People believe achieving optimal nutrition and preventing the occurrence of chronic disease is as easy as popping a daily multivitamin pill.
This makes multivitamin supplements the most widely purchased supplements in the United States. This comes as no surprise as a lot of companies say multivitamin supplements significantly contribute to chronic disease prevention and health promotion; however, is that really the case? Many recent studies have shown multivitamin use having a less than expected effect on disease prevention and health.
An observational study in 2009 included 161,808 women between 50-79 years old from the Women’s Health Initiative clinical trials. After a median follow-up of around eight years in the clinical trial and observational study, the Women’s Health Initiative study provided convincing evidence multivitamin use has little or no effect on heart disease, common cancer or total mortality in postmenopausal women.
Even though the potential ineffectiveness of taking a multivitamin, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey still showed 52 percent of Americans have taken a vitamin supplement in the past month and 35 percent of Americans take a regular multivitamin. The participants of this survey include a wide range of age groups, ethnicity, gender, education level and physical activities. Results from this survey also found people talking multivitamin supplements generally eat healthier than people who do not take any multivitamins.
Another study conducted by the Nutrition Journal in 2009, which assessed the multivitamin uses among health professionals including physicians and nurses. Nine hundred physicians and 277 nurses from around the country participated in this study and they were asked about the frequency of taking vitamin supplements. The results showed 89 percent of nurses and 72 percent of physicians used a multivitamin supplement sometime throughout the year, and 82 percent of nurses and 79 percent of physicians would suggest their patients take a multivitamin.
Even though there are no significant disease preventions associated with vitamin supplements consumption, there are also no significant drawbacks unless they are taken too much. However, vitamin supplements are beneficial for certain groups such as elderly, pregnant women and lactating women, and individuals with vitamin deficiency diseases.
Due to many conflicting studies and articles on vitamin supplements use, it is important to get advice from your doctors and dietitians if taking a multivitamin is good for your specific needs. Please remember the bottom line is that wisely choosing a wide variety of nutrient-rich foods are key to improving health and reducing risk of chronic diseases. Getting your vitamins and minerals from a diet rich in fruit, vegetables, grains, protein and dairy are always the better choice than just taking a multivitamin supplement.
Lu Anderson (MS, RDN, LDN) is a clinical dietitian with a master’s degree in medical nutrition from Saint Louis University. She works as a clinical dietitian at St. Mary’s Hospital in Jefferson City and Audrain, including both inpatient and outpatient services to help people with a variety of illnesses learn how to use food to improve their symptoms and quality of life.