A vitamin pill a day keeps cancer away? Unlikely
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Glad that the link was of interest and use and thanks to you Eli for posting your other links too.
Gavin
Marion,
No, the very same study is not conducted on women.
Physicians’ Health Study II was specifically designed to test common vitamins and multivitamins. It was randomized and placebo-controlled.
Nurses’ Health Study is a much broader study. It looks at many different health issues. And it’s not randomized. They ask nurses to fill in questionnaires on a regular basis.
That said….
Nurses’ study did look at the multivitamins. I found the summary of their results in this article:
Do Multivitamins Make You Healthier?
http://www.wellsource.com/articles-mhc/Do-Multivitamins-Make-You-Healthier.htmlHere’s the summary:
Quote:[Nurses’ Health Study] found no significant health advantage to taking multivitamins, except for a slightly lower risk for colon cancer in women taking multivitamins for more than 15 years. (Some research shows folic acid to be protective against bowel cancer.) Researchers also found a slight increased risk for fatal non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in multivitamin users.The article mentions another large study called The Women’s Health Initiative. It too examined many different health issues. Here’s their publication on multivitamins:
Multivitamin use and risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease in the Women’s Health Initiative cohorts
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19204221Their conclusion:
Quote:After a median follow-up of 8.0 and 7.9 years in the clinical trial and observational study cohorts, respectively, the Women’s Health Initiative study provided convincing evidence that multivitamin use has little or no influence on the risk of common cancers, CVD (cardio-vascular desease), or total mortality in postmenopausal women.Eli…do you know whether this very same study is conducted on women also -Vitamins – Health benefits?
Hugs,
MarionPercy…my husband was given 5-FU plus leucovorin. This was almost six years ago. But the most current literature I found dispells the benefit- risk factor of the combination:
http://www.drugs.com/food-interactions/capecitabine,xeloda.htmlHugs,
MarionHi,
BTW, I stopped taking multivitamin pills after my second resection in June 2010.
One reason is that ,most of them contain folic acid and if someone like me who is on capecitabine(Xeloda) or injectable like 5 FU, it may not be a good idea.
God bless.Oh, Eli, I forgot about the Nurse’s Health Study. Thanks for setting me straight.
Sorry, I owe an apology to all of you males. Forgiven?
Hugs,
MarionDear Marion, please don’t be irked
The study in question was done at Harvard. It’s part of their ongoing research called the Physicians’ Health Study. Yes, it focuses on males.
Harvard runs a similar series of studies that includes only females. It’s called the Nurses’ Health Study.
http://www.channing.harvard.edu/nhs/
I’m guessing Harvard researchers have some very good reasons to run these studies separately. Males and females have distinct health issues!!
Thanks, Gavin for posting this valuable link.
In regards to the study group (middle-aged or older men) I am irked by the fact that we continue to see an exclusion of the “female” population.
According to the published studies for 2011 there are 101.3 men to every 100 females in the world.
Hello, researchers, we are not to be overlooked.
Hugs,
Marion
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