Does Your Daily Multivitamin Help You Stay Healthy? Experts Say NO!

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Are you one of the millions of Americans that spend thousands of dollars each year on vitamins and supplements to keep you healthy?
If so, you won’t want to miss this…

Not one… not two… but three new studies published in the December 16^th issue of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, found that multivitamin and mineral supplements did not work better than placebo pills.

That’s a HUGE deal since dietary supplements are a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States. In fact, according to the U.S. Office of Dietary Supplements, multivitamins account for almost HALF of all vitamin sales.

A Multi-a-Day Won’t Keep the Doctor Away…

A growing body of evidence suggests that most multivitamins offer little-to-no health benefits. In fact, research shows that high doses of certain vitamins may even cause harm to your health.

As a result, researchers from prestigious universities are now urging folks to STOP wasting their money on multivitamins.

“The ‘stop wasting your money’ means that perhaps you’re spending money on things that won’t protect you long term,” said editorial co-author Dr. Edgar Miller, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.  “What will protect you is if you spend the money on fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, low-fat dairy, things like that… exercising would probably be a better use of the money.”

However, many other researchers agree that some nutrient-deficient people may still benefit from multivitamins – the most common dietary supplement used by folks over the age of 50.

“There might be an argument to continue taking a multi(vitamin) to replace or supplement your not healthy diet,” Dr. Robert Graham, an internal medicine physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, added to CBS News.

And Dr. John LaPook also noted that vitamins can help people with certain conditions, like celiac disease – where the body cannot properly absorb nutrients – and pregnancy, where folic acid helps prevent birth defects.

The Experts Weigh In…

• “We believe that it’s clear that vitamins are not working.” – Dr. Eliseo Gullar, a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
• “We believe the case is closed – supplementing the diet of well-nourished adults with (most) mineral or vitamin supplements has no clear benefit and might even be harmful.  These vitamins should not be used for chronic disease prevention. Enough is enough.” – Authors of the editorial published in the December 16, 2013 issue of Annals of Medicine.
• “For better or for worse, supplementation is not going to go away,” said Dr. Howard Sesso of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He helps lead a large multivitamin study that suggests small benefits for some health conditions but not others — and says more research is needed, especially among the less healthy.

Three Studies Reveal Most (Multi) Vitamins Don’t Do a Darn Thing For Your Brain or Heart!

Study #1: Most Multi’s DON’T Help Your Memory!

Researchers randomly assigned nearly 6,000 male doctors (over age 65, in relatively good health) to take either a daily Centrum Silver multivitamin or a placebo pill every day for a period of 12 years.

Every few years, the researchers gave each man a series of tests over the telephone to check their memory. 84% of the men said they took their pills every day.

The results? After 12 years, there was no difference in memory problems between the two groups.

“No matter which way we broke it down, there was a null effect,” said study author Jacqueline O’Brien, a research associate at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “Supplements are often marketed to have benefits for brain health and things like that, and this is a pretty clear takeaway message.”

Study #2 & 3: Think Twice Before Taking a Multivitamin to Protect Your Heart…

Researchers randomly assigned 1,700 heart attack survivors undergoing intravenous chelation therapy to a daily regimen of high dose vitamins and minerals – or placebo pills.

Each participant was asked to take six large pills a day. And after an average of 55 months – there was no significant difference between the two groups in the number of deaths… second heart attacks… strokes… episodes of serious chest pain… and procedures to open blocked arteries.

What’s more, a third study conducted for the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, reviewed evidence from 27 studies on vitamin and mineral supplements that included more than 350,000 people.

And the results? The review found no evidence that vitamin and mineral supplementation would reduce heart disease or delay death in pill takers. Two of the trials found a small “borderline-significant benefit” in cancer risk reduction, but only in men.

The truth is, if you’re looking to take a single pill to take the place of a healthy diet and lifestyle – you’re not going to find it.

It would be great if all of our dietary problems could be solved by taking a single pill. But that’s just not going to happen.

Even representatives of the vitamin industry asked people to keep their hopes about supplements in perspective.

In a prepared statement, vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs for the Council for Responsible Nutrition said, “We all need to manage our expectations about why we’re taking multivitamins.  Research shows that the two main reasons people take multivitamins are for overall health and wellness and to fill in nutrient gaps. Science still demonstrates that multivitamins work for those purposes, and that alone provides reason or people to take a multivitamin.”

So, just remember this: if you’re going to take a multivitamin – or any vitamin or supplement – don’t waste your money products that contain cheap ingredients and fillers. Those products can’t… don’t… and won’t help keep you healthy. Instead, make sure you choose a supplement that’s formulated by a reputable health company – and contains the highest quality ingredients from nature’s most potent superfoods.