Vitamin Supplements: Are They Really Necessary?

Are Vitamin Supplements Really Necessary?

How do you know if you’re really benefiting from your daily vitamin supplements? Is it really necessary to take all those pills and capsules every day?
Where’s the proof?
Well, the evidence may or may not be that easy to find, depending on your reason for taking vitamin supplements. We can take supplements for three general reasons:

1. To prevent nutritional deficiency diseases. When we don’t get enough of the various vitamins and minerals, we actually develop life-threatening diseases. Examples are scurvy, rickets, etc.
2. To ensure optimal health, vitality and longevity. The amount of vitamin C needed to prevent the obvious symptoms of scurvy, for example, may not match the amount needed for optimal tissue health. Is there really a sharp line between scurvy and optimal health? Of course not.
3. To treat a health problem. Vitamins and minerals can be used as therapeutic agents, usually in larger doses. When we take niacin multiple times a day, for example to lower elevated cholesterol levels, it doesn’t function as a food or nutrient. Instead, it is a therapeutic tool. The same goes for using to treat arthritis, vitamin B6 to treat carpal tunnel syndrome, to treat diabetes or high-dose vitamin B2 for migraines.
   Proof?
   The proof is easy to do at first. We have all but eradicated the various deficiency diseases, at least in the more developed parts of the world, through an appropriate diet, fortification of foods with nutrients and the use of nutritional supplements. Someone who begins to show the symptoms of scurvy improves quickly when given vitamin C. The only argument here is whether proper nutrition is sufficient or whether supplementation is necessary. In an ideal world, we would like to believe that eating right is enough. But this is far from an ideal world. Few people are actually able or willing to eat right. And even if they could and would, we still have the problem of increased pollution, stress and environmental hazards.
   For example, what may be adequate nutrition for one person may not be adequate at all for a flight attendant who spends most of her working hours exposed to high levels of radiation and hydrocarbons in jet fuel. A proper diet for an Idaho farmer may not be nearly enough for the person living in smog-ridden Los Angeles.
   And the ultimate proof is easy to come by when it comes to treating health problems. Why? Because the results are impressive. People with arthritis can easily see improvement when they supplement. People with hypertension can easily see the results of supplementing with magnesium, calcium, garlic and arginine. People with carpal tunnel syndrome can easily see improvement when supplementing with vitamin B6.
   Not only do people see the results every day when they use vitamins and minerals as therapeutics, but the research results are also published in respected, peer-reviewed medical journals. NIH is now funded to support ongoing research. The government has increased the recommended daily intake of various nutrients.
   We mentioned vitamin B2 as a therapeutic treatment for migraine headaches. Using this example, a research group treated 49 migraine sufferers with large amounts of vitamin B2 or riboflavin. Both the frequency and severity of migraines decreased by more than two-thirds. In a follow-up study, also double-blind, the same researchers found that 59% of patients receiving vitamin B2 experienced a reduction in the number of headache days by at least 50%, while only 15% of patients receiving placebo experienced that level of improvement.