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.
Too bad it’s expensive and not practical to test for any deficiencies. I was not doing well and thought my autoimmune disease was out of remission. Turns out I was deficient in vitamin d. Getting levels up to normal has made a huge difference.
I’m giving my kids larger than normal doses (2000 mg/day) as I assume that if I’m deficient they are as well. However, I can’t afford to have all of them tested so it’s just a guessing game.
I’m one of the 75% and see no reason to stop taking the Centrum-type supplement I’ve been taking daily for forty years. The vitamin C is worthwhile in itself; the rest is insurance.
Ping for later
You are pissing your money away...
Eat more Bacon...
Big Pharma’s margins must be taking a hit - time to flood the Internet with anti-vitamin propaganda before too many people start getting healthy too cheaply. :)
Vitamin D works. Glucosamine chondroitin seems to work. L Carnitine, L Arginine, Ornithine, alpha lipoic acid all seeem to have affects. Melatonin works. Inositol works. DHEA helps.
So just what is the FDA complaining about? Maybe some people don’t need to follow their baloney?
bullshit. almost all americans test deficient in both magnesium and vitamin d.
also as people get older, they produce less stomach acid and less digestive enzymes, contributing to B-12 deficiency and general lack of nutrition respectively.
I can tell a big difference in how i feel when i take large doses of d, folic acid, a good B vit mix, vit c and a good mag supplement, as well as digestive enzymes.
Most people take them wrong. For instance, taking water and oil-soluable vitamins/supplements together harms absorption. Take B alone with water or juice, but D with fish oil, coconut oil, coQ10, etc. Taking B with oil-solubles will almost guarantee it is not absorbed. “Centrum” is essentially useless since all are mixed together.
Two supplements I know something about: Glucosamine and Chondroitin for one, Vitamin D3 for the other. I was on a cane and riding the electric carts at Walmart back in 2000. I tried G&C. I am 70 years old and walk 4 miles an hour. I have no pain in my joints. If I skip a couple days of G&C about a week later I start having trouble turning my head and making my knees work. That goes away a few days after if I haven’t missed any more doses. I have not had any cold or flu since I started the D3 in 2007. I do NOT get flu shots. Wife same since a year later. Everyone I know who takes either supp has the same experience.
His title states we are almost certainly wasting money buying vitamins.
Then he states: “There are some valuable vitamins and supplements that provide real health benefits.”
So, he really wants people to buy vitamins, just not as many?
He shouldn't have sensationalized the title as he did, then.
He made “click-bait.”
I work changing shifts and keep myself alert and asleep at appropriate times by taking B12 sublinguals about two hours after I get to work.
He's a writer, who works for a famous medical center. That's the extent of his medical, nutritional, and biological education.
Someone here counseled me to jack up my Vitamin D, years ago.
It made all the difference in the world.
And I cannot live without my Chromium Picolonate.
It’s the ‘antidote’ to blood sugar irregularities.
I ignore this crap.
I feel the difference if I slack off and I was the world’s biggest skeptic, once.
I say the point is to eat foods that contain the vitamins you need, rather than bottles and bottles of pills.
Vitamin D 5000 IU a day and Iron 27mg made the biggest difference in my health. No need to use the thyroid meds the other doctors had me on. The 6th doc I went to said you need Vitamin D and Iron. I started to take it and I had way more energy and stopped the thyroid meds.
Use Flaxseed Oil (size of Fish oil pill). It will clear up your skin. Biotin and Fish oil for thicker hair.
#6 is correct along with eat eggs, use butter and whole milk.
Nonsense.
I take magnesium. If I don't take it I get cramps in my hands and feet.
This is not all in my head, it is in my feet. :)
If for some reason I don't take my supplements I can count on pain.
This is not part of getting old as it started when I was pre-teen. For some reason I need more magnesium then average.
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