Multivitamins reduce risk of heart attack by 27 percent

Added 24.01.2011

Could taking a multivitamin supplement save your life?

This may sound like a strong statement; but according to new research from Sweden, if you take multivitamins you have a significantly lower risk of suffering a heart attack - a 27% lowered risk in fact.

Take your vitamins and minerals for more than 5 years...

The key to achieving maximum heart protection is long-term use, say researchers. It was discovered in the study that people who took multivitamins for at least five years were better protected than those who took the supplements for less than five years.

Which vitamins are good for your heart?

Vitamin C, E and the B group are known to support heart health because of their antioxidant activity. Vitamin D is also another vitamin not to be underestimated as more and more evidence shows it plays a vital role in maintaining a healthy heart.

Equally as important are minerals. Magnesium, selenium and calcium are all key nutrients to protect your heart.

Doctor's Natural Extra Strength Vitamins and Minerals

Help keep your heart strong and healthy with Doctor's Natural Vitamins and Minerals! They contain ideal dosages of all the essential vitamins and minerals you need.

In Doctor's Natural "multivitamins" we have separated vitamins from minerals for even better absorption and effect into Doctor's Natural Extra Strength Vitamins and Doctor's Natural Minerals.

References:

Dr. Bo Nielsen's comments:

This new scientific study followed 33,933 Swedes between 49 and 83 years of age over a 10 year period. Of these people 31,671 had no previous history of heart disease (cardiovascular disease) and 2,262 had a history of heart disease. This group with no previous history of heart disease that took daily multivitamins for more than 5 years had a 27% lower risk of suffering a heart attack compared to those who did not take multivitamins. However, the participants who already had a history of heart attacks did not prevent new heart attacks by taking the multivitamins monitored in this study (low dose vitamins and minerals).

The most logical reason for the lack of effect of these low dose multivitamins in people already suffering from heart disease is to me rather evident. If you suffer from a disease, you need higher dosages of bioavailable, natural suppelements compared with what you need to prevent disease. In this study they evaluated the effect of low dose (cheap) multivitamins and not the effect of scientifically documented higher dosages that are necessary to treat existing disease. As medical doctors, our experience with pharmaceutical drugs is exactly the same: if we want to prevent a disease, we normally use lower dosages. If we want to treat an existing disease we most often need to use higher dosages to achieve effect. Exactly the same is our experience with supplements: lower dosages when you want to prevent a disease and higher dosages are necessary if you want to treat existing disease.

Another aspect of this study that also may explain the lack of effect in the group that had a history of heart disease is that the researchers did not look at the difference between the effect of natural and synthetic forms of vitamins. It is well known that natural forms of vitamins are much more effective and better absorbed than synthetic forms. It is also well known that most multivitamin manufacturers use synthetic vitamins in their products because they are cheaper and may give the manufacturer a higher profit margin - and most customers may not know the difference. A simple example of this phenomenon is synthetic vitamin E (label text: dl-alpha-tocopherol acetate) which has only 30 to 40% of the effect as the natural form of vitamin E (label text: d-alpha-tocopherol acetate). As you can see these two forms look almost identical on the label (the only difference being the "l") - but the difference in effect is huge.