Antioxidant Pills and Cancer

An antioxidant-rich diet has been credited with preventing everything from heart disease to cancer. But an ill wind is blowing around the notion of taking antioxidant supplements to fight certain types of cancer.

In a recent analysis of 14 randomized trials involving more than 170,000 people over a period of 17 years, researchers found that those who took vitamins A, C, E, and beta-carotene did not protect themselves from gastric, liver, colorectal, or pancreatic cancer. In fact, they had significantly higher mortality rates than those in placebo groups.

So is it time to give up on these supplements? Not so fast. Jeffrey Blumberg, professor of nutrition at Tufts University, says the mortality finding is the result of one particular study, in which the participants came from high-risk populations, skewing the results: Among them were heavy smokers and workers exposed to asbestos. Also, the subjects took very high amounts of some of the supplements.

But even if you’re not sure what to do about antioxidant pills, you’ll never go wrong with antioxidant-rich foods. Epidemiological studies have consistently proven their cancer-fighting power.