Consumer Labs on Vitamin Debate

[tabatha]

Just reporting, nothing more.

Women-Vitamin Study - Key Points -- You may have heard this week about a new study which found a higher risk of death among women who used certain supplements. It's a complicated study, but we've summarized some key findings. Bear in mind that only white women ages 55 to 69 were enrolled in the study and they were followed for 22 years.

Those taking calcium supplements had a 3.8% reduced risk of death. The calcium benefit ended, however, when taking more than 900 mg per day from supplements. It's worth noting that experts suggest many older women who take calcium supplements may not need to -- see the Calcium Supplement Review for more.

The mineral most strongly associated with an increased risk of death was iron, which showed a risk increase of 3.9% -- and the risk increased as the dose increased, particularly over 50 mg per day. However, the study grouped dosages of under 50 mg together, making it hard to determine the risk of low dosages of iron, such as those in many multivitamins. However, there is very little reason why a postmenopausal woman should be taking iron -- see the Iron Supplement Review for more.

Although not as statistically meaningful, other supplements were associated with the following increases in the risk of death during the study: multivitamins (2.4%), vitamin B6 (4.1%), folic acid (5.9%), magnesium (3.6%), zinc (3.0%), and copper (18.0%). An abstract of the study is online.

The bottom line: Don't take a supplement you don't need. If you want to know how much of each vitamin and mineral you need from your total diet and how much is too much, see our chart at www.consumerlab.com/RDAs.

[sam11111]

1. consumer Lab - who owns it? not same as Consu. Reports I assume?

[BuddhaGirl]

4. they are a for-profit company who contracts out their "lab"

testing.

They are not unbiased and the CEO is a former pharmaceutical employee.

I wouldn't trust them. :eyes:

[flamingdem]

2. I say eat 12 or so nuts each day and get your greens and betacarotene from food

That plus a vitamin C and a Vitamin D of 2,000 ish should cover things.

This might be just an anti-supplement attempt but it seems feasible that taking all that extra is going to cause problems over time.


I wish there were more studies like this.

[Motown_Johnny]

3. I'm not buying it, sorry

Just read what was posted there


3.9% was listed as the percentage which was most strongly associated with an increased risk of death while the 18% increase was not as statistically meaningful.



I would need to see the numbers on how many participated in the study and how they came up with this 3.8% increased risk.

I will also need to see other studies that support this outcome and some reasonable theory as to exactly what cause of death has an increased risk due to ingesting iron supplements.


The truth is these things never pan out. I honestly believe it is big pharma, that doesn't want people taking preventative action, who distort the findings of these studies to scare people.


I'm gonna go take a multivitamin right now, thanks for reminding me.