Postmenopausal Uses Of Vitamin K

Vitamin in the world is immense. Most of us take vitamins or have taken vitamins in the past. The United States in the forefront of nutritional supplements worldwide. 18.9% of Americans had taken at least one dietary supplement in 2004. More than 100 million Americans use vitamin and mineral supplements every day. The global market has become a multi-billion dollar dietary supplement industry is growing the fastest.

The most common reason for using supplements is to "improve the overall health and well-being." Is a popular belief that vitamins are antioxidants and can protect us against oxidative stress that causes many health problems.

The most common supplements are taken:
Multivitamin / Multimineral - 22%;
multivitamins more vitamin C - 15%;
Vitamin C as a single vitamin - 13%;
herbal supplements and botanicals - 7%;
Vitamin E as a single vitamin - 6%.

Over the years, reports of more and more about the benefits of vitamin supplements have emerged, ranging from cardiovascular benefits in cancer prevention. This is mainly due to the antioxidant properties of vitamins that can protect against oxidative stress. Accordingly, several studies have been conducted to confirm this information. Some of the more recent studies summarized below show surprising results to say the least.

An early study comprehensively investigate the health effects of vitamin supplements was conducted by Danish researchers in 2007. They conducted a meta-analysis of data from several clinical trials that used the supplementation of antioxidant vitamin A, vitamin E, beta carotene, vitamin C and selenium combination used as a stand-alone or as supplements to treat a wide range of health conditions, cardiovascular disease to cancer. Their results were surprising, even alarming. On the one hand, no benefit from these "antioxidant supplements have been found. Second, supplementation of vitamins A and E and beta-carotene (but not vitamin C and selenium) actually increased overall mortality. This study has led other researchers to take a second look at the benefits of vitamin supplements.

In a more recent paper, researchers have also conducted another meta-analysis of more data from several clinical trials, this time involving more than 200,000 people who are healthy as well as existing health conditions. The researchers found that the studies that compared the efficacy of antioxidant supplements against placebo in the primary and secondary prevention of various medical conditions. The authors stated that they "found no evidence to support antioxidant supplements for primary or secondary prevention Vitamins A, beta-carotene and vitamin E may increase mortality."

Another meta-analysis studied the anti-cancer properties of antioxidant supplements, especially against gastrointestinal cancers. They reviewed data from trials that studied the beta-carotene, vitamins A, C and E and selenium. The authors concluded that "we did not find convincing evidence that antioxidant supplements prevent gastrointestinal cancers.

One of the latest developments of research is the vitamin supplement long term SELECT (Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial) study of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The study evaluated the effectiveness of selenium and vitamin E in preventing prostate cancer and 35,000 male participants enrolled in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: one group received supplements of vitamin E alone, group 2 received only selenium, Group 3 had two supplements in combination, and group 4 were received a placebo only. Five years after the study, the NCI has decided to stop the trial because of some "concerning" the results, namely:

1. The analysis showed no lower risk of prostate cancer in men taking supplements, EI.