Consuming extra vitamin supplements may lead to cancer and cardiac dx on HWN INSIGHTS

Taking extra vitamin supplements may actually increase the risk of getting cancer and heart disease, a new research has warned.

Millions of people including Nigerians take supplements regularly thinking they are getting a health boost, but a decade-long study, which examined the healthy benefits of supplements on thousands of people, found they can have the opposite effect.

Experts warned that taking above the recommended daily amount of over-the-counter vitamins may increase the risk of developing cancer and heart disease by up to 20 per cent.

And they urged the public to get their vitamins from a healthy diet rather than rely on pills.

Tim Byers, a professor at the University of Colorado Cancer Centre who led the study, said: ‘We are not sure why this is happening at the molecular level, but evidence shows that people who take more dietary supplements than needed tend to have a higher risk of developing cancer.’

The line of research started 20 years ago with the observation that people who ate more fruits and vegetables tended to have less cancer. Researchers including Byers wanted to see if taking extra vitamins and minerals would reduce cancer risk even further.

The results were not what they expected.

“When we first tested dietary supplements in animal models we found that the results were promising. Eventually we were able to move on to humans. We studied thousands of patients for 10 years who were taking dietary supplements and placebos.”

“We found that the supplements were actually not beneficial for their health. In fact, some people actually got more cancer while on the vitamins.”

One trial exploring the effects of beta carotene supplements showed that taking more than the recommended dosage increased the risk for developing both lung cancer and heart disease by 20 percent.

“Folic acid, which was thought to help reduce the number of polyps in a colon, actually increased the number in another trial.”

“This is not to say that people need to be afraid of taking vitamins and minerals,” says Byers. “If taken at the correct dosage, multivitamins can be good for you. But there is no substitute for good, nutritional food.”

Byers says that people can get the daily recommended doses of vitamins and minerals in their diets by eating healthy meal and that many adults who take vitamin supplements may not need them.

“At the end of the day we have discovered that taking extra vitamins and minerals do more harm than good,” says Byers.

The results prompted Dr Byers to call for supplements to be reclassified as drugs rather than food.

He said the study showed they were a ‘public health’ issue and wanted to see authorities ‘pay more attention to safety and how they are advertised’.