Most people don't need to take vitamin supplements and can get all the vitamins and minerals they need if they eat a healthy, balanced diet. Vitamins and minerals, such as iron, calcium, and vitamin C, are essential nutrients that the body needs in small amounts to function properly. Of course, some people have nutritional deficiencies. And people with certain diseases are at high risk of developing nutritional deficiencies.
These people work with their doctors to determine what they should take to improve their health. The rest of us, most of us, don't need supplements. Evidence suggests that some supplements may improve health in different ways. The most popular nutrient supplements are multivitamins, calcium, and vitamins B, C, and D.
Calcium promotes bone health and vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium. Vitamins C and E are antioxidant molecules that prevent cell damage and help maintain health. Nearly one in three Americans takes a multivitamin. But why? In many cases, the nutrients in multivitamins are included in a healthy daily diet.
For some, vitamins and supplements are beneficial. But how do you know if you really need vitamin B, C, or D? Or if fish oil or turmeric are right for you? UH Connor Whole Health Naturopathic Physician, Dr. Jacob Wolf has the answers and helps you do your homework before you buy a bottle of pills. Pete Kenworthy So when I was little, a bunch of my friends took those Flintstone vitamins, right? Do you remember those?.
I remember trying them, and I'm sure they tasted good, but I still thought: Do I really need them? And now, all these years later, I'm still wondering if I need vitamins. I mean, don't we get what our body needs from the quality food we eat? Hopefully Macie Jepson, right? Because it's no fun to swallow all those pills. I finally set them aside in my cabinet because, frankly, I'm overwhelmed by what I have. And I really wonder if they work or not.
Jacob Wolf, ND Thank you for inviting me. Jacob Wolf, ND Yes and No. If you eat a good, healthy diet with lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats, potentially. But the foods we eat today are not the same as they were 50 years ago.
So, there are a lot of problems, even if you eat healthy, you might not get all the nutrients you need. Macie Jepson: So, they're not as full of nutrients as they used to be. I read a little. Is that what you're referring to? Jacob Wolf, ND: Sure.
There are some tests that could be done. Many of our standard annual laboratories analyze some of that. Therefore, we can get a good idea of the state of iron, vitamin D, calcium and some of our basic nutrients in typical laboratories. Many nutrients are not routinely tested because they are not standard laboratories.
These are just things that, if we had a health problem, your provider could delve a little deeper into, but in general, there are no tests to detect. Jacob Wolf, ND You know, we'll go back 100 or 200 years and we'd have a lot of those diseases like scurvy and rickets. And all of these diseases are due to nutrient deficiency. And because of that, we still see people these days with these problems.
People arrive with scurvy because they don't get enough vitamin C, because they only eat junk and processed food, all day, every day. So, we still need to incorporate all of these essential nutrients found in something like a multivitamin into our diet. Pete Kenworthy So what's the non-negotiable here? This seems to be the place you're going. Those that we must have sufficient levels in our body and that are lacking in current foods.
Are there things like that? Jacob Wolf, ND If you're on a somewhat healthy diet, there's nothing you can't consume at a very basic level to prevent disease. You need 60 milligrams of vitamin C to prevent scurvy. You can get it in just about anything you eat, whether it's a fruit or a vegetable. However, some people never eat fruits and vegetables.
And that's where we run into these problems. I would say that there is no supplement that a person with a relatively large diet needs to prevent those types of diseases. Not having scurvy is a long way from optimal health. Jacob Wolf, ND So there is a wide range of supplements that may be desirable to optimize your health.
Jacob Wolf, ND For some people. B vitamins are very involved in our energy processes. They help with our adrenal glands. Therefore, for some people who are deficient, vitamin B or the B complex can definitely help.
And there are several B vitamins, not just one. Pete Kenworthy How do you know if you're one of those people? Jacob Wolf, ND Some people, you know, B vitamins are relatively benign. So, at a kind of typical B-complex level, taking maybe one a day, we urinate the excess. So you can figure it out in a couple of weeks, as long as you don't have underlying health problems, more or less what's going on.
