What Vitamins Should I Be Taking, Doctor?

A healthy 54-year-old woman comes for a routine examination and asks whether she should be taking any vitamin supplements. What do you advise? This article reviews the evidence that supports or fails to support the use of any of several common vitamin supplements for the prevention of disease.

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[11]  E. Rimm,et al.  Relation of Consumption of Vitamin E, Vitamin C, and Carotenoids to Risk for Stroke among Men in the United States , 1999, Annals of Internal Medicine.

[12]  L. Holmberg,et al.  Excessive Dietary Intake of Vitamin A Is Associated with Reduced Bone Mineral Density and Increased Risk for Hip Fracture , 1998, Annals of Internal Medicine.

[13]  R. Utiger.  The need for more vitamin D. , 1998, The New England journal of medicine.

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[16]  K. Rothman,et al.  Teratogenicity of high vitamin A intake. , 1995, The New England journal of medicine.

[17]  B. Ames,et al.  DNA damage from micronutrient deficiencies is likely to be a major cause of cancer. , 2001, Mutation research.

[18]  L. Bouter,et al.  Vitamin D Supplementation and Fracture Incidence in Elderly Persons , 1996, Annals of Internal Medicine.

[19]  R. D'Agostino,et al.  Association between plasma homocysteine concentrations and extracranial carotid-artery stenosis. , 1995, The New England journal of medicine.

[20]  R. Chandra.  RETRACTED: Effect of vitamin and trace-element supplementation on immune responses and infection in elderly subjects , 1992, The Lancet.

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[22]  Dietary Antioxidant Vitamins and Death from Coronary Heart Disease in Postmenopausal Women , 1996 .

[23]  G A Colditz,et al.  Dietary carotenoids and vitamins A, C, and E and risk of breast cancer. , 1999, Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

[24]  J. Manson,et al.  Folate and vitamin B6 from diet and supplements in relation to risk of coronary heart disease among women. , 1998, JAMA.

[25]  B Rosner,et al.  Vitamin A supplementation for retinitis pigmentosa. , 1993, Archives of ophthalmology.

[26]  P. Wilson,et al.  Prevalence of cobalamin deficiency in the Framingham elderly population. , 1994, The American journal of clinical nutrition.

[27]  R. Patterson,et al.  Relationship between vitamin and calcium supplement use and colon cancer. , 1997, Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology.

[28]  L. Balluz,et al.  Vitamin and mineral supplement use in the United States. Results from the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. , 2000, Archives of family medicine.

[29]  K. Helzlsouer,et al.  A prospective study on folate, B12, and pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (B6) and breast cancer. , 1999, Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology.

[30]  H. McNulty,et al.  Effect of increasing dietary folate on red-cell folate: implications for prevention of neural tube defects , 1996, The Lancet.

[31]  J. Enstrom,et al.  Vitamin C Intake and Mortality among a Sample of the United States Population , 1992, Epidemiology.

[32]  M. Thun,et al.  Vitamin C and vitamin E supplement use and colorectal cancer mortality in a large American Cancer Society cohort. , 2001, Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology.

[33]  G A Colditz,et al.  A prospective study of folate intake and the risk of breast cancer. , 1999, JAMA.

[34]  B. Ames.  Micronutrient Deficiencies: A Major Cause of DNA Damage , 1999, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[35]  F. Kelly,et al.  Randomised controlled trial of vitamin E in patients with coronary disease: Cambridge Heart Antioxidant Study (CHAOS) , 1996, The Lancet.

[36]  J. Fraumeni,et al.  Lowered risks of hypertension and cerebrovascular disease after vitamin/mineral supplementation: the Linxian Nutrition Intervention Trial. , 1996, American journal of epidemiology.

[37]  J. Manson,et al.  Lack of effect of long-term supplementation with beta carotene on the incidence of malignant neoplasms and cardiovascular disease. , 1996, The New England journal of medicine.

[38]  A. Miller,et al.  Dietary folate consumption and breast cancer risk. , 2000, Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

[39]  P. Wilson,et al.  Vitamin status and intake as primary determinants of homocysteinemia in an elderly population. , 1993, JAMA.

[40]  E. Rimm,et al.  Antioxidants for vascular disease. , 2000, The Medical clinics of North America.

[41]  E. Rimm,et al.  Alcohol, low-methionine--low-folate diets, and risk of colon cancer in men. , 1995, Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

[42]  GISSI-Prevenzione Investigators,et al.  Dietary supplementation with n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and vitamin E after myocardial infarction: results of the GISSI-Prevenzione trial , 1999, The Lancet.

[43]  H. Morrison,et al.  Serum Folate and Risk of Fatal Coronary Heart Disease , 1996 .

[44]  A. Czeizel,et al.  Prevention of the First Occurrence of Neural-Tube Defects by Periconceptional Vitamin Supplementation , 1992 .

[45]  P. Wilson,et al.  The effect of folic acid fortification on plasma folate and total homocysteine concentrations. , 1999, The New England journal of medicine.