Posted on 07/28/2016 8:37:55 PM PDT by nickcarraway
By
Up to three-quarters of American adults take some kind of vitamin or supplement, so there's a pretty good chance you're one of them. That's a lot of people purchasing substances that aren't evaluated by the FDA, and for the most part don't work.
What's more, vitamins and supplements are only getting more popular, with sales growing 50% faster than those of over-the-counter drugs over the past several years. Basically, most of you are throwing money away on magical beans -- stop it already!
There's not a whole lot of regulation, which is good for sales pitches
One of the curious traits of the dietary supplement industry is that makers of vitamins and supplements don't actually have to prove their products do what they say they'll do. In fact, the FDA is pretty hands-off in terms of most things supplement-related, meaning the multibillion-dollar dietary supplement industry is, essentially, self-policed.
"In medicine, we are primarily concerned with illness," says Dr. Steven Lamm, professor of medicine and the medical director of NYU Langone's Preston Robert Tisch Center for Men's Health. "But the public has a very strong desire to promote wellness. This has created a kind of void -- and things like vitamins and supplements have rushed to fill it."
According to Dr. Lamm, one reason for the lax regulation and testing that surrounds supplements is that the kind of trials necessary to "prove" a given drug works are insanely expensive. The only way to justify the cost would be to obtain a patent, giving the producer the right to exclusive sales, but you can't just go out and patent vitamin D.
Of course, there have been large studies conducted on vitamins' effectiveness, but results can be hazy at best, contradictory at worst, and rarely, if ever, demonstrate a causal link between a positive outcome and a vitamin supplement.
The science of vitamins', well, inconclusiveness has been well established enough in the medical community that some researchers will pen articles with aggressive titles like, "Enough Is Enough: Stop Wasting Money on Vitamin and Mineral Supplements."
Health claims are enticing, and placebos are powerful
Pop quiz, hot shot: which is more comforting to believe? Taking an over-the-counter supplement will make you healthier, happier, and live longer? Or that decline, disease, and death will inevitably strike us all?
If you picked the first option, you're just like most people! When you read that little line that says, "Helps improve cognitive performance," you may know it hasn't been evaluated by the FDA… but you kind of want it to be true, right?
That's part of what makes the placebo effect so powerful that sometimes even fake drugs work on patients with very real conditions. The combination of aggressive claims and a public that wants to be convinced is what makes the dietary supplement industry so lucrative. Still…
Vitamins don't just give you expensive urine, as the cliche goes. "One of the most common reasons why people take vitamin and mineral supplements is because they believe that supplements will prevent the development of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and Alzheimer's," says Dr. Eliseo Guallar, professor of epidemiology and medicine at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "But the evidence accumulated so far in large clinical trials indicates, overall, that supplements do not prevent most chronic diseases. In fact, in some cases, supplements can be harmful."
The effects go beyond an upset stomach. Too much vitamin A, for example, can cause everything from fatigue and depression to bleeding lungs and liver damage. Or consider an iron supplement, which in extreme cases (usually in accidental overdoses by kids) causes extreme gastrointestinal distress, which can be followed by liver failure, shock, and death.
Be selective with your vitamin intake There are some valuable vitamins and supplements that provide real health benefits. This is especially true for specific populations with particular dietary needs, like vegans or the elderly.
"People are under the impression that vitamins are healthy and safe, and so they take more and more of them," says Wolf. "It's not their fault -- they are being misled."
"For vitamins that are not water soluble -- that is, those that are stored in your fat cells -- taking too much can definitely be dangerous… the FDA should inform the public about these dangers," adds Dr. Lamm.
Popping a pill is a deceptively easy solution. But it's not that much harder to make educated food choices.
John Marshall is a writer based in New York, and would like to add that vitamins are also useful if you need neon urine. Follow him to the docks, or @brunodionmarsh.
