It’s not an uncommon belief that taking a daily vitamin or multivitamin can be a preventative measure to avoid life threatening illnesses in the future.
However, a new study has found that as women get older, vitamins may do more harm than good!
To come to their conclusions, researchers followed a group of 38,772 women in their 60s in Iowa for about 20 years and found the use of multivitamins was associated with an absolute risk increase of 2.4%.
Based on the increase in rate of mortality, the study published in this week’s Archives of Internal Medicine could not recommend the use of vitamin and mineral supplements for preventative purposes, as the authors concluded:
“Although we cannot rule out benefits of supplements, such as improved quality of life, our study raises a concern regarding their long-term safety. Based on existing evidence, we see little justification for the general and widespread use of dietary supplements. We recommend that they be used with strong medically based cause, such as symptomatic nutrient deficiency disease.”
The study also suggests too many people may be relying on supplements for their nutrition instead of healthy food. Authors noted supplement users were more likely to have an overall poorer quality diet with a lower intake of energy, total fat, and saturated fatty acids.
The Council for Responsible Nutrition, which oversees the supplement industry, isn’t too concerned with the results though.
The group’s vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs released a statement, saying:
“The study may make for interesting scientific water cooler discussion, but certainly does not warrant sweeping, overstated concerns for elderly women.”
The most commonly used supplements in the study were multivitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E, and calcium. The latter of which was actually associated with a lower mortality rate.
