Does taking vitamins daily reduce the risk of illness and are there any health benefits?
NO! NOPE! ZILCH! ZERO! NOOIT! HAYI! QO!
Taking vitamins daily not only has no health benefits, they do not reduce the risk of illness and may be associated with the opposite effects.
A large percentage of the population takes daily vitamin supplements, mostly for “energy” and to “boost their immune system”. Also popular is the higher doses of vitamins taken when ill or stressed. High doses of Vitamin E, beta-carotene and Vitamin A can have harmful effects.
Vitamin C for the common cold is a popular one – people pop them in high doses as soon as there’s a sniffle. Sometimes up to 2000mg per day! The recommended daily allowance is 90mg for men and 75mg for women…
In high doses, Vitamin C can increase your risk of a kidney stone, especially in men. A lot more painful and inconvenient than a snotty nose and sore throat.
$200 million is spent in America on Vitamin C per year. A large section of your local pharmacy is designed to rob you of your hard earned cash.
But there is no evidence that it significantly prevents nor reduces the duration of the common cold. Evidence suggests that, lonely zinc, (sitting at the bottom of the ingredient list on your multivitamin container), has more benefit then Vitamin C. Zinc interferes with the reproduction of rhinovirus and therefore can reduce the duration of the common cold. It’s also reduces the duration of acute viral gastroeneteritis in children – 10mg daily in children less than 10kg and 20mg in childen greater than 10kg.
Starting Vitamin C once your cold has started, is the barn-door-horse-has-bolted analogy, or, for my Afrikaans readers – die koeel is deur die kerk. It does not reduce the duration of your illness. Rhinovirus has been incubating in your respiratory tract for 12 – 72 hours before the first symptom has even started. (And while I’m on the topic, it can last 7-10 days; don’t get me started on taking antibiotics).
There is one thing Vitamin C is good for though.
Can you guess?
Scurvy.
If you really want to get some extra vitamin C, eat an orange. It’s cheaper and a fun fruit to interact with.
The same goes for the rest of the alphabet on the list of ingredients on your multivitamin bottle. They’re not making you healthier nor making you live longer.
“But I started taking such-and-such immune booster tablet and I feel so much better,” I get told.
P-L-A-C-E-B-O.
Placebo effect has been proven in dogs. If a placebo can make my basset feel better, it’s far more powerful in us, with our tiredness, fatigue, malaise, ennui that we cannot explain nor understand. We desperately try to self-medicate in the wellness aisle of our pharmacies.
Then there is the “I’ve no time to be sick,” in our permanently connected, online lives. Back to placebo aisle.
And my favourite Big-pharma trick: convince you take a supplement to treat the side-effects of the other medication they are selling you. See my Co-enzyme Q10 link below.
MY BASSET:
There are enough vitamins and minerals in the foods you eat…or should be eating. Lots of fresh vegetables, fruits and grains. Low saturated and trans fats. Reduce that salt grinder use. Avoid processed foods. Reduce sugar intake. Reduce alcohol intake. Control your total calorie intake. You’ll be getting more than enough supplements if you live a healthy lifestyle.
When are vitamins and supplements really necessary:
Poor nutrition from ill health;
Vitamin D levels are commonly low – it is needed for calcium absorption which is needed for bone health. In post-menopausal women and men over 75 years of age, 1000u of vitamin D daily can be of benefit;
Vitamin B12 is absorbed poorly in some people and is commonly low in the elderly – usually best supplemented by an injection.
Iron – in documented iron deficiency
Folic acid – prevents neurological defects when taken in the first trimester of pregnancy;
Vitamin B1 or thiamine in chronic alcohol use.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/do-you-need-a-daily-supplement
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-human-beast/201602/do-vitamins-have-placebo-effects
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/high-dose-vitamin-c-linked-to-kidney-stones-in-men-201302055854
Good book to read:::
Do not get me started on homeopathy…
How is it that your Basset looks so healthy? Placebo or Vet?
hkjkkmm,.m.,m.,