LOS ANGELES — If you're taking a multivitamin to help you live longer, a new study by researchers at the National Cancer Institute may prompt you to reconsider.
Then there's the"sick user effect." People who are diagnosed with a chronic disease often respond by adding a multivitamin to their daily regimen. In real-world studies, this links the supplements to poorer health and tends to make them seem less helpful than they truly are. There were clear differences between those who took multivitamins and those who didn't. For example, 49% of the people who took a multivitamin every day were women, compared with 39% of those who never took them. In addition, 42% of those with a daily multivitamin habit had gone to college, compared with 38% of those who hadn't.
Younger vitamin users had the highest risk. Among those who joined one of the studies before their 55th birthday, the mortality rate for those who took the supplements every day was 15% higher than for those who didn't take them at all. Health Environmental Nutrition: The new calorie math Health Orange creamsicle or minty watermelon? Homemade popsicles are healthier than in the freezer aisle Health Why water is the best drink during a heat wave "Multiple vitamins overpromise and they underdeliver," said Dr. Neal D. Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and an adjunct professor at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Science.
Multivitamins divorced from foods became a commercial product in the 1940s, and Americans now spend $8 billion per year on the supplements.