A popular type of health supplement may increase the risk of cancer by as much as 30% and should be labelled accordingly, a charity has warned.
Experts at Killing Cancer Kindly say that multivitamins, which millions of Brits take every day, should display warnings due to the dangers that some of them can pose.
Led by NHS oncologist Dr Mohammad Muneeb Khan, the charity says supplements ‘bombard the body with huge doses of wholly unnecessary nutrients’ – which may enable cancerous cells to grow and multiply.
Natural vitamins found in foods meanwhile pose no danger because they are absorbed slowly, and the body takes only what it needs before flushing out the rest.
On the other hand, synthetic pills ‘flood’ the bloodstream with up to twice the recommended daily dosage of nutrients, becoming a ‘superfood’ for cancers – the doctor claims.
Multivitamin supplements could also increase the risk of developing other cancers such as prostate cancer, bowel cancer, and breast cancer, the charity added.
“Synthetic pills contain obscenely high and wholly unnecessary volumes of micronutrient that far exceed what the average human body requires,” said Dr Khan.
He continued: “These tiny organic compounds are so numerous that our organs struggle to use them, and they’re left, in effect, to float about the body.
“The problem is that these excess multivitamins are readily available to feed the hundreds of cancer cells that are made in our body every day.
“Normally, our body has the capability to destroy these cancer cells effectively but this becomes a challenge when they are well fed and able to increase in number quickly. Imagine hundreds of ravenous little Pac-Men running around and gobbling everything up and then multiplying in number exponentially over time until they are able to completely overrun our body’s anti-cancer defences such as the immune system.”
Almost half of Brits are thought to take a daily supplement, which usually contains a broad spectrum of what manufacturers call ‘essential’ organic compounds.
Until now, supplements were considered safe to use but unnecessary for anyone except those with recognised nutritional deficiencies.
But KCK says that there is a growing body of “compelling” research that suggests a direct link between synthetic vitamin consumption and increased rates of lung cancer, prostate cancer, bowel cancer, and breast cancer.
The risk is said to be the same for all adults regardless of whether they live an otherwise healthy lifestyle.
Natural vitamins obtained from ‘healthy’ foods such as fruits and vegetables are said not to pose the same dangers because of the relatively small quantities released into the body during the digestion process.
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Unlike their synthetic counterparts, they are “locked away” in the food with only a fraction being broken down and absorbed before undigested food is excreted – typically within 24 hours.
But being concentrated, supplements are rapidly and readily absorbed, leaving an excess of vitamins circulating the blood stream and just waiting to be “mopped up” by cancer cells before they can be processed or excreted.
A pioneering study into the cancer risk posed by multivitamin supplements will begin next year and involve KCK collaborating with an American university.
“But we need to act now by raising awareness of the potential dangers, and there’s no better way to do this than forcing manufacturers to place a prominent, science-backed warning on every package,” Dr Khan said.
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