One of the largest and longest studies ever carried out unmasks the business of multivitamin supplements, which based on hearsay and marketing are dramatically increasing sales without a real scientific basis for their use by subjects not afflicted by particular deficits
A growing number of people, in the wake of a trend prevalent especially in the USA, are convinced that the daily intake of multivitamin supplements is in any case beneficial, regardless of specific nutritional deficiencies.
Corresponding to this belief, there is a thriving market, constantly growing, which responds to, and partly strengthens and expands the belief that supports it; this despite the fact that even in our country the medical community has clearly highlighted how vitamin support is indicated only in specific conditions of documented imbalance, and not for subjects without a specific reason for integration.
To avoid needlessly emptying our own pockets and to protect those of our loved ones, it would perhaps be appropriate to consider a new, large study just published on Jama Network Open, in which almost 400,000 healthy American adults for more than 20 years. The authors particularly focused on overall mortality and mortality from cardiovascular diseases or cancer: in fact, even small differences over such a large period and on such an abundant sample should be detectable, if there is any effect on health of multivitamin supplements.
Specifically, the researchers analyzed data from three large, geographically diverse, prospective studies involving a total of 390,124 US adults, followed as mentioned for over 20 years. Subjects included in this analysis had no history of cancer or other underlying chronic diseases. The large sample allowed us to control the study for various types of possible confounding factors, such as the fact that people who use multivitamins may have healthier lifestyles in general, or the fact that the onset of a disease could change the use of multivitamin supplements. Naturally, more classic confounding factors were also considered, such as diet, level of education, salary and ethnic ancestry.
The result of the study is unequivocal: the analysis demonstrated that, once the confounding factors considered have been appropriately weighed, people who took multivitamins daily did not have a lower risk of death from any cause at all. Furthermore, no differences were found in mortality from cancer, heart disease or cerebrovascular disease either. When someone at the gym, or even directly at the pharmacy or among friends, advises you to take lots of vitamins, or perhaps boasts about it, think about it carefully: at most it will be your wallet that loses weight, and the benefits will be transferred only to those who sell the most disparate products.
Only a doctor or another professional specialized in nutrition, and only in the face of a specific deficit, can direct you to what you need; the rest is rubbish.
