A recent study found that taking multivitamins does not improve our health or increase our lifespan. Dr. Erikka Loftfield and her team from the National Cancer Institute analyzed data from approximately 400,000 American adults over 20 years. They concluded, “There is no correlation between the intake of multivitamins and improvement in mortality rates.” The results of this study were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open on the 26th.
The study was conducted with participants who were generally healthy and had no history of chronic diseases, with an average age of 61.5 years.
Out of the initial 390,000 participants, about 165,000 died during the study. It was found that healthy individuals who took multivitamins daily had a 4% higher chance of dying during the study period compared to those who did not take vitamins.
The researchers suggested this could reflect the potential harm that multivitamins can pose, or that people start taking them when they develop illnesses. They further advised against joining the trend of taking dietary supplements like vitamins and minerals, saying, “Don’t waste your money.”
However, the study did not separately analyze the data of individuals with existing vitamin deficiencies.
Dr. Neal Barnard, a professor at George Washington University School of Medicine and co-author of the critique published with the paper, commented, “Vitamins can be useful in specific cases.” He added, “Historically, sailors could recover from scurvy with vitamin C. Also, beta-carotene, vitamins C and E, and zinc can delay age-related macular degeneration that can lead to vision loss.”
He further recommended getting nutrients and fiber from foods low in saturated fat and cholesterol to stay healthy, rather than relying on multivitamins.
