Study shows multivitamins may prevent cancer, hair loss

A study pub­lished in the Jour­nal of the Amer­i­can Med­ical Asso­ci­a­tion Wednes­day showed that a mul­ti­vi­t­a­min “slightly low­ers the risk of can­cer in older men,” as reported in the LA Times. The men in the trial, 14,641 male doc­tors aged 50 and older who were fol­lowed for 11.2 years, took Cen­trum Sil­ver — some took the placebo. The group that took the vit­a­mins decreased their chances of seri­ous can­cers by 8%. How­ever, this is not includ­ing prostate can­cer — the most com­mon diag­no­sis in the study.

While past stud­ies have shown their is no direct long-term ben­e­fit of vit­a­min sup­ple­ments, there are reports that they do make you health­ier, and pro­long or even pre­vent con­di­tions such as hair loss. Mul­ti­vi­t­a­mins, includ­ing those with biotin, vit­a­min D and iron , have been known to help with such things as alope­cia areata and hered­i­tary hair loss. But there is no hard sci­en­tific study that proves that these types of vit­a­mins actu­ally pro­mote hair growth or pre­vent hair loss. With that, adver­tise­ments about vit­a­mins for hair loss should be approached with caution.

Hair loss pre­ven­tion may start with a good vit­a­min, but it does not end there. Good hair hygiene (ahem, wash­ing your hair) is very impor­tant, good nutri­tion, and stay­ing on top of your health are just a few ways. Some con­di­tions such as thy­roid dis­ease, ane­mia and hor­monal imbal­ances that are treated can also help with the health of your hair.

Hair Loss Facts

• Hered­i­tary hair loss is a med­ical con­di­tion that affects about 30 mil­lion Amer­i­can women and 50 mil­lion Amer­i­can men.
• Hair loss can be inher­ited from either the father or mother’s side of the family.
• A man has a 50% chance of expe­ri­enc­ing hair loss by his 50th birthday
• If hair loss begins sud­denly, ill­ness, nutri­tion, med­ica­tion or preg­nancy might be the cause. The cause also could be a genetic syn­drome or hormone-related disorder.