2 Supplements to Prevent Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease

While we know that the supplement industry is plagued with misinformation, false labels, bad advice, but there are some studies that state the results of research carried out with the purpose of helping the population.

The National Institute of Health recommends more research on the use of supplements and what they can really do since at least half of the American population consumes any of these products.

In response to this, a clinical trial was carried out with around 26 thousand participants that according to the results, a serious hope was found for certain types of conditions.

 

VITAL Trials

VITamin D and OmegA-3 (VITAL) tests are two of the most popular supplements on the market, vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acid, also known as fish oil, which proved to be effective in the treatment and prevention of heart attacks and deaths from cancer.

Although the results of previous research were varied, the new results showed that vitamin D supplementation reduces cancer deaths and, in turn, omega-3 significantly reduces heart attacks.

 

The Research

The results were presented a few days ago at the annual congress of the North American Menopause Society by the conductor of the trials JoAnn Manson, MD, and Julie Buring, one of the directors of the study. Mason is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, as well as Chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Meanwhile, Burning serves as Senior Epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

The team highlighted the discovery that under this supplementation, the risk of fatal heart attacks was reduced by 50 percent, while heart attacks were reduced by 28 percent.

In addition, fish oil supplementation showed enormous benefits in people who are not regulars to include fish in their diet or in people who eat less than once a week. These and other related results were confirmed in recent meta-analysis in randomized omega-3 tests, one of the gold standards of scientific investigations.

On the other hand, supplements containing vitamin D proved to have very important benefits. Although the supplement does not reduce major cardiovascular disease events or the incidence of cancer, it does reduce cancer mortality by 25 percent.

According to a recent meta-analysis on vitamin D, it also confirmed that its consumption is associated with a drastic reduction in cancer mortality.

The research leader said, “We have enough evidence that vitamin D affects the biology of tumors and can make them less aggressive, less invasive and less likely to metastasize“.

 

Recommendations

At the same time, researchers recommend taking proper precautions when consuming these supplements, where the most important thing is quality and not the amount ingested.

In these trials, the team of professionals found the right dose to be safe and not have contraindications:

· Omega-3 Fatty Acid intake: 1 gr per day.

· Vitamin D intake: 2000 IU (International units) per day.

More intake is not necessarily better since in many cases it can be worse. Manson adds “We should discourage and stop with super-doses of supplements”.

Many times, mega-doses of supplements, or consuming them contrary to what is recommended by health professionals, can lead to supplements and vitamins acting as drugs. Therefore, an overdose can increase blood calcium levels, in turn, gastrointestinal problems and kidney stones.

 

Finally

As always and for your safety, read the labels of everything you consume, look at the contraindications and observations to be sure of what we are about to ingest.

While the benefits are potentially promising, you should take it easy and always consult your doctor before taking any type of supplements. Like if you were a footballer, a runner or a swimmer, you should think before doing something you may regret later.

You shouldn’t take quantities that are not even suitable for horses to take before racing.

For the moment, nuts, fish, among other foods, are the best option to get these nutrients, or very small doses of supplements are recommended. Beware!