Zinc, copper and iron were found to cause the most risk
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Older women who take too many vitamins could be doing more harm than good, researchers have said
The study found that older women who take supplements of something that they are not deficient in appeared the increase their mortality risk.
Multivitamins, folic acid, vitamin B6, magnesium, zinc, copper and iron were found to cause the most risk.
The research showed that iron tablets were strongly linked to increasing death risk by 2.4 per cent. The link with iron was dose-dependent, so the more iron tablets a person takes, the high their risk is.
Although the study is still in its early stages, Dr Christian Gluud and Dr Goran Bjelakovic, who review research for the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews to evaluate best evidence, said, ‘We think the paradigm ‘the more the better’ is wrong.’
The researchers advised that their findings suggest that supplements should only be used if there is a strong medically based cause for doing so.
By Lauren King
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