Many people
believe that a daily multivitamin is harmless and may even help prevent chronic
diseases, including cancer. According to Martinez, Jacobs, Baron, Marshall, and
Byers (2012) about half of all adults in the U.S. take supplements. But just
how helpful are multivitamins? In 2009 a study was conducted to evaluate the
impact of multivitamin use on cancer risk and cardiovascular disease in women
participating in the Women’s Health Initiative study. After following the
patients for eight years, multivitamin use was found to have little to no
influence on risk of common cancers, cardiovascular disease, or total mortality
in postmenopausal women (Neuhouser et al, 2009). This and many other studies
have resulted in inconclusive evidence that there is a benefit to daily
supplementation for purposes other than nutritional deficiencies (Martinez et
al., 2012). As a result of the lack of current scientific evidence, federal dietary
guidelines and the American Cancer Society recommend a well balanced diet with
plenty of fruits and vegetables (Rabin, 2012). The provider that I work with
advises his patients that they can continue to take daily multivitamins if they
choose, but as long as they are eating a well-balanced diet, this is not
necessary.
However, a recently published study
to evaluate the use of multivitamins for the prevention of cancer in men followed
male physicians over the age of 50 for about eleven years and found that daily
multivitamin use decreased the incidence of cancer by 8% (Gaziano et al., 2012).
Interestingly multivitamin use did not impact the incidence of prostate cancer,
the most common cancer in men. However, as when evaluating all types of
evidence, one should ask if the results can be generalized to the population as
a whole. Upon further analysis, this study was conducted on a population of
well-educated male physicians who are overall less racially and ethnically
diverse and had far fewer smokers than in the general population. Additionally,
the study was specific to the formulation of Centrum Silver provided to the
patients in the study. Thus, this study can be a building block for additional
research, but the use of daily multivitamins is not an evidence-based practice
at this time.
References
Gaziano, J. M.,
Sesso, H. D., Bubes, V., Smith, J. P., MacFadyen, J., Schvartz, M., … Buring,
J. E. (2012). Journal of the American
Medical Association, 308(18), E1-E10. doi: 10.1001/jama.2012.14641
Martinez, M. E.,
Jacobs, E. T., Baron, J. A., Marshall, J. R., & Byers, T. (2012). Dietary
supplements and cancer prevention: Balancing potential benefits against proven
harms. Journal of the National Cancer
Institute, 104(10), 732-739. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djs195
Neuhouser, M. L.,
Wassertheil-Smoller, S., Thomson, C., Aragaki, A., Anderson, G. L., Manson, J.
E., … Prentice, R. L. (2009). Mutlivitamin use and risk on cancer and
cardiovascular disease in Women’s Health Initiative cohorts. Archives of Internal Medicine, 169(3),
294-304
Rabin, R. C.
(2012, October 22). Curbing the enthusiasm on daily multivitamins. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/22/curbing-the-enthusiasm-on-daily-multivitamins/?ref=health
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