Mineral pills 'may lead to bad health'
Source: Agencies |
October 8, 2011, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
PEOPLE who take dietary supplements to boost their intake of minerals may actually be getting too much of a good thing - and even risk serious health problems.
According to a US study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, people who take supplements also tend to get more nutrients from their food than those who do not take supplements - suggesting vitamins may be taken by the people who need them least.
In some cases, supplement users may be overloading on minerals, such as iron, that can cause serious health problems, researchers said.
Regan Bailey, a nutrition researcher at the National Institutes of Health, who led the study, said: "People need to choose supplements to help meet, but not exceed, the recommended daily intake levels."
Bailey and her colleagues studied the likely mineral intake of 8,860 men and women who participated in a major government health survey between 2003 and 2006.
People who reported using dietary supplements containing eight important minerals - calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, phosphorus, copper, potassium and selenium - were much less likely to be getting inadequate amounts of those minerals from the foods they ate than were people who said they took no supplements, the study found.
The link was strongest for women, who are more likely than men to take supplements.
Supplement users tended to eat better and live healthier lifestyles than non-users, Bailey noted. Her team also found that calcium intake often fell below recommended levels, even among supplement users.
Roughly a quarter of supplement users, and 71 percent of non-users, failed to consume the recommended daily amount of calcium - 800 to 1,000 milligrams a day for men over 51 and 1,000 to 1,200mg a day for women of the same age. Calcium is necessary for the healthy formation of bone.
Older people, those over 51, were much more likely to fall short of their daily calcium requirements - and also to exceed them, because some people tend to use more supplements as they age.
Too much supplemental calcium has been linked to kidney stones.
According to a US study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, people who take supplements also tend to get more nutrients from their food than those who do not take supplements - suggesting vitamins may be taken by the people who need them least.
In some cases, supplement users may be overloading on minerals, such as iron, that can cause serious health problems, researchers said.
Regan Bailey, a nutrition researcher at the National Institutes of Health, who led the study, said: "People need to choose supplements to help meet, but not exceed, the recommended daily intake levels."
Bailey and her colleagues studied the likely mineral intake of 8,860 men and women who participated in a major government health survey between 2003 and 2006.
People who reported using dietary supplements containing eight important minerals - calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, phosphorus, copper, potassium and selenium - were much less likely to be getting inadequate amounts of those minerals from the foods they ate than were people who said they took no supplements, the study found.
The link was strongest for women, who are more likely than men to take supplements.
Supplement users tended to eat better and live healthier lifestyles than non-users, Bailey noted. Her team also found that calcium intake often fell below recommended levels, even among supplement users.
Roughly a quarter of supplement users, and 71 percent of non-users, failed to consume the recommended daily amount of calcium - 800 to 1,000 milligrams a day for men over 51 and 1,000 to 1,200mg a day for women of the same age. Calcium is necessary for the healthy formation of bone.
Older people, those over 51, were much more likely to fall short of their daily calcium requirements - and also to exceed them, because some people tend to use more supplements as they age.
Too much supplemental calcium has been linked to kidney stones.
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