Does vitamin supplement do more harm than good?

July 11, 2019 / BIOON / - in Australia's latest nutrition survey, 29% of people said they had taken at least one dietary supplement A new study recently published aims to study the benefits of vitamin and mineral supplements in the prevention of heart disease, stroke and premature death, known as all-cause mortality The study found that the most common ones were ineffective, while some of the less common ones were effective The review also found that some supplements may be harmful Photo source: http://cn.bing.com the research is a systematic review, which means that the research team examined all relevant research papers (179 in total) and synthesized the results Supplements tested included vitamin A, B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B6 (pyridine), B9 (folic acid), C, D, e, β - carotene, as well as minerals calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium and selenium The definition of multivitamins is to include most of these vitamins and minerals In a study that tested four common multivitamins, vitamin D, calcium and vitamin C supplements, the researchers found no reduction in the incidence of heart disease, stroke and premature death This means that taking them is not good, but not bad They also evaluated less common supplements that had a positive impact on early death, heart disease and stroke They found that folic acid supplements can reduce the incidence rate of heart disease and stroke Before you rush out to buy folic acid supplements, there are a few caveats First, there are concerns that too much folate in the blood may increase the risk of prostate cancer, although the results are mixed Photo source: http://cn.bing.com second, only two of the seven standard studies (called randomized controlled trials) that tested folic acid supplements reduced stroke One is a large study of 20000 people in China There is no plan to strengthen folate food in China, while in Australia and the United States, folate is usually added to bread and breakfast cereals Although the benefits of taking folic acid are small, the researchers also found some side effects of folic acid supplementation In those who took statins to lower blood cholesterol, slow or prolonged release of vitamin B3 (niacin) increased the risk of early death by 10%, and 200 people needed to be harmed, meaning that only 200 people who took statins and niacin could see an early death In the study that tested "antioxidant" supplements, there was a slight increase in the risk of premature death, with 250 "people in need of harm" The most studied supplement is vitamin D The researchers found that vitamin D was not good for preventing heart disease or stroke, but it was also harmless Surprisingly, vitamin D is often used in other diseases, such as diabetes Although the authors of the study acknowledged that longer follow-up was needed, no benefit of early death was found What does all this mean? The authors conclude that there is low to medium-quality evidence that folic acid can prevent heart disease and stroke, as well as that vitamin B complex, including folic acid, can prevent stroke In western countries, most people don't have the best diet This review shows that using supplements as an "insurance policy" for poor eating habits does not work If so, the number of early deaths would be reduced Taking supplements is very different from eating natural foods Complications or health problems caused by nutritional intake are actually always caused by taking supplements rather than eating food When you focus on one of the vitamins, minerals or nutrients in supplements, you miss out on other phytonutrients that are present in plant foods and are good for overall health Photo source: http://cn.bing.com the rise in the rate of premature death caused by taking some kinds of supplements should be a wake-up call to remind people of the need to strengthen the regulation of supplements, and people need more support to eat better In short, we need to eat more nutritious natural foods, including foods rich in folic acid, such as green leafy vegetables, beans, seeds, poultry, eggs, grains and citrus fruits In Australia, many breads and breakfast cereals are rich in folate Foods rich in niacin (vitamin B3) include lean meat, milk, eggs, whole wheat bread and cereals, nuts, leafy vegetables and protein containing foods Reference materials: [1] new vitamin supplement study finds they may do more harm than good [2] Australian Health Survey: nutrition first results - foods and nutrients, 2011-12 [3] supplementary vitamins and minerals for CVD prevention and treatment [4] price AJ et al Circulating food and vitamin B12 and risk of state cancer: A Collaborative Analysis of Individual Participant Data from Six Cohorts Including 6875 Cases and 8104 Controls Eur Urol 2016 Dec；70(6)：941-951 doi： 10.1016/j.eururo.2016.03.029 Epub 2016 Apr 6 【5】Tomaszewski JJ et al Impact of folate intake on prostate cancer recurrence following definitive therapy： data from CaPSURE？ J Urol 2014 Apr；191(4)：971-6 doi： 10.1016/j.juro.2013.09.065 Epub 2013 Oct 3
【6】 Phytonutrients