Taking vitamin supplements daily has no positive effect on longevity, according to a large study.
Worse, the followers of this habit monitored as part of this work were associated with a higher mortality risk.
It is a habit whose effect is probably not as expected. This is, in essence, what a large-scale study concludes on the daily intake of vitamin-based food supplements with the aim of increasing life expectancy. According to the results of this analysis conducted by the National Cancer Institute of Maryland, published on June 26 in Jama Network, not only do multivitamins not help their followers live longer, but it could even be that they increase the risk of premature death.
“Multivitamins overpromise and underachieve,” comments Dr. Neal Barnard, assistant professor of medicine at George Washington University cited by The Guardian.
“Instead of taking multivitamins…”
To reach this conclusion, researchers studied medical data from nearly 400,000 adult patients without any serious long-term illness in order to analyze the impact of daily vitamin intake on mortality. . These were followed by the scientific team for more than twenty years. Verdict: People consuming these supplements daily had a higher risk of dying during the study period than those who did not consume them. In more detail, the risk of excess mortality was assessed to be 4% higher in the latter during the first years of follow-up.
“Instead of taking multivitamins, we should eat healthy foods that provide a wide range of micronutrients, macronutrients and fiber, while limiting saturated fats and cholesterol,” concludes Dr Neal Barnard, still with the Guardian, while emphasizing that vitamins are useful in specific cases.
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It should be noted, however, that the authors of the study themselves point out a limitation to the results of their work regarding the potential risk of excess mortality: the “sick user effect”, which refers more precisely to the temptation among some patients already diagnosed to increase their consumption of food supplements. However, according to the researchers, this trend could contribute to distorting the conclusions.
As a reminder, food supplements, “concentrates of nutrients, plants or other substances” have more and more followers in France, according to the National Health Security Agency (ANSES).
