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Words To The Wise - 'Multi-Vitamins
Allegedly Linked To Breast Cancer'

By Gayle Eversole, DHom, PhD, MH, NP, ND
LeafLady.org
3-31-10
 
In an article recently published on the web site eFitnessNow. a group of people http://www.efitnessnow.com/contact/ provide you with what they believe to be useful health oriented information. I looked over this entire website and no where could I find any information about the staff and their qualifications as editors, or any information about their backgrounds in health or related health professions.
 
This may appear cynical on the surface, but it is important to understand today's way of providing "news" and the way in which it can affect your beliefs.
 
Recently I listened to an interview on NPR addressing MRSA. I have an interest in this topic as it is something I have been working on with natural and creative approaches since 1993.
 
I realized that all the journalist-author really did in her book was to compile an amount of data that had already been reported in the news. She also spoke with "researchers" about whom these news articles had been written. There are a lot of reports of findings, yet no constructive outcome or effective treatment has been discovered.
 
The author and interviewer also avoided looking at other options that the accepted standard mainstream models.
 
This brings me to an article I posted on my blog, Natural Health News, in February 2009, titled 'How Mainstream Media Distorts Health Information".
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-mainstream-media-distorts-health.html
 
This is an important consideration when you are reading "news" regardless of where you read it.
 
The article in question is a very abridged report on a meta-analysis of studies with vitamins.
 
Multi-Vitamins Linked to Breast Cancer
http://www.efitnessnow.com/news/2010/03/30/multi-vitamins-linked-to-breast-cancer/
 
We know that there is, and has been, a directed effort to limit you access to vitamins and supplements, and an effort also to try to sway your opinion to the ideas that you can get all the needed nutrients from food and supplements do not help prevent or heal disease.
 
These concepts have been proven, over and over again, to be false.
 
But, you must consider that this article reports only a 'meta-anlysis'.
 
A meta-analysis is a statistical method attributed to Gene Glass, as defined in the following synopsis -
 
What is a meta-analysis
 
http://www.bii.a-star.edu.sg/docs/mig/MetaAnalysis.pdf
 
·In 1976, Glass coined the term meta-analysis
http://glass.ed.asu.edu/gene/papers/meta25.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_V._Glass
 
·Meta-analysis refers to the analysis of analyses the statistical analysisof a large collection of analysis resultsfrom individual studies for the purpose of integrating the findings.(Glass, 1976, p3)
 
·Meta-analysis techniques are needed because only summary statistics are typically available in the literature.
 
·Often used in medical and psychological studies.
 
 
Now that you have the background information, let's move on to the article in question, as reported by eFitnessNow.
 
A startling connection between multi-vitamins and breast cancer occurrence has prompted doctors to caution older women against a daily multi-vitamin, unless absolutely needed. According to the results of a Swedish study, the vitamins may be linked to breast cancer.
 
The authors of the study cannot outright confirm the correlation between the two but suggest the matter needs further research. The study was led by Dr. Susanna C. Larsson of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. The study followed 35,000 Swedish women between the ages of 49 and 83 over a ten year period. All the women were cancer free at the onset, with 974 developing breast cancer throughout the course of the study.
 
Women who took daily vitamins were 19 percent more likely to develop breast cancer. 9,000 women in the study were vitamin users with 293 developing the often fatal disease. Only 681 of the remaining 26,000 women developed breast cancer. A relatively small number of women who took the daily vitamins were diagnosed with breast cancer, which lends to the suggestion that if there is a risk, it is very modest.
 
Larsson advises that women, who are eating a well-balanced diet, do not need a multi-vitamin.
 
The study has been published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 
 
If you analyze this statement, "The study followed 35,000 Swedish women between the ages of 49 and 83 over a ten year period. All the women were cancer free at the onset, with 974 developing breast cancer throughout the course of the study.", you find that the statistical impact is 0.02%.
 
If you analyze this statement, "Women who took daily vitamins were 19 percent more likely to develop breast cancer. 9,000 women in the study were vitamin users with 293 developing the often fatal disease." , you find that the statistical impact is 0.03%.
 
And if you analyze this statement, "Only 681 of the remaining 26,000 women developed breast cancer." , you find that the statistical impact is 0.02%.
 
And in conclusion, the report says, "A relatively small number of women who took the daily vitamins were diagnosed with breast cancer, which lends to the suggestion that if there is a risk, it is very modest."
 
The moral of this story is don't be fooled by headlines and yes, and digest what you read.
 
NB: If you do a search for Dr. Susanna C. Larrson you can locate over one hundred articles based on meta-analysis of existing research.
 
Also note that there is no definition of exactly what multi-vitamins were used int he studies, and this is a critical concern, as most vitamin studies done in the mainstream use low quality or too low dose products.
 
