Vitamin use
Thursday, 17 Apr 2008 11:14
Could vitamin supplements do more harm than good?
Whether people should take vitamin supplements to boost their health has been called into question by a new review.
Danish researchers found that antioxidants do not prolong life expectancy as some may hope and that beta-carotene, vitamin A and vitamin E may actually increase the risk of death.
They did not uncover evidence that vitamin C and selenium have either positive or negative effects.
Their findings are based on a review of data from 67 randomised trials that involved just under a quarter of a million people.
The study was released by the Cochrane Library.
"We could find no evidence to support taking antioxidant supplements to reduce the risk of dying earlier in healthy people or patients with various diseases," said Goran Bjelakovic, who performed the systematic review at the Copenhagen Trial Unit at the Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark.
"Regarding these antioxidants we need more data from randomised trials. The bottom line is that current evidence does not support the use of antioxidant supplements in the general healthy population or in patients with certain diseases."
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