| New Study Shows Benefit of Multi-vitamins Researchers at Tufts University in Boston say taking a daily multivitamin is a good idea. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, researchers found healthy men and women who took one multivitamin a day experienced a rise in blood levels of several vitamins and minerals -- an increase high enough to reduce the risk of some long-term problems like heart disease and osteoporosis. The study appears in the October 2000 issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. Researchers chose 80 adults over age 50 -- the average age was 67 -- for the study because older people often have trouble with their diets. They may lose their appetites because they live alone or are sedentary, or they can have problems caused by medications. According to Dr. Bloomberg, although levels of some vitamins and minerals improved in those who took multivitamins, levels of some antioxidants did not increase, probably because the study lasted only eight weeks or because of how the antioxidants were measured. "It is possible that longer-term supplementation or higher doses might have improved these tests as well," Blumberg says. |
 |