Yesterday, we reviewed a new analysis of the Physicians Health Study II, which demonstrated that
daily multivitamins over more than a decade did not prevent heart disease in healthy men. Well, in
another analysis of this same randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial published early online 2 weeks ago in JAMA, the
authors concluded that daily multivitamins decreased risk of any cancer in a small but statistically significant fashion.
This was the same group of 14,641 men, average age 64yo, including 1,312 w/history of cancer, who were randomized to either a multivitamin (Centrum Silver) or placebo, and followed for over a decade (11+yrs). While there was no difference in prostate & colorectal cancer incidence nor in cancer mortality, daily use of multivitamins did decrease risk of total cancer.
So where does this leave us? At least there was no demonstrated harm from taking a daily multivitamin. Whether this data is applicable to women or to less than optimally healthy men is unknown & open to debate. For now, it's still prudent to focus on lifestyle, using nutrition to obtain our multivitamins. My only thought is that if you can't consistently eat in a healthy fashion, plan to take your multivitamin daily as opposed to sporadically.
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