It’s difficult to tell facts from fiction about supplements since there’s so much hoopla about their feasible benefits. While vitamins and minerals are indispensable for good health, taking them in capsule, pill, or powder form — especially in megadoses — is neither necessary nor risk-free.
For one thing, dietary supplements, like over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription medications, can sometimes interact with each other. Furthermore, unlike medicines, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is not authorized to examine dietary supplements for safety and efficacy before being marketed in the United States.
Manufacturers are responsible for ensuring that their products are free of contaminants and impurities, are properly labeled, and contain exactly what they represent. In other words, nutritional supplements are regulated considerably more loosely than prescription or over-the-counter medications.
Despite this, close to more than half of Americans take herbal or dietary supplements on a daily basis, according to a reading published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in October 2016, making these products a booming industry with global sales reaching $128 billion in 2018, according to a paper printed in 2018 by the Nutrition Business Journal. The United States accounts for more than 31% of all sales.
Some supplements, when used correctly, can benefit your health, while others might be ineffective or even hazardous. For example, a Tufts University study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine on April 9, 2019, linked daily calcium intakes of more than 1,000 milligrams (mg) to a greater risk of cancer death. Furthermore, people who consumed enough magnesium, zinc, and vitamins A and K had a lower risk of death — but only if they get those nutrients from food rather than supplements.
Supplements With Harmful Ingredients
Fact sheets from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) can provide detailed information on the benefits and risks of specific vitamins, minerals, and herbal supplements. Seven supplements are highlighted here that you should take with caution.
Too Much Vitamin D Can Harm Your Kidneys
Vitamin D adequately aids the body in absorbing calcium, and eating enough of it is essential for good health and well-being, with the promise of protecting bones and preventing disorders like osteoporosis. Supplemental vitamin D is popular since getting enough from food is difficult (if not impossible). Our bodies produce vitamin D when our skin is exposed to sunshine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but greater time spent indoors and widespread use of sunblock has reduced the amount of vitamin D many of us get through sun exposure.
However, public demand for vitamin D supplementation is overtaking scientific data. According to the facts presented by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force research printed in the publication Annals of Internal Medicine in May 2013, taking low amounts of vitamin D (up to 400 international units, or IU) may not always prevent healthy women from breaking bones.
Taking large doses is also not a good idea. Vitamin D blood levels greater than 100 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) in healthy persons can cause excessive calcium absorption, which can cause muscle soreness, mental issues, abdominal pain, and kidney stones, according to the Cleveland Clinic. It may also boost your likelihood of having a heart attack or stroke.
Women over the age of 71, those who are vitamin D deficient, those who live in institutions, and those who have dark skin pigmentation have a different outlook. Vitamin D pills recommended by a doctor are good for them, according to the National Academy of Medicine.
Include whole foods like salmon, tuna, milk, mushrooms, and fortified cereals in your daily diet to meet vitamin D recommendations — 600 IU per day for those 1 to 70 years old and 800 IU per day for people 71 and over. According to the National Institutes of Health, you can also spend a short amount of time in the sun without using sunscreen – around 10 to 15 minutes every day.
Avoid Drug Interactions with St. John’s Wort
St. John’s wort is a shrub used to treat moderate depression, anxiety, and sleep difficulties as tea or in capsules. St. John’s wort has been confirmed to be useful in treating mild depression in small studies. For example, a review published in March 2017 in the Journal of Affective Disorders looked at 27 clinical cases with an entirety of 3,808 patients and concluded that herbal medicine reduced mild to moderate depression symptoms as well as various antidepressants.
Between 1993 and 2010, 28 percent of the time, St. John’s wort was prescribed in dangerous combinations with antidepressants or anti-anxiety medications, statins, the blood-thinning drug warfarin, or oral contraceptives, according to a study printed in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine in July 2014. According to a trusted source, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, taking St. John’s wort with an antidepressant can result in dangerous side effects, including a life-threatening spike in the brain’s chemical serotonin.
Between 1993 and 2010, 28 percent of the time, St. John’s wort was prescribed in dangerous combinations with antidepressants or anti-anxiety medications, statins, the blood-thinning drug warfarin, or oral contraceptives. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health reported that taking St. John’s wort with an antidepressant can end in dangerous side effects, including a life-threatening spike in the brain’s chemical serotonin.
The Excess Calcium Settles in Your Arteries
Although calcium is vital for strong bones and a healthy heart, too much of it is harmful. In reality, too much calcium, defined by the National Institutes of Health as more than 2,500 mg per day for persons aged 19 to 50 and more than 2,000 mg per day for those aged 51 and more, can cause issues.
Furthermore, an examination of ten years of medical testing on over 2,700 people in a federally funded heart disease research published on October 10, 2016, in the Journal of the American Heart Association revealed that calcium supplements may increase plaque accumulation in the aorta and other arteries. A diet rich in calcium-rich foods like dairy and leafy greens, on the other hand, appeared to be protective.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) warns women from ages 19 to 50 to ingest 1,000 mg of calcium per day and, for women 51 and beyond, 1,200 mg per day. Men aged 19 to 70 should take 1,000 mg per day, and men aged 71 and up should take 1,200 mg per day. According to the USDA, 6 ounces of plain low-fat yogurt contains about 311 mg of calcium, which is slightly less than one-third of the daily calcium requirements. Tofu, nonfat milk, cheese, fortified cereal, and liquids are all good calcium sources.
Routine blood testing can reveal calcium shortage, often known as hypocalcemia. If your blood calcium levels are low, your doctor may recommend a calcium supplement.
Multivitamins and Multi minerals: No Substitute for a Healthy Diet
Do you believe that living a healthy lifestyle necessitates taking a daily multivitamin-multimineral supplement in addition to eating healthy meals, exercising, and getting enough sleep? You will be astounded to discern that the verdict on whether or not such supplements are genuinely beneficial is still out.
In a research published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, experts looked at data from over 40,000 women over 19 years and discovered that women who took supplements had a higher chance of dying than those who didn’t. Multivitamins offer little or no protection against prevalent malignancies or cardiovascular disease.
Multivitamins, on the other hand, have been shown to be beneficial in recent studies. For instance, a study printed in the journal Nutrients on August 9, 2017, found that taking multivitamin and mineral supplements on a regular basis helped avoid micronutrient deficiencies that could lead to health concerns.
Prenatal vitamins with folic acid are suggested by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for women of childbearing age to correct birth abnormalities. If you have a condition in which the body does not absorb vitamins and minerals effectively, malabsorption syndrome, your doctor may prescribe multivitamins.
Fish Oil Supplements: Flaxseed or Fish?
Fish oil, which is large in omega-3 fatty acids, has been promoted as a way to prevent heart disease. Nevertheless, a growing body of proof suggests that fish oil supplementation may have dubious cardiovascular advantages. Omega-3 fatty acid supplements did not lower strokes, heart attacks, or deaths from heart disease in older and middle-aged men and women without any known risk factors for cardiovascular disease, according to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) on January 3, 2019. An earlier study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in May 2013, looked at adults at serious danger of cardiovascular disease and found no benefit.
