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A study conducted by researchers at the University of Warwick and John Hopkins School of Medicine claims that multivitamins are not beneficial to most people and have the potential to be harmful, reported medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine on Tuesday.
The study, titled "Enough is Enough: Stop Wasting Money on Vitamin and Mineral Supplements," states that the diet of a normal, healthy western lifestyle provides more than enough of the nutrients people need and that multivitamin producers play off the fears of health anxieties to sell vitamins.
“The message is simple: Most supplements to do not prevent chronic disease or death, their use is not justified, and they should be avoided,” the authors wrote in their strongly worded introduction.
Other sources, however, point out that vitamins can have some benefits. In an article published by CBS, Dr. Houman Danesh of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York advised people to use supplements to supplement their diets if they were unable to get their vitamins from fruits and vegetables for whatever reason.
Quackwatch.com states that multivitamins can be useful for people “who are unable or unwilling to consume an adequate diet” and names pregnant teens and children on weight-reducing diets as groups in need of supplements. Quackwatch is a watchdog website made up of a network of people and groups to prevent medical fraud and misconduct.
This recent study is not the first to claim that multivitamins for the general population are unnecessary. The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality concluded supplements had no significant benefit in preventing chronic disease, including cancer, heart disease, or cognitive decline.
The study also identifies potentially harmful nutrients. Beta-carotene and vitamin E were identified as being harmful in their supplement forms, and high doses of vitamin A were labeled as possibly harmful. The authors of the study note that “any effect, either beneficial or harmful, is probably small.”
