Study:Multivitamins Won't Cut Women's Cancer,Heart Health Risk
The study, considered the largest multivitamin study in postmenopausal women conducted to date, was published in the Feb. 9 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Overall, it showed few differences in the risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease and dying from any cause between vitamin users and women who didn't take multivitamins.
Researchers, led by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, in Seattle, analyzed data involving 161,808 women participating in the government-funded Women's Health Initiative, a clinical trial looking at the most common causes of death, disability and impaired quality of life in postmenopausal women. The initiative has looked at the effects of hormone-replacement therapy, diet and calcium, and now, multivitamins.
Women enrolled in the study between 1993 and 1998 and information about vitamin use was collected through interviews and by supplement bottles brought to clinic visits. A total of 41.5% of women reported using multivitamins. The women were followed through 2005 or about eight years.
In total, 9,619 cases of breast, colon, endometrial, renal, bladder, stomach, lung or ovarian cancer developed while 8,751 cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and stroke occurred. There were 9,865 deaths reported.
Women who took vitamins were more likely to be white, more physically active, more likely to use alchohol and less likely to smoke than non-vitamin users. There were few differences in disease outcomes between the vitamin and non-vitamin users, researchers said. They recommended that women focus on getting their nutrients from whole foods rather than vitamins.
"These results suggest that multivitamin use does not confer meaningful benefit or harm in relation to cancer or cardiovascular disease risk in postmenopausal women," researchers wrote.
The one exception to the overall finding was a possible lower risk of a heart attack among users of multivitamins with high doses of folic acid and B vitamins.
The study was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, a unit of the National Institutes of Health.
Previous findings of the Women's Health Initiative study showed that calcium slowed the loss of bone density over a seven-year period, but didn't significantly cut the rate of hip fractures. Calcium also didn't prevent colon cancer among the women in the study. However, another study from WHI suggested postmenopausal women who take calcium and vitamin D supplements may gain slightly less weight than women who don't, although the overall effect was small.
-By Jennifer Corbett Dooren, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9294; jennifer.corbett@dowjones.com
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Publié le 09 Février 2009 Copyright © 2009 Dowjones
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