Long-term users of dietary supplements have better health - 04.02.2008
Long-term users of dietary supplements have better health
People who take multiple dietary supplements have far better health than those who only take a single multivitamin or no supplements at all. In an extensive study published in the Nutrition Journal, researchers from Berkeley University sent questionnaires to 1200 persons who had been regular users of dietary supplements over the past 20 years. 278 respondents were randomly selected for further blood tests and blood pressure measurements.
The collected data from the tests and questionnaires were the compared to similar data from 176 people who took a daily multivitamin pill and 602 people who did not take any supplements. The three groups were adjusted in advance for income, education, BMI and gender. The study showed that the group of multiple supplement users had significantly lower bio-markers associated with disease risk such as cholesterol, homocysteine, triglycerides and blood pressure and, subsequently, lower risk for diabetes, stroke and other cardiac diseases.
Also, the multi-supplement group had optimal concentrations of different nutrients and had a better self-evaluated health status compared to the two other groups.
(Source: Block et al., Nutrition Journal 2007)