Forgot Your Vitamins? Fed Docs Say It Doesn’t Matter

So you forgot to take your vitamins again. Chill. A government appointed panel of health experts who studied the pros and cons of taking multivitamins is convinced that it doesn’t matter. Probably. HealthDay reports on the study, conducted by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which concluded that it could not recommend taking certain vitamins and minerals alone, together or in a multivitamin for the prevention of heart disease or cancer. The expert panel also noted that it didn’t have enough data to advise against taking most of these supplements, either. HealthDay reports on two exceptions to that recommendation: beta carotene and vitamin E, which should not be used for the prevention of heart disease or cancer. Vitamin E supplements were found to have no disease-fighting benefit and beta carotene could actually be harmful, since it appears to boost the risk of lung cancer in people already at greater risk for this disease.