The Association between Metabolic Syndrome and the Consumption of some Supplements

Beneficial effects of vitamins and dietary supplements in the prevention and treatment of metabolic syndrome (MS) are controversial. This study aims to evaluate the association between dietary supplements intake and MS.

This analytical cross-sectional analysis was conducted on 9539 people aged 35-70 years who participated in the recruitment phase of Shahedieh Cohort Study in Yazd-Iran (May 2015 to September 2017). The consumption of supplements, such as multivitamin-mineral, multivitamin, calcium-D, calcium, vitamin D, folic acid, omega 3, iron, and zinc were asked in the study. the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP-ATP III) criteria used for defining MS.

4785 (50.2%) men and 4754 (49.8%) women with mean age of 47.64 ± 9.60 years participated in this study. The prevalence of MS was 2901 (30.41%). The participants with MS were significantly different in consuming supplements, such as Calcium-D (P < 0.001), Calcium (P < 0.001), Calcium-D or Calcium products (P = 0.001), vitamin D; injection (P = 0.017) and vitamin D orally or injection (P = 0.005), Omega 3, fish oil (P = 0.001), and at least one supplement intake (P = 0.001). However, the relationship between MS and supplement consumption was not significant after adjusting for covariates in the multivariate regression model.

Multiple factors may be responsible for the high prevalence of MS. It seems that a known supplement may not be the pathologic factor in the MS