Vitaminworkshop.com - To Vitamin or Not

There are studies with results on all sides of the vitamin supplement question. Here two sides are examined to further complicate the question about taking supplements or not to take supplements and just get vitamins from food.

STUDY 1: This study showed people who take multi-vitamin supplements have longer telomeres on DNA strand coils in cells than people who have not consumed supplements. Longer telomeres mean that the cells are younger and more responsive to challenges. Every time a cell divides, the DNA strands unwind and after duplication, they rewind forming two identical DNA strands. To prevent the strands from breaking during this process, a little bit of the telomeres at the tips of the DNA strands break off. Older cells reach a point after dividing a certain number of times when the telomeres are so short that they can no longer protect the unwinding DNA strands and they break causing the cell to die. ref ref
It is of interest to note that cancer cells produce an enzyme to prevent telomeres from shortening when cancer cells divide, which they do very quickly to cause the rapid growth in some tumors.
STUDY 2: Another study on people consuming certain vitamins, B6, B12, and Folic acid, designed to show a positive affect on cardiovascular disease by reducing homocysteine levels. Even though homocysteine levels dropped, there was only a slight positive affect on CVD from higher folate and vitamin B6. The study also found a slightly negative influence of increased cancer risk. Many of the test people smoked, so the cancer that increased was lung cancer. Thus, smokers, especially males, should not consume supplements of B vitamins. But, check out the next study. ref
STUDY 3: This study looked at B complex vitamins on Esophageal Cancer. While vitamins B1, B3, B6, and B9, reduced EC, higher vitamin B12 increased EC rate. ref