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- According to a new study, nutritional supplements do not bring any additional benefit to the health of people already in good health.
- The researchers also found that study participants who took vitamin D but did not have vitamin D deficiency had a higher risk of cancer and death.
- The factors related to education and lifestyle play a more important role in health than supplements, according to the study's co-author, Fang Fang Zhang, MD.
- Visit the INSIDER homepage for more.
Despite the large number of vitamins and dietary supplements on the market today, there is little evidence that these pills and powders have any beneficial effects on the health of the general population. Some research even suggests that supplements can harm your health.
A new study offers even more evidence that vitamin supplements are not helpful – and could even create risks for healthy people. According to the study published in Annals of Internal Medicine, dietary supplements do not help people live longer and offer no other noticeable benefit to health.
The researchers looked at various supplements, including vitamin A, vitamin K and zinc, and discovered that they had no health benefits, but no health risk.
Vitamin D was a different story. The researchers found that people in the study who took 10 micrograms of vitamin D supplements a day – but had no vitamin D deficiency – increased their overall risk of cancer and death.
"The potential adverse effects of using vitamin D supplements in people without vitamin D deficiency still need to be assessed," said Fang Fang Zhang, MD, co-author of the study.
The researchers also found that an excessive intake of calcium from supplements increased the risk of cancer, but that an excessive intake of food did not increase the risk of cancer. Although the researchers were unable to explain why an excess of calcium created an increased cancer risk, they thought it could be related to increased production of hormones from calcium.
Read more: A photo of the dietitian of the same dishes with different calories will show you how to prepare a healthier meal
Upon initial observation of the study subjects, the researchers felt that all the supplements studied, including multivitamin and single-nutrient supplements, reduced the overall risk of death. But after adjusting for factors including level of education and lifestyle (think smoking, level of physical activity and alcohol consumption), researchers found that the apparent benefits supplements had disappeared. They also noticed that the more a person consumed vitamin D without needing it, the higher the risk of adverse effects.
Nutrients consumed by foods are better than nutrients from supplements
The researchers found that nutrients such as vitamin K, magnesium, zinc and copper provided health benefits to the subjects of the study, but only when they were consumed in the form of vitamins. food, no supplements. This suggests that for most people, a balanced and nutrient dense diet is all that is needed to stay healthy.
The study, which involved nearly 31,000 people over the age of 20, had some reservations. The researchers relied on the use of supplements reported by the participants. Therefore, if a subject in the study under-reported or overused their use, this could have skewed the results, Zhang said.
However, Zhang said, "One thing is clear: the use of dietary supplements can not replace a healthy and balanced diet."
Previous research has also shown that supplements offer few health benefits. Even worse, a study found that vitamins and herbal remedies increased the number of emergency room visits due to side effects such as chest pain and heart palpitations.
Supplements are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), so companies that create these products can add extra ingredients to their pills without warning customers. Some supplements do not even have the recommended dosage.
"Consumers should expect nothing from [supplements] because we have no clear evidence of their utility, and they should be concerned that they are not at risk, "said S. Bryn Austin, Professor of Behavioral Science at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. "Whether on the bottle or not, there may be ingredients that can hurt."
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