April
2008
Researchers have reported that popular vitamin supplements taken
by millions of people in the hope of improving their health may do no good and
could increase the risk of a premature death They
warn healthy people who take antioxidant supplements, including vitamins A and
E, to try to keep diseases such as cancer at bay that they are interfering with
their natural body defences and may be increasing their risk of an early death
by up to 16 per cent. Antioxidants,
including vitamins A, E, C and beta-carotene and selenium, are said to mop up
compounds, called free radicals, which cause disease. It is this action that researchers
believe may cause problems with the defence system. Researchers
at Copenhagen University carried out a review of 67 studies on 230,000 healthy
people and found "no convincing evidence" that any of the antioxidants
helped to prolong life expectancy. But some "increased mortality".
The Danish research, released by the influential Cochrane Library, applied
only to synthetic supplements and not to vitamins that occur naturally in vegetables
and fruit.
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