Are You Wasting Money on Multivitamins?

[patagonia]

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/healthnews/15053/are-you-wasting-money-on-multivitamins/

[quote:1h5lavf2]Are You Wasting Money on Multivitamins?By Simeon Margolis, M.D., Ph.D. - Posted on Wed, Feb 11, 2009, 3:28 pm PST
Advertisements with tantalizing promises of improved health, prevention of cancer and heart disease, and greater energy have lured millions of Americans to spend billions of dollars on the purchase of multivitamins.

An article in the February 9 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine reported that multivitamin use did not protect the 161,808 postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative Study from common forms of cancer, heart attacks, or strokes. And the numbers of deaths during the 8 years of the study were the same in vitamin users as in non-users. Still, it is important to recognize that this was an observational study, not a more meaningful clinical trial. Although these findings apply only to women, other studies have failed to show benefits of multivitamins in older men.

These results are not at all surprising for several reasons. No large study has shown that multivitamins significantly benefit healthy men and women. In addition, for some years physicians prescribed folic acid and vitamins B12 and B6 in the hopes of preventing heart attacks and strokes by lowering blood levels of homocysteine. (High blood levels of homocysteine are associated with an increased risk of coronary and other vascular diseases.) A number of recent studies, however, have shown that, while these vitamins do lower homocysteine levels, they do not prevent heart attacks or strokes.

Many doctors have also prescribed the antioxidants vitamin E and beta-carotene to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Alas, studies have now proven that these supplements are not protective--and may even be harmful.

No one denies that an adequate intake of vitamins is essential; however, vitamins can and should be obtained from eating enough healthy foods rather than from swallowing vitamin supplements.

Then what about vitamins being a great source of energy? Some multivitamin ads do indeed claim that their supplements boost energy; and some professional athletes gobble handfuls of vitamin pills to increase their energy and strength. But researchers proved long ago that energy comes from calories, not vitamins. The highly touted cholesterol-lowering effects of substances added to some multivitamin supplements? Still unproven.

All this is not to say that specific vitamins supplements are never desirable. Vitamins can be valuable in certain situations:

Folic acid supplements in women who are pregnant or plan to become pregnant can help to prevent serious neural-tube defects that affect the baby's brain and spine.
Supplements that contain more vitamin D and calcium than is present in regular multivitamin pills can help older men, and especially women, avoid osteoporosis and bone fractures.
Supplements of vitamins C and E, beta-carotene, zinc, and copper may slow the progression of vision loss in people with early macular degeneration.
And multivitamins are beneficial for some entire groups of people:

those on a very-low-calorie weight-loss diet
strict vegetarians
heavy alcohol drinkers
individuals who are not getting an adequate diet because they are too sick or too poor--or live by themselves and are unable to prepare proper meals for themselves
I also agree with a comment made by one of the coauthors of the Archives of Internal Medicine article about postmenopausal women mentioned above. An 8-year follow-up period may not be long enough to show that multivitamins protect against cancers that take many years to develop.


All the same, the results of the studies on vitamins so far point to one conclusion: Healthy people who eat enough calories from a varied diet do not benefit from multivitamin supplements.[/quote:1h5lavf2]

I take a multivitamin, vitamin C, alpha lipoic acid, fish oil, curcumin, brewers yeast and a couple other things.... feel its made a positive difference.

 

[CCS]

I heard that pharmacuetical companies want you to get sick so you'll have to buy their drugs later, and they pay scientists to botch studies so it will look like multi-vitamins don't help. Not sure if it is true, but after reading many creatine studies, I now know that many studies are designed to decieve. I just chew my pills up and take them with food. My only complaint is the unnatural form of vitamin E, and the inorganic minerals.

 

[the Last Fight]

Ive heard the same thing in whcih 'scare tactics' are used to make people believe that some supps. are useless .. but then you hear the other end of it where the supps company claims are also false. A multivitamin, i believe, at least a high quality one can be beneficial.

 

[barcafan]

Of course it's true. Capitalism ensures that those types of things exist.

 

[JLL]

A search of pubmed on just about any vitamin will show that this article is crap. Sure, a lot of the multivitamins sold in supermarkets etc. are useless, but that's because they either contain the wrong forms of vitamins or in insufficient amounts.

The vitamin E study, for example, used only the alpha-tocopherol form. From that they concluded that all vitamin E is useless and even harmful. That's kind of like eating only protein and then concluding that protein is harmful.

The idea behind studies and articles like this is to ban supplements and eventually sell them only in pharmacies because it's such a good business. Europe seems to be headed this way fast.

The text does not seek to ban supplements, but subjects them to labeling and packaging requirements, sets criteria for the setting of maximum and minimum dosage levels, and requires that safety and efficacy are considered when determining ingredient sources. The United Nations has stated that the guidelines are to "stop consumers overdosing on vitamin and mineral food supplements."

So apparently vitamins are useless but you can still overdose on them...?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Alimentarius

 

[ali777]

I heard that pharmacuetical companies want you to get sick so you'll have to buy their drugs later, and they pay scientists to botch studies so it will look like multi-vitamins don't help. Not sure if it is true, but after reading many creatine studies, I now know that many studies are designed to decieve. I just chew my pills up and take them with food. My only complaint is the unnatural form of vitamin E, and the inorganic minerals.

That's pushing it.... This particular article is published by some guy and only states his observations and opinions. Even the article concedes that this is not a study about the benefits of the vitamins. However, someone looking to find negative information about supplements can use this article for his/her own spin. It's signed by an MD, so it sounds like it's credible but it's not.

