Should you take Vitamin Pills?

September 8, 2011 | by Dr. Jess

Once again, another great article from Dr. Mirkin I felt was a must-read.  Reproduced with permission from Dr. Gabe Mirkin’s E-zine at www.drmirkin.com.   Enjoy!

Get Vitamins from Food, Not Pills

One in three women and one in four men in the United
States take vitamin pills regularly.  This month, a study that
followed 182,099 people in California and Hawaii for an average
of 11 years showed that taking multivitamin pills neither
decreased nor increased the death rate for all causes or the rates
of heart attack or cancer (American Journal of Epidemiology,
August, 2011).

A previous review of 67 randomized trials of vitamin pill
effects on life and health found that taking vitamin pills may
shorten life (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 1,
2008).  The authors found an increased death rate of 16 percent
in those taking vitamin A pills, seven percent with beta-
carotene, and seven percent with vitamin E.  The Women’s Health
Initiative study followed women for eight years and found that
taking multivitamin pills has little or no influence on the risk
of common cancers, heart attacks or death rate in postmenopausal
women (Archives of Internal Medicine, February, 2009).  A review
of the world’s literature shows that multivitamin use neither
increases nor decreases risk for breast cancer (Annals of
Pharmacotherapy. published online April 2011).

VITAMIN D FROM SUNLIGHT, NOT PILLS:  Vitamin D is the only
vitamin that appears consistently in the literature to help
prevent heart attacks and cancers, and that benefit is related
more to the fact that you can get it from sunlight  (Cancer
Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, April 2011).  The Swedish
Women’s Lifestyle and Health cohort study followed women for up
to 15 years and found that women who got sunburned twice or more
per year during adolescence live longer than those who had been
sunburned less than that. Women who went on sunbathing vacations
more than once a year lived longer and suffered fewer heart
attacks.

VITAMIN B PILLS MAY CAUSE HARM:  Every chemical reaction in
your body is started by an enzyme.   For your body to convert
chemical A to chemical B, you need an enzyme to start that
reaction.  All eight B vitamins are parts of enzymes.  When you
take large doses of one enzyme, you accumulate end products that
must be balanced by also taking large doses of other enzymes.
For example, NIACIN LOWERS CHOLESTEROL, BUT RAISES HOMOCYSTEINE:
People who take large doses of niacin to lower cholesterol have a
marked elevation of homocysteine, a risk factor for heart
attacks.  Here is how it happens: Proteins are made up of
building blocks called amino acids.  The B vitamin, Niacin, is
part of the enzyme that converts an amino acid, cysteine, into
homocysteine.

Three other B vitamins, folic acid (B9), cobalamin
(B12), and niacin (B3)} protect you from accumulating too much
homocysteine by breaking down homocysteine and converting it to
cysteine.  Therefore, when you take large doses of niacin, you
also have to take large doses of the other three vitamins to
protect you from accumulating homocysteine.  Nobody really knows
how to balance large doses of vitamins when you take them in
pills.  I think that it is safer to depend on nature to provide
the proper balance of vitamins in foods.

MY RECOMMENDATIONS: I do not believe that taking one
vitamin pill a day is harmful.  I do believe that taking large
doses of vitamins can harm you.  I also believe that you do not
need to take vitamin pills. Eat a diet rich in fruits,
vegetables, whole grains, beans, seeds and nuts.  Some people
need to take vitamins D or B12, but you should be able to get B12
from fish or chicken, and get your vitamin D from sunlight if
possible.

Tags: nutrition, pills, vitamins