Recently, a study was published in the [i]American Journal of Clinical Nutrition[/i] [1] on the use of multivitamins and risk of myocardial infarction. The study included 31,671 women from Sweden with no history of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and 2262 women with a history of CVD, aged 49–83 years. Women completed a self-administered questionnaire in 1997 regarding dietary supplement use, diet, and lifestyle factors. Multivitamins were estimated to contain nutrients close to the recommended daily allowances: vitamin A (0.9 mg), vitamin C (60 mg), vitamin D (5 l g), vitamin E (9 mg), thiamine (1.2 mg), riboflavin (1.4 mg), vitamin B6 (1.8 mg), vitamin B12 (3 l g), and folic acid (400 μg).
During an average of 10.2 years of follow-up, 932 cases of myocardial infarction were identified in the CVD-free group and 269 cases in the CVD group. In the CVD-free group, use of multivitamins only, compared with no use of supplements, was associated with a multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 0.73 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.57–0.93). The HR for multivitamin use together with other supplements was 0.70 (95% CI 0.57–0.87). The HR for use of supplements other than multivitamins was 0.93 (95% CI 0.81–1.08). The use of multivitamins for ≥ 5 years was associated with a HR of 0.59 (95% CI 0.44–0.80). In the CVD group, use of multivitamins alone or together with other supplements was not associated with myocardial infarction. The authors concluded that the use of multivitamins was inversely associated with myocardial infarction, especially long-term use among women with no CVD.
Author(s)
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Jyothi Unni
Jehangir Hospital, Pune, India
Citations
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Rautiainen S, Akesson A, Levitan EB, et al. Multivitamin use and the risk of myocardial infarction: a population-based cohort of Swedish women. Am J Clin Nutr 2010;92:1251-6.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20861174 -
Galan P, Kesse-Guyot E, Czernichow S, et al. Effects of B vitamins and omega 3 fatty acids on cardiovascular diseases: a randomised placebo controlled trial. BMJ 2010;341:c6273.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21115589 -
Neuhouser ML, Wassertheil-Smoller S, Thomson C, et al. Multivitamin use and risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease in the Womens Health Initiative cohorts. Arch Intern Med 2009;169:294-304.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19204221
