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Lee Swanson Research Update
Supplements Could Save Lives, Health Care Costs
September 2007
The U.S. health care system could save more than $24 billion if select at-risk populations took certain dietary supplements. In a new scientific and economic review funded by the Dietary Supplement Education Alliance (DSEA), researchers found the use of calcium with vitamin D, folic acid, omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFAs) and lutein with zeaxanthin could have a significant impact on health care costs.
The biggest savings—$16.1 billion—were seen in the estimate of how appropriate use of calcium with vitamin D by older adults for five years could avoid approximately 776,000 hospitalizations and nursing stays linked to hip fractures. The five-year savings estimate for folic acid was $1.4 billion, if 11.3 million of the 44 million American women of childbearing age who don’t take the vitamin started taking 400 mcg per day, which could prevent 600 children from developing neural tube defects.
Use of omega-3 EFAs could save $3.2 billion over five years by reducing hospitalizations linked to coronary heart disease. And daily intake of 6 to 10 mg per day of lutein with zeaxanthin could save $3.6 billion over five years by helping people with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) avoid the transition to dependence.
"Rapidly escalating healthcare costs in the United States have severe implications for our society as a whole," said Jon Benninger, president of DSEA. "This study provides valuable data that may lead to preventative healthcare solutions and address the budgetary problems facing federal and state health insurance programs, corporate health cost managers and individual families."
