October 5, 2010 – Taking a multivitamin supplement could, in the long term, reduce your risk of having a myocardial infarction (heart attack) by 40%. This is what the results of a study indicate1 Swedish study conducted among around 34,000 women aged 49 and over, followed over ten years.
According to the results, healthy women who took multivitamins decreased their risk of having a heart attack by 27%, compared to those who did not.
The authors point out that the magnitude of the protective effect was associated with the duration of multivitamin treatment: women who took it for less than 5 years had a risk reduction of around 18%, while this proportion rose to 40% among those who had taken it for 10 years.
However, there was no noticeable effect of multivitamins seen in women who had previously had cardiovascular problems before the start of the study. Multivitamins may therefore only have a protective effect on the heart in healthy people.
The multivitamin supplements contained vitamins A, B6, B12, C, D and E, thiamine, riboflavin and folic acid, in dosages providing the daily nutrient allowance generally recommended by medical authorities.
Pierre Lefrançois – PasseportSanté.net
1. Rautiainen S, Akesson A, et al. Multivitamin use and the risk of myocardial infarction: a population-based cohort of Swedish women. Am J Clin Nutr. 2010 Sep 22.
