Vitamin and Mineral Supplements: Do We Really Need Them?

In the united states, 40 – 50% of the men and women 50 yearsof age or older regularly use multivitamin/mineral (mvm)supplements, making the annual sales of these supplements over$11 billion. however, the question remains whether using mvmsupplements is beneficial to health. this article reviews the resultsof randomized studies of mvm supplements and individualvitamins/mineral supplements in relation to overall mortality andincidence of chronic diseases, particularly cancer and ischemicheart disease. the results of large-scale randomized trials showthat, for the majority of the population, there is no overall benefitfrom taking mvm supplements. indeed, some studies have shownincreased risk of cancers in relation to using certain vitamins.