Are multivitamins a waste of money? Editorial in medical journal says yes

[Eugene]

Source: CNN

Are multivitamins a waste of money? Editorial in medical journal says yes

By Nadia Kounang, CNN
December 17, 2013 -- Updated 0157 GMT (0957 HKT)

(CNN) -- More than half of all adults in the United States take some sort of multivitamin; many do so in hopes of preventing heart disease and cancer or even to aid with memory.

But an editorial published in this week's Annals of Internal Medicine says that using supplements and multivitamins to prevent chronic conditions is a waste of money.

"The (vitamin and supplement) industry is based on anecdote, people saying 'I take this, and it makes me feel better,' said Dr. Edgar Miller, professor of medicine and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and co-author of the editorial.

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The editorial, "Enough is Enough: Stop Wasting Money on Vitamin and Mineral Supplements," is based on three studies looking at the effects of multivitamins on preventing heart attacks and cancer, as well as improving cognitive function in men older than 65. All three studies were also published in this week's Annals of Internal Medicine.

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Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/16/health/multivitamins-studies/

[tridim]

1. Sorry medical establishment, I'm not stopping my vitamin C supplement.

[HuckleB]

25. Big Supplement thanks you for your donation.

[randr]

2. The medical pharmaceutical industry is adept at keeping us in the dark

A great many cures have come about to our benefit for sure. However, the current situation of over the top corporate greed has put our population at risk. We are witness to daily exposures of drugs that have done far more harm than good. The lists of side effects of so many current medical fad drugs should be a wake up call. I know of no harmful "side effects" for the supplements the study notes. Personally, I assume our food sources are lacking in nutritional quality and take supplemental vitamins to compensate for the poor state of our agricultural product.
I am always drawn to the fact that in most medical trials, the placebo effect accounts significantly. Until the "medical establishment gives a good reason for this, I will remain skeptical and own my own responsibility for my well-being.
My first instinct is to follow the funding for this study and draw my own conclusions.

[HuckleB]

14. Supplements are almost all worthless.

Which also explains them having fewer side effects. BTW, if you had looked into the science on supplements, you would know better than to post this response.

[randr]

16. The majority of "science"

these today are reports crafted by vested interests.
You would be wise to follow the money.

[HuckleB]

24. You would be wise to learn how science works instead of spouting pointless cliches.

If you think this is some conspiracy, then you're living in one heck of a fantasy world.

[indie9197]

28. The three studies they cited measured multivitamins ability to

1. prevent heart attacks
2. prevent cancer
3. improve cognitive function in men over 65

I personally don't take vitamins for those three reasons, but I will continue to take certain supplements and herbs for other reasons. Do you believe that all herbal remedies are also almost worthless?

[HuckleB]

36. Yes, they are completely worthless.

The evidence against them is overwhelming. The evidence for them sucks.

Why would you waste your money on them?

[CanSocDem]

15. And they have help...

...on the outside from their cheerleaders trying to coax support for a 0-57 team with the longest losing streak in the history of sports. Metaphorically speaking....

They're on the verge of proclaiming that the body doesn't need "vitamins" or "minerals" at all, presumably because if this proves to be wrong they have a 'surgery' or a high-priced 'supplement' for the fix.

"Personally, I assume our food sources are lacking in nutritional quality and take supplemental vitamins to compensate for the poor state of our agricultural product."

Not to mention the lack of public access to wholesome food at even the local level.

Good post but best of all:

"I am always drawn to the fact that in most medical trials, the placebo effect accounts significantly. Until the "medical establishment gives a good reason for this, I will remain skeptical and own my own responsibility for my well-being."


.

[Orrex]

18. Ladies and gentlemen, I present yet another sad case of

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Most of this has been known for years...

but it's useful to bring it up again.

Sure, the medical colossus would like us to swap our cheap mystery pills for expensive proprietary mystery pills, but the supplement industry isn't selling all that stuff at cost or less just to keep us healthy either.

Just what is in that ginseng capsule I get from Puritan, anyway?

[hedgehog]

4. Excellent point! I'd love to see enough regulation

to ensure that the ingredients in supplements actually match the labels!

[hedgehog]

5. What if - the reason certain studies show no benefit is that the dose is too low

and/or the study is poorly designed?

[Big Blue Marble]

6. And what if the purpose of these studies is to undermine our confidence in supplements

so they can force them off the market?

[hedgehog]

7. I don't think we need to look for malice when

incompetence/stubbornness/unwillingness to consider something new are all involved!

[BuddhaGirl]

8. +1

This kind of crap has been going on for years.

But vitamins, herbs, supplements are not going away. :-D

[HuckleB]

12. BS.

When will you recognize that science does not support the BS you want to believe?

When will you realize that you are wasting your money? And that you are pushing others to waste their money?

Stop being wrong. It hurts humans.

[BuddhaGirl]

17. LOL

When will you stop being so rude? You were really called out about it in another thread recently.

When will you realize that you're not changing any minds, just as I know nothing I would say would change your mind?

Stop the unnecessary rudeness. It only hurts yourself.

