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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