My wife and I both participate in a multivitamin study conducted by Dr. Kenneth Cooper. I feel comfortable taking these because I believe in the institution behind it. Its pretty hard to find a more credible organization than the Cooper Clinic. I believe the pills themselves to be of outstanding quality too. Dr. Cooper is doing a massive study in association with several high profile clinics that would indicate that a correct vitamin level will significantly decrease heart attack and strokes, especially in compulsive athletes. There is a wide body of study to support this, he is now trying to prove it.

The vitamin industry is not impressed because most of what Dr. Cooper finds to be missing from a persons life style is easily corrected by diet changes. Personally, I haven’t noticed much difference. But my wife, who had high cholesterol problems, had a very significant lowering of her cholesterol in the first three months. And, she claims her fingernails are less brittle. Although I can’t say that I got a PR because of vitamins and so on, I am convinced that overall I am in better shape. I haven’t had a cold since I started the program 6 months ago.

Since they seem to improve my overall body conditioning I am sure it has some effect on my competition as well. I’ve been taking GNC’s Men’s Mega (or is it Mega Men’s?) multi-vitimins and minerals since May and have definitely noticed that I feel better/stronger/peppier since I started. I’ve been setting PRs all year, but think the vitamins may only be a little part of this. I had always pooh-poohed taking vitamins, going with the line that a good diet would supply everything I need. But then a top runner in our running club chewed me out for not taking a multi-vitamin, especially when training for Ironman. He contended that giving the heavy training I was certainly not getting everything I need from my diet.

I thought about it, and recognized that my diet was not what it should be and that multi-vitamin would not “hurt” in any case, according to what I could find in the literature. (My reading suggested that vitamins from food might be somehow better than vitamins from a pill–but that vitamins from a pill were better than not getting them at all.) I am no lover of pills, nor do I have any interest in “health foods” (though, I do eat “healthy”). Given this, I take a “Muti” and an additional C, plus: Chromium Picolinate, and Siberian Ginseng. My experience is that I have far fewer colds, during IM training/racing when I keep up on my vitamins. Some may dispute my claims with credible evidence, but I have gone back and forth – vitamins, no vitamins – the difference has been a cold.

Want to save health care dollars? Give vitamins to the elderly, a study published on Thursday suggests. The study, done on behalf of Wyeth Consumer Health by health care consultant The Lewin Group, finds that vitamins could improve overall health, making elderly people less likely to need drugs or hospital care. “The Lewin Group study found that daily use of a multivitamin by older adults is a relatively inexpensive yet potentially powerful way to improve one’s health,” Lewin said in the report.

As people age, and especially after age 65, the immune system generally weakens, leaving them vulnerable to infections. “The five-year estimate of potential savings (or cost offsets) resulting from improved immune functioning and a reduction in the relative risk of coronary artery disease through providing older adults with a daily multivitamin is approximately $1.6 billion,” the report concludes. “The five-year estimated cost offset associated with avoidable hospitalization for heart attacks is approximately $2.4 billion,” it adds. Allen Dobson of the Lewin group said the study averaged the cost of typical multivitamins on the market and assumed an annual cost of $36.

The study assumed that 50 percent of adults over the age of 65 would take the vitamins at first, but that up to 85 percent would take them after five years of having Medicare or health insurance pay for them. Over five years, the report concludes, it would cost $2.3 billion to provide a daily multivitamin to older adults in the United States. The study was launched with the aim of finding an inexpensive way to save money in health care. “Evidence from numerous sources indicates that a significant number of older adults fail to get the amounts and types of food necessary to meet essential energy and nutrient needs.”

The group looked at a range of studies and reports to make its own findings. It studied the effects of taking vitamins on five diseases — coronary artery disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, prostate cancer, and colorectal cancer. “Additionally, we examined literature concerning the effects of multivitamins on immune functioning in older adults and the potential health care savings that might result from avoiding the costly hospitalizations, nursing home stays, and home health services associated with pneumonia, cellulitis (a skin infection), kidney and urinary tract infections, and septicemia (a blood infection),” the report read.

For instance, one 1998 study involving 80,000 nurses found a 24 percent reduction in the risk of heart attacks among women who took daily multivitamins. The study defined a multivitamin as a tablet providing 100 percent of daily requirements for “most vitamins and minerals”. The researchers noted that some supplements contain mega-doses and these were not included in the study.

With vitamin A in particular, it is easy to step over the edge into a danger zone, said Dr. Joan McGowan, chief of the musculoskeletal diseases branch at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. “You can be eating Total cereal, drinking fortified milk, taking a multivitamin,” Dr. McGowan said. “You can get into a situation where you’re getting more than you need. Until recently, there was little concern about vitamin A and bone health.” Now, she added, “we may have to rethink the issues.” Similar questions are being raised about other vitamins and minerals, notably iron and vitamins E and C.

Researchers say the questions involve multivitamins taken by healthy people, not specific vitamins or minerals taken by groups with specific needs. Some elderly people, for example, may be deficient in vitamin B12 because they lose their ability to absorb it from foods. People who spend little time outdoors may require vitamin D, which the skin makes when it is exposed to sunlight. Even when older people are in the sun, aging skin loses much of its ability to synthesize the vitamin. Pregnant women who do not receive enough folic acid, a vitamin in fruits and vegetables that is added to enriched flour, are at increased risk of having babies with neural tube defects.

Because the vitamin is needed at the very start of pregnancy, some advocate folic acid supplements for all who might become pregnant, just to be sure they are protected. For most people, however, the issue is not deficits. Instead, nutrition researchers ask: Do people eating relatively healthy diets with fresh fruits and vegetables and not too many calories or fats benefit from multivitamins or other supplements? Do those whose diets are abysmal, heavy on fast foods and lacking in fruits and vegetables, make up for some deficits if they take multivitamin pills? Dr. Annette Dickinson, president of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a group that represents the supplement industry, says 70 percent of Americans sometimes take supplements — usually multivitamins or individual vitamins and minerals — and 40 percent take them regularly.

“Our position,” she said, “is that most people, literally most people, would benefit from taking a multivitamin every day. It’s insuring adequate and even generous intake of all the nutrients.” The most popular individual supplements are vitamins C and E, said Dr. Robert M. Russell, the director the Human Nutrition Research Center of Agriculture Department at Tufts University, who is head of the Food and Nutrition Board. Scientists once thought those vitamins could help prevent ailments like cancer and heart disease, but rigorous studies found no such effects.