Head to the pharmacy or any grocery store and you’ll find shelves lined with multivitamins promising to make you healthier. Some claim to boost your energy levels or are geared specifically towards either men or women, but most of them at least hint that they’ll make your heart healthier. A new analysis of multivitamin studies from around the globe is pointing in an entirely different direction.
This latest round of research is actually a combination of 18 different studies that have gauged the effects of multivitamins in the human body. The team who conducted the study closely examined the results of those prior studies in an attempt to paint a clear overall picture, and it’s not looking great for those who hope a multivitamin will keep their kicker in working order.
Put simply, the analysis of all the combined date shows that multivitamins do basically nothing for your heart. Despite the bold claims made by some brands to target key factors in heart health, the end result is essentially nil.
“We meticulously evaluated the body of scientific evidence,” lead author Joonseok Kim, M.D.of the University of Alabama at Birmingham explained in a statement. “We found no clinical benefit of multivitamin and mineral use to prevent heart attacks, strokes or cardiovascular death.”
The various studies included in the analysis looked at factors like the rates of death from cardiovascular diseases or events such as heart attack and stroke, comparing the data between those who take vitamins and those who don’t. Unfortunately, the statistics don’t show any clear benefit to taking multivitamins, suggesting that taking them as part of your daily routine is little more than a waste of money.
“It has been exceptionally difficult to convince people, including nutritional researchers, to acknowledge that multivitamin and mineral supplements don’t prevent cardiovascular diseases,” Kim notes. “I hope our study findings help decrease the hype around multivitamin and mineral supplements and encourage people to use proven methods to reduce their risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as eating more fruits and vegetables, exercising and avoiding tobacco.”
