Vitamins up prostate risk

Men who pop too many vitamins in the hope of improving their health may in fact be raising their risk of the deadliest forms of prostate cancer, especially men with a family history of the disease.

Researchers at the National Cancer Institute found that men who exceeded the recommended dose -- taking more than seven multivitamins a week -- increased the risk of advanced cancer by about 30%.

“We didn’t see any relationship with overall prostate cancer,” said Dr. Michael Leitzmann, a National Cancer Institute investigator who worked on the study, published Wednesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The association was strongest in men with a family history of prostate cancer and men who also took selenium, beta-carotene or zinc supplements.