Monday, April 20, 2015

Excess dietary supplements shown to increase cancer risk

Maybe the excess is used for nourishment by the cancer cells?

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-04/uocd-dss041415.php

Public Release: 20-Apr-2015
University of Colorado Denver

While dietary supplements may be advertised to promote health, a forum at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2015 by University of Colorado Cancer Center investigator Tim Byers, MD, MPH, describes research showing that over-the-counter supplements may actually increase cancer risk if taken in excess of the recommended daily amount.

•••••

"When we first tested dietary supplements in animal models we found that the results were promising," says Byers. "Eventually we were able to move on to the human populations. We studied thousands of patients for ten years who were taking dietary supplements and placebos."

The results were not what they expected.

"We found that the supplements were actually not beneficial for their health. In fact, some people actually got more cancer while on the vitamins," explains Byers.

One trial exploring the effects of beta-keratin supplements showed that taking more than the recommended dosage increased the risk for developing both lung cancer and heart disease by 20 percent. Folic acid, which was thought to help reduce the number of polyps in a colon, actually increased the number in another trial.

•••••

"At the end of the day we have discovered that taking extra vitamins and minerals do more harm than good," says Byers.

No comments:

Post a Comment