Supplement Users Have Better Overall Health

Natural Products Insider:

"People who used multiple dietary supplements for at least 20 years were in overall better health than non-supplement users and those who used on a multivitamin/multimineral product, according to a study published online Oct. 24 in advance of print in the Nutrition Journal (DOI:10.1186/1475-2891-6-30). Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, in association with Pleasanton, Calif.-based Shaklee Corp., examined dietary supplement usage patterns, health and nutritional status of individuals in a cross-sectional design, using online questionnaires and on-site physical examinations of long-term users of multiple dietary supplements from Shaklee. Data for non-users (n=602) and multi-only users (n=176) were obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and NHANES II.

Long-term multiple dietary supplement users (n=278) consumed an array of vitamin, mineral, herbal and condition-specific supplements for at least 20 years. As a group, they were 73 percent less likely to have diabetes and 39 percent less likely to have high blood pressure than non-users. They were also less likely to have suboptimal blood nutrient concentrations, and more likely to have favorably levels of key biomarkers, including serum homocysteine, C-reactive protein (CRP), high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and triglycerides, compared with non-users and people taking only a multi."