Vitamins not silver bullets for cancer

by Paul Conneally | December 31, 2008 at 07:19 am

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In an a age where people are living longer the fight to stay fit and particularly to avoid diseases such as cancer in all its forms can be a lucrative one.

Many dollars have been made by companies selling vitamin supplements and antioxidants to people looking to keep off cancer but a new report in the Journal Of The National Cancer Institute finds that they seem offer no real protection at all.

ANTIOXIDANT supplements such as vitamins C, E and beta carotene do not reduce the risk of contracting cancer, according to a trial involving 7500 women.

Experts say the results will reignite debate about the qualities of the vitamins - commonly promoted to help combat everything from inflammation to cancer.

The trial, reported in the Journal Of The National Cancer Institute in the United States, set up separate control groups with women susceptible to cardiovascular disease, giving them one of the vitamins, placebo pills or nothing at all.

After almost 10 years, 624 of the women had developed cancer but the cases were spread evenly among the groups.

The report's authors concluded: "Supplementation with vitamin C, vitamin E, or beta carotene offers no overall benefits in the primary prevention of total cancer incidence or cancer mortality."