Posted : December 2013
Author : Casey Gueren
Doctors Say You Should Stop Taking Multivitamins
Science says you don't need to pop that pill every
morning
Before you shell out for another pack of supplements, listen
to this: A growing body of research shows that taking multivitamins may not be beneficial
to your health and in some cases it may actually be harmful, according to a
recent editorial in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
This surprising paper was written by five physicians to sum
up the recent studies on multivitamin and supplement use. One study found no
evidence that multivitamins had a beneficial effect on mortality, cardiovascular
disease, or cancer. Another study looked at daily multivitamin use in men over
65 and found that it had no effect on cognitive decline. And a third study
looked at multivitamin use in men and women who had a myocardial infraction.
Surprisingly, the people taking the high-dose multivitamin didn't see a
significant difference in recurrent cardiovascular events when compared to
people taking a placebo.
So you may not see any major perks from taking vitamins, but
is there any harm in popping them once a day? Possibly - particularly with
supplements, which are more likely to provide a much higher dose of a single nutrient
than you'd normally get by eating a healthy diet. The study authors note that
some clinical trials found beta-carotene, vitamin E, and vitamin A supplements
may increase mortality. Check out this tough-love conclusion they wrote in the
paper:
"Although available evidence does not rule out small
benefits or harms or large benefits or harms in a small subgroup of the population,
we believe that the case is closed - supplementing the diet of well-nourished
adults with (most) mineral or vitamin supplements has no clear benefit and may
even be harmful. These vitamins should be not used for chronic disease
prevention. Enough is enough."
Most nutritionists agree that the best way to get the
vitamins and nutrients you need is by eating them. That way you're taking in
several nutrients at once, and you're also less likely to get toxic levels of
any one vitamin or mineral. However, if you're truly deficient in something,
your doctor may suggest a supplement to help balance you out. But the bottom line
is that most healthy adults don't need to take multivitamins. The better tactic
is to focus on eating the fruits and veggies that will give you the same
health-boosting benefits anyway.
~Blog Admin~
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