Jacob Wolf, ND The biggest risk we looked at clinically is bone health, but vitamin D works very differently than many vitamins. It works by activating and deactivating gene expression in our body. It's good for many different aspects of health. Jacob Wolf, ND Research changes all the time.
So, potentially zinc, if you ingest it soon enough, vitamin C may make you feel a little better, but it won't necessarily stop progression. A Healthy Diet Is Really All You Need. A multivitamin adds extra nutrition. Jacob Wolf, ND Turmeric is great in theory.
It's just that it's hard to get into the body. You need other nutrients with turmeric to absorb it better. So, it's a complicated topic. Jacob Wolf, ND Mostly because of pain.
Jacob Wolf, ND It's a problem. I spend a lot of time reading the label on the front of the ingredient and its overview of what it's for and then looking at the ingredients, and more than half the time, they don't even match. So, just because it's touted as a sleep supplement and you read the back and there's turmeric and there's something that's completely unrelated, doesn't mean they can't sell it to you as a sleep supplement. I spend more time getting people to stop taking supplements than to prescribing them.
I mean, in my opinion, a supplement should complement something. You shouldn't feed yourself with supplements. You shouldn't start the day by saying: Oh, man, I have to swallow all these pills before breakfast or else I won't exist today. As if we didn't work like that.
And so, you can take too much. There are a lot of problems with over-supplementation. Macie Jepson, however, how do you know when you're taking too much? Jacob Wolf, ND If you start your day that way, as I mentioned, if you start your day with a meal full of pills and can't eat until lunch, then you're taking too many. So, it can be a bit tricky to get into that.
But there is a group of nutrients that we should be careful about. And those are the A, D, E and K. Those are fat-soluble nutrients. Many of the other vitamins are soluble in water.
So, if we have too many, we just pee them. But A, D, E and K accumulate in our body. And so, it's easier to reach toxic levels. Toxic levels of vitamin A, you have a severe headache.
That's the kind of sign of an acute overdose. And then there could be liver problems. Vitamin D is a little more hidden, but you can accumulate too much and consume too much vitamin D. Jacob Wolf, ND Natural doesn't mean anything.
So, natural, even in our kind of food world, natural means that maybe at some point it came from some natural chemical, but it will probably now be chemically manufactured. In the world of supplements, nature has nothing to do with it. Organic, especially for supplements that contain foods, food substances, or herbs, organic may be slightly better, of a slightly higher quality. However, all supplements must have some type of purity statement, either on the packaging or on the company's website.
They should give you some kind of confidence that you're getting what they say is in the bottle. And there, the FDA even has a list of companies that are very bad, that tend to put a lot of garbage and other things in their supplements that are not on the list. Pete Kenworthy You say they should be in the bottle, but there's nothing that regulates them to put them in the bottle, right? Jacob Wolf, ND, right?. Most supplements should have a statement saying that they are not approved by the FDA, since supplements are not regulated by the FDA.
But other than that, I think it's up to the manufacturer to publish some kind of marketing statement that attests to its quality and purity. Therefore, there should be vitamin D in the back. In most cases with vitamin D, it is. Your marketing statement on the front doesn't match the one on the back.
Part of not being a regulated industry is that, apart from saying that this cures a disease, there is a fairly wide range of what they can market in their bottles. And they know that if you walk into the store and haven't slept for three days, you'll pick up anything that says “sleep”, regardless of the ingredients. And so, part of that is, you know, marketing and selling products. And that's why I try, in my office, to teach many of my patients what a good quality product is.
How do you read a label? What is that kind of section of other ingredients where there are all the fillers, binders, and garbage that are completely unnecessary in most pills?. Jacob Wolf, ND If your product is in a capsule, it may have something in it, it's something that helps separate the ingredients when you swallow it and break down the capsule. But it shouldn't have things like dyes, flavors, and scents, if it's, you know, maybe a topical product and it's not meant to be perfumed. You can find all kinds of things in your products.
