Dietary Supplements Don’t Prevent Cognitive Decline, CVD, or Infections

In 2006, sales of nutritional supplements exceeded $4.5 billion in the U.S. alone. This year, in several studies, researchers assessed whether supplements — especially with vitamins that are touted as antioxidants — are beneficial.

In one randomized trial, researchers assessed whether long-term vitamin E supplementation slowed cognitive decline among older women (age, ≥65 at study entry). At 10 years, global cognitive function did not differ in the vitamin E and placebo groups. In secondary analyses, statistically significant reductions in cognitive decline were seen in several subgroups of vitamin E recipients (i.e., women with low baseline vitamin E intake, women who exercised less than once weekly, and women without diabetes), but these r…