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(Philadelphia-AP) -- Will taking vitamin supplements help fight off cancer or heart disease?
A government advisory panel says it's not ready to answer that question.
The US Preventive Services Task Force says there just isn't enough good research available for it to either recommend or reject taking the supplements for those reasons. The group's vice chair says dozens of current studies it looked at gave either "inadequate or conflicting" results.
A trade group representing dietary supplement makers says people shouldn't see the task force report as a reason to stop taking vitamins. The group's president says the vitamins provide benefits unrelated to cancer and heart disease.
The report is in tomorrow's Annals of Internal Medicine.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