Jacob Wolf, ND They Are Not Medically Beneficial For You. They're just trying to make the capsule prettier or alter the color or, potentially, help with that dispersion. But there are other ways to do it. Macie Jepson: I just have to stick with this topic a little longer, because I feel like the consumer in general (or a lot of people) wouldn't know the marketing pitch for a bottle if I were right in front of them.
So, I just want to go a little deeper here. What are we looking for that is going to be that warning sign? Jacob Wolf, ND If you're looking at a company's website, and it doesn't look like it's advertising a product, but it's advertising a vacation somewhere, you know, there are a lot of images and graphics and there's no real content about the supplement, you know, I do a kind of basic smell test. You know, if you go to a website looking for a supplement, it should at least say what the supplement is, give you an idea of what the ingredients are in the dosage and where you can buy it. If that doesn't appear on the website, if I can't find the ingredients of a supplement for something I'm trying to buy, it's not possible.
If I have to dig 15 pages deep to find it, that's all marketing behind it. And the same thing happens, you know, with print ads or television commercials. They're trying to sell you a product, not necessarily benefit your health. Jacob Wolf, ND It's Really a Challenge.
You know, it's not part of the FDA's purview. So, unless you fall into one of those treatment categories, it's not part of their description of what they do. If we started to get the FDA to regulate all supplements, they, I mean, there are so many on the market, that they would have to go ingredient by ingredient. Every ingredient would have to be tested, clinically tested.
There's no way they can accomplish that and do all their other functions. So it's up to providers and, you know, doing research that way to make sure that patients stay safe. Jacob Wolf, ND There is for most. There are some ingredients that have less research.
I would say that, especially when it comes to more marginal herbs found in supplements, there is less research. There isn't much money for herbal research, although it's increasing. For most conventional nutrient types, there is research to back this up. Jacob Wolf, ND So, antioxidants are pretty easy.
Actually, everything you get from a fruit or a vegetable is an antioxidant. They are all the colors, all the flavors, all the smells that come out of a fruit and a vegetable. And that's why we consume them to a large extent, it's because of that antioxidant benefit. So, some of the powerhouses of the antioxidant world are things like berries, which are colorful, tasty and stinky.
They are very powerful, a kind of scavengers in our body to damage and repair. And they are important for the diet. Pete Kenworthy So the second part is can vitamins and supplements really prevent or cure diseases? But I'm not going to let you go on with antioxidants yet. You talk about how important they are, but we can also buy them, right? Can't we buy things called antioxidants? And do we need them? Jacob Wolf, ND I would say, once again, going back to our initial discussion, that if you follow a relatively healthy diet, you get antioxidants in the fruits and vegetables you eat.
If you eat mostly junk food and mostly processed foods, I would tell you to start eating fruits and vegetables much sooner, I would say, to buy a product that is marketed as an antioxidant. Some of those products have some benefits. You know, vitamin C is an antioxidant. There are a lot of them that do that.
But, once again, supplements shouldn't sustain it. They should add something and it comes after a healthy diet. Jacob Wolf, ND: We've talked about this before. There are minimal amounts of nutrients that are needed to prevent most of the diseases that we hear about, things like, you know, pirates and older Europeans, you know, from the 15th century who contract.
Now we can get it from our diet. Our diet is much richer than that. So that's the side that prevents the disease. Supplements to cure, unless there is a serious deficiency, I wouldn't use a supplement to cure someone of an illness.
Can be part of a larger protocol. But it's often accompanied by a nutrient deficiency. If you have anemia and it's due to a low iron level, then we need to replace the iron. We can use an iron supplement or herbal teas, if needed, if the anemia is severe enough to correct that imbalance.