[HuckleB]

22. You promote scams.

Thus your response is as pointless as ever.

And your fellow humans continue to suffer because of your BS.

[BuddhaGirl]

27. You promote rudeness

Oh, the audacity of someone having an opinion different from yourself!

You can't help it, I guess

[HuckleB]

33. You're just as rude as I am.

Thus, your argument, which is meant to disparage me as an individual is as sick and wrong as the scams you promote.

[BuddhaGirl]

37. Back at ya!

[HuckleB]

39. .

[BuddhaGirl]

41. ...

[hedgehog]

19. Another possibility is that there is a sub-group that for

various reasons (inability to absorb vitamins, inability to metabolize vitamins) benefits from supplements. This group is unlikely to show up in significant numbers in typical study sample .

(http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/gene/MTHFR)

Again, unless the study is long term - several years at least - it's not going to pick up certain chronic conditions.

[HuckleB]

23. Oh, brother.

I get it. You're a believer. You don't understand how science works.

The consensus is astoundingly clear. You are no different than a climate change denialist on this.

[earthside]

29. All kinds of supplements work.

Folic acid.

B12.

Vitamin C.

Off the top of my head these are vitamins that I know are prescribed and/or recommended by doctors.

From what I am seeing of this latest study, it is asserting that vitamins and mineral supplements don't prevent disease or death. I'm not seeing that they studied the effects on general health maintenance.

So, perhaps before categorically proclaiming what 'science' does or does not support, you should behave like a scientist and get all the facts.

[HuckleB]

34. Vitamin C is generally no longer recommended as a supplement.

Vitamin D is, once in awhile.

Outside of that. Nothing.

Yet, the supplement industry has shelves and shelves in every supermarket in the country. Why is that?

[HuckleB]

11. What if the question has been answered repeatedly, yet you keep asking?

What are you getting out of promoting baseless supplement purchases?

Hmmmmmm.

[Warpy]

9. They are for people eating a balanced diet

with plenty of fruit and veg.

I only recommended them for people on deficiency diets like dieters, fad diet followers, and junk food junkies, and then only at the RDA.

I always told them that anything over the RDA would just give them expensive urine. It didn't make any difference, pill poppers were always suckers for the megadoses, especially the ones with gold labels that made them think they were really getting something special.

The only correlation I ever saw with vitamin megadoses and health was that people who bought the expensive urine, er, stress tablets were also paying close attention to what they ate. Most of them didn't need vitamins, at all. They were getting plenty in their food.

[HuckleB]

10. Another study that confirms scientific consensus, but some want to pay for vitamins any way.

You can't stop believers from wasting their dough, even if it would help hungry people get fed.

[SheilaT]

13. I figured out years ago that vitamins were a crock.

When I was pregnant with my first child, and given some sort of pregnancy multi-vitamin, I took them for a couple of days and then decided that this was crap.

Oddly enough, everything went fine, kid came out okay.

I am the healthiest person I know. I don't take vitamins. I don't subscribe to various nonsense about diet. Not too long ago someone I know said that everyone is gluten intolerant. Really? I'm not. I just don't go along with the many fads that are out there. Did I mention that I'm the healthiest person I know?

[tridim]

20. Vitamin C helps tremendously with cortisol regulation..

And thus major stress relief. So I have to disagree with your blanket statement about vitamins.

It's one of the few vitamins that our bodies can't produce, and is nearly impossible to get in the proper dosage without supplementation.

[SheilaT]

21. And then there are the studies

that have shown that smokers who take some particular vitamin supplement (I was thinking it was C, but can't recall for sure) got lung cancer and died far more quickly than those smokers who didn't take the supplement.

Again, eating a balanced diet is absolutely the best thing a person can do. Recently there's been all kinds of stuff out there indicating that everyone is deficient in Vitamin D. Or just about everyone. Really?

All I know is that I'm remarkably healthy and I don't do any vitamin or mineral supplements. I notice that those who obsess about those things seem to have all sorts of health issues. Of course, the health issues might have come first, but still . . . .

[BadgerKid]

31. I think it was beta carotene.

Some scandinavian study I believe.

[BuddhaGirl]

26. You have mentioned in many threads

that "you are the healthiest person you know."

Well, that's wonderful for you, but it's not true for everybody.

[HuckleB]

35. You have attacked me personally in many threads.

Well, that's wonderful for you, but not true for everybody.

[BuddhaGirl]

38. Victim much?

You're confused, as usual...my reply was to someone else.

[HuckleB]

40. And your confessions continue.

It's funny to watch. I'll give you that much.

[BuddhaGirl]

42. and the ridiculousness continues

it's pretty amusing!

[phylny]

30. I chew a kid's multivitamin every day.

During the months that I didn't, my nails sucked. Broke all the time, split, were awful. When I started again, within a few months, strong nails again. So, what changed?

[SheilaT]

32. I have always had crappy nails.

Weak, break easily. About three different times in my life for about two months my nails were strong and nice. Each time it's happened I've thought very hard to figure out what, if anything, was different, especially in my diet, that could account for the improvement. Could never figure it out. And it's happened in different parts of the country. Quite weird.