According to a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, vitamin supplements taken in high doses don’t extend your life, but it can be harmful to your body. For longer and healthier life, all the proteins and nutrients should come from what you eat. The problem found in a study from the University of Birmingham in 2018, is that vitamin and mineral supplements don’t protect you from heart disease.
Dr. Fang Fang Zhang, an associate professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, and her colleagues had explored the effects of dietary supplements on adults living in the U.S. They have gathered data from 27,725 participants who are at least 20 years old, that had signed to be part of the NHANES project.
Vitamin supplements are not helping you live longer
First of all, the participants were asked to fill a 24-hour food questionnaire twice. After that, a household interview was held, and they had to answer whether or not they had used any vitamin supplements in the previous 30 days. The ones that had used supplements had to give more details about it. However, more than half of the participants declared the use of dietary supplements, and 38.3 percent claimed the use of multivitamin and mineral supplements.
Moreover, during those six years of study, 3,613 participants had died. About 945 cardiovascular deaths and 805 cancer deaths were included. The consumption of vitamin K and magnesium in adequate amounts can lower the risk of death from any cause; and the use of Zinc, vitamin K and A, could reduce the risk of cardiovascular death. On the other hand, excess consumption of calcium is associated with a higher risk of cancer death.
Fortunately, the study revealed a lower risk of death associated with supplements, but they are also keeping in mind other factors like education, smoking and drinking, and diet. They can’t prove if the nutrients from food can lengthen your life, but people who adopt healthy diets live longer. Also, supplements don’t seem to extend your life. One last advice, focus on taking as a supplement only the calcium or the minerals that are missing from your diet.
