Research & Development In Brief

No link between multivitamins and cancer reduction: Results from one of the largest diet and health studies show multivitamins did not lower the risk of common cancers or impact heart disease in 161,808 post-menopausal women regularly evaluated for eight years, according to study in the Feb. 9 Archives of Internal Medicine. Researchers led by Marian Neuhouser, an associate at the Public Health Sciences Division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, found similar rates of breast, colorectal, endometrial, kidney, bladder, stomach, lung and ovarian cancer in women who took multivitamins and those who did not. Multivitamins were used by about 41 percent of the women Neuhouser's team evaluated, all participants in the Women's Health Initiative clinical trial. The Council for Responsible Nutrition acknowledges multivitamins "are not intended to be magic bullets that will assure the prevention of chronic diseases, like cancer." However, CRN says in a statement that as the study notes, "people who use multivitamins are likely to be healthier and engage in many health habits.