Supplements

In a groundbreaking laboratory study, a research team at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has found that a non-toxic oral agent that is also consumed as an over-the-counter dietary supplement in Europe and Asia for improving liver health, is highly effective in both preventing and treating prostate cancer. Additionally the agent was able to halt the metastatic spread of the disease. “We found that 4-methylumbelliferone (4-MU) was able to block a key signaling pathway that triggers the development, growth and metastasis of prostate cancer,” said the study’s principal investigator Vinata B. Lokeshwar, […]

Taking vitamin D supplements could slow or even reverse the progression of less aggressive, or low-grade, prostate tumors without the need for surgery or radiation, says Bruce Hollis, Ph.D., who is at the Medical University of South Carolina. Preliminary results from this study indicate that many of the men who received vitamin D showed improvements in their prostate tumors, whereas the tumors in the placebo group either stayed the same or got worse. Also, vitamin D caused dramatic changes in the expression levels of many cell lipids and proteins, particularly those involved in inflammation. “Cancer is associated with inflammation, especially

Consumers are always looking for ways to minimize their cancer risk, which is one reason why many turn to over-the-counter vitamin and mineral supplements. But new research finds that while companies promote dietary supplements for their cancer-prevention benefit, some may end up doing more harm than good. Dr. Tim Byers, director for cancer prevention and control at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, conducted a meta-analysis of two decades worth of research — 12 trials that involved more than 300,000 people — and found a number of supplements actually made a person much more likely to develop certain types of

A new analysis has found that men diagnosed with nonmetastatic prostate cancer who consumed more than 140 μg a day of supplemental selenium had over a two-and-a-half–fold excess risk for death from prostate cancer compared with nonsupplement users. On the other hand, there was a modest 12% inverse association between selenium supplementation and the risk for overall mortality (HR, 0.88) among men who took 140 μg of a selenium supplement or more per day compared with those who didn’t use supplements. Read the article.

Selenium and vitamin E supplements can increase risk of prostate cancer in some men Vitamin E can heighten the risk in men with low baseline selenium levels; selenium supplements can raise the risk in men with high baseline levels of the trace element. Read the article.