Friday, August 23, 2013

Copper Increases Mortality Risk In Iowa Women's Health Study Participants

Before I leave the topic of copper, I want to draw attention to this big multivitamin study that I blogged about in 2011:

Dietary Supplements and Mortality Rate in Older Women, The Iowa Women's Health Study, JAMA, October 2011

They looked at intake of 15 supplements in 38,772 women:
  • Multivitamins
  • Vitamin A
  • Beta-carotene
  • Vitamin B6
  • Folic acid
  • B complex
  • Vitamin C
  • Vitamin D
  • Vitamin E
  • Iron
  • Calcium
  • Copper
  • Magnesium
  • Selenium
  • Zinc

And found:
"We found that several commonly used dietary vitamin and mineral supplements, including multivitamins, vitamins B6, and folic acid, as well as minerals iron, magnesium, zinc, and copper, were associated with a higher risk of total mortality."
Of note:
"We found no evidence for a benefit of vitamin D against total mortality."
The strongest association was for iron:
"Of particular concern, supplemental iron was strongly and dose dependently associated with increased total mortality risk."
But take a look at this table from the study, copper specifically:



Not too many people were taking copper, but for those that did, there was a much higher risk for mortality ... the ARI or Absolute Risk Increase for copper was 18%, higher than for any other supplement. And that was after adjustment for variables that might confound ... age, education, BMI, activity, smoking, various diseases, etc.

Related:
Copper Linked To Alzheimer's Disease - Again
Too Much Copper May Increase Risk For Alzheimer's Disease
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