Supplements

A recent large U.S. study designed to gauge the health benefits of vitamin D and fish oil supplements concludes that the omega-3 oil can dramatically reduce the odds of a heart attack while vitamin D’s benefits seem to come from lowering the risk of death from cancer. Neither vitamin D nor fish oil lowered the odds of stroke or of getting cancer in the first place in the trial. Read the article here.

Researchers have scientifically validated more natural products including the seeds of pawpaw and watermelon that could be successfully used to prevent and treat prostate problems without unpleasant side effects. Read the article here.

Add another disease to the list of ailments that may be thwarted by regular aspirin use—prostate cancer. Researchers reported that men who took at least three aspirin tablets a week reduced their risk of developing or dying from advanced prostate cancer. Read the article.

Several recent short-term intervention studies failed to show vitamin E supplementation was protective against the development of various cancers, most notably lung and prostate cancer. In fact, in the SELECT study, individuals taking vitamin E supplements showed a 17 percent higher incidence of prostate cancer. A review of the literature suggests while the recent research on vitamin E may be conflicting, evidence supporting the anti-cancer properties of a specific form of vitamin E known as vitamin E succinate (alpha-tocopheryl succinate) is promising. Read the article.

Although popular, such supplements do not appear to lower the risk for experiencing radiation treatment side effects; the risk that localized cancer will spread; or the risk that prostate cancer patients will die from their disease, researchers found. “We suspected that these pills were junk. Our study confirmed our suspicion,” said study lead author Dr. Nicholas Zaorsky, resident physician in radiation oncology at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. Read the article.

Researchers are starting the world’s largest clinical trials to find out if aspirin can help prevent cancer relapse in the U.K. Although its potency is medically debated, if proven effective, this can be an efficient and cheapest anti-cancer drug. Read the article.