Supplements Now Not Good??

@Nicholas Eveleigh, Getty Images

A new study suggests that multivitamins and some other supplements actually increase the odds of mortality.

Lead author Jaakko Mursu, Ph.D., a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Eastern Finland collected data on almost 39,000 women with an average age of 62 over 19 years. They found that women who took multivitamins, vitamin B6, folic acid, magnesium, zinc, copper and especially iron died at higher rates during the course of the study than those who did not take supplements. 

Calcium was the only supplement shown to reduce the risk of death.

Duffy MacKay, vice president for scientific and regulatory affairs at the Council for Responsible Nutrition, countered by telling Health Day News the “researchers started out with the intention of identifying harm. I caution against making overstated assumptions and conclusions from this data.”

Check with your physician. A few years back we had our metabolism checked out and went on a heavy course of supplements. Lost a ton of weight and felt great. But I don't have any idea of the long-term effects. Main stream providers have not always been big fans of supplements so your doctor may already have a bias.