There are a few supplements I take regularly and would never go off for long. ALA & ALCAR are just great and I don’t get sick as frequent while taking them, my vision is noticeably improved, & healing is faster. I’ve found I like Mdrive also. I do agree with the caution. It is easy to overdose on Vitamin A and it will give you migraine and make you sick if you do. Zinc is another which is good to a certain point but can actually compromise your immune system if you take too much. The biggest risk is with combo and stacked supplements. If you arent careful you can find yourself getting overdosed because you take several different supplements that all have added vitamins. Most of the time if people just use common sense they will be fine.
‘Agree that so-called “multiple” vitamins are a bad idea. The “One-a-Day,” one-size-fits-all vitamin product was dreamed up by the Mad Men of the ‘50s or ‘60s.
This was never a scientific concept ... it was a marketing concept.’
I have a doctor who actually knows whereof she speaks. As I have grown older I have a lot of pain due to the work I did when younger, mainly coal mining, a short lived experiment with sky diving and a few rolling car wrecks, youth is great till you get older and start to pay. My doctor has me on 22 different supplements and natural vitamins, a few of these I tossed in. Whenever she sees me she does blood work and calls a couple of days later if something is wrong or right, something else she does is ask me what I want to do about whatever condition I might have, she knows I have already studied and decided what to do. Her assistant called one day and said I was anemic I said OK, I had been on a diet and lost 92 pounds in a short time and that brought it on, bought some iron and next test was perfect.
If I skip vitamins for a couple of days I can tell because my hands and feet and lower back start to cramp, take D3 and potassium along with the others and pain goes away. I never thought I would live long enough to whine about my health as old folks did when I was young. What goes around comes around.
Wish me luck cause I am taking the shots of cartilage in my right knee. Result of an old mining injury in my 20’s and walking 4 miles 4 times a week and working out on those 4 days. My favorite subject is now talking about my various pains. If I was a horse they would take me out and shoot me.
**** “5000 units B12 subs daily and my daughter doesn’t have to go to the doctor twice a week for B12 shots for her sciatica” *****
Sciatica really hurts!
I didn’t put 2 and 2 together, I just do the B12 subs cause I really do feel better but in retrospect you might have convinced me to be more regular in my B-12 subs.
I have been 4 years since my last severe sciatica experience and that is about the time I started the Methyl Cobalamin subs ... then again I have also been self medicating for minor pain with Beer too (Pain Pills make me stupid, I refuse to take them) when you self medicate with beer...it is like a drip, you can change the dosage as you need to for pain and it is a muscle relaxant as well which may be the most important of the two.
When I say minor pain, before my first sciatica experience if asked how bad my broken arm hurt I would have said Excruciating Major and Hurts Real Bad, after sciatica that broken arm was a walk in the Park... aka just a minor pain.
The self medicating with beer is not for everyone, it does have it’s drawbacks (beer gut is not very attractive) but I’m Old and don’t care anymore and it allows me to continue to work.
“Experience is the teacher of all things”...Julius Caesar
You can make a safe and effective toothpaste using salt, baking soda, and hydrogen peroxide. Mix enough hydrogen peroxide in to make a paste in a small glass jar, use it for a week and dump it and mix another batch. It works.
My second ex taught me this she grew up poor on a farm and they bought very little. She had to have a pacemaker installed when she was 70, the nurse came in and asked for her teeth, she told her that would be tough since they were all her original teeth. She has never had a toothache or had one pulled.
D3 — one would get enough IF they were out in the sun long enough.
In northern latitudes this would have to be in the summer, and for even as much as 20 minutes, as I recall hearing.
So then it would be needed especially in the winter.
It would be hard to take too much. Doctors take 4,000 or more.
Bits I have heard over time. I image a SEARCH would yield a lot of info on this.
I must have missed all the people dropping dead from taking vitamins. The latest epidemic. Vitamin OD.
Author is a complete idiot! One example...when vitamin b6 and B2 is is absorbed by the body, your urine will become darker. If your urine is dark yellow and you do not take vitamins, you are, most likely dehydrated. The author knows nothing about dietary supplements or the industry.
Luckily, I have not peed since 1972.
I’ve asked my doctor two years in a row to have mine tested and he hems and haw about how insurance co needs a diagnosis to cover that. But hello? How can I get a diagnosis of deficiency without doign the blood work?? I must be very low in vit D cause I sleep days and never out in the sun. But if I take supplement on myown I don’t know how much so I do nothing.
