Multivitamins – Useful or Harmful?

A multivitamin is a supplement that contains multiple vitamins. They are believed to be beneficial to ones health. There are many new researches popping up that apparently show multivitamins are “useless”. With no significant health benefits to speak of, people blindly take these supplements everyday, year after year. One research showed that they did nothing for heart health, another found that they did nothing to mitigate or prevent cognitive decline, and another showed they did not decrease the chances of an early death. These studies were all done not too far apart from each in as far as time goes. Studies also show that a third of American adults take a multivitamin on a daily basis.

The reason researchers and nutritionists are finding these multivitamins useless is because they say we get all of the nutrients and vitamins we need from the foods we eat. Granted these days there are much less healthy, less fortified foods available, the foods we cook and eat at the dinner table provide all the nutrients we need according to researchers. Therefore, they feel that any extra from a supplement would result in an excess amount. Now there is an entire different situation when you can actually be harmed from something that is suppose to be helping you. Studies show that men who took high doses of vitamin E had higher risk to have prostate cancer. Another study from the Iowa Study showed that Iron could be harmful to pregnant woman.

But what could bring about such an oversight? Wouldn’t the companies that produce these products know that they are not effective if they are in fact useless? The companies that produce these supplements are well aware of what they can and can not do. They know that their products yield no significant results. These vitamins are not cheap either. You can easily end up paying 50 dollars or more for just a few bottles. Separate studies in 2009 and 2011 indicate that multivitamins have no positive effects on an individual’s health. With that said, we can see how people can end up wasting hundreds maybe even thousands of dollars a year. A given company can make millions perhaps even in the billions every year for continuing what they do. Collectively, the public spends about $28 billion a year on vitamins. Obviously, they would not stop putting this stuff into the public when they are making this kind of money from it. It is not an oversight, it is carelessness perhaps even evil. A study posted in New England Journal of Medicine in 1994 showed that I large amount of Vitamin A with carotene can increase the risk for lung cancer.

These days, people are lazy. They want to be able to live how they want and not deal with any consequences as well. Many people for this very eat foods that are not very healthy and beneficial and try to fill in the nutrient “gaps” with multivitamins. Maintaining your health is more important than your favorite foods. It takes mostly exercise and a healthy diet. However, society is becoming more fast paced so things are getting “sloppy”. Much of the earths air is polluted, food is made cheap, fast, and therefore with chemicals harmful to the human body. These foods also lack the vitamins and nutrients that naturally come with it in a natural form. Companies knowing this continue to put these supplements into the public As I said before they do it for the money because they are not around the damage it can cause. Not even the FDA, the organization that is supposed to monitor the food forces these companies to stop[ putting out useless and sometimes harmful product.

Taking vitamins has become an everyday thing for a lot of people. When you believe these supplements help, it is easy to get into a cycle of waking up popping two or three pills along with your breakfast and coffee. Numbers show that fifty percent of the american population takes multivitamins on a regular basis. Older, wealthier people are more likely to take vitamins. Vitamin use also raises with education. People also continue to take multivitamins due to force of habit. Others do not know that they are ineffective. The placebo effect can also come into play when you everyone says this supplement helps them and you want it to help you.

Of course you can get all of the vitamins and minerals you need from the good fortified foods. Foods including, leafy greens, broccoli, spinach, salads, etc. The article “Interaction and Warnings” tells us specific functions of some vitamins. Natural food has vitamins such as Vitamin C, Vitamin, E, Vitamin A, etc. They help the body carry out its regular functions and work properly. Without getting a proper balance of vitamins and minerals, a person could p[possibly develop a deficiency of some sort. At that point you would have to seek medical attention. Vitamin A is important for growth and helps the immune system. Vitamin E can be good for the heart and blood vessels but dangerous in large amount like many other fat soluble vitamins.

There are two kinds of vitamins. According to “Medicine.net”, fat soluble vitamins and water-soluble vitamins. Water soluble vitamins are stored in the kidneys and urinated out in excess. Fat soluble vitamins are stored in many organs and can cause much harm in excess. Both of these kinds of vitamins are needed but in excess they are urinated out or just a waste of money. Also, as I previously stated, they can cause harm to the body.

If we get all of the vitamins we need from the foods we eat, any supplements is a waste of money and could possibly cause health problems. Its possible in the near future these companies begin making their product cheaper to make even more money and this can cause more health problem. So if you have more people getting sick and the same or many even more people regularly taking the vitamins, this nation is in bad shape. With this in mind, the useless product should be banned and not allowed to be sold. There are other options for increasing ones health. I wonder if it would even be worth trying to get all these people to stop taking multivitamins.

All this evidence and research is hard to deny to say the least. Hopefully this research will cause people to stop investing in such a product. This will only give these companies more money, more power and they will continue to produce the same or even worse products. There are however experts that say multivitamins are effective and worth the money they cost. It is possible that these experts have not seen or done proper research or perhaps they are working with or for the companies that produce the multivitamins. Author Kathleen Zelman is a person who believes multivitamins are beneficial to fill in the nutrition “gaps” so many people have. Her view is just one of many.

Works Cited

“Diet and Nutrition Tips for Healthy Eating, Diets.” MedicineNet. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.

Oz, Mehmet. “Taking Too Many Vitamins Can Be Dangerous – Excess Supplements – Dr. Oz – AARP.” AARP. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.

Swift, Art. “Half of Americans Take Vitamins Regularly.” Half of Americans Take Vitamins Regularly. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.

“Vitamin E: Uses, Side Effects, Interactions and Warnings – WebMD.”WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.

“Water Soluble Vitamins vs Fat Soluble Vitamins.” MedicineNet. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.

Zelman, Kathleen. “How to Choose a Multivitamin Supplement.” WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2015.