My Health
Are supplements really the ‘superheroes’ of self-care?
www.medicalnewstoday.com |Written by Annie Lennon on July 10, 2022 — Fact checked by Alexandra Sanfins, Ph.D.
Dietary supplements and multivitamins are a thriving multi-billion dollar industry, but studies show they have little, if any effect on the health of those who basic or broad-spectrum — taken once per day, they contain all or most viare not nutrient-deficient or pregnant. tamins in quantities that do not exceed daily values (DVs), recommended dietary allowances (RDA), and adequate intakes (AIs) high potency — containing In North America, experts valued the market size of dietary supplements at vitamins and minerals that are substantially higher than DVs, RDAs and AIs, $52,874.7 million in 2021, with annual spending expected to increase by 5.6% or even the tolerable upper intake level (UL) specialized — combining several until 2030. vitamins and minerals for a specific purpose, such as boosting energy, weight control, or improving immune function. Some of these products might contain According to a survey conducted between 2011–2014, 52% of adults take at least amounts of nutrients substantially above the DV, RDA, AI, or even UL. one dietary supplement every month, and 31% use a multivitamin-mineral sup- As multivitamins have no standard regulatory definition, their nutrient contents plement. The most common reason for taking supplements was “overall health and quantities vary widely between products. and wellness to fill nutrient gaps in the diet.”
Common misconceptions
However, studies show that, for otherwise healthy individuals, taking multivitamins has little to no effect on health and may, in some cases, increase the risk of When asked about the most common misconceptions about multivitamins, Dr. conditions like cancerTrusted Source. Rachel Kopec, assistant professor of human nutrition at The Ohio State University, told MNT: A recent review of 84 studies found that vitamin and mineral supplementation is linked to little or no benefit in preventing cancer, cardiovascular disease, and “One of the biggest misconceptions is the dose delivered. The bioavailability — death. the percentage of a given micronutrient dose that is actually absorbed into the bloodstream — from multivitamins can be quite low for fat-soluble micronutriIt also found that beta carotene supplementation among healthy individuals was ents like vitamins A, D, E, K, and essential minerals such as iron and calcium, linked to an increased risk of lung cancer. depending on how they are encapsulated, and what they are encapsulated with. For example, there is a risk for iron oxidizing vitamin A once dissolved in the Medical News Today spoke with five nutrition experts to understand more about stomach.” how multivitamins affect health, and why they may not be the “superheroes” of self-care. To the same question, Dr. Berry noted that more does not always mean better.
What are multivitamins?
She noted that “[s]ome of the mega-dose supplements sold are not only very expensive but have doses way beyond which our body needs or can even process, “Strictly speaking, the term ‘multivitamins’ refers to supplements containing so most of it gets flushed down the toilet.” only vitamins,” Dr. Sarah Berry, chief scientist at ZOE, and reader in nutritional sciences at King’s College London, told MNT. “However, most supplements Prof. Edward Giovannucci, professor of nutrition and wpidemiology at the Harcontain a mixture of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients such as omega-3 vard T.H. Chan School of Public Health agreed with Dr. Berry that more does fatty acids.” not always mean better, although he told MNT that multivitamins at around RDA levels might nevertheless help compensate for suboptimal diets. The first multivitamins emerged in the early 1940s. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) split them into three categories:
TT 160 | July 12th - July 18th| 2022
