Study finds no evidence supplements prevent heart disease

If you are taking vitamin and mineral supplements for the hopes of preventing heart disease, you are most likely wasting your time and money.  The best bet is to go about it the old fashioned way – make dietary changes of choosing more unprocessed foods such as fruits, vegetables, and nuts to obtain your nutrients.

This news is from a recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, which found that although supplements are a popular choice, in most cases, there is no evidence they protect against heart disease. However, a clinical trial in China found that folic acid supplements helped curb the risk of stroke. 

What the study found

An international team of scientists involved in this large-scale, meta-analysis study evaluated 179 clinical trials, published between 2012 and 2017. These trials looked at if and how vitamin and mineral supplements actually reduced the risk of heart disease, stroke, and all deaths, regardless of the cause.  What was discovered was the four most commonly used supplements – multivitamins, vitamin D, calcium, and vitamin C – had no statistically significant benefits in reducing the risk of any of the diseases studied. 

The researchers stated that people, who are using these supplements in the hopes of preventing cardiovascular disease, heart attack, stroke, and premature death, were likely receiving little to no health benefits or advantages from using them. 

But, there is evidence that folic acid supplements might help lower stroke risk.  This finding came from a 2015 trial in China which found folic acid supplements reduced stroke risk among middle-aged and older adults by about 20 percent.  However, the study was conducted in an area of the world where folic acid supplementation is not used in the food supply like it is in the U.S. Therefore, if people are already getting folic acid in adequate amounts in their diet, any additional supplements may not help. 

Takeaway from the study

This study correlates with findings from many previous studies showing the use of supplements is not the key to good health.  It only results in very expensive urine as the body will only use what it needs from a supplement and whatever is left over, your body will get rid of through your urine. 

Common sense points to the fact that eating a healthy diet rich in plant-based foods is the best way to get in nutrients our bodies require for good health.  Supplements continue to be very popular as there is lots of money to be made selling them to gullible people.  However, supplements are inferior to food as they do not contain the thousands of important components available in foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, beans, olive oil, and fish.

What is recommended by the U.S. Dietary Guidelines are three dietary patterns that do appear to have a strong influence on protecting cardiovascular disease.  These three diet patterns include the traditional Mediterranean diet; a vegetarian diet; and the so-called “healthy American” diet, which is low in red meat and emphasizes fruits and vegetables.

Overall, most research looking to find hope that using dietary supplements can prevent disease has been disappointing.  It is known that when people eat certain foods or certain nutrients, they tend to have a lower risk of certain disease.  But when studies are conducted to test if supplement use has the same effect, they usually show little to no benefit. 

The main message once again points to the fact, eating whole, nutrient-dense foods is always the better and wiser choice in hopes of preventing chronic diseases.