It seems that research on the benefit of taking supplementary vitamins (at least if you are a person with a reasonable diet and no obvious cause to have deficiencies) are pretty rarely positive, so it is a surprise to read this in the Washington Post:
It was the second such multivitamin clinical study within the COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS) — a larger body of research examining the health effects of certain dietary supplements — to reach the same conclusion.
The most recent study found that those taking multivitamins showed an estimated 3.1 fewer years of memory loss compared with a control group who took a placebo. Put another way, the multivitamin group was an estimated 3.1 years “younger” in terms of their memory function than the placebo group.
The full report is here.
1 comment:
Impressive results in this study:
A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of community use of oral nutritional supplements on clinical outcomes
Results showed reductions when ONS were used in hospital and community settings (OR 0.72, 95 % CI 0.59,0.87; p = 0.001) or just in the community (OR 0.65, 95 % CI 0.52, 0.80; p<0.001).
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1568163723001125
You may need to be logged in to read the full article.
I've never been a fan of multivitamins because it is too much of a shotgun approach. Another problem is that minerals can compete with each other to cross the gut wall. Too much zinc and we don't get enough copper.
I've long been critical of the dismissive attitude some people have towards supplementation generally. While it is true that many go overboard it is also true that there many studies showing potential benefits of judicious supplementation; especially for people over 60 years of age.
Post a Comment