Deadly Multivitamins? Here we go again. . .

Along comes another study today that, as interpreted by some media, makes it appear multivitamins are a threat. This time, the finding suggests they may make advanced prostate cancer worse--and more likely to kill. Scary stuff.

Stop us if you've heard this before: The reality is much more complicated, and there is much less to fear than the headlines suggest.

This study in 100 words or less

NIH-affiliated researchers followed almost 300,000 cancer-free middle-aged men for 5 years. Guys who reported taking more than one multivitamin per day were more likely to see prostate cancer worsen, if they got it. They were also more likely to die of the advanced cancers than were non-multi-poppers.

Taking a lot of multis did not raise their risk for getting prostate cancer, or getting the localized kind--just for making the advanced type (the sort that spreads outside the prostate gland) worse if they had it. The "multivitamins" they took often were pills that included high doses of selenium, beta carotene or zinc. The study is in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Yes, but. . .

This wasn't a clinical trial that followed individual men and controlled for a lot of factors. It looked at links between vitamin intake and cancer incidence in a large group. No data was collected on how big the doses of vitamins were. Much of the data was self-reported. In terms of this study's ability to guide individual behavior, I'd give it a C+.

Having said that. . .

None of the researchers had a conflict of interest. The study was conducted rigorously, given the limitations of its design.

So what are you going to do about it?

• Don't take any specific vitamins beyond a multivitamin, unless your doctor tells you otherwise.
• But even a simply multivitamin pill (Centrum, One-a-Day, etc.) may not do you any good: Other recent (high-quality but suggestive, not conclusive) research has shown no benefits, and possibly some harm, from taking regular off-the-shelf multis.
• Taking selenium, beta carotene and zinc seem to be particularly bad for guys with a family history or other elevated risks for prostate cancer. No good reason to mess with them--again, unless your (well-informed) doc says to.
• So: Eat your fruits and veggies, which deliver vitamins and minerals in a package that includes other nutritious stuff, some of which we don't even know about. There are plenty of benefits, pretty well established, that eating a lot of fruit and vegetables is good for general health, and may cut (as this World Health Organization report nicely summarizes) risk and impact of some diseases. (But note some recent research on fruits and veggies that fails to prove a solid link; go figure.)

It certainly is unlikely to hurt. And produce has a lot fewer calories than those Oreos, bucko.