Should all men take a daily vitamin pill?

By: Hugh Wilson
New research suggests that a daily supplement can protect men against cancer. But it's a controversial finding.
Until very recently, most experts agreed that healthy men should get all the vitamins and nutrients they need from a balanced diet. If you eat your five (or preferably more) a day, you'll be pretty much covered in every nutritional department.
So why has new research suggested many men would benefit from a daily vitamin pill on top? We look at the evidence.
Vitamin pills reduce cancer risk
For years the one thing most experts said men didn't need was supplements. A good diet would give you everything a vitamin pill could, and a lot more besides, in a form that your body was better able to handle.
If you took a supplement on top then you probably weren't doing yourself any harm, but you were almost certainly wasting your money.
But a recent study has potentially changed all that. It found that a daily multivitamin could reduce the risk of developing cancer in men and, by doing so, it has reopened a debate many thought closed. Could we all benefit from a daily dose of nutrients, over and beyond our five-a-day?
The latest research on multivitamins
The large study followed 15,000 men for over a decade. Researchers at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School gave the men either a multivitamin or a sugar pill every day and analysed the results.
The difference was small but significant. There were 17 cancers per 1,000 men in the group given vitamins, and 18 cancers per 1,000 men in the group given the placebo.
One of the researchers, Dr Howard Sesso, said: "Many studies have suggested that eating a nutritious diet may reduce a man's risk of developing cancer.
"Now we know that taking a daily multivitamin, in addition to addressing vitamin and mineral deficiencies, may also be considered."
The study was conducted in middle-aged men, and the researchers say they don't know if they would find similar results in younger men. But it might also be true that the younger you start taking a vitamin supplement the better off you will be.
Are vitamins harmful?
The study seems straightforward enough, but it has opened a can of worms. Previous studies have found that vitamin supplements are at best worthless, and at worst actually harmful.
Perhaps most notably, in 2010 scientists at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles reported in the journal Stem Cells that high doses of antioxidant supplements, such as vitamins C and E, raised the risk of dangerous changes in human cells.
"In simple terms, by taking high amounts of antioxidant supplements, you may be increasing your chances of cancer," explained lead researcher Dr Eduardo Marbán.
He went on to say that although you can't overdose on antioxidants in your diet, you can overdose on antioxidants in supplements, though he added that one daily multivitamin should be OK.
On top of that, a report by scientists at Oxford University concluded that vitamin pills had no health benefits and the money would be better spent on fresh fruit and vegetables. The study tracked 20,000 people over five years and found that those taking vitamin supplements had no more protection against heart attack, stroke or cancer than those taking the dummy pills.
Many scientists now think that the synthetic make-up of supplements means they are not recognised by the body and not properly absorbed.
Should men take a vitamin supplement?
So the evidence is mixed, and there are certainly scientists who would argue that falling levels of nutrients in soil - and therefore in fruit and vegetables - means that supplements can be useful.
But there is no consensus, and despite the latest study and its suggestion that vitamin pills combat cancer, most experts would agree that supplements should be just that - supplements. This view is reinforced by the fear that people who take a vitamin pill are less likely to make sure they get their five-a-day. The worry is that some people come to see vitamin pills as substitutes for a healthy diet, rather than as supplements to it.
And that's one thing experts do agree on. Whether they think taking a multivitamin is good for men's health or not, they all say that the very best thing you can swallow for your health is five or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
Then if you choose to take a multivitamin on top, it isn't a substitute for a healthy diet