Vitamin pills not good for health

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People On Dietary Supplements Have Higher Death Rates, Says Study

Women taking multivitamins don't live longer than those who get their nutrients from food alone, according to a US study that found they in fact appear to have slightly higher death rates. 
    About half of adult US residents take dietary supplements, and the industry now boasts of annual sales as high as $20 billion. Yet research suggests that some of the largely unregulated substances, such as vitamins A and E, could be harmful in high doses. "There is very little evidence showing that common dietary supplements would be beneficial in prevention of major diseases," said Jaakko Mursu of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. "Unless you are deficient, there is no reason to take them," he said. 
    Mursu and his colleagues used data from nearly 39,000 older women who participated in the Iowa Women's Health Study and filled out questionnaires starting in 1986. The survey asked about use of multivitamins, vitamins A, C, D and E as well as beta-carotene, B vitamins and minerals such as calcium, copper, magnesium, selenium and zinc. 
    During the study, supplements became increasingly popular. Between 1986 and 2004, the proportion of women who said they took one or more jumped from 63% to 85%. Only calcium supplements were linked to a lower risk of death over 19 years of follow-up. That link held up even after considering that women taking supplements had a healthier lifestyle than the rest. By contrast, women taking other supplements did not live longer. REUTERS

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Young & active? Vitamin shortage may still hit heart

Mumbai: With his unkempt mop of hair and lanky frame, Airoli resident Pravin Joshi seemed out of place in a cardiac intensive care unit. Barely 29 and recently married, the software professional was rushed to Hiranandani Hospital at Powai on a Sunday morning for an immediate angioplasty. Cardiologist Ganesh Kumar had barely placed a stent in Joshi's artery when another heart attack victim was wheeled in. This time, it was a 31-year-old call centre employee, 

Sunil Misra. 
    Neither Joshi nor Misra have had any of the usual risk factors connected to heart diseases: diabetes, hypertension and high levels of cholesterol (fat). But Dr Kumar found through various tests that both lacked certain proteins. "They had elevated levels of Lipoprotein (a) or Lp(a),'' said the doctor, who then asked long-time patients to test their Lp(a) levels. 
    Now, doctors in Mumbai are using diagnostic tests more effectively to explore hitherto ignored reasons for heartailments. Not only do the tests help in identifying crucial indicators of heart attacks, but could perhaps assist in finding out who could be prone to them. Dr A B Mehta, director of cardiology at Jaslok Hospital, said, "Doctors are certainly using more blood tests to establish the major or minor reasons for heart problems." 
    The drill is simple: If a patient has high homocysteine levels, he or she has a relatively minor risk of suffering from a heart disease. "If the LDL (bad cholesterol) is high and HDL (good cholesterol) is low, we know the patient has a high risk," said Dr Mehta. Doctors are also closely studyingLp(a)—a type of protein that is usually higher in patients with coronary artery disease. 
    The sudden interest in Lp (a) is due to the fact that these cardiac caregivers can, for the first time, offer a treatment of sorts—a new, upgraded version of Vitamin B3. 
    Vitamin B3, called niacin, is not a newcomer in the pharma shelves, but has been sparingly prescribed because of its side-effects. "Patients would experience flushing (an increase in blood flow),'' said Dr Mehta. But a couple of months ago, a multinational company introduced a version of niacin that doesn't lead to flushing.

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Want a memory booster? Try vitamins and minerals

IN THE PINK OF HEALTH

New York: Adults who took vitamin and mineral supplements for almost a decade performed better on one type of memory test than those who didn't take the supplements, according to a new study from France. 

    The researchers say the findings suggest that getting enough nutrients could aid thinking and memory skills as people get older. Geraldine McNeill, a nutritionist at the University of Aberdeen in the UK, said some people – especially those deficient in vitamins and minerals – might get a memory benefit from boosting the nutrients in their diet. 
    Emmanuelle Kesse-Guyot of the University of Paris XIII in France and colleagues write that the link between a higher intake of some nutrients and thinking and memory skills has been shown before in so-called observational studies. But those studies can't get at a cause-and-effect relationship. 
    "The question is, does the cognitive performance depend on the diet, or does the diet depend on the cognitive performance?" McNeill said. It's possible that people who have better thinking and memory skills might pay closer attention to what they're eating, she explained. 
    To try to get a clearer picture of the association, Kesse-Guyot and her colleagues conducted a study of close to 4,500 French men and women. In 1994, when the study participants were between 45-60 years, researchers split them randomly into two groups. Half of them took a daily supplement that included vitamins C and E, selenium, zinc, and beta-carotene for eight years. The others took a nutrient-free placebo pill each day. None knew whether they were taking the vitamin or the sham pills. 
    After eight years, researchers stopped giving participants their assigned pills, and they could choose on their own whether or not to take vitamin supplements. Six years after that, the investigators brought them back to the lab for a round of memory tests. The tests included word and number problems to measure different types of memory and "mental flexibility." 
    While the supplement and placebo groups performed similarly on most tests, the nutrient-boosted participants beat their peers on one test of long-term memory in which participants had to recall words in different categories. The "findings support a beneficial effect of a well-balanced intake of antioxidant nutrients at nutritional doses for maintaining cognitive performance, especially verbal memory." REUTERS

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