The Vita MythDo supplements really do any good?
Posted Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010, at 12:31 PM ET
Deciding what to eat for dinner can be mind-bending. How do we keep track of the ever-evolving recommendations for what to put on, and leave off, the plate? Red meat might cause cancer! But don't replace it with tofu—soy concoctions might be carcinogenic, too! Don't even try to figure out where carbs stand this week. And the verdict on coffee, chocolate, and alcohol changes faster than you can order a mocha martini.
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StumbleUponVitamins—with their promise to bridge the gap between the nutrients our bodies need and those they get—have always seemed reassuringly simple: Just pop a multivitamin and let your body soak in those extra nutrients. But not any longer. During the past few years, study after study has raised doubts about what, if any, good vitamins actually do a body. They could even pose some real medical risks.
Half of all American adults take some sort of nutritional supplement. But research on a wide variety of patient populations and medical conditions has failed to find much evidence that multivitamins, the most commonly used of the lot, prevent major chronic diseases in healthy people. The most recent knock came this spring, when a study of more than 160,000 post-menopausal women, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found that the all-in-one pills did not prevent cancer, heart attacks, or strokes and did not reduce overall mortality.
Individual vitamins and minerals haven't fared much better under scientific scrutiny, with research debunking some of the reputed benefits of vitamin B6, calcium, niacin, and others. In 2006, the National Institutes of Health convened an independent panel of experts to evaluate the evidence that vitamins could prevent chronic disease. The scientists ultimately issued a report stating that studies "do not provide strong evidence for beneficial health-related effects of supplements taken singly, in pairs, or in combinations."
The news on antioxidants, the darlings of the vitamin menagerie, is even more troubling. These compounds, which include vitamins A, C, and E, selenium, beta carotene, and folate, fight free radicals, unstable compounds thought to damage cells and contribute to aging. But not only do antioxidant supplements fail to protect against heart disease, stroke, and cancer; they actually increase the risk of death, according to a 2007 analysis of research on more than 232,000 people, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, as well as other studies.
Exactly why they might increase mortality is unclear, but doctors at prominent research institutions—including New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center—have highlighted some unsettling connections between supplemental antioxidants and an increased risk of a variety of cancers. Popping certain kinds of antioxidant pills can feed latent cancers growing in the body, for instance, and reduce the effectiveness of chemotherapy. These observations make a certain intuitive sense, since vitamins and minerals play an important role in the replication of healthy cells—why shouldn't they be doing the same for cancerous cells? (Feeding mice a diet poor in antioxidants, on the other hand, can actually help shrink their brain tumors.) Scientists are also beginning to suspect that the body may actually need free radicals—which help kill cancer cells, ensure optimal immune function, and regulate blood sugar, among other things—so we shouldn't necessarily be mopping them all up.
The list of worrisome findings goes on, but it doesn't seem to have put a dent in the $25 billion supplement industry. Sales are not only robust but rising in the United States. Doctors still recommend multivitamins as part of basic preventative care. Despite the demonstrated risk, as many as 80 percent of cancer survivors swallow a daily dose, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in 2008.
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I firmly believe the Multivitamin supplement is not very beneficial to one's health. I was taking one multivitamin per day for the past thirty years, thinking I was receiving some magic bullet. I purposely purchased the vitamin that supposedly contained at least 50Mg of Potassium, and felt confident that my Potassium level was safe. My annual checkup revealed my Potassium level was terrible. I told my Physician about the multivitamin with the Potassium, and he laughed. Consequently he prescribed 20 Mg of Potassium thru the prescription process, and after one month on a supposedly lower dose, my Potassium level was normal. With respect my personal experience, the one a day multivitamin routine is useless. After some simple research, I found that the listed levels of certain ingredients are actually not there. A money maker for sure for these companies.
-- johnsnare
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Vitamins are trace elements that you need in your diet along with protein, carbs and fat. They get the best PR of any of the food items.
The name, vita-min, short for vital minerals, suggests that these trace minerals are somehow vital or life giving.
Huge corporations and health food stores who sell vitamins have used paid advertising and doctor payments for 75 years to thoroughly brainwash most people in the country that they must swallow these pills every day -- or die. The motive is far more about profits than profilactives.
When doctors are confronted by patients who demand that the doctors do something when doing nothing is really the best alternative, it's quicker to recommend vitamins than to explain why leaving the body alone is a better alternative. My next door neighbor who was 90 went to the doctor with many complaints and the doctor said what do you expect, you're old. She went to an alternative nutritionist who proscribed 30 pills a die. Her diarrhea led to her death.
-- Folgers
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I couldn't agree with you more on the posted brands that you referenced. However there are vitamin supplements that actually work. Organic, time released, water saluable vitamins. There are few options available but the pioneer of Organic Vitamins that are not synthetic (open up a centrum or many of the retail store / gnc store brands and you will notice that they are white in the middle v/s the same color as the outside of the vitamin. That's your first indicator that it's synthetic and obviously not organic.
Speaking of organic. It's not enough to just take organic vitamins if they manufactured next to fields with pesticides with defeats the purpose in the first place.
Great article on a very important topic.
-- HELLOGOODBYE
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We were taught to take multi-vitamins long before there was any correlation between anti-oxidants and cancer prevention.
Once that tie was made, we were encouraged to drink blueberry juice, not take a multi-vitamin.
The USDA recommended daily allowance for different vitamins and minerals isn't based on cancer prevention... It never was.
I take pills every morning knowing full well that I'll probably pee out most of the vitamins I just swallowed, since I'll ingest most of those vitamins and minerals with my food. But I take the pills because if I DON'T ingest some additional calcium or Vitamin A (due to the hectic work schedule that forces a microwave dinner or fast-food lifestyle), then at least I got some of that in the morning... and I've been taught since childhood that these vitamins and minerals are required for proper functioning of my body.
I was never told that "your vitamin will prevent cancer", or "if you don't take your vitamin you'll get a heart attack and DIE."
This kind of contrarian puffery is useless. Either the vitamins and minerals are needed by the body or they aren't. If they are, then I'll take a couple of pills and go to work... if not, I'll pee them out.
Next you'll tell me that putting on sunscreen won't prevent obesity... But I'll still slather on the sunscreen when I go to the beach...
And I'll still take my vitamins tomorrow morning (perhaps with a little more blueberry juice, but probably not).
-- Tundrayeti
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