A mammoth new medical study has cast more doubt on the effectiveness of multivitamins.  The research, conducted by Women’s Health Initiative, followed 161,808 women between the ages of 50 and 79 of which 41.5% used multivitamins.  Results showed no significant reduction in the occurrence of cardiovascular disease, cancers, stroke or other causes of early death between women who used multivitamins and those who did not.

Particularly given the enormous sample size involved in this study, its findings are difficult to dispute.  While it’s nice to think that taking one chunky pill will provide all the vitamins missing from an otherwise unbalanced diet, it turns out that in reality a simple shortcut is not so easy to come by.  One possible reason for this is that it is very difficult for the body to break down vitamin pills in solid form.  It would be interesting to see how liquid vitamin supplements stack up in a similar type of study.You can takepart in constructing a healthy diet for yourself, without the need for multivitamins, by checking out the Organic Consumers Association.

LINKS:

The Guardian: Multivitamins don’t help women live longer…

CNN: Study: multivitamins don’t lower older women’s cancer risk

AP: Huge study boosts disappointment on multivitamins