Supplement Reduces Cancer Risk in Women

Taking a calcium/vitamin D supplement appears to reduce the risk of cancer in healthy women, a U.S. study has found.

In the study, 1,179 healthy Nebraska women were give either a calcium/vitamin D supplement or a placebo. The risk of cancer was 60 percent lower in the group who took the supplements than it was for the placebo group.

Principal investigator Joan Lappe, of the Creighton University School of Medicine, said all the participants were 55 years and older and free of known cancers for at least 10 years prior to the four-year study.

Subjects were randomly assigned to take daily dosages of 1,400 to 1,500 mg supplemental calcium, 1,400 to 1,500 mg supplemental calcium plus 1,100 IU of vitamin D, or placebos.

On the premise that some women entered the study with undiagnosed cancers, researchers eliminated the first-year results and looked at the last three years of the study. The results became even more dramatic, with the women taking the supplements reducing their cancer risk by 77 percent, according to the study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.