Breast cancer: under suspicion – vitamins
Long-term use of multivitamins increases the risk of developing breast cancer
ABC MagazineThis conclusion was made by researchers from the Royal Karolinska Institute (Sweden), who analyzed the data of more than 35 thousand middle-aged and elderly Swedes.
Many women take multivitamin medications in the hope that they will protect them from many chronic diseases – mainly from the pathology of the cardiovascular system and from malignant neoplasms, the authors of the study note, the results of which are published in the preprint of an article on the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Multivitamin use and breast cancer incident in a prospective cohort of Swedish women).
In fact, judging by the data of American doctors obtained from the results of observation of 160 thousand American women and published in March 2009 in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, multivitamins do not reduce the risk of heart and vascular diseases, some types of cancer and do not affect premature mortality.
Swedish scientists analyzed the Swedish mammography cohort and isolated 35329 women from it. In 1997, they filled out questionnaires in which they reported on various risk factors for breast cancer (breast cancer), including taking multivitamin medications. The study participants at that time were between 49 and 83 years old and none of them – as of 1997 – had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
The researchers then followed these women for 9.5 years. Malignant neoplasms of the mammary glands developed in 974 patients. Of these, 293 reported taking multivitamins.
After adjusting for other risk factors, such as weight, nutrition, smoking, physical activity, family history of breast cancer, it turned out that if the risk of developing breast cancer in the control group was taken as 1, then for the experimental group it would be 1.19, that is, 19 percent more.
Researchers cannot yet say what exactly this effect is associated with. If this is the influence of some unaccounted factor, then it will be revealed in the course of further research. But if this is really connected with the daily intake of multivitamins, then this is a serious reason to reconsider the safety of such drugs in relation to certain categories of the population. In particular, for postmenopausal women, who were selected for analysis by Swedish doctors.
The head of the study Susanna Larsson (Susanna C Larsson) stressed that it is too early to say which vitamin has such a negative effect. Too few studies on this topic have been conducted and their results are too contradictory. For example, there is evidence that folic acid increases the risk of developing breast cancer, but there are works proving the opposite. It is also possible that this is the combined effect of several vitamins. In any case, the prophylactic intake of multivitamins does not cancel oncological alertness and the need for regular monitoring by a mammologist.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru02.04.2010