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*Important*New study on women's health and vitamin supplements - magnesium mentioned
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<blockquote data-quote="seriously" data-source="post: 468363" data-attributes="member: 11920"><p>I would suggest you consider registering for Medscape. It's free and they will not send you spam or e-mails. Medscape has an enormous scope covering virtually all health conditions and many at great depth. It has articles that are easy to read with basic information for consumers all the way to ones intended for the use of medical professionals. It's drug interaction checker is very good. I use Medscape extensively when I am researching a health condition.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, the Medscape article has more detailed information although not the level of detail that would be in the published scientific paper.</p><p></p><p>As studies go, it's strengths are that it covers a long period of time (1986 though 2008); three sample points (1986, 1997, 2004) and followed deaths for 4 years beyond the 3rd sample point; was a community-based study (Iowa Women's Health Study) with a very large sample (nearly 38,000 women with nearly 16,000 deaths). These strengths lend the results quite a bit of scientific credibility, assuming the results met a high level of significance (p =.005 or higher). This article doesn't report the level of significance but with that large a sample I would expect it to be quite high.</p><p></p><p>The limitations of the study include the fact that supplement use was self-reported (potentially reducing the real-world reliability and validity of the results); the overall health or kind/degree of health problems among those taking supplements vs. those abstaining was not reported (hard to say from this article if they tried to control for this confounding variable); to what degree the use of supplements was used to offset things like poor nutrition and stress; the reported results are not stratified by cause of death (for example, cancer vs. heart disease); one assumes that accidental deaths were excluded but this summary doesn't say.</p><p></p><p>One of the main points the authors said they were trying to assess were the long term effects of vitamin supplementation, particularly mineral supplementation, given the huge increase in rate of consumption of supplements. There are already well known risks with the use of mineral supplements and these should typically only be used under medical supervision to avoid taking toxic levels. The results would appear to support the likelihood that, for some women, use of supplements can be bad for their health when taken long term.</p><p></p><p>As an individual woman, it's hard to know what to do with these kinds of results. If you are taking mineral supplements and haven't talked with your health professionals about taking those, this article should encourage you to do that so your doctor can make sure you are not taking too much of something. Particularly copper which was associated with an astounding 18% higher risk of death.</p><p></p><p>I doubt that many physicians would tell you to stop taking multi-vitamins or other common supplements based solely on these results but it's worth a conversation with him/her at your next appointment.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="seriously, post: 468363, member: 11920"] I would suggest you consider registering for Medscape. It's free and they will not send you spam or e-mails. Medscape has an enormous scope covering virtually all health conditions and many at great depth. It has articles that are easy to read with basic information for consumers all the way to ones intended for the use of medical professionals. It's drug interaction checker is very good. I use Medscape extensively when I am researching a health condition. Anyway, the Medscape article has more detailed information although not the level of detail that would be in the published scientific paper. As studies go, it's strengths are that it covers a long period of time (1986 though 2008); three sample points (1986, 1997, 2004) and followed deaths for 4 years beyond the 3rd sample point; was a community-based study (Iowa Women's Health Study) with a very large sample (nearly 38,000 women with nearly 16,000 deaths). These strengths lend the results quite a bit of scientific credibility, assuming the results met a high level of significance (p =.005 or higher). This article doesn't report the level of significance but with that large a sample I would expect it to be quite high. The limitations of the study include the fact that supplement use was self-reported (potentially reducing the real-world reliability and validity of the results); the overall health or kind/degree of health problems among those taking supplements vs. those abstaining was not reported (hard to say from this article if they tried to control for this confounding variable); to what degree the use of supplements was used to offset things like poor nutrition and stress; the reported results are not stratified by cause of death (for example, cancer vs. heart disease); one assumes that accidental deaths were excluded but this summary doesn't say. One of the main points the authors said they were trying to assess were the long term effects of vitamin supplementation, particularly mineral supplementation, given the huge increase in rate of consumption of supplements. There are already well known risks with the use of mineral supplements and these should typically only be used under medical supervision to avoid taking toxic levels. The results would appear to support the likelihood that, for some women, use of supplements can be bad for their health when taken long term. As an individual woman, it's hard to know what to do with these kinds of results. If you are taking mineral supplements and haven't talked with your health professionals about taking those, this article should encourage you to do that so your doctor can make sure you are not taking too much of something. Particularly copper which was associated with an astounding 18% higher risk of death. I doubt that many physicians would tell you to stop taking multi-vitamins or other common supplements based solely on these results but it's worth a conversation with him/her at your next appointment. [/QUOTE]
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