If an article hasn't past a peer-review process in a reputable journal, do not believe its content! Anyone can publish a blog.

 

[vauxall]

Are you wasting our time trolling for business?

 

[squeegee]

Guys guys guys before saying stuff like that..reading studies.. blabla I suggest you all to go on imminst.org or lef.org.... People there are supplements freaks, real people that get their blood tested more than often.. and yeah there is a positive difference. Taking Flinstones vitamins are not the best BTW.

 

[CCS]

I cut my centrum silver in half, and chew one half in the morning and one at night, with my food. Maybe it would be time released if I swallowed it whole, or maybe it would be less absorbed. I prefer to get my time release by letting the fiber of my food do that.

 

[billythekid]

YES.

vitamin supplements are a waste of money.

unless their is something wrong with you, and losing your hair doesn't normally count (unless it's illness related)

your just pissing your money down the toilet.

people eat crap, then take a multi and think that everything's fine.

 

[CCS]

I got 180 generic sentrum silver pills for $7. Taking me a long time to work through the bottle. Hardly pissing my money away. I just hope the synthetic vitamin E in them does not displace too much natural vitamin E.

 

[billythekid]

no i really think you are pissing your money away, quite literally.

not to mention the unnecessary strain on your putting on your liver

 

[Bryan]

I cut my centrum silver in half, and chew one half in the morning and one at night, with my food. Maybe it would be time released if I swallowed it whole, or maybe it would be less absorbed. I prefer to get my time release by letting the fiber of my food do that.

The soluble fiber in your food is probably ABSORBING a certain amount of your vitamins, rendering them useless. I think it's better to do what you're doing: taking multiple smaller doses throughout the day. I wouldn't necessarily avoid taking vitamins along with fiber, unless it was an unusually large amount of the soluble kind (like if you were taking a soluble fiber supplement, like psyllium or guar gum).

 

[Bryan]

no i really think you are pissing your money away, quite literally.

Thanks for sharing that, but I'm going to continue "pissing away" a few cents' worth of vitamins every day. There's no way in hell that I'm going to reduce my vitamins to the point that NONE of them at all are ending up in my urine. Can you say "penny wise, pound foolish"? I knew you could...

 

[Quantum Cat]

I've been taking vitamin supplements for a while now, not just multivits but also vit B, D, C, Magnesium, zinc, Omega 3 etc.

I must admit sometimes I wonder if they really help or whether they just cause a placebo effect - you think you're putting healthy stuff in your body.

 

[billythekid]

no i really think you are pissing your money away, quite literally.

Thanks for sharing that, but I'm going to continue "pissing away" a few cents' worth of vitamins every day. There's no way in hell that I'm going to reduce my vitamins to the point that NONE of them at all are ending up in my urine. Can you say "penny wise, pound foolish"? I knew you could...

sorry brain, you're missing the point.

i wasn't suggesting being a spend thrift.

what gets absorbed and what doesn't?

food from nature comes in a perfect package with vitamins and nutrients proteins and fibre, etc, etc. popping a pill that contains a crap load of vitamins only will get you no where. it's probably poisoning your body.

but go ahead, continue making all those drug companies rich and wallow in your own foolishness.

 

[Bryan]

food from nature comes in a perfect package with vitamins and nutrients proteins and fibre, etc, etc. popping a pill that contains a crap load of vitamins only will get you no where. it's probably poisoning your body.

I'm not one of those people who believes in taking a "crap load" of vitamins, e.g. so-called "megadoses". The doses of nutritional supplements that I take are much more moderate and balanced. I think that's only prudent, considering the rather questionable nature of foods that are available today in most grocery stores and supermarkets.

but go ahead, continue making all those drug companies rich and wallow in your own foolishness.

Thanks. I'll do that.

 

[Old Baldy]

Oh, come on now Billy. There's nothing wrong with taking some supplements. You are way over the top on this one.

Btw, I agree with you that wholesome produce and grains are great stuff.

Do you grow your own fruits and veggies? I do.

 

[patagonia]

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[Hammy070]

I think a general multivitamin bought from a local store is not very useful. I used to be confused about supplements, there's a preponderance of products on the market claiming remarkable benefits. This would obviously confuse the layman as well as the more informed. I do take one because it's very cheap and not really harmful, a kind of insurance really. I am now focussed on learning about specific nutrients and their purpose/effects. I know that niacin in large doses decreases calcification levels in arteries. This is a direct effect on the actual cause of heart disease, not simply a reduction of cholesterol (90% of which is produced in our own bodies). So I would plan to take this soon to prevent heart disease. This focussed nutrient-specific approach I feel is more effective than a generalized approach. I am also quite interested in centrophenoxine which removes lipofuscin, a pigment substance which produces not only 'liver spots' but accounts for a lot of the cellular debris which accumulates inside and near cells, hindering their optimal functioning. Taking those 2 at my age of 23 I think could make a significant contribution to my health in the long-term. As they say, prevention is better than cure. I also take dutasteride for hair loss, it may also have the bonus side-effect of preventing prostaste cancer as DHT is it's food. I study diseases and ailments common as we age and devise a strategy that would render their development highly improbable. Some cancers though are puzzling and difficult to prevent, I have thought about annual comprehensive scans to detect the initial development of any cancers, because death from cancer is easily avoidabe when the symptoms havn't fully materialized. I am optimistic though about future medical science where targetted accurate therapy and more insight into the core causes of cancers will further lessen the likelyhood of cancer deaths.

Resveratol also looks good but it's pricey! :-/