B-Vitamins lower cancer risk in women over 65

A Harvard study following 5442 US female health professionals 42 and older (average age 63), with preexisitng cardiovascular disease for seven years, found that a combination of 2.5 mg folic acid, 50 mg B-6, and 1 mg B-12 lowered the overall cancer risk in women over 65 by twenty five percent and thirty eight percent for breast cancer. A slightly lower, but not statistically significant, risk was found in the younger age group (14 less females got breast cancer in treatment group versus placebo; 5 less overall cancer in treatment group versus placebo). No harmful effects were found in the treatment group.

Steve - the media touted this study as a failure of B-vitamins to prevent cancer. When you read between the lines, you see the headlines were sensationalist. The fact that they did not use subjects without a major prexisiting condition is par for the course. So we were not surprised to see marginal results for the overall subject group. However, the results show, as we have said all along, that B-vitamins are crucial for aging/elderly women and men. B-vitamins have myriad other beneficial effects for every other age group.