Do I Really Need To Take A Multivitamin?

Millions of Americans take multivitamins each and every day. But why? It has long been believed that multivitamins are incredibly beneficial for health and well being and with such a huge variety of vitamins on the market, there is something out there for everyone - male or female, young or old, healthy or unwell.

Americans Take Multivitamins to Improve and Maintain Health

A study by Regan Bailey, nutritional epidemiologist based atthe U.S. Office of Dietary Supplements, found that Americans tended to take supplements to improve or maintain their health.

Based on data from the 2007-2010 National Health Survey, taken from 12,000 U.S. adults, Bailey found that 45% of adults taking multivitamins did so because they believed they would improve their health, with a further 33% taking them to maintain health. Only 23% of adults were taking vitamins on the advice of their doctor. We now know why Americans are taking multivitamins - but where did it all begin?

Dr. Linus Pauling

Dr. Linus Pauling is relatively unknown, but he is widely considered to be one of history's most prolific doctors. When Albert Einstein was asked to comment on his work, his reply was a shrug of the shoulders and the comment, "His work is too complicated for me." He won two Nobel prizes, one of them when he was just 30 years old, and went on to publish numerous scientific papers that underpin much of science as we know it today. He was the first scientist to combine chemistry with quantum physics and one colleague of his later commented that in one stroke, one of his papers on evolution "united the fields of paleontology, evolutionary biology and molecular biology". He also worked in molecular biology and his work was later used as a starting point for research into the structure of DNA.

In 1970, however, his reputation quickly changed. He published a paper on the use of vitamin C, recommending that people took 3,000mg of the supplement each day - a whopping 50 times the daily recommended allowance. He himself was taking 18,000mg - 300 times the daily recommended allowance. Science didn't agree with his claims but his previous reputation as a fantastic scientist meant that 50 million Americans were taking his advice by the mid-1970s.

Read More: Taking Multivitamins Will Not Protect You From Dying Of Cancer Or Heart Disease

His research was quickly debunked by study after study and his reputation soon plummeted. But his work was the start of America's love affair with multivitamins.

Recent developments in the debate over multivitamin benefits have centered on their impact on cognitive health, particularly in older adults. Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School conducted a randomized trial, the COSMOS-Web Study, which showed that taking a daily multivitamin led to significantly less cognitive aging, measured as 3.1 years less, compared to a placebo in individuals aged 60 and older. This study, alongside another cognition trial in COSMOS, suggests that multivitamins can slow memory loss.

The trial found that participants taking multivitamins performed better on memory tests compared to those on a placebo. This benefit was sustained over the three years of the trial, although the amount of benefit plateaued after one year. Researchers noted that longer trials, possibly starting in midlife, are needed to understand if longer-term multivitamin use confers greater benefits.

The findings are notable because previous randomized trials typically tested only one or a few micronutrients, not a comprehensive multivitamin. Researchers believe that several micronutrients are important for optimal brain health, and deficiencies in these can accelerate cognitive aging.

Multivitamins Could Actually Worsen Health

In 1994, the National Cancer Institute studied 29,000 Finnish men. They were all smokers and over the age of 50, chosen because they were at a high risk for cancer and heart disease. Patients were given vitamin E, beta-carotene, both vitamins, or neither.

In 1999, a study by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center of more than 18,000 patients who had been exposed to asbestos and who were at a high risk for lung cancer, found that patients who took vitamin A, beta-carotene or both were at a 28% and 17% higher risk of dying from lung cancer or heart disease respectively than those who took no supplements. The study was brought to an abrupt halt.

Findings Opposite to Scientific Thought

The thought behind multivitamin use is simple. When we eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, we take in a lot of vitamins and nutrients, including antioxidants. People who eat lots of fruit and veg tend to be healthier - so surely those who take supplemental vitamins and nutrients will gain the same health benefits? Scientific studies have proven that vitamin supplements could have the opposite effect.

Study after study has shown this not to be true - unless you are a vulnerable person, an elderly person, pregnant, breastfeeding, or a young child.

However, patients who are not vulnerable, and who do not need to take a specific vitamin in order to treat a condition or to maintain their current health are generally advised not to take multivitamins. Taking multivitamins on top of a normal diet and lifestyle could cause a build up of certain vitamins within the tissues of the body, and this build up can lead to certain disorders - taking too much vitamin D, for example, could damage the blood vessels and the kidneys.

Most adults will get all of their vitamin needs from their diet and by eating the right foods - a wide range of plenty of fruits, vegetables, full fat dairy, lean meat, protein, whole grains, pulses and healthy fats. Eating microwaveable meals and taking a multivitamin is absolutely no substitute for the benefits that a healthy diet can provide.

Read More: Multivitamins and Women

Synthetic vitamins are also very difficult for the body to process - because they are made in a lab, rather than in nature, the body finds it hard to metabolize the vitamin and so often, much of the vitamin will be flushed through the waste system of the body.

Why waste money on something that could literally be flushed straight down the toilet?