[ad_1]
By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, November 10, 2020 (HealthDay News) – Multivitamins really are magic pills for your health, according to a new study – but not like 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.
[ad_2]
Source link