Acid Fortification Might Boost Cancer Risk

Posted 1 Dec 2009 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Nov. 17 – Although folic acid fortification of foods can prevent many birth defects, it may also increase the risk for developing cancer, Norwegian researchers report. Since 1998, many countries have mandated folic acid (vitamin B9) fortification of foods to decrease the incidence of neural-tube defects in newborns. By October 2009, the flour produced in these countries, plus the flour that is fortified voluntarily, represented 30 percent of the world's wheat flour produced in large mills. In addition, some 40 percent of those living in the United States also take dietary supplements containing folic acid, the researchers noted. However, "Folic acid fortification and supplementation may not necessarily be as safe as previously assumed," said lead researcher Dr. Marta Ebbing, from the Department of Heart Disease at Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen. "Public health and ... Read more

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