It is woven into American life; pop that daily multivitamin first thing every morning. If we do nothing else, at least we're taking care of ourselves that way, right? A new study says that we may be doing more harm than good in certain situations.
A new medical study was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine that followed women who took a daily multivitamin. The study's leader, Jaakko Mursu, at the University of Minnesota, reported that over the span of 19 years women who took vitamin supplements was linked with a measurably higher risk of death.
The research followed a group of 38,000 women with an average age of 62. Each participant reported their use of vitamins and supplements over the course of 19 years. Some good news: women who took calcium had about a 10% lower chance of death compared to women who did not take calcium. Unfortunately, the other common supplements did not fare as well for the participants.

Supplemental Mortality?
Supplement | Risk of Death Compared to Non-users |
Vitamin B | 10% |
Copper | 45% |
Iron | 10% |
Magnesium | 8% |
Zinc | 8% |
The study did not identify the cause of this increased mortality rate, just the correlation. Mursu speculates that women may be taking too much of a supplement, turning a benefit into a detriment. In most cases, eating a well-balance diet is better, and safer, for you.

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