NEW YORK - Taking a multivitamin every day doesn't seem to ward
off thinking and memory problems. Nor will it prevent further heart
disease or death among people who have already had a heart attack.
Those findings come from two reports published Monday in the Annals of
Internal Medicine. The studies represent the latest in a growing body of
evidence suggesting the popular supplements probably aren't doing most
users a lot of good.
"People over time and
particularly people in the United States have been led to believe that
vitamin and mineral supplements will make them healthier, and they're
looking for a magic pill," Dr. Cynthia Mulrow said.
But such a pill doesn't exist, said Mulrow, a senior deputy editor at
the journal who co-wrote an editorial published with the new research.
"People . . . should be active, should not (overeat), should avoid
excessive alcohol and should not be spending money on these pills, these
vitamins and minerals," she told Reuters Health.
The studies follow a review of earlier research published online last
month. It found multivitamins had no effect on heart disease and
possibly a small effect on cancer risk, but only among men.
To look at whether vitamins affect thinking and memory skills,
researchers randomly assigned about 6,000 older male doctors to take
either a standard multivitamin or vitamin-free placebo as part of a
larger men's health study. Then they gave the men up to four memory
tests over the next 12 years.
Howard Sesso from
Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and his colleagues found no
cognitive differences between the vitamin and placebo groups at any time
point. Nor did scores on the memory tests drop any faster among men in
one group versus the other.
The second new study
included both men and women who'd had a heart attack. About 1,700 of
them were randomly assigned to take supplements–this time high doses of
vitamins and minerals–or placebo pills.
Over an
average of four and a half years, 27 percent of people taking vitamins
died or had another heart attack or other cardiovascular problem. That
compared to 30 percent of participants taking placebos–a difference that
could have been due to chance.
People in that
study had to take six vitamin pills a day and many weren't so good about
sticking to that regimen, researchers led by Dr. Gervasio Lamas of the
Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida, wrote. That could
have influenced the results.
"As of now, there
is no need to be taking multivitamins and multiminerals to prevent heart
disease and there is extensive evidence on that," Lamas told Reuters
Health.
"For the general population who (is
healthy) and they are taking vitamins because they are thinking that
somehow the vitamins are going to make them do better, people are
entitled to waste their money in any way that they like," he said.
Americans spent $28 billion on supplements in 2010, Mulrow and her colleagues noted.
Neither study found side effects tied to multivitamin use. So people
probably aren't hurting themselves by taking multivitamins, especially
in standard doses, researchers said.
Sesso said
because of the possible cancer-related benefits tied to multivitamins,
they are still worth considering - in particular for people who may not
get enough vitamins in their diet.
A prior study
by his team found an 8 percent lower risk of cancer among men assigned
to take multivitamins, as well as a lower risk of cataracts.
"We really need to manage our expectations about why we're taking
multivitamins," Duffy MacKay, vice president of scientific and
regulatory affairs at the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), said.
CRN is a Washington, D.C.-based trade group that represents dietary supplement manufacturers and ingredient suppliers.
He said the main reasons people report talking multivitamins are for overall health and wellness and to fill nutrient gaps.
Research shows Americans often don't get all recommended nutrients from
their diets, and that a multivitamin helps fill those gaps, MacKay told
Reuters Health.
"That's reason alone that a multivitamin should be consumed," he said.
"It's ultimately an individual decision," Sesso told Reuters Health.
Considering how many people take multivitamins–up to half of all US
adults–he said there's still a need for more research on their effects.
Mulrow had a different perspective. Based on the research that has been
done and the lack of general benefit, she questioned whether any more
money should be spent on studying vitamin supplements.
"We think we shouldn't be doing a lot more studies on most of these," she said. –Reuters
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