Want to Cut Cancer Risk? Have a Daily 'Multi'

That multivitamin pill you've been taking—or keep meaning to take?—could actually reduce your risk of getting cancer by 8%, according to a new study. Vitamin use has taken a bashing lately, but this rigorous look at 15,000 male doctors who took a daily "multi" for more than 10 years is one of the best vitamin studies yet, reports the New York Times. In fact, it found a 12% reduction in most cancers—but no effect at all on prostate cancer, the most common type found in the study.

Still, doctors warn that multivitamins are no replacement for other, better means of reducing your cancer risk. "It would be a big mistake for people to go out and take a multivitamin instead of quitting smoking or doing other things that we have a higher suspicion play a bigger role, like eating a good diet and getting exercise," says the study's lead author. "You’ve got to keep wearing your sunscreen." (More vitamins stories.)