Print edition: 
To keep women’s hearts and bodies healthy, two recent medical reports clarify what women may not need.
At the end of 2011, the American Heart Association reminded us that routine use of aspirin should not be used by healthy women younger than 65 years old to prevent heart attack. Furthermore, hormone therapy should not be used for heart attack prevention. Finally, antioxidant supplements — vitamins C, E, and beta-carotene — should not be used for heart attack prevention.
The other report, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, looked at multivitamin and mineral use in older women. It found that multivitamins, B vitamins, folic acid, iron, magnesium, zinc and copper taken as “health food supplements” were associated with an increased risk of death. This is particularly alarming given that $28 billion is spent annually on supplements, and 85 percent of older women take at least one.
Two supplements that are popular now are vitamin D and fish oil capsules which contain omega 3 fatty acids. While much is promised, we know that people who take excessive vitamin D more than double their risk of an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation. According to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, when patients known to have significant heart disease take fish oil capsules, they do not have fewer cardiac events.
For quite some time, studies have shown that vitamins, minerals and supplements taken by the general American population do not decrease cancer, stroke or heart disease in women or men. Yet, often these studies are ignored because patients assume that vitamins and supplements are beneficial. We also know that compared with most medicines and even most foods, the vitamin and supplement industry is poorly regulated.
The facts tell us that regular use of aspirin and supplements can be harmful and even deadly. We should abandon this love of the supplement and encourage better eating and more exercise, rather than supplementing our bad habits.
