Vitamin Supplements - more harm than good?

Vitamin supplements
- good for your health?

We live in a world where we listen to Google more than our GP. And with this faith in the internet and the opinions of strangers, many of us take vitamins and supplements from our local health shop, which may not actually do us any good. Headlines often imply eating a special something 'stops cancer' - and for many, this is reason enough to head to a health shop and by a jar of concentrated daily supplements. Supplements, by definition, contain vitamins, minerals, herbs or plant material...but they may cause us more harm than good.

Now, in my opinion, supplements are generally a waste of money, with health shops stocking normal foods claiming them as special cures and doubling the price - I am not writing to debate this. These things may work for different people and really help some, sure, but the reason they are supplements and not given as medicines is because there is not enough evidence to show that they strongly have any impact - otherwise the government would fund us all to have a broccoli tablet, no one would have cancer and the NHS would be greatly relieved from its current pressures and strains.

Headline implying 
Vitamin B stops Alzheimer's

So why do we take vitamins and supplements? Well, some people get frustrated with NHS and doctors being unable to help them and so want to take control themselves and find their own cure. And hey, if I had a health problem doctors couldn't help, I would look down every road in search of a cure - who wouldn't? For others, vitamins offer increased security for a healthy longer life and offer to prevent problems before they start, and again if this cuts down people’s anxieties, then this is a good thing. On top of this, the placebo effect is a huge benefit - even if these supplements don’t help, if they make people feel better then so be it. Vitally some people do need vitamin supplements – pregnant women for example are told to take certain vitamin supplements throughout their pregnancy by doctors, and on doctors advice I have no concerns with supplements.

However, my question here is whether vitamin supplements may actually cause more harm than good for the average human.... something I personally would never have considered when taking an alternative medicine. An analysis of 68 clinical trials of vitamin supplements using almost 250,000 participants found that people taking vitamin A supplements were actually 16% more likely to die than those not taking any supplements during the trial. Vitamin E supplement takers had a 4% increased risk of death next to those taking nothing. Such a large study having strong results against taking vitamin supplements was soon argued against by, non-surprisingly, supplement manufacturers who argued that the study involved people who were already ill - but the study bit back stating that 70% of the studies participants were healthy.

Zinc -dangerous if taken incorrectly

Another study found that glucosamine and chondrotin sulphate, both used to fight arthritis and joint pain actually did not work any better than a placebo to slow the loss of knee cartilage in osteoarthritis, which aids the 'waste of money' argument, but at least does not result in worsened health. Zinc however, has on occasion done this to extremes. Zinc helps us make new cells, enzymes, and helps with the healing of wounds. You should be able to get all the zinc you need from your daily diet. Importantly, too much zinc reduces the amount of copper the body can absorb, leading to anemia and weakening of the bones. Therefore this is a supplement, which when used improperly, can actually have very dangerous side effects. Yet on TV adverts, zinc is branded as something we should all take to be healthier. 

So how do companies get away with this misleading marketing? Some supplements go through loop holes to be considered a food - this means that it is subject to food safety laws, which are not as strict as those for medicines. Supplements are not allowed to make claims that can treat or cure conditions without clinical evidence, however, they can and do make claims their product maintains a function - e.g. maintains bone function. Sneaky eh? We as humans need 13 vitamins to maintain health, but only in minute amounts. And the best way to get them? A balanced healthy diet (apart from Vitamin D, the one exception which we get from sun exposure).Yet we are sold vitamins by the tub-full for extortionate prices, which are branded as good for us.

Would you take them?

It seems that the original good intentions of early day vitamin supplements have been exploited by big companies wanting bigger profits. So, next time the headlines scare you about rates of a disease increasing, and then tell you the following week that "scientists have found product x STOPS the disease" think twice before heading to the health store to buy random supplements - the NHS choices website has some general advice on who should take what, as listed below. But in my opinion, unless I’m told by my GP, I won’t be taking supplements for the sake of it.

References

http://www.nhs.uk/chq/pages/1122.aspx?categoryid=51&subcategoryid=168 - who should take what?
http://www.nhs.uk/news/2011/05May/Documents/BtH_supplements.pdf -
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19325934.000-can-vitamin-supplements-do-more-harm-than-good.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14842-arthritis-supplements-no-better-than-placebo.html
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vitamins-minerals/Pages/Other-vitamins-minerals.aspx