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Multivitamins Are No Magic Bullet Panacea

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@tampatrib.com

Published: March 28, 2009

We've been told for years that popping a multivitamin will make us healthier and prolong our lives.

But with new studies recently finding that daily multivitamins make no difference in rates of breast or colon cancer, heart attack, stroke, blood clots or mortality, you probably wonder what you should do.

Don't toss your pills - yet: The study, part of the government-funded Women's Health Initiative, is well-respected, but it was on 161,808 postmenopausal women, and the follow-up time was about eight years. Critics say the results shouldn't be generalized to the rest of the population and that eight years may not be enough time to see an effect. The study doesn't apply to pregnant women or people who take vitamins because they have a deficiency in, say, vitamin D or other important nutrients.

Don't run out and buy them, either: The National Institutes for Health in 2006 concluded that evidence supporting the benefits and even the safety of multivitamin and mineral supplements is limited and inconclusive. Scientists suspect the benefits of a healthy diet come from eating whole fruits and vegetables, not the individual vitamins in them.

Bottom line: Health doesn't come in a pill. The lead researcher in this latest study says people should buy fruit and veggies, not multivitamins.

Learn more: Keep an eye on The Stanford Nutrition Studies Program, which has ongoing studies on the health benefits of everything from supplements such as Omega-3 fatty acids and ginkgo biloba extract to soy milk and garlic at http://nutrition.stanford.edu.

The Miami Herald

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