After a bit of ranting earlier this week, I thought now would be a good time to cool it down a bit, if only for a moment. There's plenty more out there to rant about, but I'm intentionally ignoring it, if only for a day (or even half a day). If there's one thing I've learned about blogging in the three years I've indulged in this little habit of mine, it's that a blogger has to mix things up. Too many rants in a row, and even I start to get bored. And if I'm bored you're almost certainly bored.
We wouldn't want that, now, would we?
So it was with great interest that I came across, albeit somewhat belatedly, this story about a recent study. If there's one claim that supporters of so-called "alternative" medicine like to make, it's that supplements or vitamins can prevent cancer. Particularly favored are vitamins C, D, and E as anti-cancer talismans. In the more extreme form, this claim even sometimes goes so far as claiming that one or more of these, along with other supplements, can actually treat cancer. Of course, the situation is far more complicated, as I discussed a while back about a claim that vitamin D is an all purpose cancer preventative. Vitamin D may prevent some cancers, but it may also accelerate others. Whether vitamin D supplementation is on balance more beneficial than harmful is thus not nearly as clear-cut as certain cranks would make it sound.
Well, wouldn't you know it, but another group recently looked at the relationship between vitamins C and E and cancer. Once again, the results were disappointing. Moreover, one of the findings suggests that vitamin supplementation may slightly increase the risk of cancer.
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