Can Taking Vitamins Save Your Life? New Data Says Yes to Several Ones

Are vitamins and supplements just a waste making expensive urine? Or, at least in some individuals, can they promote health and even save lives? A new large study says you should consider certain supplements to boost your health and lower your disease risk. 

STUDY

The researchers analyzed a total of 884 randomized controlled intervention trials evaluating 27 types of micronutrients among 883,627 participants (4,895,544 person-years).

Supplementation with n-3 fatty acid, n-6 fatty acid, l-arginine, l-citrulline, folic acid, vitamin D, magnesium, zinc, α-lipoic acid, coenzyme Q10, melatonin, catechin, curcumin, flavanol, genistein, and quercetin showed moderate- to high-quality evidence for reducing CVD risk factors.

Specifically, Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation decreased heart deaths, myocardial infarction (heart attacks), and coronary heart disease events like bypass and stents.

Folic acid supplementation decreased stroke risk and coenzyme Q10 supplementation decreased all-cause mortality events.

Vitamin C, vitamin D vitamin E, and selenium showed no effect on CVD or type 2 diabetes risk.

Only those taking β-carotene supplementation increased all-cause mortality, CVD mortality events, and stroke risk.

Conclusions

Supplementation of some but not all micronutrients may benefit heart health. It is not all just making expensive urine! I have long used B-complex vitamins including folate, CoQ10, and Omega-3 fatty acids in my clinic patients and am happy I did!