The Case For Using Dietary Supplements Just Got Stronger

December 8, 2007 by GiGi

Welcome back!

More news from our friends at VRP (Vitamin Research Products) : Apparently a new study has been released that shows people that take multiple dietary supplements (not just a multivitamin) have better biomarkers of health.

What the heck is a Biomarker?

From the Dictionary: A specific physical trait used to measure or indicate the effects or progress of a disease or condition. For example, individuals were found to have lower levels of triglycerides and higher levels of HDL cholesterol (the good kind).

Who Participated in the Study?

Both men and women. 278 long-term users of multiple dietary supplements, 176 users of a multivitamin/mineral supplements and 602 non-users of supplements were used to perform this study. In the multiple supplement group, they each took a multivitamin, B complex, vitamin C, carotenoids, vitamin E, calcium with vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, flavoniods, lecithin alfalfa, coenzyme Q10 with resveratrol, glucosamine, and an herbal immune supplement.

Most of the women in this group also took gamma, linolenic acid and a probiotic supplement. Most of the men took zinc, garlic, saw palmetto, and a soy protein supplement.

After adjusting a few things, researchers still found that the group who took multiple nutritional supplements had better biomarkers of health than the other two groups. There were more healthy outcomes for the first group. They reportedly also had “good or excellent” health status – 74% more often than the non-supplement group.

Researchers also noted that the non-user group and the multivitamin users had numerous nutritional deficiencies. These included low vitamin C levels.

The researchers agree that the findings should be confirmed by studying supplement usage patterns, heath, and nutritional statuses of various people.

Hey, I've been saying it all along (The Case For Nutritional Supplements). It's good to see more studies done in that area.

GiGi