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The following article appeared on ABC news tonight:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/diet-suppl ... d=14706684

I found the following paragraphs especially interesting:

The study looked at more than 38,000 women age 55 and older who participated in the Iowa Women's Health Study since the mid-1980s. The researchers found that when it came to reducing the risk of death, most supplements had no effect on women's health.

In fact, women who took certain kinds of dietary supplements -- vitamin B6, folic acid, magnesium, zinc, copper, iron and multivitamins -- faced a slightly higher risk of death than women who did not. Only women who took supplemental calcium showed any reduction in their risk of death.

The study was published today in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

monitoring is definitely a key to success. unfortunately my full text access is over so i can't get into the data and assess the methodology, results, conclusions.

lyndacarol wrote:The following article appeared on ABC news tonight:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/diet-suppl ... d=14706684

I found the following paragraphs especially interesting:

The study looked at more than 38,000 women age 55 and older who participated in the Iowa Women's Health Study since the mid-1980s. The researchers found that when it came to reducing the risk of death, most supplements had no effect on women's health.

In fact, women who took certain kinds of dietary supplements -- vitamin B6, folic acid, magnesium, zinc, copper, iron and multivitamins -- faced a slightly higher risk of death than women who did not. Only women who took supplemental calcium showed any reduction in their risk of death.

The study was published today in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

I suspect there is some spectrum bias here. Ill people take supplements. Think about what we take typically compared to your average person without any health issues.

quite likely mrb. unfortunately without access we can only speculate

As per the recent study which is published in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggests that older women who take certain dietary supplements may also be at a greater risk for dying. That would certainly be a problem for older women who take dietary supplements in the hopes of preventing chronic disease and death.
I took a look at the full study (here's the abstract) that was performed by gleaning information from the Iowa Women's Health Study. This is a large study, which is good, but it's important to understand that it's an observational study, not a clinical trial. This means the researchers can only look at what's going on with the subjects search for correlations between certain behaviors and outcomes, but it's difficult to confirm any direct cause and effects.

The researchers found that the group of older women who took certain dietary supplements had an increased death rate over the group who did not take dietary supplements. I think it's important to note that the increased risk for dying in the group who took the supplements wasn't huge, but it agrees with other studies of this type. And it was interesting to note that women who took calcium and vitamin D supplements actually had a decreased risk of dying.

So what does this mean? In my opinion, I think more attention should be focused on a healthy diet: lots of fruits and vegetables, plenty of fiber, low-fat diary or other calcium sources should be at the heart of any diet. Add in some high-quality fats and proteins and keep the calorie count to keep you at a healthy weight. Should you avoid supplements completely? Well, vitamin D and calcium supplements appear to be a good idea, but you may wish to consult with your health care provider before taking any other supplements.

i agree re healthy diet first 100%, and everyone needs to be very careful about supplemental forms. lab work to monitor serum levels is also key.

(where's the abstract? any chance you could cut and paste in that or the methodology here?)

As you would all probably know, correlation does not imply causation. Maybe older women who are already ill tend to take more supplements.
Did you know that you shouldn't eat carrots, because people who eat carrots die?

agree, and i think mrb made that point above suze. how's life in wa?

We have just started harvest. Men running around acting busy. I think they are just planting their winter wheat in US.

Greetings All-

Had a great appointment with my new neurologist yesterday and the subject of vitamins came up. She said that as we age (I'm 43), we tend to lose certain nutrients. She also said that people with MS tend to be vitamin D and B-12 deficient. With that in mind, she ordered blood work to check my vitamin D and B-12 levels, as well as my liver function and thyroid. I currently take 2000 IU's of vitamin D, so it will be interesting to see what the test results say. After that, will adjust my supplement regimen as necessary. I'll keep you posted with the results.

hi froggie you might be interested in the first couple of my signature links below