>When my mom mentioned that the nightly news reported that vitamins can increase your rate of death, I just cringed. Here we go again telling people not to get healthy. It’s a bigger money maker to take prescription drugs than it is to take high quality nutritional supplements. My advice, stop watching the nightly news, you’ll be happier without it. But that’s another blog topic.
Here is the true story behind the so-called scientific data. The bottom line, keep taking your supplements, they actually make you healthier.
Read the details of how the report was a hoax.
What Kind of Medical Study Would Have Grandma Believe that Her Daily Multivitamin is Dangerous?
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, October 12, 2011
by Robert G. Smith, PhD
(OMNS, Oct 12, 2011) A newly released study suggests that multivitamin and
nutrient supplements can increase the mortality rate in older women [1].
However, there are several concerns about the study’s methods and
significance.
* The study was observational, in which participants filled out a
survey about their eating habits and their use of supplements. It reports
only a small increase in overall mortality (1%) from those taking
multivitamins. This is a small effect, not much larger than would be
expected by chance. Generalizing from such a small effect is not scientific.
* The study actually reported that taking supplements of B-complex,
vitamins C, D, E, and calcium and magnesium were associated with a lower
risk of mortality. But this was not emphasized in the abstract, leading the
non-specialist to think that all supplements were associated with mortality.
The report did not determine the amounts of vitamin and nutrient supplements
taken, nor whether they were artificial or natural. Further, most of the
association with mortality came from the use of iron and copper supplements,
which are known to be potentially inflammatory and toxic when taken by older
people, because they tend to accumulate in the body [2,3,4]. The risk from
taking iron supplements should not be generalized to imply that all vitamin
and nutrient supplements are harmful.
* The study lacks scientific plausibility for several reasons. It
tabulated results from surveys of 38,000 older women, based on their recall
of what they ate over an 18-year period. But they were only surveyed 3 times
during that period, relying only on their memory of what foods and
supplements they took. This factor alone causes the study to be unreliable.
* Some of these women smoked (~15%) or had previously (~35%), some
drank alcohol (~45%), some had high blood pressure (~40%), and many of them
developed heart disease and/or cancer. Some preexisting medical conditions
were taken into account by adjusting the risk factors, but this caused the
study to contradict what we already know about efficacy of supplements. For
example, the study reports an increase in mortality from taking vitamin D,
when adjusted for several health-relevant factors. However, vitamin D has
recently been clearly shown to be helpful in preventing heart disease [5]
and many types of cancer [6], which are major causes of death. Furthermore,
supplement users were twice as likely to be on hormone replacement therapy,
which is a more plausible explanation for increased mortality than taking
supplements.
* The effect of doctor recommendations was not taken into account. By
their own repeated admissions, medical doctors and hospital nutritionists
are more likely to recommend a daily multivitamin, and only a multivitamin,
for their sicker patients. The study did not take this into account. All it
did was tabulate deaths and attempt to correct the numbers for some prior
health conditions. The numbers reported do not reflect other factors such as
developing disease, side effects of pharmaceutical prescriptions, or other
possible causes for the mortality. The study only reports statistical
correlations, and gives no plausible cause for a claimed increase in
mortality from multivitamin supplements.
* The effect of education was not taken into account. When a doctor
gives advice about illnesses, well-educated people will often respond by
trying to be proactive. Some will take drugs prescribed by the doctor, and
some will try to eat a better diet, including supplements of vitamins and
nutrients. This is suggested by the study itself: the supplement users in
the survey had more education than those who did not take supplements. It
seems likely, therefore, the participants who got sick were more likely to
have taken supplements. Because those who got sick are also more likely to
die, it stands to reason that they would also be more likely to have taken
supplements. This effect is purely statistical; it does not represent an
increase in risk that taking supplements of vitamins and essential nutrients
will cause disease or death. This type of statistical correlation is very
common in observational health studies and those who are health-conscious
should not be confounded by it.
* The known safety of vitamin and nutrient supplements when taken at
appropriate doses was not taken into account. The participants most likely
took a simple multivitamin tablet, which contains low doses. Much higher
doses are also safe [4,7], implying that the low doses in common
multivitamin tablets are very safe. Further, because each individual
requires different amounts of vitamins and nutrients, some people must take
much higher doses for best health [8].
Summary: In an observational study of older women in good health, it was
said that those who died were more likely to have taken multivitamin and
nutrient supplements than those who did not. The effect was small, and does
not indicate any reason for disease or death. Instead, the study’s methods
suggest that people who have serious health conditions take vitamin and
mineral supplements because they know that supplements can help. Indeed, the
study showed a benefit from taking B-complex, C, D, and E vitamins, and
calcium and magnesium. Therefore, if those wanting better health would take
appropriate doses of supplements regularly, they would likely continue to
achieve better health and longer life.
(Robert G. Smith is Research Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania
Department of Neuroscience. He is a member of the Institute for Neurological
Sciences and the author of several dozen scientific papers and reviews.)
References:
[1] Mursu J, Robien K, Harnack LJ, Park K, Jacobs DR Jr (2011) Dietary
supplements and mortality rate in older women. The Iowa Women’s Health
Study. Arch Intern Med. 171(18):1625-
[2] Emery, T. F. Iron and your Health: Facts and Fallacies. Boca Raton, FL:
CRC Press, 1991.
[3] Fairbanks, V. F. “Iron in Medicine and Nutrition.” Chapter 10 in Modern
Nutrition in Health and Disease, editors M. E. Shils, J. A. Olson, M. Shike,
et al., 9th ed. Baltimore, MD: Williams & Wilkins, 1999.
[4] Hoffer, A., A. W. Saul. Orthomolecular Medicine for Everyone:
Megavitamin Therapeutics for Families and Physicians. Laguna Beach, CA:
Basic Health Publications, 2008.
[5] Parker J, Hashmi O, Dutton D, Mavrodaris A, Stranges S, Kandala NB,
Clarke A, Franco OH. Levels of vitamin D and cardiometabolic disorders:
systematic review and meta-analysis. Maturitas. 2010 Mar;65(3):225-
[6] Lappe JM, Travers-Gustafson D, Davies KM, Recker RR, Heaney RP. Vitamin
D and calcium supplementation reduces cancer risk: results of a randomized
trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Jun;85(6):1586-
[7] Padayatty SJ, Sun AY, Chen Q, Espey MG, Drisko J, Levine M. Vitamin C:
intravenous use by complementary and alternative medicine practitioners and
adverse effects. PLoS One. 2010 Jul 7;5(7):e11414.
[8] Williams RJ, Deason G. (1967) Individuality in vitamin C needs. Proc
Natl Acad SciUSA.57:16381641.
