Home > RESEARCH > Foundational > Conventional multivitamins, unlike fruits and vegetables, appear to have little to no influence on the risk of common cancers, CVD and total morality.

Conventional multivitamins, unlike fruits and vegetables, appear to have little to no influence on the risk of common cancers, CVD and total morality.   A recent study appearing in the Archives of Internal Medicine, a bimonthly peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Medical Association revisited an ongoing inquiry into the efficacy of multivitamin usage in healthy individuals. An important question put forward by Neuhouser et al is “Why do millions of Americans use a daily multivitamin for chronic disease prevention when the supporting scientific data are weak?”   Neuhouser et al acknowledge that “data are consistent in stating that diets high in fruits and vegetables are associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer,” yet convincing evidence of multivitamin usage and diminished risk is lacking in the literature. The types of multivitamins assessed in this study included mixtures with approximately 10 to 30 vitamin and mineral components. In other words, such multivitamins are likely pure, isolated supplements synthetically produced in a lab, void of plants or foods as their source. Based on their classification criteria, it appears this study did not include an assessment of whole food supplements which contain not only vitamins and minerals but hundreds to thousands of phytochemicals and cofactors found in foods.   In this featured study, investigators examined associations between multivitamin use in the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) clinical trial (CT) and observational study (OS) cohorts relative to the risk of a CVD and a number of common cancers. They note a number of strengths to their investigation; the WHI is among the largest studies on postmenopausal women’s health, the WHI included multiple data on duration of supplement use, frequency and dose which were not dependent on participant’s recall but directly gathered from supplement bottles. The number of participants included 161,808 (68,132 from clinical trials and 93,676 from observational study) and detailed data was collected at baseline and again in a mean follow up of 7.9 or 8.0 years, respectively.   Based on their analysis of associations of multivitamin use with cancer risk (colorectal, breast, endometrial, lung, stomach, bladder, kidney and ovarian) and CVD risk (myocardial infarction, stroke and venous thromboembolism) Neuhouser et al report that the WHI study provided “convincing evidence that multivitamin use has little or no influence on the risk of common cancers, CVD or total mortality in post menopausal women.” Researchers concluded by acknowledging that “nutritional efforts should remain a principal focus of chronic disease prevention, but without definitive results from a randomized controlled trial, multivitamin supplements will not likely play a major role in such prevention efforts.”   Study: Neuhouser, M. L., et al Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(3):294-304

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