Title: Nutrition Supplements & Well-Being Outcomes
Presenter: Howard D. Sesso, ScD, MPH, FAHA
Director of Nutrition and Supplements Research, Osher Center for Integrative Health at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Associate Epidemiologist and Associate Director, Division of Preventive Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health
Presentation Description:
The prevalence of nutritional supplement use, including vitamins, minerals, bioactives, and herbals, remains high in the United States and around the world. Nutritional supplements are used for a wide variety of symptoms and health outcomes, yet evidence for their purported benefits remains sparse. With a focus on well-designed randomized trials, we will highlight major findings for the effect of nutritional supplements on clinical outcomes. Yet most supplement users are motivated not by prevention but rather improvements in general health and well-being. We will introduce the concepts of healthy aging and well-being, then examine the evidence on nutritional supplements on various well-being outcomes. Finally, we will discuss how to incorporate our evidence-based knowledge of nutritional supplements on well-being outcomes with lifestyle modification and integrative health to improve well-being and enhance patient care.
Speaker Bio:
Howard D. Sesso, ScD, MPH, FAHA leads the design and conduct of randomized clinical trials and epidemiologic studies, focusing on dietary supplements and lifestyle factors in the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD), hypertension, cancer, and other aging-related outcomes.
Dr. Sesso has led the Physicians’ Health Study, consisting of trials testing aspirin, beta-carotene, vitamin E, vitamin C, and a multivitamin on aging-related outcomes in 29,071 men with long-term follow-up. Dr. Sesso is also examining vitamin D and fish oil supplements on 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure and hypertension in an ancillary study of the VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL (VITAL) trial.
Finally, Dr. Sesso is Co-Principal Investigator of the COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS), a recently completed randomized trial testing cocoa flavanol and multivitamin supplements in the prevention of CVD and cancer in 21,442 older women and men.