Multivitamin reduces cancer in older people, study suggests

Multivitamin per day shown to have reduced cancer in middle-age and older people said a new study.

Researchers found that commercial Centrum Silver multivitamins reduced the risk of cancer by about eight percent.

According to MedPage Today, the rigorous study included 15,000 male doctors older than 50.

The doctors' health was tracked for about 13 years.

Those who took the vitamin rather than the placebo were eight percent less likely to develop cancer, while cancer mortality was also 12 percent lower.

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Those with a history of cancer appeared to have a 27 percent lower risk than those who took the placebo.

“It does appear that there is a modest reduction in cancer among middle-aged and older men,” said study author Michael Gaziano, chief of the division of aging at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, according to NBC News.

“Even total mortality went in the right direction."

It was unclear what types of cancer were reduced, reported Science Daily, but researchers said that the results were clearly in favor of taking a multivitamin.

"Our main message is that the main reason to take a multivitamin is to prevent deficiencies, but there appears that there may be a modest effect in terms of preventing cancer in men over the age of 50," Gaziano said.