Vitamin d is so easy to be too low in, even if you walk around in the sun in shorts or a sundress. 2000 is for kids is about right. They can skip it if they were in bathing suit in the sun for hours. For older people most need at least 5000 IU a day.
Magnesium (not oxide, that’s worthless laxative) is another very important supplement to take daily. Vitamin k as well.
Your vitamins should be sourced carefully, not from China, not cheap.
You should expect to actually feel or see or measure results from anything worthwhile. A good vitamin d level plus sleep, and no huge stressors, you should get through the winter with no colds or flus. Taking magnesium citrate or asporotate before bed means you should sleep deeply and suffer no constipation ever. Vitamin k should prevent bone breaks or teeth problems.
When feeling ill, vitamin c and zinc should help you get well very quickly.
Vitamins should be chewable or in a capsule. Tablets are difficult to digest.
Some friendly correction. Fat soluable vitamins and oils should be taken with water soluable antioxidents to prevent oxidation and improve activity tiime. In addition, CoQ10 should be taken with vitamin E or oil to improve absorption and vitamin D should be taken with Vitamin K2 to prevent calcium build up in the arteries.
After taking vitamins for many years I've started to think that this is not impossible. For one thing, by taking large amounts of antioxidant compounds, one might be interfering with natural biochemical processes that kill off cancer cells.
sounds like we are taking the same stuff. I got tested years ago for deficiency and found I had bunches, Folic Acid did WONDERS, now my insulin works twice as good (I use half the units I used to, my basal rates are at half, as are my bolus injections).
I also take fish oil, and from the fish oil I’ve been able to get off the cholesterol medications. My doctor said that is not unusual (I was over 400 before, now i’m below 200, not great but not bad for someone my weight, and age)
Vitamins help my skin, I use an insulin pump, and I used to get rashes where the insert-er and monitor are plugged into me, started on B & D after reading some articles and my skin is 20 years younger and no more rashes.
For years I had horrible heartburn and took meds for it, then my wife heard a yogurt a day will bring back enzymes. BINGO. I eat one plain yogurt with a dollop of jelly in it (yeah, I’m bad I know), and I haven’t had heartburn for years, I can even eat habenero’s again.
I think this is a big pharma pushed article.
I take 2 vitamins, aspirin (325 mg/day) and red wine. Health is still perfect.
I guess that I should add raw garlic...whenever practical.
My doc put me on 50,000 mg/week for six weeks-one pill a week. It brought me up to normal levels and she then said to take 2000 mg/day to maintain proper levels.
She said that in Minnesota it’s impossible to get enough from the sun-we just don’t have enough sunlight so everyone should take a d3 supplement.
If you live in a northern state start taking a 5,000 or even 10,000 mg dose each day for 6-8 weeks. You will feel so much better.
I sometimes take Calm (magnesium citrate powder) at night. This winter I switched to magnesium gel on my feet as I’ve heard it’s better absorbed through the skin rather then moving quickly through the digestive tract. It smells like stinky cheese so it’s not for the summer.
I’ll have to check out vitamin K-I never thought about that before.
If I were you, I'd look up the potential toxic effects of excessive Vitamin D before you continue that regimen....
FWIW, sunlight is a major source of Vit.D....
I bought vitamin d gummies for the kids - Nordic Naturals brand. They love them. They are so good my 5 year old snuck the bottle out of the kitchen and ate the whole thing. There were probably only 20-30 left so I figured he got one week of a prescription level dose. I didn’t worry about an overdose because, as you said, it would be hard to take too much.
They really are that good. My kids love their multi vitamin gummies as well (Nordic Berries) but are much too expensive for us to take regularly.
We live in Minnesota-impossible to get close to enough vitamin D from sunlight here according to my doc. Their vitamin D gummies are 1000 mg each, I’m giving them two for a month or so then will switch to one. We drink raw milk so it’s not fortified. I was deficient, not just low in vitamin D, kids eat the same diet so they are probably deficient as well.
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