“Refocusing nutrition interventions on food, rather than supplements, may provide the mortality benefits that multivitamins cannot deliver,” National Cancer Institute researchers wrote in their findings. “A new study finds that millions of Americans are taking multivitamins to prevent disease even though “there is little health rationale” for them.390,000 healthy Americans were asked about their multivitamin consumption and divided into three groups — nonusers, occasional users and daily users.
The study authors tracked them for two decades, with nearly 165,000 deaths occurring during the follow-up period. The researchers determined that taking a multivitamin did not lower the risk of dying from cancer, heart disease or cerebrovascular diseases.
In fact, daily multivitamin use was associated with a 4% higher risk of death than nonuse, according to research published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Network Open.The study authors noted that one in three US adults take multivitamins, typically to prevent disease or to improve health.There was limited evidence
There were some limitations to the new study, including that participants may not have accurately reported their multivitamin use and people with a history of cancer and other chronic diseases were excluded. The researchers hypothesized that people who use multivitamins may have healthier lifestyles, while sicker patients may be more likely to increase their use of multivitamins.