Too Many Vitamins Are Not Good For Health, May Lead To Cancer And Heart Diseases

Many people often take vitamin supplements daily as a precautionary measure to protect them against disease. However, it might be doing more harm to the body than the benefits. A latest research by the University of Colorado has revealed that intake of too many vitamins may be harmful to the health and may even result in heart diseases and cancer.

The claim about the adverse effects of excess vitamins has been put forward by one of the world's most renowned cancer experts, Dr. Tim Byers. Examining the research papers spanning across a period of three decades, Byers took a note of the cancer patients who consumed any one of the three most commonly prescribed vitamin supplements—vitamin E, folic acid and beta-carotene.

“We are not sure why this is happening but evidence shows that people who take more dietary supplements than needed tend to have a higher risk of developing cancer,” said Byers, reported The American Bazaar.

The promising effect of dietary supplements in animal models inspired Byers to study its effect in humans. For over a decade, Byers examines history of almost 10,000 patients who were taking the vitamin supplements. To his surprise, the researcher found that taking vitamins actually increased the cases of cancer among the people. In addition, Byers claimed that taking folic acid tablets during pregnancy increases the chances of developing cancer in pregnant women by 56 percent.

According to the 2008 statistics provided by the Food Standards Agency, nearly 50 percent of the households with children feed them some form of a vitamin or mineral supplement and nearly one third of the Britons take the dietary supplement. The study results have led Byers to urge US to reclassify vitamins as “drugs” rather than “food” supplement.

In the UK, such supplements are classified as food or medicines, based on their content. This in turn facilitates enforcement of different regulation as per the classification of the supplement.

"It comes down to dose and educating physicians and the general public to stay away from high-dose vitamins, only taking them in the recommended range," said Byers, reported Belfast Telegraph.

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