Multivitamins - What You Need to Know
Mulivitamins have done very poorly in virtually all the studies. For
example, there is little evidence that it protects you from heart disease or
cancer. In fact, the latest slap in the face the multivitamin industry
received was from
a huge study of 162,000 women in the Archives of Internal
Medicne that found no correlation between taking a multivitamin and heart
disease, cancer or total mortality. [1]
So taking a multivitamin is a complete waste of money? Well, actually, it's
not quite that obvious. For example, I do take a multivitamin most days and the reason has nothing to do with heart
disease or cancer. There is one suprising area where the evidence for
multivitamins looks good - the brain.
Several studies have shown that
multivitamins can actually boost the IQ of children. [2] Furthermore, there is
a study [3] showing that many of the vitamins are associated with improved
memory and mental scores. I will let the abstract in this study speak for
itself: "Several significant associations (P < 0.05) were observed between
cognition and concurrent vitamin status, including better abstraction
performance with higher biochemical status and dietary intake of thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, and
folate and better visuospatial performance with higher plasma ascorbate.
Concurrent dietary protein in 1986 correlated significantly with memory scores,
and serum albumin or transferrin with memory, visuospatial, or abstraction
scores. Higher past intake of vitamins E, A, B-6, and B-12 was related to better
performance on visuospatial recall and/or abstraction tests. Use of
self-selected vitamin supplements was associated with better performance on a
difficult visuospatial test and an abstraction test".
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The reasons for this are many: the brain is a huge nutrient and energy hog.
It requires, among other things, lots of the B vitamins. Plus, as people age,
they often lose GI acidity and the ability to digest certain vitamins,
including the B vitamins, and minerals. A good multivitamin, therefore,
looks like a good insurance policy for you grey matter.
CAUTION: The only caution that I know regarding multivitamins is the folic
acid that is in all of them. Folic acid plays a pivotal role
in the synthesis and repair of DNA, which is why it's recommended for
pregnant women. However, it appears it can stimulate certain cancers
and there is good evidence, for example, that all the extra folate that
we have been fortifying our white breads and cereals with are leading
to increased GI cancers. I eat pretty well, so I take a multivitamin actually
3-4 times/week.
Also, many cheap multivitamins have fillers such as Calcium that actually slows
or halts the absorption of much of what is in the multivitamin! In
addition, some of the standard multivitamins are highly compressed, which is why
you could load it as a round if they put a little powder in it, and thus do not
dissolve fully. Regardless, the studies show that a multivitamin for
additional protection of your brain and neurons looks like a good idea.
1) Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(3):294-304, "Multivitamin Use and Risk of Cancer
and Cardiovascular Disease in the Women's Health Initiative Cohorts"
2)
Personality and Individual Differences, 1991, 12(4):351-362;
Personality and Individual Differences, 1991, 12(4):363-365
3)
Am J Clin Nutr, 1997 Jan;65(1):20-9
