People around the United States take vitamins as a dietary supplement to allow them to get things they don't get in there everyday diet in an attempt to make them healthier. Many of these vitamins makes claims such as they can make your heart healthier, bones stronger, give you energy, relieve your stress, or even make your skin look better. If multivitamins work they could be a very valuable thing to have in ones diet. They tend to be seem fairly expensive, but for $20-$30 dollars you can usually get around 200 pills.Multivitamin can come in a few forms; powder, liquid, and pill (swallowable and chewable). A multivitamin is just what it sounds like, something that has many vitamins and often other things such as dietary minerals. Some examples of dietary minerals are calcium, zinc, sodium, phosphorus, and potassium all of which are needed in a human diet. Many of the common vitamins in these supplements are vitamin A, D, E, K, B6, B12, and C. There are many reasons people take multivitamins; some are vitamin deficiencies, poor nutrition, pregnancy, illness, digestive disorders, and much more.
If someone is going to take a multivitamin there are man things they must know first. Never take your multivitamin with milk, as to much calcium can make it harder for your body to absorb the nutrients. Preferably take it with a whole glass of water. You should never take more then the recommended amount as there can be serious medical conditions if you take to much Vitamin A, D, E, or K: as well as some of the minerals. An overdose, vitamin toxicity, can cause severe headaches, stomach pain and bleeding, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, severe back pain, and much more. You should talk to your health care provided before taking a multivitamin as well to make sure any other medications don't interact in unwanted ways. Finally you should not take two similar multivitamins at the same time unless recommended by your Doctor.
A group of scientists in 2010, from the University of Hawaii Care Center, did a review about the use of multivitamins and the risk of mortality and developing cancer. They looked at a study done from 1993-1996 with more than 215,000 people aged 45-75, that lived in Hawaii or California, and reviewed the follow up that was done on them, between 1999-2003, after the experiment to see how the multivitamins worked. They excluded people with missing information about how they used the multivitamin and smokers. So there final analysis had 182,099 people in it. The results showed no significant difference in either category, mortality and cancer, between multivitamin takers and people who don't take them. However they did find that men that took a multivitamin tended to be older, white, and better educated. Women tended to be post menopausal and users of hormone replacement therapy as well. I find these results interesting because they don't see much effect on taking a multivitamin.
I sometimes take a multivitamin because I feel like I rarely get my fruits and vegetables, especially during the summer. The results of the 2010 study are surprising, but i feel like more research and more scientific studies need to be conducted before we can rule out the value of multivitamins. To me it seems like if multivitamins don't help that much then maybe getting all of our vitamins in our diet isn't as important as we think. Maybe though, the vitamins in the synthetic forms aren't as valuable as the actual vitamins and minerals from fruits and vegetables.
Book:
Sizer, F., & Whitney, E. (3013). Nutrition: Concepts & Controversies (13th ed, p.233-285). Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Multivitamin Info:
http://www.drugs.com/mtm/multivitamin.html
Study:
Park, Song-Yi, Suzanne P. Murphey, Lynne R. Wilkens, Bryan E. Henderson, and Laurence N. Kolonel. "Multivitamin Use and the Risk of Mortality and Cancer Incidence The Multiethnic Cohort Study." American Journal of Epidemiology173.8 (2010): 906-14. Web. 23 June 2013.
I like the idea that you brought up towards the end, suggesting that the form of the vitamins found in the supplements is not as effective as the form that comes from our diet. This is another area where I believe a study could be done, or maybe already has, to determine if there is a difference.
ReplyDeleteI think that the best way to get the vitamins and minerals that we need is to consume them in the food that we eat. However, in certain situations people may not be able to consume enough of certain nutrients and therefore may need supplements. Some of these cases may be those who are pregnant and those who have certain conditions such as anemia. In these cases, doctors will prescribe certain supplements in order for those people to get the amount of vitamins and minerals that they need.
Another question people who take supplements will ask is what multivitamin to take. In a study that was done by one of my classmates in our general chemistry class, it was found that generic brands of multivitamins do not contain as much of the different vitamins and minerals as name brands do. I thought that this was interesting because when it comes to other things, such as Mac and Cheese and mouth wash for instance, it has been found that the generic brand is just as good as the name brand. Not in this case though. They found that if you are going to take an over the counter vitamin supplement, it really is more effective if you spend a little bit more for the name brand choice.
My mom has always told me that I should be taking a multivitamin but i never listened to her because i thought that I got enough of my vitamin from eating the right foods and after looking at what you said i believe that to be right. Michelle i think it is really interesting about the different amounts between the generic and name brands. I wonder why that i? I would like to see more info on this and try to find out why that is.
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