They seem like a safety net for more immeasurable nutrition. Are they important for everyday health?

This memoir is a piece of The Elemental Guide to Vitamins. Here are the vitamins and supplements that are included: multivitamins, vitamin D, vitamin C, calcium, B vitamins, omega-3, vitamin E, fiber, protein, and probiotics.

Multivitamins have been around since the 1930s. While Americans took some time to warm up to the idea of ​​swallowing a daily supplement. In 1970, these products had become popular among both children and adults. While specific ingredients and doses vary slightly from one product to another; most contain a cocktail of 25 or more essential vitamins and minerals, including vitamins C, B, A, and more.

The attraction of these pills is clear: as a safety net; multivitamins are meant to capture and address any nutritional requirements that may be missing your normal diet. And some early research on multivitamins gave evidence of benefits.

A major study published in Annals of Internal Medicine in 1998 found that prolonged use of multivitamins. That may reduce the risk of colon cancer in women. And research in the 1990s found that pregnant women taking folic acid-containing multivitamins. It were less likely to give birth to children with neural tube defects.

More recently, a 2009 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that women; who take multivitamins have longer telomeres. A genetic marker of health improvement. And a 2012 trial in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that men 50 years of age or older who had taken a centrum silver multivitamin every day for 10 years or now developed cancer compared to men taking placebo Was less likely.

While many believe that vitamins and nutrients are healthy - and therefore getting more of them is a good thing - the reality is more complicated than this.

Studies such as these helped popularize the use of multivitamins. But in many cases, these findings have been offset by new or improved experiments by experts. For example, researchers immediately debated the validity of the findings of the JAMA study on cancer risk in older men. "The authors did not find that the supplement preferentially prevented any particular cancer, and there was no evidence of a connection between adherence and protective effect," argued a JAMA editorial with the study's publication.

While many believe that vitamins and nutrients are healthy. Therefore getting more of them is a good thing - the reality is more complicated than this. Unless one is severely lacking; it is not necessarily better, says the University of Michigan's Jenkins / Pokemon Director of Preventive; and Alternative Medicine, Mark Moyad. In remarkable circumstances, such as with vitamin E and some antioxidants. Consuming too much of a supplement may improve the development of medical problems, including risk for cancer, he says. At the same time, it is not at all clear that the human body can take and use nutrients from pills in the same way it uses nutrients from food, which are often accompanied by fat or other molecules that aid absorption. We do.

In 2018, a comprehensive meta-analysis of high-quality multivitamin experiments assumed that these pills do not reduce a person's risk of heart disease, heart attack, stroke or untimely death. More research has discovered that multivitamins do not benefit older adults to avoid age-related mental dissolution. The 2006 "State-of-the-Science" record from the National Institutes of Health resolves; that the evidence is insufficient to justify the use of multivitamins by or against the American public to prevent chronic disease.

Of course, not all multivitamins are created equal. From one product to another, the type and amount of nutrients involved can vary widely, which may be one reason for mixed research on multivitamins. But depending on the makeup of a multivitamin, there may be some risks associated with its use. Throughout pregnancy, ladies who take too much vitamin A - a popular ingredient in multivitamins. That may be a more prominent risk for children with birth defects, according to the NIH fact sheet. Besides, beta-carotene or vitamin A-containing multivitamins may increase lung cancer risk among smokers or former smokers. And analysis from ConsumerLab.com, a 2017 company, a private company that performs supplemental testing for quality control issues, found that 46% of multivitamin products failed to meet basic quality-control standards; While some multis did not break down properly during digestion, others were low on their listed nutrients.

Long story, the jury is still out when it comes to the usefulness of multivitamins. The NIH recommends that pregnant women take iron and folic acid supplements to prevent birth defects or complications. But these are not necessarily from the multivitamin pill.

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