And in a way that's, you know, correcting an illness. Macie Jepson Can we end up turning back or making something worse? I just want to have energy and take vitamin B12, but oh, oh, oh, now my blood pressure medication isn't working. Jacob Wolf, ND Talk to Your Doctor. Jacob Wolf, ND: It's very important that you do your homework.
First you need to know your type of personal health condition. So, if you haven't consulted your doctor, first know what health conditions you might need to treat with your supplements. Read the ingredients on the label. Make sure they don't interact with medications.
Check with your provider if you need it. You know, a bunch of things that could benefit your health are great, but don't start your day with a meal full of pills. Why do we remember some dreams but not others? We spoke to a sleep specialist to learn about the science behind dreams, including the role they play in them. Allowing ourselves to be “bored” in an overly connected world has an impact on our sleep, productivity and 26% on our mental health.
Helps keep bones strong. People who have healthy levels may be less likely to have certain conditions, but more research is needed. Your body produces vitamin D when you're in the sun. It's also found in salmon, tuna, and fortified foods.
If you have low levels of vitamin D, your doctor may recommend a supplement. However, several large-scale studies show no benefit for otherwise healthy adults. And drinking too much is bad for you. Also called “good bacteria,” probiotics are found in fermented foods such as yogurt, kombucha, miso, and sauerkraut.
They can change the balance of good and bad bacteria in the body and can help improve digestion, relieve skin irritation, lower cholesterol, boost the immune system, and much more. However, it's still unclear if probiotics in supplements help treat conditions, and most people don't need to take them every day. If you know your diet isn't that healthy, can a multivitamin help you fill in the nutritional gaps? Not necessarily. Many studies have shown that multivitamins don't fight memory loss, heart disease, or cancer.
Meanwhile, eating too many nutrients in pill form can cause harm. Experts often recommend foods as the best source of vitamins and minerals. This is a vitamin that you'll definitely want to make sure you have enough of if you're a woman planning to become pregnant. Getting enough folic acid can help prevent birth defects in the baby's brain and spine.
You need 400 micrograms (mcg) per day, and the CDC recommends taking that amount in a supplement, along with what you get from your diet. Fish such as salmon and sardines have healthy fats called omega-3s that may reduce the risk of heart disease. If you don't eat fish, there are fish oil supplements with omega-3, such as EPA and DHA, and there are algae-based supplements. However, more research is needed, as the omega-3s in pills may work differently than those in fish.
If you take a pill, the FDA recommends keeping the dose to less than 2 grams per day of combined EPA and DHA. Unless your doctor recommends it, you probably don't need a calcium supplement. Some research has linked them to an increased risk of heart disease and prostate cancer, but that link isn't clear. You can strengthen your bones with exercises such as walking, playing tennis, dancing, and lifting weights.
And fill your plate with calcium-rich foods like yogurt, almonds, dark green leafy vegetables (for vitamin K), and fish or foods fortified for vitamin D. Glucosamine and chondroitin, two types of arthritis supplements, are among the most popular supplements sold in the U.S. UU. They are found naturally in human cartilage.
Research on whether they can alleviate arthritis pain or prevent arthritis is mixed. Even so, most experts say there's nothing wrong with trying them, in case you're one of the people who get relief from them. As with all supplements, it's best to check with your doctor first. You need it to produce red blood cells and DNA and to keep your nervous system healthy.
It is found in animal products such as fish, meat, eggs and milk, so vegetarians and vegans may fall short, as can adults over 50 and people with digestive problems such as Crohn's disease. Vitamin B12 supplements are sold in pill or injection form. Vitamin B12 injections have become all the rage as a way to increase energy and lose weight, although there is no research to show that they work. If you have a specific health problem that you think supplements might help with, ask your doctor.
Your doctor can check what's safe for you, tell you about possible side effects, and add supplements to your medical history. The FDA doesn't approve supplements, unlike prescription drugs. So, do your research and talk to your doctor first. .
