Do you take vitamin supplements on a daily basis? Do you take more than the recommended amount? If so, according to IFLScience, you could be putting your health in danger.

While it was once widely accepted that vitamins and dietary supplements yielded positive results, mimicking the benefits achieved from getting vitamins and nutrients from fruits and veggies, recent studies have shown that this may not be the case.

Initially, and encouragingly, results from tissue and animal research seemed to support this idea [that those who took vitamin supplements had a lower chance of getting cancer], so scientists began population-based studies expecting to observe a similar cancer-reducing trend in humans. But after following thousands of people, much to the surprise of scientists, they actually began to observe the opposite. Not only did supplements bestow no obvious health benefits, but some actually raised the risk of developing cancer when taken in excess of the recommended dietary amount.

In fact, according to a 2006 study, women who took an excess of folic acid had a 32% higher risk of breast cancer than those with lower leverls. And Women who took multivitamins were 20% more likely to develop a breast tumor than those who did not.

While these findings are indeed troubling for anyone taking daily vitamins and supplements, researcher Tim Byers says that people who take the correct, recommended dosage shouldn’t worry. It’s just that taking extra vitamins and minerals seems to do more harm than good.

That being said, most people should be able to achieve their recommended daily doses of vitamins and minerals by eating healthy, nutritional meals. Most people therefore don’t need to pop pills every day, and should probably stop wasting their money.