Many people take multivitamins for preventing chronic diseases such as cancer, not knowing that older women who use multivitamins are more likely than non-users to develop breast cancer.
Many people take multivitamins for preventing chronic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease, not knowing that older women who use multivitamins are more likely than non-users to develop breast cancer.
To find out whether the use of multivitamins affects the risk of breast cancer, researchers followed 35,329 Swedish women, aged between 50 and 80 years. The participants were cancer-free when the study began. Over an average period of 10 years of follow-up, 974 women were diagnosed with breast cancer.
It was found that women using multivitamins at the beginning of the study were 20 percent more likely than non-users to develop breast cancer. This finding did not alter even when factors like age, family history of breast cancer, weight, fruit and vegetable intake, exercise, smoking and drinking habits were taken into account. However, the large majority of multivitamin users did not develop breast cancer during the study period. Of 9,017 users, 293 were diagnosed with the disease, as were 681 women from among the more than 26,000 women who did not use multivitamins. While the study points to a generally higher risk of breast cancer among multivitamin users as a whole, the risks to any individual woman are likely be small.
Since multivitamins are a mix of vitamins and minerals, it is difficult to pinpoint which nutrient, of combination of nutrients, may be particularly linked to breast cancer risk. The study points only to an association between multivitamin use and breast cancer. It does not prove that the supplements directly contribute to the disease. However, it's biologically possible that multivitamins could have such an effect, and the potential link merits further investigation.
To find out whether the use of multivitamins affects the risk of breast cancer, researchers followed 35,329 Swedish women, aged between 50 and 80 years. The participants were cancer-free when the study began. Over an average period of 10 years of follow-up, 974 women were diagnosed with breast cancer.
It was found that women using multivitamins at the beginning of the study were 20 percent more likely than non-users to develop breast cancer. This finding did not alter even when factors like age, family history of breast cancer, weight, fruit and vegetable intake, exercise, smoking and drinking habits were taken into account. However, the large majority of multivitamin users did not develop breast cancer during the study period. Of 9,017 users, 293 were diagnosed with the disease, as were 681 women from among the more than 26,000 women who did not use multivitamins. While the study points to a generally higher risk of breast cancer among multivitamin users as a whole, the risks to any individual woman are likely be small.
Since multivitamins are a mix of vitamins and minerals, it is difficult to pinpoint which nutrient, of combination of nutrients, may be particularly linked to breast cancer risk. The study points only to an association between multivitamin use and breast cancer. It does not prove that the supplements directly contribute to the disease. However, it's biologically possible that multivitamins could have such an effect, and the potential link merits further investigation.
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