Vitamin C, can taking one pill a day prevent lung cancer? you are welcome [헬시타임] : Seoul Economic Daily

A study showed that taking vitamin C in supplement form rather than through foods such as fruits and vegetables has no effect in preventing lung cancer.

The research team led by Myung Seung-kwon, dean of the National Cancer Center Graduate School of Cancer (specialist in family medicine), announced on the 1st that this was confirmed as a result of a meta-analysis of 20 cohort studies published in international academic journals between 1992 and 2018.

As a result of the analysis, even if vitamin C was consumed, the risk of lung cancer varied depending on the source. Consuming fruits and vegetables rich in vitamin C lowered the risk of lung cancer by 18%, but consuming them in the form of supplements such as nutritional supplements was not associated with the risk of lung cancer. Fruits and vegetables are rich in antioxidants and nutrients that suppress reactive oxygen species that cause cancer, so they can help prevent various cancers such as lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases, but vitamin C supplements alone may not be effective. am.

Dean Myeong of the graduate school said, “Long-term intake of antioxidants such as vitamin C may actually be harmful to health by lowering defense and immune functions against external substances,” adding, “Vitamin C and other nutrients are in the form of food, not supplements. “I recommend that you consume it in a balanced manner,” he said. Rather than wasting time and money on health functional foods for which there is no established clinical basis, the advice is that having proper lifestyle habits, such as consuming a balanced diet and maintaining a standard weight through regular exercise, is effective in preventing cancer. The results of this study were published in the online edition of ‘Oncology Letters’, the international journal SCIE in the field of oncology.