Centrum (multivitamin)
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Centrum is an American brand of multivitamins produced by
Haleon Haleon plc is a British multinational consumer healthcare company with headquarters in Weybridge, England. It is the largest consumer healthcare business in the world, with brands including Sensodyne toothpaste, Panadol and Advil painkillers and ...
, originally
Pfizer Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered on 42nd Street in Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in 1849 in New York by two German entrepreneurs, Charles Pfizer ...
(formerly
Wyeth Wyeth, LLC was an American pharmaceutical company. The company was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1860 as ''John Wyeth and Brother''. It was later known, in the early 1930s, as American Home Products, before being renamed to Wyeth in ...
) and GSK.


Physicians' Health Study II

In 2012, the Physicians' Health Study II (PHS-II) found that participants who took a Centrum-brand multivitamin each day for an average of 11 years had no change in cancer mortality or cardiovascular disease mortality compared to the placebo group. The authors did find a slight reduction in cancer incidences, although this conclusion was questioned in the '' Journal of the American Medical Association''. On October 17, 2012, researchers reported on a
double-blind study In a blind or blinded experiment, information which may influence the participants of the experiment is withheld until after the experiment is complete. Good blinding can reduce or eliminate experimental biases that arise from a participants' expec ...
of 14,641 male U.S. physicians initially aged 50 years or older (mean age of 64.3, standard deviation 9.2 years), that began in 1997 with treatment and follow-up through June 1, 2011. They compared total cancer (excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer) for participants taking a daily multivitamin (Centrum Silver by
Pfizer Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered on 42nd Street in Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in 1849 in New York by two German entrepreneurs, Charles Pfizer ...
) versus
placebo A placebo ( ) is a substance or treatment which is designed to have no therapeutic value. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like Saline (medicine), saline), sham surgery, and other procedures. In general ...
. Compared with placebo, men taking a daily multivitamin had a statistically significant reduction in the incidence of total cancer, with a
hazard ratio In survival analysis, the hazard ratio (HR) is the ratio of the hazard rates corresponding to the conditions characterised by two distinct levels of a treatment variable of interest. For example, in a clinical study of a drug, the treated populati ...
(HR) = 0.92 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.86-0.998; P = .04). No statistically significant effects were found for any specific cancers or cancer mortality. The 95% CI of the hazard ratio implied a benefit of between 14% and .2% over placebo. In absolute terms the difference was 1.3 cancer diagnoses, per 1000 years of life (18.3-17 events, respectively). The median follow up time was 11.2 years. The paper's co-
principal investigator In many countries, the term principal investigator (PI) refers to the holder of an independent grant and the lead researcher for the grant project, usually in the sciences, such as a laboratory study or a clinical trial. The phrase is also often us ...
, Dr. J. Michael Gaziano, a
cardiologist Cardiology () is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular ...
, was quoted by ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' as saying "it certainly appears there is a modest reduction in the risk of cancer from a typical multivitamin." The study was also featured in ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' on October 17, 2012. An editorial in the same issue of the '' Journal of the American Medical Association'' (JAMA), reflecting the opinion of JAMA, was dismissive of the report on several counts. First, they said, "it seems unlikely that a common characteristic across all diseases included under this wide category of cancer would be a protective effect from multivitamins", suggesting if no specific cancer was effected, why would general cancer risk be so affected. Second, they questioned the study's abilities to deliver on the question of whether a multivitamin would be protective in a well-nourished population (
Bayesian probability Bayesian probability is an interpretation of the concept of probability, in which, instead of frequency or propensity of some phenomenon, probability is interpreted as reasonable expectation representing a state of knowledge or as quantification ...
) stating: "The plausibility of a protective effect is reduced by the absence of a clear path through which 30 different vitamins and minerals would cause a decline in the risk of multiple cancers and, especially, by the negative pattern of prior results." In addition the investigators observed no difference in effect whether the study participants were or were not adherent to the multivitamin intervention, which diminishes the
dose–response relationship The dose–response relationship, or exposure–response relationship, describes the magnitude of the response of an organism, as a function of exposure (or doses) to a stimulus or stressor (usually a chemical) after a certain exposure tim ...
. The editorial was critical of the statistical multiplicity (
multiple comparisons In statistics, the multiple comparisons, multiplicity or multiple testing problem occurs when one considers a set of statistical inferences simultaneously or infers a subset of parameters selected based on the observed values. The more inferences ...
): the complete planned analysis of the primary and secondary end points in the PHS II study would entail 28 tests of association; each of which has "some possibility of yielding a statistically significant result by chance alone, even when there is no true treatment effect. ..when this finding is considered in the context of the number of already completed and planned analyses of the same study, the strength of the inference is weaker, because the likelihood of a randomly occurring finding ..is much greater." They concluded that any of the conventional P value corrections for multiple comparisons would eliminate the apparent "statistical significance" of the results. From the same double-blind study, they found that taking a daily multivitamin did not have any effect in reducing
heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
s and other major cardiovascular events, MI, stroke, and CVD mortality.


Contains

Below is an incomplete list of the nutritional facts for each type of Centrum brand vitamin.


Centrum Mens

NE = Not Established


Centrum Womens


Centrum Adults


References


External links


Official website

Official UK website
{{Haleon Dietary supplements Haleon