Study Shows Vitamins Don't Prevent Cancer

The assumption that cancer can be prevented by daily vitamin consumption has been proven false by research at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

The Women’s Antioxidant and Folic Acid Cardiovascular Study in co-operation with Brigham and Women’s Hospital followed 5,244 women with cardiovascular risks to see how folic acid, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12 affected rates of cancer.

Half of the women participating in the study, professionals over the age of 42, took the supplements daily while the other half took placebos. However, the results showed no significant difference in cancer rates between the two groups.

"A total of 379 women developed invasive cancer -- 187 in the active treatment group and 192 in the placebo group," said co-author Shumin Zhang. "Compared with placebo, women receiving the active treatment had similar risk of developing total invasive cancer, breast cancer, or any cancer death."

Since folic acid, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12 are key factors in DNA synthesis, it had been theorized that they could prevent cancer if taken regularly. Even though these supplements aren't proven to be preventative of cancer, they are still good for a multitude of other things your body needs -- so don't stop taking them.

Vitamin B6 is needed for protein metabolism, red blood cell metabolism, and proper functioning of the nervous and immune systems.

Vitamin B12 is needed for the normal functioning of the brain and nervous system, and for the formation of blood. It is normally involved in the metabolism of every cell of the body, affecting DNA synthesis and regulation, but also fatty acid synthesis and energy production. This is the stuff you take more of if you need more energy.

Folic Acid plays a large role in cell growth and development, as well as tissue formation.
A good, well-rounded multi-vitamin is recommended on a daily basis for general health maintenance, no matter what your age.

Source: http://www.acedmagazine.com/content/view/2040/40/

Why do you need vitamins?

It is a long-held belief that you don’t need vitamins. Vitamins are supposed to be in our food. It wasn’t until the Great Depression era that we see the idea of taking vitamins. It just so happens that this is the same time that we see rapid changes in production and manufacturing of food in the United States. There are five basic ways, vitamins are produced.

1. Natural - little or no processing from vegetables, minerals or animal sources
2. Natural source - processing found vegetable mineral or animal sources, extracting vitamins from sources.
3. Nature identical - laboratory manufactured nutrients identical in molecular structure and activity and humans to natural nutrients.
4. Synthetic - inexpensive, larger isolated vitamins, laboratory manufactured.
5. Whole food - highly usable and available to the body.
   

Some people have a bad reaction to synthetic vitamins, the body does not recognize a chemically created vitamin. Even if it looks the same under a microscope has a plant-based vitamin also vitamins are not meant to be isolated. Your body sees vitamins as food there for your vitamins should be plant-based like food.

It is also suggested that you look for good manufacturing practices or GMP. Supplement providers are acquired by the DSHEA Act to regulate the quality of the vitamins and other supplements. Supplement providers that meet these standards advertise this on their logos or products. Good manufacturing practices basically mean that what is in one serving of a supplement is exactly the same as another serving from the same bottle or from a different bottle entirely. This is easy to establish when using synthetic vitamins, but whole food plant-based supplements that are the most absorbable are often harder to regulate. It’s very likely your body will notice a difference when you consume high quality nutritional supplements.

Source: http://completelyalive.com/2008/10/28/why-do-you-need-vitamins/