Newsflash: the largest study ever performed on the efficacy of multivitamin use in older women showed a dismal failure rate when it comes to preventing common cancers or heart disease. The results echo recent disappointing vitamin studies in men.
The study, which appeared in the February 9th, 2009 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, was conducted over eight years involving 161,808 postmenopausal women. The study focused on the effects of vitamin supplements on cancer and heart disease in particular because evidence that diets full of vitamin-rich foods may protect against those illnesses. The results of the study showed that vitamin use did nothing to prevent them.
The study's lead author, Marian Neuhouser of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, urges people to "Get nutrients from food. Whole foods are better than dietary supplements."
A synthetic vitamin supplement can never have the same preventative effects as the foods which contain those vitamins for one simple reason. The vitamins and minerals in real foods need the co-factors also contained in the foods--enzymes and phytonutrients--to activate, metabolize, transport, and bind them to the places in the body where they are needed. Taking a synthetic vitamin without all the necessary co-factors is like having two pieces of wood, but no spark to start the fire. The co-factors are the sparks that allow vitamins and minerals to be active and do their jobs.
Other studies have been done on whole food vitamin supplements, which are dehydrated real foods containing all of the necessary co-factors. Results from those studies show that, in addition to a healthful diet, taking whole food vitamins can ensure disease prevention, just as the foods themselves do. The final word on this topic is that there is no vitamin pill or supplement that can make up for a poor diet.
Read more on this topic below in my previous post called Are Your Vitamins Working?
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