The Study: 

A new study in the American Heart Journal found that high-dose oral vitamin and mineral supplements may have a protective effect on patients with previous heart attacks who are not taking a class of cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins. The study began in 2003 and looked at patients over 50 years old who had sustained a heart-attack at least 6 weeks before the trial began. The study was a double-blind placebo controlled trial which gave the patients in the active group a mix of a 28-component high-dose oral vitamin and mineral supplement. Death, heart-attack, stroke, coronary revascularization, and hospitalization for chest pain were the final factors that were looked at throughout the trial. The trial ended in 2011.

Results:

The recently published results of this study on participants that were not on statin drugs indicated that those taking the high-dose vitamin and mineral supplement had significantly fewer adverse events and less mortality (death) than the placebo groups. Those taking the high-dose vitamin and minerals also had less cardiac events which included stroke, recurrent heart attack, and cardiovascular death. Of the participants taking the vitamin and mineral supplement only 77 suffered major adverse cardiac events, compared to 128 patients in the placebo group suffering major adverse events. The main take away from these results is that oral multivitamin and mineral supplementation decreased adverse cardiac events in patients with previous heart-attacks who are not taking statin drugs. 

What does this mean?

Current guidelines recommend statin use for anyone who had a previous heart attack or cardiac event and the evidence for this is extremely robust. This study does not change guidelines or recommendations on statin use and only shows very early results on a possible option for those who can not or will not take statins. Previous studies have tried low-moderate dose multivitamin and mineral supplementation without seeing much effect. This study of high-dose oral multivitamin and minerals should be regarded with some hopeful skepticism as future research is needed to confirm these findings.

 1. Issa Omar M., Roberts Rhonda, Mark Daniel B., Boineau Robin, Christine Goertz, Rosenberg Yves, Lewis Eldrin F., Guarneri Erminia, Drisko Jeanne, Magaziner Allan, Lee Kerry L., Lamas Gervasio A., Effect of High-Dose Oral Multi-Vitamins and Minerals in Participants Not Treated with Statins in the Randomized Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy, American Heart Journal (2017), doi: 10.1016/j.ahj.2017.09.002