Study: Vitamins Do Nothing For Health

Another study casts doubt on any health benefit from taking a daily multivitamin. French researchers who spent six years following 8,000 test subjects found those taking a daily supplement were just as likely to develop cancer or heart disease as those taking a placebo.

The researchers conclude that consumers who take a daily vitamin supplement are wasting their money. They are not the first to reach that conclusion.

Previous studies

In 2009, the Women's Health Initiative study, led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, found women taking a daily vitamin pill got no protection against cancer or heart disease. A year earlier, In perhaps the largest cancer chemoprevention trial ever conducted, researchers found that taking vitamin E or selenium, alone or in combination, was not associated with a lower risk of prostate cancer or other cancers.

Other researchers have concluded that parents don't need to give their children multi-vitamins either.

"Multivitamin preparations for older children and adolescents are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and may result in adverse effects ranging from nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain to increased cerebrospinal pressure, liver abnormalities and neuropathy," wrote the authors of a February 2009 report in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Unproven claims

A year ago, under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), major marketers of children's vitamins must stop making false and unproven claims that their supplements promote healthy brain and eye development in kids. The companies have agreed to pay $2.1 million in refunds to consumers who purchased certain multivitamins in their Disney and Marvel Heroes line.

Not only do vitamin supplements not protect against gastro-intestinal cancer, they may slightly increase the risk of cancer, according to a 2004 systematic review and meta-analysis of previously published randomized trials in THE LANCET, a leading British medical journal. If the findings are correct, 9,000 in every million users of such vitamin supplements will die prematurely as a result of taking something they think is good for them.

"The prospect that vitamin pills may not only do no good but also kill their consumers is a scary speculation given the vast quantities that are used in certain communities, David Forman of the University of Leeds and Douglas Altman, Cancer Research UK, said in an accompanying commentary.

FDA's position

What does the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have to save about vitamin supplements?

"There are many good reasons to consider taking vitamin supplements, such as over-the-counter multivitamins," the FDA says on its website.

The agency says a doctor may recommend supplements for certain health problems, if you eat a vegetarian or vegan diet, or if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.