Careless use of vitamins could lead to early death, warn scientists

CARELESS use of vitamins, taken by millions in the belief that they promote good health, could be causing thousands of premature deaths, scientists said yesterday.

A study investigating whether antioxidant vitamin supplements can prevent cancer found that rather than saving lives they seemed to increase overall risk of death.

Although the effect was small, it amounted to 9,000 premature deaths among every million supplement users.