According to a new study, antioxidants do not help women in reducing the risk of cancer.

The study, conducted by Dr. Jennifer Lin and colleagues at Harvard Medical School in Boston, involved 7,627 women, averaging 60 years. All of them had a cardiovascular disease or at its higher risk, and they were followed for almost a decade.

In a clinical trial, participants were randomly given a daily dose of 500 milligrams of vitamin C, a dose of vitamin E -600 IU alpha-tocopherol on an alternative day or 50 milligrams of beta carotene on every other day and some of them were put on placebo supplements.

And researchers found that 176 of them died from their disease, and 624 women developed invasive cancers.

Findings of the study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, suggests that during the study period, the risk of developing cancer was similar among women who were on supplements and placebos. The women who took vitamin C, the risk increased by 28%, Vitamin E supplements reduced the risk by 13% and in the beta carotene group the risk decreased by 16%

Jennifer Lin, the lead author found in the study, the supplements seem more effective in poorly nourished women than the well-nourished women. She said: “The findings suggest that there are no overall benefits or risks of vitamins C and E and beta carotene supplementation in the primary prevention of total cancer incidence or cancer mortality.”

Andrew Shao, vice president of a dietary supplement industry group ‘Council for Responsible Nutrition’ marked that: “Supplements are just one tool that people need to incorporate into their lifestyle to stay healthy. We can't expect just to take supplements and that's going to prevent cancer. That simply isn't the way it works.”