Short answer: it depends. It depends in what you individually need. It depends on if you are getting enough from your diet, or if you have digestive or other issues that make it hard to absorb certain vitamins or go through them faster than the average person. For example, prenatal vitamins have large amounts of DHA (one of the omega 3s), iron, folate, B12 and zinc because those are required for fast growing people and their fetuses. Maybe you live north of the 45th parallel or don’t get out in the sun much - so without a diet rich in fatty fish or certain mushrooms, a vitamin D supplement might be recommended by your doctor.
If you really want to know what you need to add to your diet rather than just making expensive pee, go see a Dietitian - the food and nutrition specialists. If you live in the US you can find one by searching here: https://www.eatright.org/find-a-nutrition-expert or in Europe check here: https://www.espen.org
Hope that helps!
magnesium is the one supplement that, if I skip a few days, I can really tell and I’ve been known to get up in the middle of the night and take one then due to that really weird ‘leg cramps coming’ feeling.
It’s very much an individual choice. For example, I live in Spain but actually have a Vitamin D deficiency 🤷♀️ I take magnesium, collagen for skin & hair, and B vitamins, plus a special eye supplement as I have macular degeneration. Usually people can get what they need from a decent diet, lean protein, veg, sajad, legumes etc. Occasionally we need help.
I only take supplements I need because I firmly believe most are a waste. If your body doesn’t need it, it excretes it. Why would I pay for expensive pee? Also, some vitamins you can overdo so multivitamins aren’t great for most healthy people
So I take vitamin D in winter, and now taking iron pills because my ferratin level is very low. Otherwise my diet is where I get my nutrients
Yes. The science is exceedingly clear.
Without any source of a given vital nutrient in your diet, you will die. That is why they are called vital nutrients. That is what defines them as a vitamin. And without the optimal amounts of these nutrients, you will never attain optimal health.
In about 1995 or so, I started supplementing with a good B stress formula and vitamin C (and other vitamins, and also changed my diet to low carb), and essentially managed to greatly improve my anxiety and depression. Major life changing event for me.
Interesting side effect too. Up until that time, I’d lost two teeth to the dentist and had a half dozen fillings. Since then, the only dentistry I’ve needed was for occasional cleanings and repairing old fillings. Zero new cavities. Zero, in 25 years. I ascribe it completely to 1000 mg of vitamin C a day.
So yes, if your diet is deficient in any of the vital nutrients you need to either adjust your diet to include them in the optimal amounts, or supplement.
The science is exceedingly clear on this.
Yes and No
As others have stated there is very good science in favor of supplementing.
However multivitamins don’t usually contain the dosage needed for the vitamins to do anything at all and some really bad ones are just full of fillers.
So yes Vitamins no to multivitamins.
Your specific vitamin needs will greatly depend on your diet and lifestyle. Multivitamins try to be a generic help all that rarely works. In order for supplementation to actually work you need to buy most vitamins one by one and make sure you are getting the adequate dosage, and not only vitamins but other supplements.
So yeah supplementation has greatly been proven to work in favor of attaining optimal health but multivitamins don’t really do much.
Your best bet would be to talk to your doctor about your specific health needs. People don’t inherently need multivitamins or vitamins, but if you’re low in something they can be helpful. I have a Vitamin D deficiency and taking Vitamin D pills regularly literally changed me life lol. But if you aren’t low on Vitamin D, it probably won’t do much for you except cost you money.
The problem is, that the benefits of assorted vitamins, or dangers of deficiencies are usually derived from population studies, measuring the components of foods in a given population’s diet.
When individual vitamins are extracted or artificially manufactured and delivered in pill or powder form, and studies are done to determine benefit, the results are usually either ambiguous or completely disappointing.
Our bodies evolved eating ‘food’ not isolated vitamins. How the whole process of turning food into needed chemicals on a cellular level isn’t clear, but it obviously is very complicated.
I take all of those (except B12 which is in my multivitamin) due to the science supporting these supplements having positive influences on expected health outcomes. Nutrient absorption through meals is not 100% and basically nobody is going to hit all of their requirements unless they diligently track their intake and track every micronutrient through something like Chronometer.
I am part of the group that does that, and even then I do not meet my minimums for all micronutrients, hence there is a great benefit to supplement these.