Multivitamins Increase Your Chance of Death?

Have you guys heard about the buzz regarding multivitamins linked to increased death rates? This month in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers found a slightly increased death rate in individuals who consume multivitamins on a regular basis over a 19 year period. The study gets respect interms of the amount of patinets studied (about 40 thousand women), and the extended follow up period, but needs some serious perspective in stating its results:

-This sudy merely shows and association. It does not prove cause and effect… meaning it doesn’t show that the multivitamins increase your risk.

-It does not address nutritional needs of post surgical weight loss patients. It is clearly shown that bariatric patients need some type of nutritional supplement to prevent vitamin defficiencies.

-It fails to discuss the real issue of overall decreased nutrition of Americsns. Our generation eats greater amounts of simple sugars, modified fats, and highly processed foods with decreased nutritional content. A multivitamin can help offset this poor diet, and it’s certainly better than nothing…. but the real message should be centered on educating and supporting a society towards good nutritional food consumption.