Vitamins Linked to Higher Death Risk in Older Women
If you’re one of many health-conscious women who take vitamins, you may want to pay attention to the findings of a recent University of Minnesota study. According to the 20-year study, women who take multivitamins are 6% more likely to die earlier than women who don’t take them.
Yes, you read that right. Researchers explained that many of the supplements contain high amounts of specific compounds, and high doses could be potentially toxic. “If you combine several supplements, or a multivitamin with supplements, then you reach even higher potentially toxic doses,†the lead researchers said.
In recent years, studies have shown that vitamins such as A, C and E, which were supposed to lower risk of chronic illnesses like heart disease and cancer, didn’t provide a significant benefit. But many patients kept taking them anyway, and few doctors publicly discouraged it, since the studies didn’t show that taking vitamins did much harm either.
The 38,000 women who participated in the study, average age 62, were surveyed three times about whether they took multivitamins or 15 other types of supplements, and in what doses. Although the higher death risk was noted, researchers found that a bright spot: women in the study who took calcium had a nearly 10% lower risk of death over the study’s follow-up period, compared with those who didn’t take calcium supplements.
Do you take a multivitamin?