Critique Of Vitamin Safety Study

Multivitamins have received some very negative press this last week. You should realize that tens of thousands of well-designed studies over the last 40 years have reported the positive benefits of supplements on the health of people of all ages. The media loves bad news of any sort. They get extra excited if they can scare you. Don't forget who owns the large media outlet sources. Also note that this story was picked up by every pro-pharma and anti-health media outlet in many countries.

The study reported that women aged 55-69 years had a higher death rate if they were taking multi-vitamins, vitamin B6, folic acid, iron, magnesium, zinc and copper.

Because this study was so widely quoted you might assume it had some validity. Even a casual inspection shows this not to be true.

The study was based on self-administered questionnaires from about 38,000 women. The original questionnaire was distributed in 1986 with follow-up questionnaires in 1997 and 2004. The questionnaires inquired about food intake, dietary supplements, weight, smoking, hormone replacement, diabetes and heart disease.

Flaws Abound

So far it sounds pretty good, wouldn't you say? Here come the serious study flaws. On the topic of supplements, no information is available about how much of any supplement was taken, the actual chemical form of the supplement (calcium carbonate vs calcium lactate for example). Multivitamin was asked in the most general way without asking anything specific about them ie how many per day or month and nothing about the ingredients in the multivitamin.

No attempt was made to determine the accuracy of comments. The women were not asked why they were taking supplements. No attempt was made to learn the person's actual response to taking supplements.

No attempt was made to determine when supplements were started. Many people begin taking them when faced with a serious disease such as cancer or heart disease. In that case the underlying death might then be associated with the supplement intake.

Remember this is not a clinical trial where participants are given a specific supplement or placebo and then the results are closely followed over time. The analysis of the data then says something about outcomes and also other factors that could affect those outcomes.

In a retrospective study like this, we know virtually nothing about which supplements were used and for how long. We don't know if people started with one regimen and changed it 100 times over the length of the questionnaire time frame. I know I have changed which supplements I personally take so many times over the last decade that it would be meaningless to make generalizations about it.

Also we have very little if any information about actual cause of death. Did supplements contribute to the death rate of not is not possible to glean from this type of general data.

You Can Get Too Much Copper and/or Iron

It is true that copper and iron are toxic in levels higher than is ideal for that person. Peri or post-menopausal women should not be taking iron supplements unless blood work points to iron-deficiency anemia. Taking sufficient antioxidant supplements or eating a diet rich in antioxidant foods would go a long way to prevent problems from copper or iron overload.

We Recommend Routine Blood Testing

We absolutely recommend routine blood testing to see physiological shifts to determine which supplements would be most beneficial. Follow-up blood tests are then necessary to determine the effectiveness of the supplements at helping return the physiology toward something more ideal.

The authors of this study state: "It is not advisable to make a causal statement of excess risk based on these observational data"

Also, I would comment that in general, JAMA Network is a propaganda tool of the pharmaceutical industry. Promoting drug products is their main source of revenue. Some studies are designed to "prove" that self-help measures like vitamins and supplements are dangerous.

That means that people should not read too much into this type of study.