Multivitamins- more harm than good?

[Heaven]

Did anyone see this on sunrise this morning? They were saying that research now shows multivitamins are no good for you. At best they do nothing. Research has shown those that take them are more likely to have breast or prostate cancer. The Dr on there was saying that the advice to take multivitamins is based on advice from 20-30yrs ago because they knew that vegies were good for you, then found they had lots of vitamins in them, so they assumed that vitamins are good for you. But now they have found that taking those vitamins in a pill form is just not the same. Research now shows people shouldn't be on them at all.

Can't find it on the Sunrise website though. Anyone see it? I only take vitamins during pregnancy anyway but DH takes multivitamins coz he thinks they're good for him.

[Beach Mama]

Wow that is really interesting hun - I would love to find out more because I take the Swisse womens one and if I forget to take them I really notice a difference. My diet tends to be all over the place and I think I need them more than I don't but if they are that bad I would like to see the research they did.

[kirsty_lee]

I didn't see it this morning, but I have heard that a few times now. My gp told me to stop taking my multi vitamins cause they were stuffing up my iron. It was really weird. By definintion I am boardering on Anemia so you would think multi-vitamins would help some what with the iron in them, but all the multivitamins were doing was increasing my Ferritin levels, so I had to stop taking them

[misty]

If taken in the dosages directed they are fine, and they will fill a gap IF there is a gap to fill. If there is no gap to fill they will do nothing. They are dangerous if you take excessive amounts. The study that they were talking about had a number of sample taking supplements in nearly 5 times the recommended dosage.

Another case of the media grabbing a headline and not clearly stating (or even researching) the actual facts.

Vitamins are always more effective from a direct food source. Multi-vitamins may not be the best method for those people who are low in certain areas because some specific vitamins can actually act to either help or hinder the absorbtion of other vitamins. ie, calcium will prevent the absorbtion of iron, if taken at the same time.

If you are eating across all the food groups adequately a multi-vitamin is most likely unnessecary. However most people (despite what they may think) do not get adequate nutrition from their food, because they do not eat healthily (or not as broadly as they should).

[AnyDream]

This is the sort of shoddy attention grabbing journalism that requires some critical thinking on the part of the viewer.

If you read this article, you will see that the study hypothesises a link between multivitamin use and breast density, which is only a "risk factor" for breast cancer. The abstract itself says

These results suggest that multivitamin use is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. This observed association is of concern and merits further investigation.

Meaning: we're not sure but maybe some one should research this.

I also note that the survey was done on a cohort of women who presented for mammograms, rather than randomly selected from the population at large...so there may have been some bias in the sample to start with. ALSO a lot of the women I know with breast cancer commonly talk about feeling not-themselves or have high-stress events in their lives prior to their diagnosis - so perhaps these women are reaching for the vitamins to try to give themselves a boost after the chain of biochemical events that led to their cancer is well under way.

ETA - Unfortunately this may mean that women who should be taking Vit D to address a deficiency that does have a proven link with breast, bowel and other common cancers may avoid taking it because some twit on the Sunrise program didn't really spell out that it's an early and as yet largely un-investigated finding from a single published (but possibly) flawed study!!!

[PollyA]

Dr Ginni Mansberg
Here's a link to the segment