7 Healthcast: Supplements and cancer: Pills don’t help, might hurt

If you think about supplements and cancer, you probably assume that the former can help prevent the latter.

Most people believe that pills containing antioxidants (which include vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, and selenium) can protect them from the dreaded disease. And it probably would never occur to you that popping vitamins could do you serious harm.

But an eye-opening recent commentary in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute details the research on vitamin supplements and makes it clear that there is absolutely no proof that taking vitamins, including antioxidants, prevents cancer, but there is evidence that some supplements may play a role in causing cancer.

Check out the video for more on this new information.

© NBC Universal Inc. All Rights Reserved