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American Morning
House Call: Vitamin Supplements
Aired July 01, 2003 - 07:53 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Can vitamin supplements reduce the risk of cancer or heart disease? An influential government advisory panel says there isn't enough evidence either way to recommend or reject the use of these supplements to ward off those diseases.
Our medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, at the CNN Center now for his morning "House Call."
So, what's the deal here? Should we take them or not?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, if you're looking to take it just for cancer or heart disease, probably not. This preventive task force can't either recommend or reject it for that purpose. But still, vitamins are probably a pretty nutritious thing.
Forty-three percent of Americans take vitamins. They spend billions of dollars a year on it. And so, a lot of people have been wanting to study exactly the effects and the benefits of these vitamins.
So, this organization called the United States Preventive Task Force actually put out this statement after looking at several clinical trials. These weren't new studies necessarily, but they looked at existing trials and found that there was insufficient evidence to recommend -- and I'll add in there -- or reject vitamin supplements to prevent cancer or heart disease.
Now, the conclusions were actually based on looking at several different vitamins. People always ask about the various vitamins that are involved here. They're talking about vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, they're talking about multivitamins and they're talking about antioxidant combinations.
Now, again, you know, if you think about vitamins and you think about these studies, there's an important thing to point out here, Heidi. The people who take vitamins tend to be more healthy people in general, which is why a lot of the studies in the past probably showed that vitamins seemed to have some benefit. The real question was: Was it the vitamins or was it the fact that the people who take vitamins tend to be healthier people? And that's a question they still can't answer.
Also along the lines of "can't hurt/might help," well, that's not exactly true either with regards to vitamins, specifically beta- carotene, is the vitamin that was studied. And they found actually that beta-carotene, if people who were smokers were taking beta- carotene actually had a higher incidence of lung cancer and a higher incidence of death related to lung cancer. So, that obviously flies in the face of beta-carotene with smokers as well.
Overall, vitamins still play a very important role, especially in pregnant women who need to be taking their vitamins, their prenatal vitamins. And it might play an important role in your overall nutrition. Cancer, heart disease, the jury is still going to be out for a while -- Heidi.
COLLINS: But it obviously sounds like you really need to know what you're taking, you just can't be popping these things. And also antioxidants, I mean, that is another group that people have talked about a lot as far as feeling healthier when you take those.
GUPTA: That's right. You know, and the antioxidants, people have talked so much about that, believing that if you get rid of these oxidants in your body that somehow you're going to decrease the risk of heart disease, you're going to decrease the risk of cancer. And that may still be true, although what this study is saying, there is not enough evidence to actually prove that as of yet.
But you make a good point, Heidi. I think before you take any medication, you should always talk to your doctor about that. Sometimes these medications can interact with other medications. It's good for doctors know what it is that you're taking.
COLLINS: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta from CNN Center this morning with a "House Call." Thank you, sir.
GUPTA: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired July 1, 2003 - 07:53 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Can vitamin supplements reduce the risk of cancer or heart disease? An influential government advisory panel says there isn't enough evidence either way to recommend or reject the use of these supplements to ward off those diseases.
Our medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, at the CNN Center now for his morning "House Call."
So, what's the deal here? Should we take them or not?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, if you're looking to take it just for cancer or heart disease, probably not. This preventive task force can't either recommend or reject it for that purpose. But still, vitamins are probably a pretty nutritious thing.
Forty-three percent of Americans take vitamins. They spend billions of dollars a year on it. And so, a lot of people have been wanting to study exactly the effects and the benefits of these vitamins.
So, this organization called the United States Preventive Task Force actually put out this statement after looking at several clinical trials. These weren't new studies necessarily, but they looked at existing trials and found that there was insufficient evidence to recommend -- and I'll add in there -- or reject vitamin supplements to prevent cancer or heart disease.
Now, the conclusions were actually based on looking at several different vitamins. People always ask about the various vitamins that are involved here. They're talking about vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, they're talking about multivitamins and they're talking about antioxidant combinations.
Now, again, you know, if you think about vitamins and you think about these studies, there's an important thing to point out here, Heidi. The people who take vitamins tend to be more healthy people in general, which is why a lot of the studies in the past probably showed that vitamins seemed to have some benefit. The real question was: Was it the vitamins or was it the fact that the people who take vitamins tend to be healthier people? And that's a question they still can't answer.
Also along the lines of "can't hurt/might help," well, that's not exactly true either with regards to vitamins, specifically beta- carotene, is the vitamin that was studied. And they found actually that beta-carotene, if people who were smokers were taking beta- carotene actually had a higher incidence of lung cancer and a higher incidence of death related to lung cancer. So, that obviously flies in the face of beta-carotene with smokers as well.
Overall, vitamins still play a very important role, especially in pregnant women who need to be taking their vitamins, their prenatal vitamins. And it might play an important role in your overall nutrition. Cancer, heart disease, the jury is still going to be out for a while -- Heidi.
COLLINS: But it obviously sounds like you really need to know what you're taking, you just can't be popping these things. And also antioxidants, I mean, that is another group that people have talked about a lot as far as feeling healthier when you take those.
GUPTA: That's right. You know, and the antioxidants, people have talked so much about that, believing that if you get rid of these oxidants in your body that somehow you're going to decrease the risk of heart disease, you're going to decrease the risk of cancer. And that may still be true, although what this study is saying, there is not enough evidence to actually prove that as of yet.
But you make a good point, Heidi. I think before you take any medication, you should always talk to your doctor about that. Sometimes these medications can interact with other medications. It's good for doctors know what it is that you're taking.
COLLINS: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta from CNN Center this morning with a "House Call." Thank you, sir.
GUPTA: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
