Daily Multivitamins May Raise Risk of Early Death

Think those multivitamins you pop daily will stave off disease and extend your life span? Scientists now say not only does that not seem to be the case, but that taking multivitamins on the regular could actually up the risk of a premature demise. Per Medical Daily, 1 in 3 US adults take daily multivitamins to supplement their diet, hoping that doing so will send them into a ripe old age. In a new study published Thursday in JAMA Network, researchers from Maryland's National Cancer Institute decided to test that theory, tracking nearly 400,000 more or less healthy US adults who took part in three major studies over 20 years, looking specifically at their multivitamin use and how it affected longevity, per the Guardian.

The researchers found that those who consumed daily multivitamins didn't exhibit a lower risk of death overall than those who remained vitamin-less, and they also didn't show decreased mortality risk from cancer, heart disease, or cerebrovascular disease, per a release. In fact, those who took multivitamins each day showed a slight (4%) uptick in mortality risk overall in the first years of the follow-up period compared with those who didn't take the multivitamins, per Medical Daily. It's not completely clear why that risk might jump for vitamin takers, though one suggestion researchers offer is that people who are older or already not in the best of health might be more prone to start taking multivitamins in the first place, skewing the results.

A commentary published alongside the study talks up some of the benefits of certain supplements, such as vitamin C's ability to ease scurvy, while zinc and vitamins C and E seem to slow down age-related macular degeneration. But researchers also note the harm that some multivitamins have the potential to cause, such as iron overload, which can raise the risk of dementia, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. In short, the researchers don't see a big benefit to being a daily multivitamin consumer. "Micronutrients come most healthfully from food sources," they note, per Medical Daily. "When supplementation is required, it can often be limited to the micronutrients in question." (More discoveries stories.)