Research we're watching: Vitamin supplements no help against heart disease

Enough is enough: stop wasting money on vitamin and mineral supplements." This stark advice, from an editorial in Annals of Internal Medicine, stems from two new studies that found no clear evidence that vitamin and mineral supplements can prevent cardiovascular disease.

In one study, researchers pooled findings from 27 trials of multivitamins or vitamins A, C, or D; folic acid; selenium; or calcium, taken alone or in combinations. Together, the trials included more than 400,000 older people; none had known nutritional deficiencies. Vitamin use did not lower rates of heart disease, cancer, or death over all.