Stop taking vitamin tablets! The latest study: may lead to a 27% increase in the incidence of cancer and more than 2 times the risk of brain metastases

As we all know, vitamins are one of the six major nutrients needed by the human body, and they are also trace organic compounds
necessary to maintain normal life and health of the human body.
For the vast majority of vitamins, the human body cannot directly synthesize or synthesize very little to meet the needs of
the body.
Therefore, it is necessary to be supplied by food to maintain normal life activities and physiological functions
.

With the deepening of the concept of nutrition, people are paying more and more attention to the role of vitamins, and even not satisfied with only getting from natural foods, but beginning to take the initiative, such as eating some "vitamin supplements"
.

But in fact, many people do not understand whether their body "lacks vitamins" or "what kind of vitamins are lacking", but people buy a bunch of multivitamins or nutritional health products, and hint in their hearts that they are "healthier today"
.

However, are vitamin supplements a necessity or an IQ tax? Do the benefits outweigh the disadvantages or do the disadvantages outweigh the benefits?

The answer is probably disappointing for many people
.
Recently, an international research team from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology found that Nicotinamide riboside (NR), a form of vitamin B3 (niacin) in the human body, can increase the risk of serious diseases, including the occurrence and metastasis of cancer, if supplemented improperly/excessively
。 This is completely counterproductive!

Vitamin B3 is converted into niacinamide in the human body, and niacinamide is a component of coenzyme I and coenzyme II, which is involved in lipid metabolism in the body, the oxidation process of tissue respiration and the process
of anaerobic decomposition of sugars.
NR, a derivative of vitamin B3, commonly found in milk, yeast and beer, is one of the most studied NAD+ precursors and is extremely bioavailable
.

In fact, for a long time, scientists have linked NR supplements to cardiovascular, metabolic, and neurohealth-related benefits, even calling it a "powerful" nutraceutical
.
Not only that, human trials are currently being carried out in clinical trials to explore whether NR can be used to reduce the side effects of cancer treatment on patients.

Source: Network

But as Elena Goun, the corresponding author of the study, said, many people have the habit of taking vitamin supplements, and in their opinion, nutritional supplements are beneficial and harmless
.
However, for the most part, the health benefits of vitamins are still a "black box", and even scientists know little
about how they work in the human body.
Based on this "blank" research field, Professor Goun decided to lead the team to deeply explore the mechanism of NR in the human body.

The research team developed a bioluminescent probe for NR absorption imaging (BiNR) for non-invasive longitudinal monitoring
of NR in vivo.
In this technique, the presence of NR can be well detected, and the brighter the light, the higher
the concentration of NR.

In order to make the BiNR probe available in clinical samples, the researchers further optimized the assay to effectively monitor NR flux without the need to use luciferase gene transfection cells for use in
human T cells.

Design strategy for measuring NR uptake using BiNR probes

Then, based on the developed BiNR technology, the researchers fed mice with a triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) model using an NR-rich diet to explore the effect
of NR supplementation on tumor occurrence and metastasis.

The experimental results showed that in only 10 weeks, 70% of the mice in the NR-supplemented group formed detectable tumors in their bodies, compared with 55%
in the control group.
That said, NR supplementation significantly increased tumor rates in mice by 27 percent
.

In the experiment evaluating the "effect of NR supplementation on tumor metastasis rate", the researchers found that NR supplementation significantly increased the formation of brain metastases, which was 227.
2% higher than that of the control group! Not only that, the bioluminescence signal in the head region of the mice showed that the signal in the NR-rich feeding group was 3.
8 times higher than the control, meaning that the number of metastases in the brain was significantly higher
.

Effects of NR-rich diets on TNBC brain metastases

In summary, the above data show that NR supplementation will lead to a significant increase in the incidence of cancer, and even make tumors prioritize anchorage to the brain, significantly increasing the possibility of
cancer metastasizing or spreading to the brain.
The researchers hypothesized that excessive supplementation of NR would promote the metastasis potential of cancer cells and reduce the integrity of the blood-brain barrier, thereby enhancing the ability of cancer cells to
invade the brain.

Professor Goun stressed that this study shows us the importance of
personalized medicine.
For people with different health conditions, NR supplements need to be fully evaluated and their potential side effects carefully investigated before making a decision
.
Therefore, for healthy people, we must be cautious and cautious when choosing supplements to avoid "going against the original intention of health"
.

Some people may ask, vitamin B3 can not be supplemented casually, what about other vitamins? Is it necessary to eat some vitamin C lozenges or use a multivitamin directly?

In fact, in June this year, JAMA published such a blockbuster review Vitamin and Mineral Supplements for the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer, which is part of the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF).
Up-to-date evidence reports and recommendation statements
.

The statement emphasizes that vitamin and mineral supplements have little benefit in preventing cancer, cardiovascular disease and death, and even some vitamin supplements increase the risk of cancer! It turns out that the vitamin and mineral nutritional supplements that were bought at a large price are just "psychological comfort"~

doi:10.
1001/jama.
2021.
15650

This review by USPSTF included a total of 84 studies, including 78 RCTs and six cohort studies, covering nearly 740,000 people
.
A comprehensive analysis of the preventive effects of vitamin and mineral supplements on cancer, cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality showed that:

1.
The effect of multivitamin supplementation in reducing all-cause mortality was not large, and there was no statistical difference; At the same time, it does not have the effect
of preventing cardiovascular disease and cancer.

The effect of a multivitamin

2.
From the perspective of single-nutrient supplements, the harm of supplementing β carotene even exceeds the benefits, such as a 10% increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease and a significant increase in the risk of lung cancer by 20%.

β the effect of carotene and vitamin A

3.
Vitamin E is one of the important antioxidants and has long been considered to "prevent cardiovascular disease"
.
However, pooled evidence showed no effect of vitamin E in preventing all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, and there was no statistically significant difference in the results, i.
e.
no net clinical benefit
.

Effects of vitamin E

4, vitamin D and calcium are also common supplements in life, but most evidence shows that these two supplements do not show much benefit
from reducing death, cardiovascular disease, and cancer alone.
In addition, in case of overdose, be careful of the occurrence
of kidney stones.

Effects of vitamin D and calcium

These two studies remind us that for healthy adults without known nutrient deficiencies, there is no need to put too much faith in the idea that "nutrient supplements = health" is
not too important.
In contrast, eating well and having a balanced nutrition is more important
.
If you really feel that your body is deficient in a certain nutrient or have symptoms, you can take it according to your doctor's advice, don't "self-defeat"!

References:

[1] Maric T, Bazhin A, Khodakivskyi P, Mikhaylov G, Solodnikova E, Yevtodiyenko A, Giordano Attianese GMP, Coukos G, Irving M, Joffraud M, Cantó C, Goun E.
A bioluminescent-based probe for in vivo non-invasive monitoring of nicotinamide riboside uptake reveals a link between metastasis and NAD+ metabolism.
Biosens Bioelectron.
2022 Oct 29; 220:114826.
doi: 10.
1016/j.
bios.
2022.
114826.
Epub ahead of print.
PMID: 36371959.

[2]https://medicalxpress.
com/news/2022-11-popular-dietary-supplement-cancer-brain.
html

[3] US Preventive Services Task Force.
Vitamin, Mineral, and Multivitamin Supplementation to Prevent Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer: US Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation Statement.
JAMA.
2022; 327(23):2326–2333.
doi:10.
1001/jama.
2022.
8970