Am J Clin Nutr (March 24, 2010). doi:10.3945/ajcn.2009.28837
 
© 2010 American Society for Clinical Nutrition
 
 
Multivitamin Use And Breat Cancer Incidence In A Prospective Cohort Of Swedish Women  1,2,3
 
Susanna C Larsson, Agneta Åkesson, Leif Bergkvist and Alicja Wolk 
 
1 From the Division of Nutritional Epidemiology The National Institute of Environmental Medicine Karolinska Institutet Stockholm Sweden (SCL AÅAW)the Department of SurgeryCentre for Clinical Research Central Hospital Västerås Sweden (LB).
 
2 Supported by research grants from the Swedish Cancer Foundation and the Swedish Research Council for Infrastructure.
 
3 Address correspondence to SC Larsson, Division of Nutritional Epidemiology, National Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Box 210, SE-17177 Stockholm, Sweden. E-mail: susanna.larsson@ki.se.
 
ABSTRACT
 
Background: Many women use multivitamins in the belief that these supplements will prevent chronic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. However, whether the use of multivitamins affects the risk of breast cancer is unclear.
 
Objective: We prospectively examined the association between multivitamin use and the incidence of invasive breast cancer in the Swedish Mammography Cohort.
 
Design: In 1997, 35,329 cancer-free women completed a self-administered questionnaire that solicited information on multivitamin use as well as other breast cancer risk factors. Relative risks (RRs) and 95% CIs were calculated by using Cox proportional hazard models and adjusted for breast cancer risk factors.
 
Results: During a mean follow-up of 9.5 y, 974 women were diagnosed with incident breast cancer. Multivitamin use was associated with a statistically significant increased risk of breast cancer. The multivariable RR of women who reported the use of multivitamins was 1.19 (95% CI: 1.04, 1.37). The association did not differ significantly by hormone receptor status of the breast tumor.
 
Conclusions: These results suggest that multivitamin use is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. This observed association is of concern and merits further investigation.
 
Received for publication October 20, 2009. Accepted for publication February 28, 2010.
 
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/183880.php
 
 
Multivitamin Use Linked To Increased Breast Cancer Risk
30 Mar 2010   
 
Researchers in Sweden who studied data on over 35,000 middle aged and older women followed for 10 years found a link between taking multivitamins and increased risk of breast cancer and said this was of concern to public health and should be investigated further.
 
You can read about the study, conducted at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, online in the 24 March issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
 
Many women use multivitamins in the belief that they will protect them from chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease, wrote the authors in their background information.
 
In fact, in February 2009, the Archives of Internal Medicine published details of a large US study of over 160,000 postmenopausal women that found no convincing evidence that long term use of multivitamins changed their risk of developing common cancers, cardiovascular disease or dying prematurely.
 
But, as the authors of this Swedish study pointed out, the effect of multivitamins on breast cancer only is unclear.
 
For the prospective study, lead and corresponding author Dr Susanna C Larsson, of the Division of Nutritional Epidemiology, National Institute of Environmental Medicine at the Karolinska Institutet, and colleagues, looked at data from 35,329 women in the Swedish Mammography Cohort, who filled in questionnaires about their use of multivitamins and breast cancer risk factors. The women were cancer free and aged between 49 and 83 when they filled in the questionnaires in 1997.
 
The results showed that:
 
974 women were diagnosed with incident breast cancer over a mean follow up of 9.5 years.
293 of the diagnoses were among 9,017 women who reported using multivitamins.
Use of multivitamins was linked to a statistically significant 19 per cent increased risk of breast cancer (after adjusting for lifestyle and risk factors like weight, diet, smoking, exercise, and family history of breast cancer, the relative risk of women who reported using multivitamins was 1.19, with confidence interval ranging from 1.04 to 1.37).
Hormone receptor status did not change the strength of this link significantly.
 
The authors concluded that:
 
"These results suggest that multivitamin use is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. This observed association is of concern and merits further investigation."
 
Readers concerned about these findings should note that they don't prove that multivitamins caused the women's breast cancer: a prospective study, which this was, can only show whether there is a link or not and try and rule out possible influencers.
 
As Larsson pointed out in an email to Reuters Health, it is possible that something they did not measure is responsible for the link. Also, even if the link was causal, these findings show that for any one woman, using multivitamins has a small effect on her risk of breast cancer, she noted.
 
However, given the widespread use of multivitamins, there is an important public health message in this study, said the authors.
 
Speculating on what the biological reasons might be, the researchers mentioned various previous studies that taken as a whole reveal a conflicting picture. For example, some studies on folic acid suggested it increases breast cancer risk while others suggested it has no effect and may even decrease it.
 
In the meantime, Larsson recommends women eat a healthy and varied diet instead of using pills to get the nutrients they need.
 
"Multivitamin use and breast cancer incidence in a prospective cohort of Swedish women."
Susanna C Larsson, Agneta Åkesson, Leif Bergkvist, and Alicja Wolk
Am J Clin Nutr Published online 24 March 2010.
DOI:10.3945/ajcn.2009.28837
 
Related article:
 
Multivitamins Don't Change Cancer Or Heart Risk In Postmenopausal Women
 
Sources: AJCN, Reuters, MNT Archives.
 
Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
 
 
Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/183880.php
 

 
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