Nutrition

5 Multivitamin myths — should you worry about your vitamins?

by Dixie Mills, MD, FACS

• Do you need a multivitamin if you eat healthy food?
• Are multivitamins a waste of money?
• Are multivitamins unsafe?
• Does your body benefit from multivitamins?

Dawn arrived at Whole Foods with her children at nearly five o’clock to purchase a multivitamin. The kids were hungry, and disappointed because a race-car grocery cart wasn’t available for them. By the time she arrived at the vitamins, she picked up two different brands, checking for vitamin D quantities (because she’d read it was important), then reached for another one to compare it to the others. Before she knew it, her daughter was running with a glass bottle from the shelf. After chasing her around the store and putting her vitamin selections down somewhere near the eggs, Dawn gave up, bought a rotisserie chicken, and went home.

The next day Dawn was relieved that she hadn’t purchased a multivitamin because her doctor told her they were a waste of money and that her body wouldn’t absorb them!

When I heard this story, I thought, Wow, we’ve got work to do. I’m sure you’ve heard people say that multivitamins and nutritional supplements are just a waste of money, a scam, or even dangerous. But if that’s true, why are so many people taking them?

If you’ve been confused or discouraged like Dawn, this article is for you. Let’s take a closer look at the most common misperceptions about multivitamins, so you can make your own educated decision.

Myth #1: All multivitamins are created equally

I know that in these difficult economic times, many of us are shopping at discount markets. But I would offer a word of caution about buying your vitamin supplements from these places, as their makers may not adhere to good manufacturing practices. Often these multivitamins are poor quality, low on nutrients, and full of unnecessary additives.

Many inexpensive multivitamins contain forms of nutrients that are difficult for the body to break down and utilize, whereas professionally formulated brands combine naturally-sourced nutrients and chelated minerals so your body can digest and use them more readily. Some multivitamins contain preservatives, sweeteners, fillers, and artificial colors or flavoring, while others leave these additives out.

I sometimes liken multivitamins to salads. Most of us would agree that salads are good for us. But a salad of lettuce from a bag, sprayed with chemicals and topped with dressing made with high-fructose corn-syrup is far different from one made with organic spinach, topped with olive oil, lemon juice and walnuts. The bottom line is that salads are made with different quality ingredients, and so are multivitamins.

Myth #2: If you eat a healthy diet, you don’t need a multivitamin

That is one tall order! In a recent Huffington Post blog, my colleague and functional medicine pioneer Mark Hyman, MD agreed that you don’t need to take a multivitamin — but...

“...ONLY if you eat wild, fresh, whole, organic, local, non-genetically modified food grown in virgin mineral and nutrient soils, and not transported across vast distances and stored for months before eaten… work and live outside, breathe only fresh unpolluted air, drink only pure, clean water, sleep nine hours a night, move your body every day, and are free from chronic stressors and exposures to environmental toxins.”

Whether by choice or happenstance, we’re inevitably exposed to any number of factors that can make it difficult to get all of our body’s nutritional needs met — even with a healthy diet. Studies show that in today’s world, most of us are simply not getting the basic nutrition we need to prevent disease, let alone achieve optimal health.

Of course, vitamins are no substitute for a healthy diet! But there is also evidence that some scarcer key nutrients are more reliably obtained from supplements. Research suggests that vitamin K, for example, is better absorbed from tablets than from food. Iodine is another crucial micronutrient that many women lack. Vitamin D and omega–3’s, are simply not ample enough in the food chain to fully protect us from degenerative diseases. A good multivitamin–mineral complex will cover these gaps, particularly when you are under a lot of stress, on a special diet, or have food sensitivities.

Myth #3: Multivitamins are a waste of money

Think of multivitamins like a little extra money in your health bank account. A quality multivitamin–mineral complex can help preserve healthy brain and nervous system function, spark the body’s energy production, support tissue repair, protect immune function, regulate a healthy sleep-wake cycle, balance hormonal pathways, and so much more. A good one is never a waste of money, whether you’re a teen or a nonagenarian!

We don’t stand alone on this idea, either. Research by the Lewin Group — a health services consulting firm The Wall Street Journal calls “the gold standard of health policy analysis” — has applied accounting methods to determine that key essential nutrients are well worth the pennies per day they cost because they reduce sickness and chronic disease in women and dramatically decrease total healthcare expenditures on services like physician visits and hospitalizations.

Myth #4: Multivitamins are dangerous

Yes, if we take certain vitamins in extremely high doses or in the wrong forms, some can be dangerous to the body. But let’s be realistic: even drinking water in extreme amounts can be harmful! Vitamins and minerals work in harmony in the body, so looking at large doses of a single isolated vitamin or a multivitamin without minerals is not compatible with what is found in nature and is not the same as taking a well-balanced multivitamin. This is another reason why choosing a professionally formulated multivitamin is a good idea.

If you look closely at what’s behind this myth, you’ll see that studies reporting negatively on multivitamins generally target population groups with serious health issues to start — like cancer or heart disease, or lifestyle habits linked with higher risk, like cigarette smoking or taking synthetic HRT. Other studies are poorly designed and do not control for what type of multivitamin its participants are taking, how often they’re taking it, or their lifestyle factors.

The concern about interaction between multivitamins and certain prescription drugs, such as anti–clotting medications, is a very real one. But many nutritional factors can influence the way prescription drugs work in the body, even eating broccoli — at least, in theory! If you’re receiving appropriate monitoring, taking a quality multivitamin–mineral complex, including omega-3’s, should not be a problem for you. We always encourage partnering with your healthcare professional to decide what works best for you.

Myth #5: Your body can’t absorb multivitamins

If this were true, why would there be well-known precautions about their interactions with certain drugs? Or why would people having surgery be asked to stop taking them (if they contain vitamin E) two weeks prior to surgery to minimize bleeding? Your body absolutely absorbs multivitamins — but there is a difference in how well you absorb and use multivitamins depending on the quality of the formulation.

The ease with which nutrient forms are digested, absorbed, and metabolized by the body is sometimes referred to as bioavailability. Pharmaceutical–grade vitamin and nutrient tablets are regularly run through tests that measure precisely how long they take to dissolve in the stomach and intestines. The optimal nutrient forms are those that better absorbed and metabolized than others. Calcium supplements made from ground–up seashells, for instance, aren’t absorbed and used as well as alkalizing mineral–salt forms such as calcium citrate and calcium ascorbate.

The vitamins we have formulated for use by our Personal Program Members contain natural–complex forms and fractions of vitamins A, B–complex, C, D, E and K, and well as chelated minerals to ensure stability and absorbability. We chose these forms to make sure our Members absorb them well and get the most benefit out of their vitamins — and it’s an important reason why many women find that there’s a big difference between how they feel on standard, over–the–counter nutritional supplement formulas and our formula.

So much to choose from

Like Dawn, the overwhelmed mother of two, many women we talk to feel confused about whether taking a multivitamin is helpful or not, and which one to consider taking. The multivitamin question has certainly been raised in the media and among nutritional researchers, but let’s be honest: our modern way of life, external environment, food sources, and stress levels are far from ideal. Taking a high-quality multivitamin-mineral complex that is absorbed easily and free of additives and fillers, like the one we offer in the Personal Program, is one option that provides a measure of protection and support every single day. So weigh the case, and do what seems right for your short and long–term health.

Related to this article:

References & further reading on multivitamin myths

 

Last Modified Date: 04/20/2011
Principal Author: Dixie Mills, MD, FACS