If you’re looking for ways to trim your budget, you might consider cutting multivitamins from your shopping list. A large study recently published in JAMA Network Open, a medical journal by the American Medical Association, found that daily multivitamin use does not improve your long term health outlook. The study found no significant association between multivitamin use and reduced mortality risk.
In fact, the researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health found that the risk of death was four per cent higher among daily multivitamin users, compared with non-users.
The study used data from three large U.S. cohort studies, encompassing over 390,000 participants and 164,000 deaths during followup periods ranging up to 27 years.
The robust study accounted for various factors like lifestyle, demographics and health conditions. “We did not find evidence to support improved longevity among healthy adults who regularly take multivitamins,” researchers concluded. They added, however, that daily multivitamin use “may be associated with other health outcomes related to aging.
” The findings build off previous studies that have also found little evidence to support the purported benefits of multivitamins, including brain and heart function . The study participants were generally healthy, with no history of cancer or other chronic diseases. Researchers also found that the participants, in addition to taking multivitamins, tended to eat healthy diets, get adequate amounts.
