B Vitamins and Breast Pain

Studies that show the benefits of vitamins rarely make news headlines. A recent study conducted in the Philippines and presented at the May 4th annual meeting of the American Society of Breast Surgeons in Phoenix found that vitamins E and B complex appeared to alleviate benign persistent great pain. During a 4 year period 126 outpatients with tolerable breast pain were assigned to the treatment group and 82 to the control group in an odd-even fashion. 90.2% of the women who took the vitamins were pain free after one month, compared to 9.8% in the control group. This study is interesting, although it could have been stronger if the control group had been given a placebo and if the women were evaluated over a longer period of time. Diet and exercise can also affect breast pain, but those changes take longer than a month to take effect. Also, we don't know the quality of these women's diets.