Multivitamins lower male cancer risk: Study

TAIPEI, Taiwan – A US study released in mid-October shows that taking a multivitamin every day, such as Pfizer’s Centrum Silver Multivitamin, will reduce the cancer risk for men by 12 per cent.

Accordingly doctors in Taiwan are urging people to utilize multivitamins as a means to help prevent cancer, according to a press release issued by Pfizer Taiwan.

The American Association for Cancer Research released its latest study at the 11th Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research forum held in mid-October in the US, with the report also published in the Oct. 17 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

The report said that researchers tracked 14,641 men, aged over 50, for a period of 12 years ending in 2011, finding that those who took multivitamins every day had a 12-per cent small chance of developing cancer, excluding prostate cancer. The same study also found that cancer re-occurrence may be reduced by 27 per cent for former patients who takes the multivitamin once a day.

The Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI) also published a report claiming that eating habits are a more influential factor than smoking for causing cancer, with 35 per cent of cancers caused by poor eating habits.

According to a nutrition and health survey conducted in 2005-2008 in Taiwan, over 50 per cent of local people aged above 19 did not intake enough potassium, zinc, dietary fiber, vitamin E, calcium and magnesium. This increases the risk of cancer development, especially in digestive organs. In Taiwan, some 60 per cent of cancers are found in digestive organs.

To counter this trend, Hsieh Ming-tzer, a nutrition professor at Taipei Medical University, called for local people to take multivitamins, such as Centrum Silver offered by Pfizer, to help achieve balanced nutrition.

Category: Education