As strange as it may now seem, there was a time when none of us took any vitamin supplements at all. Knowledge about the substances the human body needs to operate at its peak performance is stronger now than it was in years gone by, and so people used to rely on nothing more than the food they ate and drank to keep themselves healthy. Many people will tell you they got by just fine, but that wasn’t always the case. There’s a reason that illnesses like rickets aren’t as prevalent as they used to be, and English sailors are no longer called limeys. They only got that nickname because they used to rely on limes to stave off the threat of scurvy!
For many of us, taking a vitamin supplement is as normal as having a cup of coffee in the morning. We take them because we subscribe to the same theory that gamblers use when they’re playing mobile slots on website like Kong Casino; we put something small in, and we hope that the return we get from that something small will be a lot greater. For mobile slots players, it’s a few dollars to chase a jackpot. For health fanatics, it’s a tiny tablet to chase a healthier, fitter body. If a bet doesn’t pay off on a mobile slots game, all that happens is the gambler loses their money. If a vitamin tablet user’s gamble doesn’t pay off, though, could the downside be worse than you probably imagine?
Let’s look at the impact of introducing too much of a good thing to the human body, using some of the common ingredients of multivitamin tablets.
Vitamin A
The primary function of vitamin A is to boost the performance of your immune system. You can get all the vitamin A you need on a daily basis by eating half of a carrot. Unless you’re a vegetarian – or Bugs Bunny – you’re probably not ingesting carrots at that rate, so it probably makes sense to you to take a tablet instead. In doing so, you might be putting yourself at an increased risk of developing lung cancer, regardless of whether or not you’re a habitual smoker. Studies are ongoing in this area, but one of them suggests that people who regularly take on too much Vitamin A might be increasing their risk of lung cancer by as much as 28%. That means you’re better off finding a natural source of the vitamin. If carrots aren’t your thing, try kale, sweet potatoes, or butternut squash.
Calcium
The positive properties of calcium are explained to most of us when we’re children. Our parents use them as a bribe to make us drink milk! Calcium is good for your bones and teeth, and can also make your hair more full and glossy. To cut a long story short, it makes your body stronger. That’s only if you’re taking in the correct amount of it and no more, though. Overdosing on calcium might not harm your bones or teeth, but it can do damage to your cardiovascular system. You might have the strongest bones in the world, but they’ll be no use to you if you’ve damaged your heart by taking too much calcium on board. The correct amount can be obtained by drinking three glasses of milk during the day, although many shop-bought yogurts will do the job. It turns out your parents were right about milk all along!
Vitamin E
There’s strong evidence that Vitamin E shouldn’t be included in multivitamins at all, and might actually be something of a health hazard. It’s an antioxidant, but so are many other things. You’ll find Vitamin E in nuts and cereals, as well as the majority of leafy vegetable. You might wish you hadn’t, though. Like calcium, too much Vitamin E can do lasting damage to your cardiovascular system – and one study suggests that it might be a factor in increased mortality rates compares to people who don’t take in too much of it. A 2011 study which focused solely on men noted that the risk of prostate cancer also increased with multivitamin users. One of the studies that have been performed set out to demonstrate that the vitamin lowered the risks of cancers and heart attacks, but actually did the exact opposite.
More worryingly than all of the above, we could go on. Calcium, Vitamin B, and several other multivitamin favorites have all been connected to a number of illnesses, while at the same time failing to demonstrate any discernible health benefit at all.
Is It Time To Throw Them In The Trash?
While we don’t want to be sensationalist, the answer to that question is probably ‘yes.’ We realize you have no reason to take us at face value, so all we can do is point you in the direction of a higher-authority source:- the National Health Service of Great Britain has declared that multivitamins are ‘a waste of money,’ and that consumers should give them a wide berth. They’ve also supplied further health information at that link if you want to verify the negative effects we’ve just told you about.
There are some uses for vitamin tablets and vitamin supplements, but these tend to be clinical. People who have been formally diagnosed with a vitamin deficiency, they need a way of getting extra vitamins into their bodies. That’s when tablets become useful. If you don’t have a vitamin deficiency diagnosis, though, you may actually be doing more harm than good by introducing 100mg or more of vitamins into your body on a regular basis.
Our bodies do need the basic building blocks of multivitamin tablets, but we get the majority of what we need from our food. If you’re feeling run down, or you’re worried that you’re not getting enough vitamins into your system, simple changes to your diet or exercise routine are likely to do more for you than simply popping a tablet every morning. We don’t know of any medical condition – other than vitamin deficiencies – which has been improved by the use of vitamin tablets. It would appear that the healthcare industry has been enriching itself through our ignorance for a long time now – and it’s probably time we stopped buying into the scam.
