Jama article urges all adults to take daily multivitamin

19 june 2002 - by wyn snow, managing editor

drs. Kathleen m. Fairfield and robert h. Fletcher, of harvard medical school in boston ma, recommend that all adults take a daily multivitamin. Their two-part report appears in the june 19th issue of the journal of the american medical association.

Fairfield and fletcher reviewed studies of relationships between vitamin intake and various diseases published between 1966 and 2002. They conclude that suboptimal levels of vitamin intake are associated with increased risk of contracting a variety of chronic diseases, including cancer and heart disease. This is true even when intakes are high enough to prevent classical symptoms of deficiency diseases like scurvy, beriberi and rickets.