Multivitamin Benefits Are All In Your Head: Study

Multivitamins really are magic pills for your health, according to a new study, but not the way you think.

The health “ benefits ” of multivitamins may well be a mental trick, researchers say.

According to the results of a federally-funded survey, American adults who regularly take multivitamins reported 30% better overall health than people who did not use the supplements.

However, a comprehensive medical history – evaluating dozens of physical and mental illnesses – revealed no real health differences between people who took or did not take multivitamins.

“Multivitamin users and non-users do not differ in any of these clinically measurable health outcomes, but they report feeling at least 30% better in their overall health,” said lead researcher Manish Paranjpe, a student at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Responding to the findings, Andrea Wong, senior vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs at the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a supplement industry trade group, spoke of problems with the study design. The findings “do not in any way rule out the many benefits of multivitamins in combating insufficient nutrient levels and promoting optimal health, nor do they provide a basis for consumers to reconsider their decision to take a multivitamin or to use it. take one in the future, ”Wong said.

About a third of Americans take multivitamins regularly in the belief that they contribute to good health, the researchers said in briefing notes.

But previous studies have found little evidence to support the benefits of multivitamins for a range of health conditions from heart disease to cancer, Paranjpe said.

To see if they could benefit from the supplements, the researchers analyzed data from more than 21,000 people collected as part of the 2012 U.S. National Health Survey.

Participants were asked about their use of complementary medical practices, which included taking vitamin supplements.

Almost 5,000 people said they took multivitamins regularly, while more than 16,000 said they did not. Regular multivitamin users were significantly older and tended to have higher household incomes; they were also more likely to be female, university graduates, married, and have health insurance.

Participants were also asked about a myriad of health issues that could affect them. The researchers rated them based on their responses to the survey questions on:

• Their subjective assessment of their own health.
• Their need for help with routine daily activities, which serve as a measure of disability.
• Their story of 10 long-term health issues, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, and arthritis.
• Their bouts with 19 common ailments over the past year, including infections, memory loss, neurological dysfunctions, and musculoskeletal issues.
• Their degree of psychological distress, which could indicate problems with depression or anxiety.

Multivitamin users tended to rate themselves as healthier than non-users, but detailed medical details revealed they really were not, the study’s authors noted.

The strong belief that multivitamins are working could make people feel healthier than they actually are, Paranjpe and colleagues said.

It is also possible that people who take multivitamins are “in general, or just naturally, more positive people,” Paranjpe suggested.

Wong noted that the study was based on survey data that did not ask what specific multivitamins people were taking, how often or for how long they were taking them. As such, it cannot prove a cause and effect relationship and leaves many questions unanswered.

The main role of a multivitamin is to fill nutritional gaps and ensure that people get their daily intake of under-consumed nutrients like vitamins A, C, D, E and K, calcium, magnesium, dietary fiber, choline and potassium, Wong said.

“The study’s findings are not doing the public a service and should not influence consumers’ decision to take a multivitamin or other dietary supplement,” Wong said.

But research has shown that the best way to get the nutrients and minerals you need is through diet, said Melissa Majumdar, bariatric coordinator at Emory University Hospital Midtown in Atlanta and spokesperson for the. Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

“As dietitians, most of us feel that we can get a variety of our nutrients and vitamins from our food, and that’s what most of us would preach to our patients,” said Majumdar.

“We, as Americans, love something tangible. We love something that we feel we can do, an element of action that is easy,” continued Majumdar. “But there are some things we just can’t get from a pill, and we know that vitamins and minerals don’t work independently. They work synergistically. When vitamins and minerals have been studied independently. ‘a food, they don’t have the same benefit. “

Paranjpe said these results should not be interpreted as indicating that all supplements are a waste of money.

“There are certainly legitimate uses for vitamin supplements,” he said. “For example, during pregnancy, folic acid is commonly prescribed to prevent neural tube defects in children.”

But, added Paranjpe, for the general population who don’t have a specific condition that would require a specific multivitamin or vitamin supplement, “we really don’t have any evidence to suggest that taking a multivitamin daily helps in any way. “

The real concern is that people are wasting money on multivitamins that would be more beneficial to their health if spent elsewhere, Paranjpe said.

“We think money could be better spent on things that we know have a positive effect on health, like eating healthy,” exercising or socializing, he said.

The results were published online Nov. 9 in the journal BMJ open.

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