ONE in two Americans takes multivitamin pills regularly, so they must be doing some good, right? Not necessarily, says an expert panel set up to assess the health effects of multivitamin and mineral supplements.
The panel, appointed by the National Institutes of Health, says there is little evidence that such supplements are of any benefit to already healthy people, and could sometimes actually cause harm. Taking extra vitamin D combined with calcium can increase the risk of kidney stones, while smokers who take beta-carotene to fend off lung cancer actually increase their risk, the report says.
The study, published on…
