People who take a multivitamin and vitamin E nearly every day for 10 years seem to have a slightly lower risk of death from heart disease, according to a new study from Seattle, Washington.
In this study, researchers tracked the multivitamin and supplement use of 77,719 men and women between 50 and 76 years old. Rate and cause of death were also tracked for over one decade.
Overall, 67 percent of the study participants reported multivitamin usage.
Among those who did not use vitamins, there were 350 deaths from heart disease, while there were 519 deaths among those who used vitamins between a few days and seven days per week.
Those who take antioxidant vitamins E and C supplements may also have a lower risk of death overall in a five-year period.
Specifically, those who took more than 322 milligrams of vitamin C each day had a lower risk of death from cancer while adults who took more than 215 milligrams of vitamin E per day had slightly decreased total and heart-related risk of death.
Vitamins E and C are antioxidants that are thought to protect against damage the body's cells, but scientists have "no clear evidence" that their use staves off death.
While the findings of the current study back earlier studies, many of the decreased risks are small, and may have more to do with other healthy behaviors in which people who take vitamins are likely to take part, the authors are quick to add in their report in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
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