Do I need to take Supplements?

New Report on Multivitamin Use

A panel of 13 experts met in Bethesda, Maryland, to assess the evidence available on multivitamin / mineral use and outcomes for disease prevention. They focused on review of randomized controlled trials (RCT). RCTs are often considered the gold standard for evidence-based public policy formulation. Convened by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the panel released a draft statement on May 17, 2006.

Dietary supplements: Insufficient Evidence

Despite the widespread use of multivitamins, the panel found insufficient evidence to support a recommendation either for or against the use of multivitamins to prevent chronic diseases among healthy adults. However, the experts found evidence of use for specific single vitamin and/or mineral supplements and their combinations. Their findings are as follows:

• Beta-Carotene should be avoided by smokers due to an increased risk for lung cancer
  
  
• Calcium and Vitamin D benefit bone mineral density and prevent fracture risk in post-menopausal women
  More: Calcium Nutrition and Vitamin D and Osteoporosis
  
  
• Selenium may cut risk of prostate, lung and colorectal cancers
  More: Selenium and Prostate Cancer
  
  
• Vitamin E may decrease deaths from heart disease in women; it may also lower the risk for prostate cancer in male smokers
  More: Vitamin E and Heart Disease
  
  
• Antioxidants and Zinc: an antioxidant combination of vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene and zinc may benefit intermediate age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a type of eye disease