Fred is a journalist with 7 years of experience. Though, as a professional He's reported on myriad topics, his favorite is the medical industry. Off late he's been working on different web portals including Themedica.com. Themedica is a comprehensive business-to-business (b2b) information portal and directory, featuring useful information for medical and health care industry professionals and businesses. It showcases resources such as trade shows, industry overviews, trade associations, global business listings, industry news, tenders, medical publications, informative articles and more that help professionals/businesses stay abreast with the latest and grow. He now blogs at Smiling Health.
Dietary supplements were being used by 17.7 percent of American adults in 2007. While scientists have found many benefits of dietary supplements e.g. folic acid prevents some birth defects, calcium and vitamin D can prevent and treat bone loss, etc, they have also found some harmful effects of different dietary and herbal supplements.
The following are their 5 harmful effects
1. Increased Risk Of Heart Attack - Calcium supplements could up the chances of a heart attack in healthy postmenopausal women, found a study. Calcium is often prescribed to women after menopause to keep bones healthy, and some doctors even believe that it prevents arteries from blockage, but new research highlights a risk. (British Medical Journal (BMJ), Jan 2008.)
2. Increased Risk of Prostrate Cancer - The risk of prostate cancer for men who consume a daily folic acid supplement of 1 mg may be double, when compared to men who don't. Folic acid or vitamin B9 is naturally found in many vegetables, beans, fruits and whole grains. The study was conducted by the University of Southern California scientists. (Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Mar 2009.)
3. Increased Risk of Lung Cancer – When beta carotene and other carotenoid-containing dietary supplements are consumed over a long period of time they may increase the risk of getting lung cancer. And the links are stronger when the consumers happen to be smokers. (American Journal of Epidemiology AJE, Feb 2009.)
4. Reduced Effect of Anti-Cancer Drugs - If you are on supplements and if it results in high amounts of vitamin C in your cells. Then it may reduce the effect of anti-cancer drugs you consume because the vitamin levels will cause the cancer cells to live longer (Cancer Research, Oct 2008).
5. Increased Risk For Diabetes - A large scale study concluded that people who consumed 200 microgram selenium supplement daily, for about eight years, their chances of getting developing type 2 diabetes were higher than those who took a placebo. (Annals of Internal Medicine, Aug 2007)
While useful in many cases, intake of supplements can sometimes be damaging.
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