Dee Harris, RD, LDN, CDE
As a practitioner, I was concerned about a story in the news this morning. A study was released yesterday that linked supplement use to higher death rates in older women who regularly used supplements. The study was published in the esteemed American Medical Association’s Archives of Internal Medicine. It’s no wonder many of us got calls and emails today from concerned patients and consumers.
To make a statement that supplements may be tied to premature death is enough to make everyone take pause. But pause we must to take a good look at how this study was conducted and how the data was collected. What supplements, the quality and brands were used in the study? What were the other health conditions of the participants?
In general, the study is flawed. The authors themselves admitted that there were flaws in the study. We must question any study that depends on data that was self reported by study subjects only three times during the course of the 19 year long study. No causative analysis was done regarding the cause of death or diagnosis at time of death. In this study, no analysis was done on combinations of vitamins and minerals, quality, or time supplements were consumed. Potential side effects of supplements with prescription medications were not included. Also, the study noted increased death rates were linked to 200-400 mg of iron supplementation. No nutritionist would ever recommend such a high dose! If one was given a drug in a proportional high dose (compared to recommended dose), they would surely become part of the CDC statistic for poisoning deaths caused by drugs. (In 2007- 93% of 40,059 unintentional poisoning deaths were caused by drugs).
Yes, up to 50% of adults in the U.S. regularly take mineral and /or vitamin supplements. What would happen if no one took supplementation? What about all those credible studies linking low Vitamin D levels to many diseases? Perhaps we would see an increase in many other health conditions. Besides vitamin D, there are more evidence based studies linking vitamin and minerals with improved health. I heard a professional state that we don't need supplements because we eat a lot of food in this country. Volume does not mean quality. Are we eating whole, organic, non- processed foods? Are we regularly selecting hormone free meat and dairy products? Are we eating 11 servings of vegetables and fruit a day? Are we avoiding toxins so that we aren’t stressing out our liver, endocrine and immune system? Without a clean diet and lifestyle, we do benefit by supplementation. I like this insurance policy.
We can drill down and find out what a person is deficient in before seeing all out deficiency symptoms with a micro-nutrient analysis test by Spectracell Labs. In my practice, clients complete a detailed history and diet recall. I look at labs and diagnosis. With the Spectracell test, a personalized, quality supplement plan is developed in coordination with personalized meal plans. Clients make reasonable, recommended lifestyle changes to improve health. As a result, my clients become healthier with improved quality of life. If one is still concerned about taking supplements, ask a functional RD or nutritionist. If you ask your doctor, chances are, you will get a medication instead.
