Vitamins do not prevent heart disease

Multivitamins aren’t a cure for preventing cardiovascular diseases, says McMaster cardiology professor Eva Lonn.

In a recent editorial published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Lonn states that multiple trials clearly confirm that cardiovascular disease cannot be prevented or treated with vitamins.

She also says people with heart disease risk factors or a history of cardiovascular disease lead sedentary lifestyles, eat processed or fast foods, smoke and refuse to take prescribed medications. They do, however, regularly take vitamins and dietary supplements in the hopes of preventing a future heart attack or stroke.

“They think multivitamins are the simple answer, when they are not,” says Lonn.

Her editorial, runs in JAMA, along with the Physicians Health Study (PHS) II study involving more than 14,500 middle-aged male physicians. The men were followed up for about 11 years, and it was found that there wasn’t a significant cardiovascular benefit for those taking a daily multivitamin.

Although, some previous observational studies have reported that people who took vitamins including a multivitamin were less likely to sustain heart attacks, strokes or other cardiovascular events, Lonn said, it is because people who are already health conscious are taking these vitamins, and are therefore already engaging in other healthy behaviours.

Data from the PHS II trial does not support the use of multivitamins in cardiovascular disease prevention, she said.