Multivitamins May Not Reduce Heart Complications

A new study presented at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session suggests that multivitamins may not reduce heart complications.

The study participants were 1708 individuals who previously had a heart attack. About one third of participants had diabetes, and more than half of participants had high blood pressure and heart surgery in the past. The vast majority were taking aspirin in addition to blood pressure and cholesterol lowering medication.

Participants were given either a placebo pill or a high dose multivitamin and mineral supplement. These two groups were each split in half again to receive either chelation therapy or a placebo chelation therapy. Participants received 40 chelation therapy treatments over a year and a half.

Chelation refers to the use of any chemical in the blood to remove specific contaminants or toxins. There is theoretical rationale for chelation with cardiovascular disease, namely by the removal of calcium from the heart tissues and plaque. However, there is currently insufficient data to support this use.

After four years into the study, researchers found that the multivitamin and mineral supplement did not reduce heart attack, stroke, blocked arteries, or death from heart complications. However, the individuals receiving both the multivitamin and chelation therapy had a significantly lower percentage of the aforementioned heart complications than the individuals receiving a placebo pill and placebo chelation therapy.

Further research on this topic is warranted.

For more information about multivitamins, please visit Natural Standard's Foods, Herbs & Supplements Database.

For more information about chelation therapy, please visit Natural Standard's Health & Wellness Database.

Comments

[ML]

I think that there needs to be more information before conclusions can be made. Both study groups took aspirin, BP lowering agents and cholesterol lowering agents. But, how compliant were the patients to the medication therapy? This can be a big factor in the results of this study. I also wonder if there was standardization in the multivitamins. So, I would like to see results from other studies to find out if the same results are seen.

[NBF]

I agree with Zach's comment about Chelation therapy being a buzzkill and sticking to other options to reduce heart complications. Forty three-hour sessions over 18 months sounds way too time consuming and complicated. I have a hard time making it to my PCP once a year!

[bz]

I agree with bp, it seems like it would be difficult to tell if one is actually deficient in many of the vitamins available in a multivitamin. Tests are not done frequently for vitamin or mineral levels, with the exception of iron and vitamin D. I wonder of the base level of vitamins in the patients studied had an impact on the results of the trial.

[deb]

I was wondering about the same thing: why they choose chelation and multivitamins, not standardized therapies, for the study.

Now I am thinking maybe because standardized therapies have shown reduction on heart complications? According to the way they set up the study, standardized therapies can mask efficacy of multivitamins.

[bp]

Multivitamins seem to be getting more and more controversial lately, since we're hearing about more trials where supplementation doesn't seem to help unless the patient is actually vitamin deficient. However, how many people actually know if they are deficient? Not many, at least beyond vitamin D! And from my experience, most physicians are more likely to just tell someone to take a multivitamin that do a lot of tests for specific deficiencies (I'm not trying to offend any physicians out there - this is just my experience!). With a family history of high cholesterol and heart disease, I had trouble even getting a physician to check my cholesterol, just because "you aren't 40 yet" (and the recommendation is to start at age 20 . . .), let alone try to get them to check trace elements!

[bp]

I'd never heard about chelation therapy for heard disease either! I wonder what sort of response the chelation therapy by itself (+ placebo) had. I haven't been able to locate the trial yet, so I wonder if it wasn't as effective as with the multivitamins. Or why would the multivitamins make the chelation therapy more successful? Still, that's a lot of time to spend for the therapy - and a lot of access needed. Sounds like a recipe for possible infections, as well as a pain.

[BV]

This study is interesting, however I am sure diet is a major confounding variable in a study like this (i.e. if patients receiving the high dose multivitamin were eating foods high in saturated fats and salts daily). I agree that further research is necessary on this topic. I am a big proponent of getting the vitamins and minerals needed from a daily diet rather than in the form of a pill. I think it is a common misconception today that one can skip out on nutritious foods as long as one takes a daily multivitamin. I agree with the comment posted by Zach, that the Mediterranean diet seems to be more promising as of right now in terms of providing benefit to heart health.

[kj]

In the case of multivitamin use, it is important to relay to the patient that most of the vitamins do not get absorbed and are excreted in the urine. And isn’t there a contradiction here? Using a multivitamin with calcium and then a chelation agent to remove excess calcium. I think it is better to encourage a vitamin-rich diet with fruits and vegetables for most patients and those with certain deficiencies be supplemented as needed.

[SS]

I think this is an interesting topic, who would have thought chelation therapy could be used for heart disease, but more research needs to be done. There seems to be a lot of holes in the article and I have a lot of questions about specifics after reading the summary. As mentioned I didn't see a link for the article but I would be very interested in looking at it more closely.

[pc]

I am surprised that this study did not standardize aspirin therapy or blood pressure medication for this study. By saying "the vast majority" were using aspirin or antihypertensives, it makes me wonder how many patients in each group were not using these standard treatments. I did not see a link to the study in this article to verify the treatments patients were using myself. I feel this could potentially create a significant amount of imbalance between the study groups.

[Zach]

Chelation therapy sounds promising until you read the fine print: Chelation therapy consisted of 40 three-hour sessions with the IV infusion spread over 18 months.

So you have to get 120 hours of IV therapy over a year and a half...or 1.5 hours per week. Major buzzkill. I think I'll stick with the Mediterranean Diet for hearth health plan that was mentioned two weeks ago. :)

[er]

I have heard about chelation therapy in metal toxicity and kidney dysfunction, but its use in heart disease is new to me! This is very intriguing. I'm curious whether multivitamin administration and chelation therapy were separated by at least two hours to prevent interactions.