In spite of innumerable dietary, vitamins, and health supplements on the market, there is little to no evidence of these pills having health benefits. In fact, some researchers have found that supplements are simply waste of money and may even harm your health.
According to new research, even more evidence are found related to the vitamin supplements that are useless and could even go to the extent of causing health issues.
According to a study published in Annals of Internal Medicine, health supplements and vitamins neither help people live longer nor offer any other notable health benefits.
Scientists checked at a variety of supplements, including vitamin A, vitamin K and zinc, and found that they offered no health benefits, but no health risks too.
While checking on vitamin D, researchers found that people who took 10 micrograms of vitamin D supplements regularly every day increased their overall risk for cancer and death since they had no vitamin D deficiencies.
“The potential harm of vitamin D supplement use among individuals without vitamin D deficiency needs to be further evaluated,” stated Dr. Fang Fang Zhang, the co-author of the study.
The same issue with calcium intake also states the excessive intake of calcium supplements increased a person’s risk of cancer, whereas excess intake of calcium through diets did not increase cancer risk. The researchers were unable to explain the relationship between excess calcium and cancer risk; however, they believe it could be due to an increased hormone production from the intake of calcium.
According to researchers, all the supplements, including multi-vitamins and single-nutrient supplements, they looked at the lowered general risk of death. But after adjusting for factors such as education level and lifestyles like smoking or alcohol consumption, physical activity level, etc., the apparent benefits of the supplements’ disappeared. They also found that more vitamin D a person consumes needlessly, the higher risk for adverse effects persists with that person.
The researchers found that vitamin K, magnesium, zinc, and copper were helpful for people only if they were consumed in the form of food and not supplements. This suggests that, for most people, a balanced and nutrient-dense diet is all that is needed to stay healthy.
Dr. Zhang added, “One thing that is clear is that dietary supplement use is not a substitute for a healthy balanced diet.”
In the previous research, it had been already seen that supplements offer fewer health benefits. A study also found that vitamins and herbal remedies could cause side effects such chest pain and heart palpitations, which increased ED visits due to supplement.
The supplements manufacturing companies add extra ingredients to their dosage and some do not even have a recommended dosage. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) do not regulate these vitamins and supplements. S. Bryn Austin, a professor of behavioral sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health said, “Consumers should expect nothing from [supplements] because we don’t have any clear evidence that they’re beneficial, and they should be leery that they could be putting themselves at risk. Whether it’s on the bottle or not, there can be ingredients in there that can do harm.”
