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Halloween Scare or Masked Ploy – Your Multiple Vitamin May Kill You?!
October 26th, 2011
By Lara Pizzorno, MA, LMT and John Morgenthaler
Don’t worry about your junk-food-laden, fruit-and-vegetable-free diet (now laced with unacknowledged GMOs), the plethora of persistent organic pollutants in your environment, or the fact that properly prescribed and administered pharmaceutical drugs are the 4th leading cause of death in the U.S. – nope, the real threat to your health seems to be your multiple vitamin and mineral supplement! At least, so claims Finnish researcher Jaako Mursu, PhD, and colleagues, authors of a wildly reported paper entitle Dietary Supplements and Mortality Rate in Older Women published October 10th in that trustworthy icon, the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Mursu et al. -- using data derived from three self-reporting questionnaire surveys filled out in 1986-1996, 1997-2003 and 2004-2008, by 38,772 women ranging in age from 55 to 69 living in rural and non-rural settings in Iowa -- have determined that women over the age of 55 who take supplemental vitamins and minerals are likely to die sooner than their counterparts who don’t.
Just to clarify on this so-called "vitamins kill" study: The women were asked three times over the course of 22 years to fill out a survey asking questions about their use of supplements, their diet (oops—no diet information was collected in the 1986-1996 survey), and their health (well, a few questions were asked about their health.) Specifically, the women were asked if they had diabetes mellitus or high blood pressure (blood pressure was never measured), if they were smokers, were on hormone replacement (an obvious question since 98.6% of study participants were postmenopausal), their weight, and their physical activity level. The survey also included a food frequency questionnaire.
Twice as many supplement users as non-supplement users were on hormone replacement, and as we’ve known since the Women’s Health Initiative study results came out in JAMA in 2002, conventional Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) significantly increases women’s risk of heart disease, stroke, breast cancer and gallstones. Since 2002, ovarian and endometrial cancer, and asthma have been added to the list of diseases whose likelihood is increased by conventional HRT. And we have the book (literally) on the topic of HRT and BHRT that explains even more since then: Stay Young & Sexy with Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement: The Science Explained.
What was not asked in the "vitamins kill" study: Did these women have high cholesterol? Not asked. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)? Congestive heart failure? Not asked. Had they experienced a heart attack? A stroke? Did they have cancer? Asthma? Stomach ulcers? GERD? Irritable bowel syndrome? Rheumatoid arthritis? Osteoporosis? Multiple sclerosis? Depression? A stress disorder? Were they a caregiver for a parent with Alzheimer’s? Did they have Alzheimer’s? Not asked.
Aren’t you relieved to know that according to the Mursu dietary supplement study none of these conditions might increase your risk of death? Taking a multiple vitamin and mineral supplement, however – that’s risky! Are you hearing our sarcasm here?!
The, admittedly sporadic and incomplete, data collected by Mursu indicated that, compared to non-supplement users, women who took supplements were significantly (statistically) more likely to: be non-smokers; have attained a higher level of education; have a lower risk of diabetes; lower body mass index (BMI) and hip-to-waist ratio; be more physically active; consume fewer calories, more protein, less total fat and more of the healthier polyunsaturated fats, and more fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
But in Mursu's final analysis of the impact of supplements on the women’s risk of death, the researchers “adjusted” the data to remove the influence of these “potentially confounding” lifestyle factors. Again, it’s great to know that maintaining a healthy weight, being physically active, and eating a healthier diet are of no consequence and should be “adjusted” out when evaluating the impact of engaging in truly hazardous behaviors -- like taking supplemental vitamin C, vitamin E, calcium or a multivitamin.
What dosages and what forms of these vitamins were taken – again, not asked, but, again, potentially very important. For example, was vitamin E taken as mixed tocopherols or as synthetic dl-alpha tocopherol? The research consistently finds mixed tocopherols to be protective, but alpha tocopherol, by itself, is known to promote inflammation and, in particular, the synthetic form, dl-alpha tocopherol, has recently been associated with increased risk of cancer as we clarified in our press release entitled What the Recent News on Vitamin E & Prostate Cancer Doesn't Say. Were the women taking supplemental calcium also getting sufficient vitamin D (D3 is much more effective in increasing calcium absorption than D2) and vitamin K (the MK-7 form is most effective) from their diet or supplements? Both are needed to ensure that the calcium is absorbed (vitamin D) and is used to maintain strong bones instead of being deposited in arteries (vitamin K). Once again, Mursu, and thus we, have no clue about their study subjects’ nutrient status.
We could go on, but you get the drift. And, most importantly, none of us have to be clueless. A huge wealth of data exists – and is, oh-so-easy to find on reputable sites like PubMed and our own (just check our Health A to Z section on most any of these vitamins and health topics)-- confirming that the vast majority of Americans are deficient in at least one, but typically many nutrients, that the foods we consume are falling far short of meeting our optimal nutritional needs, and that a high quality multi-vitamin and mineral supplement (e.g., one that contains the right forms of vitamin E, vitamin D, and vitamin K) can help safely bridge the gap.
Mursu’s “research” may be lacking in scientific accuracy, but we owe them a big THANK YOU for this year’s best Halloween costume idea. I’m going as a Multi – BOO!
Articles of Interest from Smart Publications Health & Wellness Update
5 Comments
October 31st, 2011 at 12:17pm by Lara Pizzorno
Hey Michael—thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts—am in total agreement with you re synthetic supplements. Just edited a newsletter over the weekend summing up research on use of supplelments in cancer and every time, the synthetic version caused problems while the natural forms (in supps or ingested in the diet) was beneficial. One example is folate —it’s in many supplements as folic acid (synthetic form of folate) and at high doses, folic acid has been linked to increased risk for many cancers. Folate, on the other hand, has been found to be beneficial—period. One reason for this may be that folic acid is more potent than folate, so increases cellular DNA synthesis more, thus resulting in more chance for errors and speeding up growth in incipient tumors. Bottom line—look for supplements made with natural forms of nutrients.
October 31st, 2011 at 5:14pm by Michael Mitchell
Hi Lara, Thank you so much for commenting on my post (I have reposted on LinkedIn, FB, and Twitter). I have a Science background, but have not had the time to review this report in detail. Similar reports (notably in Reader’s Digest about a year ago) I did review, and attempted to contact both the author and RD, but never heard back from them. Little surprise, it is easy to may flamboyant, antagonistic statements with little or poor data, and have it widely reported, but more measured and thought out reports tend not to garnish much news, sigh. Thanks
M
October 31st, 2011 at 8:33pm by Lara Pizzorno
Hi Michael, so glad you are reposting your comments! Working together, and with the help of social media and interactive websites, I believe we can do much to give doctors (and their patients) a deeper look into what is being irresponsibly proclaimed in the headlines. Please keep at it!
Lara
March 3rd, 2012 at 1:46am by Lea
What your article clarifies is that perhaps the supplements industry needs a little regulation rather than expecting consumers to have to read the fine print
( and cross check on the internet - “if it contains ingredients listed as d-alpha tocopherol, d-alpha tocopheryl acetate, or d-alpha tocopheryl succinate. The one-letter prefix “d” denotes the natural form of vitamin E’s alpha tocopherol constituent.” )
every time they go to the shop.! Or maybe just stick to eating real food instead.
October 30th, 2011 at 5:05pm by Michael
Thank you so much for the balanced article on this issue. Parallels our thinking, especially with respect to the source of the vitamins / mineral supplements. Many are synthetics. Bake them at 350 for about 15 minutes. Interesting results.